Ask Liverpool what is the quickest way to take a team from 2nd to 8th in the Premier League and they will tell you ! Now it seems their near neighbours are following their lead.

In season 2013/14 Liverpool finished second in the Premier League and Southampton 8th, two seasons later and after signing over a quarter of that Saints starting line up and the Reds find themselves in 8th place with Southampton two places higher, it did not take Einstein to work out the theory on that one.

Now it seems former Saints manager Ronald Koeman is set to try and emulate his rivals across the park by signing Saints players.

Koeman already has Maarten Stekelenburg in his Everton squad and as any Saints player will tell you, although the Dutch keeper was not the worst keeper in the Premier, he was far from the best and Saints season changed drastically once Stekelenburg was replaced by Fraser Forster on his return from injury.

It wasn't that Stekelenburg was bad, he just did not seem to make a save, he did not make many gaffes, but he just did not make those crucial saves either.

If Koeman is going to use Stekelenburg as his first choice then there is something amiss.

Next up on the Everton radar is Graziano Pelle, now Pelle was a big part of our success last season, but the issue is age, if Koeman is going to prise him from Chelsea's grasp or even China where it is rumoured he will earn a last massive pay day, then Everton are going to have to fork out somewhere approaching £20 million if press reports are to be believed, now even if that fee was as low as £10 million that is a big amount for a player about to turn 31.

If I was an Everton fan I would be asking why with £150 million to spend, Koeman is shopping at ASDA rather than Harrods.

From a Saints perspective, the interest in Pelle is going to mean a far bigger pay day than we could have expected, it will solve the question whether we should keep him or not, the reality is that £10 millions for a 31 year old is very good business, if that becomes £15 million its dream time and if we did get £20 million then that would mean someone gets their hand bitten off.

For Saints its about buying and selling, that is the way forward now, its worked so far and it will continue to be.

Photo: Action Images

froggysaint added 07:31 - Jul 6 Maybe he'd like to buy Maya Yoshida ?
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SanMarco added 08:21 - Jul 6 I don't think Pelle's Asda and Stek is actually a signing from Fulham. I would say though that if this is the extent of the Saints-Everton traffic then we will all be delighted - Not sure why we should give a stuff what Everton/Liverpool fans think/feel...
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BUCK added 09:02 - Jul 6 Can anyone ever remember a saints player scoring 20 plus goals in a season. Would be nice. Sign a top striker just for once
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charlie357 added 09:17 - Jul 6 Ummmm there was this guy called Rickie Lambert?
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JDawg added 09:24 - Jul 6 £20m or not, Pelle going to Everton would be a making a rod for our own back. He might be 31 but he is still quality (penalties excluded, I did wonder why he never took them for us) and he will make them a better a team. Why would we want to help them become a better team?
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DPeps added 09:29 - Jul 6 If Pelle is Asda then the Spain defence must be Aldi
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SonicBoom added 10:44 - Jul 6 Beattie got more than 20 league goals in the premier didn't he? i don't mind Everton sniffing around Pelle and they can certainly have Stekelenburg, but we certainly shouldn't even consider flogging Bertrand or VvD. Both are on fairly long contracts so for now the answer should certainly be a resounding "No".
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ericofarabia added 11:29 - Jul 6 SB .... hasn't Bertrand only got 2 seasons left on his ...... ie panic time?
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Big_T added 12:12 - Jul 6 As long as we get over the odds for players we sell I'm happy, every club will lose players the trick is to get the best cash possible and replace with a younger better version. Saints have done very very well over the last four years selling for max money and replacing, yes it is annoying losing favorite star players but we are not Barcelona, we are not anywhere near the largest club in the Premiere league, but if we keep getting better year on year as we have been then hopefully we will get bigger as well.

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zoso added 12:18 - Jul 6 Saido Berahino or Pelle no contest.
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SanMarco added 13:25 - Jul 6 Not a 'trick' that can be repeated every year though Big T. If we continue to 'cash in' a third of our first team each summer we will come unstuck - those 'younger better versions' do not grow on trees...
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ElGreco2 added 13:31 - Jul 6 First off,Stekelengerg won't be first choice, nor will Robles, as far as a first choice keeper goes, the search goes on. As for Pele, I just don't see it. Good enough player but, too many miles on the clock, maybe for £5m to get two season out of him would be a good deal but he's no long term prospect. SanMarco, dead right mate, you shouldn't give a fishes tit about any other club but your own. SonicBoom, as I've said on this site before, contracts are worthless if they have a buy out clause. If they have then the best to hope for is that the figure is huge to either deter bidders or get a good deal for the club. I would think that the astute money behind you would have made sure they wouldn't lose out on any potential transfers, or would have set the bar so high that your players are unaffordable.

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ElGreco2 added 13:36 - Jul 6 Oh, and to whoever wrote this article, The quickest way to go from 2nd to 8th is employ Brendan Rogers.......Sign your articles
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A1079 added 14:00 - Jul 6 I am not bothered what Everton fans think and I am no more worried that Everton are sniffing around than I am with the annual summer ritual of clubs cherry picking and scavenging around our team because we have a soft underbelly and seem to think that because we get millions for a player it is ok to let them go. I am sick of hearing of this constant annual summer asset stripping and debacle, but a complete lack of emphasis on building the team and getting it ready for the new season. Tired of trying to make out that just because we get millions for a player that makes it alright.

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BoondockSaint added 14:37 - Jul 6 I'm more worried about the fastest way to take your team from 6th to 18th-by selling all your players that got you there!
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