There has been much talk in the press about how Saints need to sell Star players to balance the books after several seasons of wasting money, but how true is this.
Last week Les Reed took the unprecedented step of making a statement about the rumours circulating in the press, most of which emit from a couple of sources who seem to b close to a former employee of the club and where the writer seems to have an agenda.
Reed stated that the club had no intention of selling players and had received no offers for any of the squad and indeed Saints wanted to keep the squad together and build on it.
They were fine words from Les Reed and hopefully ones that are true, but do Saints have the ability to keep key players and still make the improvements needed ?
The answer I would say is yes although there are several scenarios possible and I should say that Im not one who see's the sale of a player as being a backward step, whilst in an ideal world everyone would keep their star players and never sell them, the reality is that every club is a selling club to some degree, be it Saints or Manchester City, Arsenal or Manchester United, all clubs have times when for one reason or another a player wants away, good clubs get rid of these players for the top price at the right time, it only becomes a problem when the money received is not well spent.
For those who tell e constantly that the Premier league cash is what it is about and not money generated by clubs themselves, I would say they are far from the truth, for those outside the Champions League places the Premier league cash is important,but you have to have a financial edge on your rivals, since we arrived in the premier league it has been well documented that the training ground is £15 million over budget and that our commercial income is around £7 million pounds per year less than the likes of Fulham, West Brom and Stoke to name but three, this being the case, since returning to the Premier we have wasted £30 million, money that could be well used now.
Scenario 1
This is the ideal world, we hold on to all our star players, if we do this then there will still be a transfer budget from the £80 million or so we receive from the Premier League, it will just not be that large, but if it was say £15 million, if we made 2 key signings then there is no reason why we cant improve, whilst some still believe the propoganda peddled last year that it was possible that a club could jump from being close to relegation one season to a top four finish the next, the reality is far different, finishing 8th is achievable, but getting above that is a lot more difficult as a look at the Premier table for the past decade or so will show, however it is possible but it needs steady growth rather than quick fixes, on the plus side last summer the signing of Dejan Lovren and to a lesser extent partly due to injury Wanyama, Saints showed that two key signings can make a different, those two cost a little over £17 million, that should be affordable again.
Scenario 2
This is perhaps the most realistic and I would say ideal situation, here we would offload Osvaldo, perhaps Ramirez and several other bit part players perhaps Mayuka, Hooiveld or Yoshida, when we bought both Ramirez and Osvaldo I thought their prices were inflated and i would hazard a guess that both would fetch barely half of what we paid if we could offload them in the summer, but if we got £12 million for those two plus another million or two elsewhere then that would when added to the money in scenario one would allow us to make 3, 4 or even 5 key signings, this would not only strengthen the team but the squad in general.
Scenario 3
This is perhaps a little more straying into territory that Saints fans don't want to read about, this involves selling a major star, however this is still not the end of the world, personally I feel that its about good re investment rather than weakening of the team, if Luke Shaw did go for £30 million assuming that is invested in strengthening the squad then that money in itself would strengthen the team, if we added the money from scenario 1 & 2 then that is one hell of a transfer kitty not to mention the wages freed up, I would like to see Luke Shaw stay, but a squad improved by a £50 million plus transfer kitty "IF" and its a big "IF" spent well would be far stronger.
Indeed the other stars linked with other clubs could probably be more inclined to stay if this happened, players are not stupid, they know that this season has been the extent of our limits as a squad, I would profer the opinion that if Saints did cash in on Shaw that rather than starting a mass exodus, it could actually stem the tide, the likes of Adam Lallana etc might feel we actually do have a good chance of moving up a place or two in the league with £50 million being spent on the squad and therefore would be inclined to stay for another season.
Look at Everton to emphasise this point, this time last year it was doom and gloom, a year on and they have sold a player for big money but used the money well and have improved because of that.
As I say in an ideal World we keep everyone, but the World is never ideal.
Scenario 4
This is the doomsday scenario, but actually how many players are going to leave, there are plenty of rumours, but in truth most of these rumours are coming from two or three sources, and those writing the stories seem to have a hidden agenda for one reason or another.
If a mass exodus happened, yes Shaw would be high on the list of some big clubs and to a lesser degree Adam Lallana, but after that the choice for most of the rest of the squad is not really that much better than staying at Saints, Spurs perhaps at best, Morgan Schneiderlin gets linked with Arsenal every year but how many offers have we actually had, if Arsene Wenger rates him that highly he would already be at the Emirates, ironically though as Saturday's midfield performance proved, Morgan is probably the player we could most do without, if Arsenal did offer silly money I would snap their hands off, Cork, Wanyama and Davis arguably gave our best midfield performance of the season against Everton, add to the fact that we have James Ward Prowse, this is an area we are well served in.
But if Doomsday did happen then we would have a hell of a kitty to replace those who have gone.
So although the summer looks to be a nervy time for Saints fans i would say we should approach it with optimism, whatever happens I feel we will be equipped to build on what we have achieved this season, we should not fear change and given that we now have a much better idea of how the Club actually stands in terms of ownership etc, we can look at realistic targets, yes some people's heads were turned by talk of the Champions League, but in the short term that is not a realistic aim, now we are realistic, that doesnt mean our ambition has gone, it means that we are planning for the things that we can achieve in the short term and if we do that the longer term targets get a lot closer