Nathaniel Clyne's believes the Champions league is the natural next step in his progression and although this is in one respect a drawback for Saints, in another it shows how far the club has come.

The national press have of course chosen to take Clyne's comments and make them fit the best headlines, of course Nathaniel Clyne is ambitious so why should he not talk of those ambitions, speaking at a FootballFightingEbola event he said.

''I'm flattered by the interest from the big clubs. It shows that I'm doing well and I've had a good season.

''I'm definitely ambitious. Every player would love to be playing in the Champions League and winning trophies and titles. That's what you play football for - that's the dream."

''I would say Champions League football is the next step in my progression. I think I need experience playing European football. We're doing well with Southampton and hopefully we can get there. That would be great. So I'm just concentrating on Southampton. There are a few more games to play, so I'm just concentrating on getting to the fourth spot.''

These are all comments that you would expect from an ambitious player, after all what would you expect him to say "Im not ambitious at all I prefer fighting relegation or mid table mediocrity to challenging for honours"

But in today's modern game any hint of ambition from the latest player to be supposedly in demand is an indication that they are desperate to leave their current club and join Manchester United/Manchester City/ Chelsea/Arsenal.

But although Saints fans don't like to read these headlines linking our players with big money moves, we should be happy, it shows that we have players who are good enough to compete at the top level, would we rather be in the bottom half of the table with a squad that no one above us wants anyone from ?

I would say the answer to that question is no ! but we also have to recognise what football has become these days and what our natural steps of progression are.

The reality is that Saints have to accept that in football the big clubs will always look to pick off the best players, they can do that because of the Champions league and they can do that because they have the financial clout, being blunt Nathaniel Clyne is a great player who would naturally want to play for the biggest club he can, at the highest level that he can and the reality is that the clubs at this level are going to pay him more money that Saints could afford, we have to accept that at the moment we are a level down from those big clubs.

But that does not mean that we cannot make steps forward ourselves with our own natural progression, that means continuing to develop the likes of Clyne through a good transfer policy and at the same time utilising the youth system to bring on the likes of Shae and Chambers.

Of course in an ideal world we would keep all of these players, but the world is never ideal and we have to work the system and keep progressing ourselves.

That means continually reinvesting transfer money received into strengthening the squad as a whole, we did this last summer and although there can be no doubt that if we had held on to certain players we would have been stronger still, overall we are a better squad for the trials of last summer as has been shown by what we have achieved so far this season.

Our next natural step is European qualification and if we do that then it will be easier for us to sign quality players, even though it may only be the Europa League it is still an incentive for good players to join the club, I said this a year ago when our ex manager was saying that the Europa league would not be good for Saints, by that statement he showed that he lacked ambition, he was content with avoiding relegation, not with competing in the cups either domestic or European.

Now it is a different matter, it is likely we will lose a player or two in the summer, the good news is that big money will come in and that we are already identifying the replacements, that is called pre planning and it is why we prospered after the rape of our squad last summer.

So we should not be afraid of one of our players making statements about ambition, it shows how far we have come, we now have players that are good enough to have those ambitions and there are now plenty of up and coming players who have ambitions to play for Southampton Football Club and that is a good sign.

Yes it would be nice to be one of the big clubs, but we are not, but we can become at the forefront of the next level and that would enable us to compete for trophies not to mention for a Champions League spot.

The best football clubs are built on solid foundations and building foundations takes time, we are doing things the right way.

Photo: Action Images

bstokesaint added 12:11 - Apr 14 It's a valid point Nick. We want ambitious players and Clyne's not said anything too controverial there. It's up to Saints to fill his and other similar players' ambitions of playing in Europe.
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Jesus_02 added 12:16 - Apr 14 Arsene Wenger “You look at Southampton and you think of the team they had last year plus the Walcott, the Chamberlain, the Gareth Bale that come out of there. “They could have won the European Cup had they managed to keep everyone together” The reality is that despite Greg Dyke's fluff about encouraging teams to develop and play English players Clyne has come back from international duty demanding Champions League football and we will end up replacing him with a cheaper foreign player that will play for his country “despite” playing for lowly Southampton. English football will remain damaged as long as it is “reality” that clubs like Saints, Swansea and even Everton can’t compete. Ever.

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SanMarco added 12:36 - Apr 14 Of course he wouldn't be playing in the CL this week unless he had moved abroad. I think CL is simply a euphemism for 'bigger club, more money, more prospects of trophies, more England caps'. The fascinating think will be to see if Liverpool and Spurs (who will not be in CL) attract any of our wantaways. Last year's crop of escapees have, almost to a man, played less football, played less well and unless Chambers or one or two of the Liverpool lot win the FA Cup they will have won nothing (it is quite possible that some will watch their team win the Cup and not even be in the squad on the day). I don't resent Clyne and Spider wanting to move - I would just question the assumption that the move will make them better footballers. Didn't happen last year did it?

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stmichael added 13:31 - Apr 14 the reality is that no matter how bad lovren lambert and lallana have been they will all be running round wembley this weekend and it just doesn't happen here at saints. good luck to them. I have already detached myself from clyne and looking forward to seeing who we replace him with. spider is a little different because he has been with us for so long. he will always be a saint clyne was just passing through. still think to lose chambers and clyne is the same calendar year is not one of Les Reid's greatest achievements. more should have been done to keep Chambers on the basis we would probably lose clyne. For a club that prides itself on being one step ahead that is not acceptable.

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BoondockSaint added 13:34 - Apr 14 Typical twisting of the quote by the media He says exactly what we fans would like all our players to say: I'm happy to be doing good and so is the team, so hopefully we can get into Champions League. I know this is usually followed by a move, but at least he was respectful of the club. Unlike others for who "ambition" means other clubs.
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SaintBrock added 13:45 - Apr 14 I'm with Koeman in believing success is about the team and team integration and players unselfishly working for each other. Nat Clyne will understand this especially as he has seen the plight of his friends who decided that they were bigger than the team and our club last summer - as ably summed up by SanMarco above. Morgan too, although my guess is that he will have a greater range of options than Clyne in the summer. At least the learning lesson for them should be yes to be ambitious and to dream but also to temper those ambitions and dreams with a bit of old world feet-on-the-ground reality. Like all of you guys I'd love them to stay and give Koeman's plan another year to blossom, who knows it might lead to great things?

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halftimeorange added 13:58 - Apr 14 I quite like Kieran Trippier of Burnley should they go down. He's young, English and has national honours at youth levels. A work in progress which Saints could develop. The constant practice of picking off decent players by the mega-rich clubs only serves to disillusion average supporters. It also makes for a boring media commentary.
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LeicesterSaint added 09:34 - Apr 15 As you say its laughable paper spin, the headlines dont match the quotes at all but Cline and Spider will both go in the summer and I for one will wish them both well and thank them for what they have done for our club - as long as we let clubs bid it out so we get as much cash as possible back for them and then let Koeman invest the bulk of the money I wil lbe happy as I know we have great replacements in our youth ranks and I have faith in Koeman also buying the right players also. COYS!!

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