Southampton’s latest financial accounts don’t make for nice reading.

The south coast club have just announced losses of £34m for the financial year just gone, and that can never be seen as a good thing.

The big fall from the £29m they made the previous year can be easily explained as the £75m fee they received for Virgil van Dijk has been offset, but we can’t help but feel that if the Saints were a bit savvier they could have avoided this loss.

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What’s important to note is that these financial accounts are last year’s so they account for all the business done from June 2018 to June 2019, most importantly this covers the Summer 2018 and January 2019 transfer windows.

So, what have Southampton done wrong during this time? It seems as though their biggest mistake has been to continuously loan out their flops rather than finding them a new club.

Indeed, the likes of Guido Carrillo, Jordie Clasie and Wesley Hoedt all left the club temporarily rather than on permanent deals.

A year on and Carrillo and Hoedt are still out on loan while Clasie has finally left permanently, but it seems the Saints have already missed the boat when it comes to recuperating their money.

According to Transfermarkt, when the trio were loaned out their combined market value was £32.85m, but now it’s just £15.3m.

If the Saints had sold these players at the earliest possible opportunity rather than loaning them out they wouldn’t have such woeful financial records for the past year.

Ok, the club aren’t in any trouble of going bust anytime soon, but with FFP working on a three-year rolling cycle for Premier League clubs, this could inhibit the amount the Saints can spend a couple of years down the line once last year’s healthy profits are discounted.

Hopefully, Southampton learn from their mistakes here.

In other news, Southampton could soon be spoilt for choice in one position.