In the early part of the 2010s Southampton garnered something of a reputation for unearthing talent.
The likes of Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk, Morgan Schneiderlin and Nathaniel Clyne all spent time at St Mary’s before moving onto bigger and better things in earning moves to traditional top six clubs.
The south coast club have desperately tried to repeat the trick in the last few transfer windows as their transfer policy has continued to target young talent that they’re hoping to develop further at the club.
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The problem is that it’s not been working.
Look at the Saints’ past few transfer windows and the underlying trend is that they’re spending big on players under the age of 23.
Mario Lemina, Wesley Hoedt, Mohamed Elyounoussi, Angus Gunn, Che Adams and Moussa Djenepo are all examples over the past three years of young players who have cost sizeable fees, and not a single one of them has made a real impact on the first-team.
Lemina, Hoedt and Elyounoussi have all been shipped out on loan, Gunn is their second-choice stopper, Adams still hasn’t scored all season. Djenepo has just four goal contributions all season too.
The fact of the matter is that somewhere down the line the Saints lost their eye for talent, but they’ve continued to persevere with this policy of trying to unearth these gems.
If this poor recruitment continues, it won’t be long before the club have a squad filled with these flops, and if they get to that point relegation may come sooner rather than later.
The Saints desperately need to ditch this policy of signing unproven youngsters who they’re hoping will be the next Sadio Mane or the next Virgil van Dijk and go into the market of signing proven players who they are absolutely certain will help keep them in the top-flight for the next few years.
Hopefully, this season will act as something as a wakeup call for the recruitment team at St Mary’s and they’ll focus their attention on more experienced and proven talent going forward.
In other news, Southampton will soon be spoilt for choice in one position.