Southampton have made a conscious effort to shift their transfer focus in recent years, aiming for wholly young talent to be nurtured into top-quality players.

Then, once they reach that level, they can either propel them up the table or sell for a huge profit.

This summer they did not sign any permanent deals for anyone older than 25, and last summer, other than Theo Walcott, they upheld the same principles.

Their second most expensive transfer that window was to obtain Romain Perraud, where they unloaded €13m (£11.2m) for the promising Frenchman.

The 25-year-old was coming off the back of an impressive offensive season for a full-back, where he scored three, assisted seven, and was named in the Ligue 1 team of the season.

Ralph Hasenhuttl obviously saw him as the perfect man to fill their vacant left-back role, with Kyle Walker-Peters having deputised well in that position.

However, since moving to St Mary’s, Perraud has never really got going.

He made 20 Premier League appearances last season, and despite being renowned for his attacking, only managed one assist and no goals.

This season, he has started in a similarly disappointing fashion, with just one assist in seven games this time.

These poor performances may have been bred by his injury woes and struggle to acclimatise to his new surroundings, which he admitted had been “tough”.

However, given the money they spent, they are yet to get any kind of return on him. His value has actually depreciated since signing in 2021.

CIES Football Observatory now rates him at just €7m (£6.1m), marking a miserable slump of 45%.

To think that he has been playing so poorly whilst sitting on a £39k-per-week wage makes it even more frustrating, as they were arguably better off when they had a makeshift left-back in his place.

With youth on his side, he still has time to grow into an impressive Premier League defender. But as it stands, this has been a miserable piece of business from Southampton at a time when they really needed to get it right.

There is a reason why they sit just a point away from the relegation zone after nine games.