The summer exodus of Southampton’s most highly-prized players was inevitable but the club are doing what is necessary to continue to thrive in the Premier League, in the eyes of ex-Saints defender Russell Osman.
Former centre-back Osman, who spent three years with the south coasters in the late 1980’s, described Southampton as a ‘good club’ who are making all of the right moves to carry on being successful.
He believes the loss of their star players, which include captain Adam Lallana (who has moved to Liverpool), left-back Luke Shaw (to Man United) and striker Rickie Lambert (to Liverpool), may be deemed a major blow, but the Saints are doing what is necessary to leverage themselves into a stronger position in the top flight.
“This is not the first time this has happened to Southampton,” he told Football Express News, “but they are a good club and will carry on being successful.”
“They’ll have a few new players next year and just get on with it.”
Earlier this year it was reported that Southampton were in a spot of financial bother, carrying the burden of a £27M transfer debt and having suffered a net loss of £7.1M owing to operational issues.
This summer’s big-money departures deals of fans’ favourites Lallana and Shaw may have divided the opinions of supporters, with many exasperated at the loss of their cherished home-grown stars; but others hold a similar view to Osman – that the sale of these players for around £55M collectively, along with the £4M Southampton received for Lambert, is simply good business sense and will set up the club to kick off next season on a much better footing.
Osman explained: “They’re making all the right moves to try and keep their best players as long as they can and then maximise on their full potential.
“Either as their own players, to perform well and get Southampton winning matches and progressing up the table, or as assets that a bigger club can come along and pay good money for.”