Southampton Q&A: Can Saints become an established top-flight side again?
We have been putting your questions to BBC Radio Solent's Adam Blackmore.
In our final part, Adam focuses on the club's future and which players could make the leap from academy to first team.
Chris asked: What would it take to make Saints an established Premier League club again, eg. as they were under Mauricio Pochettino, Ronald Koeman and even Claude Puel?
Adam answered: Hi Chris, I could write an essay on this! But in reality those days were halcyon ones where Saints were investing really well in talent, spending money, scouting well, and appointing the right managers at the right time.
It really is a cocktail of so many things needing to come together at the same time. But one thing they do need is top talent at the top end of the pitch. The managers you talk about had Adam Lallana, James Rodriguez and Rickie Lambert as a front three, or Dusan Tadic, Sadio Mane and Graziano Pelle. Those golden combinations do not come around that often or that easily.
It is harder now to sneakily buy a talent that nobody knows about, or just compete with far bigger clubs – PSR keeps medium-sized clubs in their place to the benefit of the bigger ones. So to be a regularly competing in the Premier League again needs consistent investment allied with a great fit of manager and players, with Saints punching above their weight for a season or two to increase revenue.
The club are investing for the long term on all sorts of infrastructure projects and revenue sources to compete more but it will take a long time. With PSR a much bigger thing now, it is harder to cheat the system or buck the trends.
Tim asked: Do you think the transfers out of Ben Brereton Diaz, Maxwel Cornet and others represents a move back to using academy graduates more rather than 'pros for hire'? And do you know of any good academy prospects?
Adam answered: Hi Tim, there is a lot more age group talent at Saints now – a lot of international age group players, and not just English ones. The club are confident they are on the right track with this and I hope the first team sees the benefits soon.
However, I do not see the exits of certain players this month as having anything to do with academy players – it is purely about getting the squad into a manageable size, allied with Ivan Juric getting players out that he thinks are not going to feature for him in the current fight.
