Southampton were very busy during the summer transfer window and weren’t afraid to cash in on key players.
This stance from the Saints didn’t come as a surprise for three reasons.
Firstly, they needed to adapt to the financial conditions of the Championship and in order to do that, they probably needed to offload some of their high earners.
Adapting to the EFL’s financial rules is crucial for the Saints, because there are no guarantees that they will get themselves back to the Premier League in the short term.There were quite a few high-profile exits during the summer, with Mislav Orsic moving to Trabzonspor, Mohammed Salisu making the switch to Monaco and Nathan Tella being sold to Bayer Leverkusen following an excellent loan spell at Burnley.
But the biggest sagas of the summer revolved around Romeo Lavia, Tino Livramento and James Ward-Prowse, with all three generating plenty of interest and the trio all being sold in August.
Secondly, manager Russell Martin previously worked at Swansea City where key players are often sold and Flynn Downes made the switch to West Ham United during the ex-Norwich City defender’s time in South Wales. With this in mind, the Saints may have felt they had more of a license to sell some of their valuable assets.
Lavia was sold for the highest amount – but Ward-Prowse’s departure has probably had the most impact considering how long he spent at St Mary’s and the number of appearances he made for the club. Lavia, meanwhile, spent just one year at the club and Livramento was out of action for a chunk of his time at St Mary’s with a cruciate ligament injury. And finally, funds were needed so Martin could put his stamp on the Saints, something that’s vital in his quest to succeed at St Mary’s. Because he has such a particular way of playing, he needed to bring in the right faces to fit in his system and the fact he was able to bring in so many new faces has paid dividends, with the Saints doing well at the moment.
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