NOT A SELLING CLUB..

Now let me see.   Last season, Southampton finished a creditable eighth in the Premier League.   Since then manager Mauricio Pochettino has gone to Tottenham Hotspur, along with his support staff.   And over the summer quite a number of players have moved or are in the process of moving to other clubs.   Off the top of my head they are:-

Rickie Lambert to Liverpool - £4million

Adam Lallana to Southpool - £27million

Dejan Lovren to Liverhampton - £20million

Luke Shaw to Manchester United - £30million

Calum Chambers to Arsenal - £16million

Morgan Schneiderlin very likely to Arsenal or Tottenham (another £20million?)

Dani Osvaldo possibly to Inter for whatever we can get for him.

And who`s to say there might not be others?  No wonder the club flag is flying at half mast.  But to be fair, we have secured a couple of promising replacements and it is crushingly obvious that we need quite a few more.

I`m beginning to feel a little sorry for new manager Ronald Koeman although it might be claimed that, with all these departures, at least he has the chance to rebuild the team in his own way.   If so, then we supporters will reserve judgement and see what the season brings.   But what really gets to me is the repeated insistence of Les Reed, a club director, that `Southampton are not a selling club!`   Well, Les, not sure that sounds quite right any more.

Never mind, my ticket for the final pre-season masochistic friendly against Bayer Leverkusen arrived this morning.  At least it will be a day out.