Predictable future for Saints

IT will soon be back to reality for poor old Southampton. And the reality is — well, more of the same. Another summer fighting off the predators; a summer hoping that the club owners do not believe what happened this season can be casually repeated. Ronald Koeman has done a fine job in challenging circumstances but he will not be able to pull it off twice. Southampton lost five key players a year ago, bought well and thrived, but that is not a blueprint likely to succeed on repeat. The club benefited from a very specific set of circumstances. Koeman was a new manager who saw the break-up of the team as an opportunity, not an insult. He walked through the door and was presented with a significant transfer budget. There was no gloom around the place; it was a fresh start. This summer it will be different. Southampton were unable to last the pace but as recently as February 20 they still occupied a position in the top four. Koeman will be anticipating the possibilities if his squad remains intact and he adds to it; another round of rebuilding is a morale-sapper. When will it end? Already there has been speculation around Nathaniel Clyne, Morgan Schneiderlin, Toby Alderweireld and Jay Rodriguez. It is not unthinkable that a new arrival such as Graziano Pelle or a promising youngster like James WardProwse could also be on the radar of the bigger clubs. This is the downside of Financial Fair Play. Southampton should be able to build from here. Their thriving youth policy, their acumen in the transfer market should equate to an investment opportunity — a chance to change the traditional status of the club. Instead it is the same old, same old, Southampton the feeders, abandoned to fight off the raids of the established elite. It would have been wonderful had they held on for a Champions League finish. It wasn’t to be and while UEFA continue to see football as a glorified branch of accounting — Mike Ashley at Newcastle United must be Michel Platini’s hero — it never will be, either.