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Football News: Have Southampton Already Abandoned Their Principles?

Have Southampton Already Abandoned Their Principles?
Image from: getrealpremier.com

Southampton are the poster boy for those who see building through the youth academy as the way forward for football clubs, at all levels. With the production line of talent producing internationals such as Real Madrid and Wales' Gareth Bale, Manchester United and France's Morgan Schneiderlin and Arsenal and England's Theo Walcott, they are held up as the icon of all that is good in youth development. While no one can argue that their youth academy is producing fantastic, talented footballers, year after year, the club is less and less reliant on them to fill the matchday squad. Maybe that is a result of selling off their crown jewels each year, or maybe it is a very deliberate policy shift under Ronald Koeman.

Nowadays the Premier League team put out is unlikely to have any youth academy graduates in it, at least not as first choice players anyway. Is that because the quality of the side has risen, so making it more difficult for youth players to force a way in? Has the quality of the players coming through suffered due to the sale of the best of them, only leaving the lesser players available to Koeman? Or is it a deliberate policy shift away from the youth model, to a more pragmatic approach that is favoured by the vast majority of the Premier League, with buying talent seen as the safest route to success?

 

To me is seems like a policy shift, a change from the days when a player was sold and the club would look to the youth ranks to replace him. Now it is a case of looking to invest in good value talent from elsewhere. No longer are the youth products given their head and the chance to nail down the position for the long term, instead players are brought in. When Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Callum Chambers and Morgan Schneiderlin left to go to Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal and Man Utd, respectively, the club did not look within the academy for their replacements.

The money has been invested in bringing in the likes of Dusan Tadic, Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Bertrand and Jordy Clasie with some success it must be said, so far at least. How much longer can the club continue with this policy before they reach the glass ceiling? Without the youth academy products ready to step in, what happens when you can no longer just cherry pick a replacement for a decent fee? With the need for a bigger stadium looking set to swallow up a significant chunk of the operating budget within the next couple of seasons, will the club be able to keep funding this policy of buying to replace?

 

There are lots of questions, most of which we will have to wait and see the answer to. There are clearly a few issues with the changes, especially for a club operating on a restricted budget compared to some of its rivals, in terms of finances alone. Producing players from your academy, even if you go on to sell them a few years down the line, attracts better prospects to your academy, which allows you the opportunity to produce more players in the future. The profit margins are higher from selling youth academy products, so you have more money to invest back into the club.

I believe Saints are at a crossroads, being in and around the European places without the financial clout to really push on into becoming a regular top four team. Now is when the ambition of the owners is really set to be tested, as the ground needs investment for the club to go any further. Southampton are on the verge of regular European competition, but the difficult part is sustaining it in the long term. Will they return to reliance on the academy or are those days gone for good?

Written by Tris Burke November 12 2015 09:06:25