Southampton: Saints pull off coup with signing of Birmingham’s Mitchell

Southampton have pulled off a real coup with the signing of Birmingham City’s young forward Ramello Mitchell on an Academy scholarship.

The 16-year-old has joined Saints despite interest from a number of top sides – reportedly including Liverpool, Manchester United, Wolves and Leeds United.

A significant sum is also said to have been paid by Saints to bring Mitchell to St Mary’s.

The Daily Mail’s coverage suggest that an initial £300,000 will be going Birmingham’s way, but that the fee could rise to around £1m if future clauses are met.

Mitchell has joined Saints in the same week that senior striker Che Adams made the same move for a fee of around £16m.

Mitchell is just one of many youth signings that Saints have made in recent times as they look to boost academy productivity again.

Players such as Nathan Tella, Alex Jankewitz, Christoph Klarer and Benni Smales-Braithwaite have joined from other sides in the hope of them becoming first-team players in the future.

More from Saints Marching

• Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 2: Arrivals
• Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 1: Departures
• It’s time to talk about Gavin Bazunu
• Rain clouds on the horizon? Southampton beat Plymouth Argyle
• A lament for Southampton legend James Ward-Prowse

Academy production will be an important part of Ralph Hasenhuttl’s long-term plans on the South Coast.

Yan Valery, Callum Slattery and Michael Obafemi all played important parts for Austrian in the 2018/19 season and it will be important to provide more first-team level talent into the future.

In many ways, it is the belief of the Saints boss that has pushed the current crop onto higher levels.

Saints are renowned for their production of youth players from their Staplewood training facility, but previous managers in Claude Puel, Mauricio Pellegrino and Mark Hughes didn’t give out so many opportunities.

Now with a clear pathway set out, it will be easier for the youngsters to perform and show what they are capable of.

One thing that producing good young players with great potential also does is provides great value when selling talent on.

It has been well-documented how much money has been paid to Saints to secure the services of players such as Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Adam Lallana in the past.