Southampton: Saints Director confirms club still reliant on selling players

Southampton released their official club accounts for the 2018/19 season on Friday and announced a big loss in the process.

They showed that Saints’ fall down the Premier League table had been costly and had brought about a significant £34m loss.

One thing that has generated a lot of income for the club in the past though is player sales, and Managing Director Toby Steele implied that this was still vital for Saints to continue to compete in the top-flight.

Speaking to BBC Radio Solent’s Adam Blackmore, Steele said:

“We’ve had many examples of identifying good, talented young players and developing them. Yes, we’d like them to stay here but in certain instances they will move on. If that means that we will be able to realise a profit and reinvest, then yes we will.”

With so much money being generated by television coverage of the Premier League, it can be considered slightly worrying that Saints are losing funds here.

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They have tried to step up their commercial power in Asia after Gao Jisheng became the club’s owner and LD Sports took the main shirt sponsor role, but we are perhaps not seeing the fruits of that just yet.

For that reason, it is maybe too early to judge how this latest tactic is going.

Profits in previous years had always been reliant on the sale of notable players for significant fees, and trying to influence the growing Chinese certainly shows that Saints are trying something different that would enable them to hold onto more of their talent.

However, it is still not as simple as that.

If a player is drawn in by an offer from another club that gives them more financial reward and a better chance of winning silverware then it does pay for the club to cash in before the situation become ugly.

With a renowned manager like Ralph Hasenhuttl in charge at the moment though, there is the chance that Saints could return to the highs of 2014-2016 – building a high-quality team and keeping the core for a couple of seasons before starting again.

Some Saints fans may be frustrated by this, but it does provide a short spell of some of the highest quality football in the Premier League with their club remaining in a uniquely attractive position to many of the best upcoming players.