Southampton: Saints chief confirms no important players will be sold

Southampton Chief Executive Martin Semmens has confirmed that no important first-team players will be sold during the summer transfer window.

Rumours of incoming and outgoing players will be strong between now and the beginning of the 2020/21 season in September and Saints have already completed some impressive business in preparation.

Recent comments from Semmens will also go some way to reassuring fans about the futures of some of their most vital stars who, it appears, will still be in a red and white shirt in the next year.

After being asked to confirm whether the likes of Danny Ings and James Ward-Prowse would be staying put by BBC Radio Solent’s Adam Blackmore, he said:

"“Yes absolutely. I think everybody in this team – I mean the first-team and people around the first-team – Ralph and everybody in the club sees that we have something good going here. We wouldn’t make any changes to that unless it was very much in our interest.“We don’t need to sell anybody, we won’t sell anybody and I would be very surprised is anybody from that group didn’t want to be here next year.”"

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• Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 1: Departures
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• Rain clouds on the horizon? Southampton beat Plymouth Argyle
• A lament for Southampton legend James Ward-Prowse

Given that Semmens has been an open and honest presence in his time at St Mary’s, these comments will be very pleasing for all of those listening/reading.

A strong core of players is being built to enable Ralph Hasenhuttl to resources to make a real imprint on the Premier League and it will be crucial to keep this together for as long as possible if Saints are to become a consistent top half team once again.

Semmens has confirmed before that player sales would still be important to keep the club ticking over but it seems like this current group will be kept as one for a considerable period of time.

Also key to Saints’ future is the production of top quality talent from their Staplewood youth setup and those coming through will look to compliment the senior players already on offer.

The importance of the team at the moment has been emphasised by the business that has been done already this summer.

Ralph Hasenhuttl, James Ward-Prowse, Will Smallbone, Jake Vokins and Shane Long have all been tied to new contracts – with more expected to follow – whilst the signings of Mohammed Salisu and Kyle Walker-Peters will add significant quality to the squad.