Southampton are barely through the worst week in their recent history and already the vultures are circling.
Leeds United and Tottenham Hotspur are among the clubs reportedly eyeing Leo Scienza, the Brazilian winger who lit up the Championship this season with seven goals and ten assists in 37 appearances.
The interest is entirely predictable. It is also utterly shameless.
Scienza was the first Southampton player to speak publicly after the spygate verdict was confirmed. His Instagram post captured the mood of an entire dressing room. Disappointment, anger and sadness in equal measure. The words of a player who felt genuinely wronged by those above him.
He deserves better than to become a cut-price acquisition for clubs who see his club's humiliation as a convenient opportunity.
Leeds of all clubs should know better
The brass neck of Leeds United's interest deserves particular scrutiny.
In 2019, then Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa admitted to spying on every single Championship opponent that season, sending a member of staff to watch rival training sessions before matches.
The so-called spygate affair at Elland Road caused uproar across the division at the time. Derby County, one of the clubs targeted, were furious.
Leeds escaped with a fine and a reprimand. Southampton, by contrast, have been thrown out of the play-offs and handed a four-point deduction.
The irony of Leeds now looking to pick over the bones of a club punished for precisely the same offence is staggering. It takes a remarkable lack of self-awareness to position yourself as a beneficiary of a scandal your own club pioneered just seven years ago.
Spurs are hardly blameless either
Tottenham's interest carries its own complications. The north London club find out on Sunday whether they retain their Premier League status. If results go against them, the promise of top-flight football they could dangle in front of Scienza evaporates entirely.
A Spurs side potentially heading into the Championship themselves would have little standing to present themselves as an upgrade on Southampton's situation. The audacity of their approach may yet look considerably less attractive by Sunday evening.
Both clubs are operating as mercenaries here. They have identified a talented player at a vulnerable club and moved quickly to exploit the situation. There is no loyalty in football at the best of times, and this is far from the best of times for the South Coast club.
Scienza signed for Southampton last summer from 1. FC Heidenheim, bought in good faith to help deliver Premier League football. He held up his end of the bargain. The club did not hold up theirs.
His frustration is entirely justified. His desire to explore other options is understandable.
And here is the uncomfortable truth that Southampton supporters must wrestle with. If the roles were reversed, if Saints had the chance to sign a sought-after winger from a rival club mired in scandal, they would almost certainly be making exactly the same call.
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