Andrew Surman, Nathan Dyer, Leon Best
Kenwyne Jones
Wayne Bridge
Theo Walcott
Gareth Bale.
Over the last decade, the Academy at Southampton FC has an enviable record of producing talented young players capable of exciting and dynamic attacking football. Largely due to an inability to compete on a financial basis with the majority of their Premier League peers, Saints made a strategic decision to focus on youth, and for years the Academy director Huw Jennings had considerable success - Walcott's generation stormed to an FA Cup Final and clubs around the country were clamouring to work with the Saints in an attempt to repeat their success.
All of the players listed above have gone on to play for other clubs, not one of them remains a Saint. Some play at the highest level - any manager in European football right now would buy Gareth Bale given the opportunity - but even for the ones who have yet to taste success at the peak of the game; they all made a move to a club of bigger status or financial means.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is the latest Academy graduate to have newspaper gossip columns speculating. Rumoured to be the subject of a 10m bid from Liverpool, our 17 year old winger is also apparently being watched by everyone from London to Manchester via Milan, Barcelona and Madrid. And this is the problem.
With the money that is in football these days, there is a hell of a lot to be gained by identifying a prospect at a young age and getting him in then albeit with a risk involved; than having to pay a club exorbitant fees to get the player at a later, more developed, and much more expensive age. Imagine if Cesc Fabregas had not joined Arsenal at 16 and instead stayed with Barca. Could they afford him now? Not a chance. Everyone wants to get the next big thing through their doors and onto their books early - he might not develop as hoped (Walcott has not progressed at the rate which Wenger would have wanted but that's another blog) and may never make it at all...but if he does, you have a situation which at worst leaves you with a huge transfer fee from selling on the player that you got for peanuts. All of Europe's elite clubs will be interested in the players creating a buzz - if you've got him your rivals haven't and that is worth the gamble, even with fees for unproven youngsters getting somewhat out of hand.
It leaves the selling club with a large chunk of money that can be reinvested on either more youth development or senior players to bolster the first team squad. Often this money may be needed to keep the club afloat. The player gets to train with better players, should develop into a better player, and may if the potential is fulfilled, become a superstar. Not to mention reaping the financial rewards that the club at which they started simply could not match. It's market economics and in theory everybody wins. Except...they don't though, do they.
Every time we've sold one of our young players I've been disappointed. Not in the player - who can blame them. Not in the buying club - as above, it's an understandable policy and the rewards can be massive. Not, even, in the Saints - often times the sale is unavoidable and strategically by far the right thing to do - in the case of Andrew Surman, a Saints fan through and through; he even said whilst leaving for Wolves that he was advised the transfer was the best thing he could do to help the club which was in the depths of a financial meltdown.
As a fan in this scenario, I never feel like I win though. As good as it is to see our player that came through our Academy tearing holes through the European Champions, he wasn't wearing the right shirt. Fans easily and often misguidedly make connections with players and sometimes it hurts when they go. Even though it all makes sense, fundamentally I just wish we could keep our good players.
As soon as one of our players starts doing well I want to go into covert Russian spy mode, wishing there was some way of keeping the secret and not letting anyone else find out. Every hyped report is fuel to the fire that will inevitable lead to us losing another good player. Maybe Saints should attempt propaganda, brainwashing any journalists or scouts after the game - convince them that the player they just saw terrorise defences with a potent mix of pace and skill was actually a carthorse never cut out for anything. Get Derren Brown and Paul McKenna in as a management dream team. Mind-altering drugs in the Bovril?
Perhaps we could get our players to switch shirts at ten minute intervals, confuzzling all but the keenest eyes. Disguises! We should send Oxlade-Chambelrian out with a mac, a hat and dark glasses - peeking through the holes in his newspaper to collect the ball, beat the defender and score another eye-catching goal. All the players could dress up as women. Whatever needs to be done, I just want to get to February 1 without reading the dreaded headline: 'Reds sign Saints starlet'
Having said all this, Saints have taken 1 point from the last 6 including a 2-0 reverse at Tranmere Rovers. Maybe this is their strategy to keep hold of him: just be shit. Clever...
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