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Fire Sales

Are Southampton crazy to sell £100m worth of players?

Have the Saints been smart to cash-in or will the strategy backfire?

Soccer - Barclays Premier League - Southampton v Hull City - St Mary's The Saints have already sold a host of last season's first team. PA Archive / Press Association Images PA Archive / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

NEW SOUTHAMPTON BOSS Ronald Koeman tweeted a picture of a deserted-training pitch this morning and got himself nearly 10,000 retweets.

Why? Because the exit door at St Mary’s has been left wide open this summer with 10 players already gone and a couple more reportedly on the way out.

Under Mauricio Pochettino, the Saints claimed eighth place in the table after their highest ever Premier League points tally (56) with several of their stars such as Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw and Jay Rodriguez seeing their stock rise considerably.

Pochettino has since left for Tottenham and others haven’t been far behind. Liverpool snapped up trio Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Devan Lovren while full-back Shaw moved to Manchester United for £34m and Arsenal today announced the signing of promising defender Calum Chambers.

Soccer - Pre-Season Friendly - Swindon Town v Southampton - The County Ground Koeman: The Dutchman has got a real job on his hands. Andrew Matthews Andrew Matthews

The departures don’t look to be over yet as reports this evening suggest Spurs are close to capturing the signatures of Rodriguez and French midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin. Misfit striker Pablo Osvaldo is also likely to head back to Italy and Inter Milan believed to be the frontrunners.

It’s an unusual strategy and leaves Koeman with a seriously-depleted squad just three weeks out from the start of the season. He has made two signings from the Eredivisie in Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle but will need a whole lot more to replace the raft of talent.

There is no doubt that Southampton have recouped serious funds so was it smart to cash in or are they making a enormous mistake?

Let us know what you think below…

Players in: 

Dusan Tadic – FC Twente – £10.9m
Graziano Pelle – Feyenoord – Undisclosed

Players out:

Luke Shaw – Manchester United – £34m
Adam Lallana – Liverpool – £25m
Dejan Lovren – Liverpool – £20m
Calum Chambers – Arsenal – £16m
Rickie Lambert – Liverpool – £4m
Danny Fox – Nottingham Forest – Free
Andy Robinson – Bolton Wanderers – Free
Lee Barnard – Southend – Free
Guly do Prado – Released
Jonathan Forte – Released

On the way…? 

Morgan Schneiderlin – Spurs -??
Jay Rodriguez – Spurs – ??
Pablo Osvaldo – Inter Milan -?? 

Arsenal sign £16m Chambers as yet another player departs Southampton

Man City should have known better than to use #AskJesus for their Q&A

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