All the talk in the press this week is about how Luke Shaw has already made his mind up about joining at least three clubs, but if he does Saints supporters should not see this as a backward step but progression.
All the talk on Saints message boards and social media sites has been about how it will be doom and gloom if Saints lose Luke Shaw who has already agreed to sign for Chelsea, Man Utd & Man City according to those ever reliable national media reports as well as Luke's postman who will confirm that he now needs a van to deliver all the estate agent house details that he is now pouring over in either the Surrey Stockbroker belt or the footballers golden mile in Cheshire.
Some supporter are crying that should Saints let Luke Shaw leave then this shows that Katharina Liebherr and her board have no ambition and that Cortese would never have allowed this to happen.
The reality of the situation is that in the modern game, the star players have all the power, yes Liverpool and Manchester United held firm over uarez and Rooney respectively last summer and showed that contracts can be adhered to, but Spurs were a prime example with Gareth Bale, the player holding the club to ransom to get his desired move to Real Madrid, or a bit further back when Tevez held Man City to ransom, if a club like Spurs or manchester City cannot hold on to a player then what hope for Saints.
But if Shaw does go then Saints are only continuing what made them so successful from the 1960's onwards in the first place, the foundations of the club were built on producing good young talent and knowing when to cash in at the optimum moment to generate funds to develop the squad further, when Martin Chivers was sold there was uproar but he was replaced by Mick Channon who was replaced by Phil Boyer who in turn found himself followed by Steve Moran, I could go on through the ages right up to the point where we replaced James Beattie with Peter Crouch, yes we got relegated but Crouch had a great season himself and was one of the players least to blame.
So if Saints do sell Luke Shaw it doesnt show lack of ambition but of being realistic and juggling the finances alongside buying in players.
This season Saints have fallen away because the squad lacks both quality in certain areas and depth in general, ideally perhaps Shaw would stay another year to allow Matt Targett to show he is up to the job of replacing him, but if he did go and he went for £30 million then I would throw into the equation that spent wisely as a squad overall we could perhaps be much improved.
Forgetting Targett for a minute we could sign three quality additions to the squad for that £30 million before we even invested any other money we may receive from either the Premier League pot or if we can offload Osvaldo or Ramirex for instance.
Last summer we made three key signings of which Osvaldo turned out to be the only poor one, another three key signings could ensure we stay in the top ten and take a step nearer the top six or seven.
Luke Shaw is a good player but he is still a work in progress, as i say I would not want to see him leave, but I can see many reasons why we would perhaps want to sell him whilst his stock is high rather than wait a year or two, yes we may get more money, but with key signings and a good replacement for Shaw I would hazard a guess than in terms of points we would get more from an improved squad than we would from one individual ie Shaw.
Ralph Krueger is used to running sports teams in the USA & Canada where they take a far more scientific approach, over there as pioneered by Billy Beane and the Oakland A's, for those who have read Moneyball: The Art Of Winning An Unfair Game, the concept will be familiar and make sense, for those who haven't its all about knowing what each individual is worth to the team and exactly the strategy Saints used to great success, bring through a player via the ranks or buy cheaply and sell at the top price.
Saints now need to re adopt this strategy now for perhaps the first time in a decade in that whilst we were languishing in the lower leagues we had no choice but to sell our young talent, now we have to harvest them but know when to sell and when to hold on, it will be all about management both on and off the pitch, in fairness to Cortese he was adopting many of Moneyball's philosophy's, he had just not been tested on implementing them, now could be that time.
Many teams with players as good as Luke Shaw in them have been relegated due to bad management and squad rotation and conversely many poor teams have stayed up due to the reverse, one player doesn't make a team, nor do four players come to that, but you have a better team with say four very good players, four good players and 3 average players than you do with one excellent player, four good players and six average, the point is its a team game, Spurs are doing no worse or no better than they did last year with Gareth Bale, the problem they have is that their last manager did not use the money wisely and there is the trick.
So Luke Shaw going should be seen as nothing other than an event that happens throughout football be you Chelsea, Man Utd or City or Liverpool its all about building a team as a whole and not round one player.
I hope Luke Shaw stays but if he does in some respects I would fear for the squad as a whole, but if Shaw should leave we may just be that much stronger as a squad for it, wherever Luke Shaw is I wish him luck, he is yet another Southampton grown star who has progressed along the conveyor belt, the only sure thing is that one day he will leave, all of his predecessors bar Matt Le Tiss did and we became stronger for it until Harry Redknapp came along, but that is another story.