Seven years ago St Mary's was the Harrods of the Premier League, it was seemingly the place to shop if you wanted the latest in footballing fashions, but that was a few years back now and Tottenham Hotspur fans are realising that trying to buy half the Saints first team isn't going to win you the League.
For three years Saints were the place to go to when you wanted to sign up and coming footballers, it seemed to the St Mary's faithful that the club were selling as fast as they could get them out on the shelves, but the real truth is that it was all part of the club conveyor belt, a process put in place by Ted Bates, honed by Lawrie McMenemy and still seen by the club hierarchy as the only way a club the size of Southampton can compete in today's financial footballing world.
That means getting in player young and cheaply and with a hunger for success and selling them at top dollar, some still haven't caught on to this yet and see every sale that the club makes as a lack of ambition, but the reality is that buying expensive players by paying them high wages is no more a guarantee of success than our well practised strategy, it relys on players playing to their potential.
I said back in 2014 that the problem will never be selling players, it will always be about who we buy to replace them and that our real problems will start when we have no one anyone wants to buy.
In the summer of 2014 Saints sold Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers & Dejan Lovren we replaced them well with the likes of Mane, Pelle Tadic & Ryan Bertrand, on reflection we got more out of those four players than Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal got for their £100 million.
The problems arose for us when we bought badly, we had spent the money but we just didn't get the quality we previously had although it has to be said that in the not too distant past both Pierre Emile Hojbjerg and Jannik Vestergaard have been held up as examples of why the transfer policy went so badly wrong, yet they came good eventually.
Liverpool & Manchester United don't come knocking as much as they used to do, but one club who always seemed to be linked with us are Tottenham Hotspur and last season they did their usual trick of offering peanuts when they signed Hojbjerg.
For much of the last 8 months they have been linked with Danny Ings and now comes the news that they want Jannik Vestergaard, the problem is though, is how is a club with a billion pounds of debt going to find any transfer money.
Spurs more than most have suffered in the Covid 19 situation, they were in a brand new stadium with around £800 million of loans to finance and were reliant not just on the considerable income from football activities at the ground, but on summer events including Baseball games, American Football and gigs, not to mention large conferences etc.
None of these happened and their answer was to borrow another £175 million from the government to pay their staff, although a fair chunk has gone on paying Gareth Bale.
Spurs fans are coming to the realisation that their club could be in financial trouble if it is not careful , the chasing of Danny Ings has placated them to a degree, but the news that Jannik Vestergaard is also on their radar seems to have been a step too far and brought home the fact that if they want to buy they have to sell and losing the top striker in the country to buy two players from Saints isn't floating their boat.
Another boat that didn't float was the Titanic and Ings and Vestergaard should both consider that like the White Star Liner in 1912 they should both consider not leaving Southampton either.
Website thisisfutbol.com has been analysing Spurs predicament and are realising that with both Ings and Vestergaard turning 29 in the summer, if they move to North London they are hardly going to be long term fixes.
The Spurs fans are coming to the realisation that Spurs are losing ground on where they were a couple of years ago and that if you want to win the Premier League you have to be in the market for the top top players and not cut price options from Saints, Hojbjerg was considered a revelation in his early days as Spurs soared earlier in the season, but is now being found out a little as they can't seem to defend a lead, the Newcastle late equaliser at the weekend being the 15th point dropped from a winning position this season, nearly as many as Saints.
So they are not happy to be linked with Ings or Vestergaard as they realise that the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and even Manchester United and Chelsea will be looking at bigger fish in the sea.
Thisisfutbol have been looking at some of the Tottenham fans comments on social media and most have not been positive.
"And that’s why we will chill mid-table”
@xOGxKing
"Great stuff, another CB with the turning speed of the titanic”
@stu_thfc
"The bargain nonsense is why we keep bringing in players who wouldn’t necessarily improve the team.”
@mikyonehotspur
"Good player for Southampton but never meant to play on a higher level. Be serious spurs and buy world quality players”
@jamesOjames929
"This is why we’ll never be taken seriously. Decent player though.”
@RemRemHollywood
"Another massive downgrade from the levels of Jan and Toby.”
@laggers61
Two years ago everything looked rosy for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, under Mauricio Pochettino they had a great manager who had finally made them challengers to the top four and even got them to a Champions league final, but that wasn't good enough for them and they like many before them equated signing big names for big money as the guarantee for success, shift out Pochettino and get Jose Mourinho, bring in Gareth Bale, now they are worse off than they were pre Pochettino in terms of where they are going and the World pandemic has meant they are sidled with debt and have to sell to buy.
Perhaps there is some food for thought for Saints supporters there, good clubs are build on solid foundations, throwing money at things guarantees nothing, in fact it sometimes causes more problems than it solves.
So will Ings and Vestergaard end up at Tottenham Hotspur, the truth is that if they do Spurs have to sell and sell big, that means Harry Kane going perhaps one or two more and the players they bring in will not be of the quality of those that have left.
From a Saints perspective we would move on as we always have done, a replacement for Vestergaard is already at the club in Salisu, the player signed last summer when the Dane was not considered a success at St Mary's , that would mean we could spend most of the money on replacing Ings.
Personally I am not afraid of change, no player lasts for ever, the trick is to sell players when they are just at their peak and replace them and keep repeating the process, we are good at that where we went wrong was when we started to buy players who had already reached their potential and in some of them, that wasn't good enough for us let alone anyone else.