At his current rate of progress we'll be very fortunate to have ABK with us next season. Whilst the club's future will be determined to a significant extent by the development and marketing of young talent it's a shame that supporters will be robbed of a chance to see that development in a Saints shirt. It seems as though Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid have plans to take away our defensive star and the best we can hope for is a £100m price tag being the starting bid for his signature on a contract.
Of course we're not alone in the development and sale of raw talent and most of us would expect the likes of Ivan Toney to move to a bigger club sooner than later but it still feels like we're being mugged. If we lose a goalkeeper, central defender, fullback, central midfielder and forward to the wealthy clubs in the coming year can the recruitment be sustained? One of the many problems I foresee in the future is the inclusion of ridiculously low buy back fees inserted into contracts by the selling clubs. Why not let Southampton improve your players at no risk and take the finished product back for a fraction of their market value? It'll be interesting to see if the club can recruit the likes of ABK in the future without being exploited by the likes of Man City, Chelsea and other teams who will only loan us players rather than release them for realistic transfer fees.

highfield49, that is precisely what the new owners are about and we need to invest some serious money into employing the best scouts we can, for our best survival chances in the PL. We will not attract the same level of young talent in the Championship! And for the buy back clauses to benefit us we may have to sell them a bit earlier than we really want to if the offers come in?