There has been a recent trend of Southampton having to rebuild their squads after summers of disintegration which have caused havoc among Saints fans in the Transfer Tavern.

Claude Puel, who himself is in his first year with the Saints, will have to be watchful in the summer as teams will be looking at his players with much interest, especially following their success this season which saw them beat former European giants Inter Milan as well as reach the EFL cup final.

Our landlord has been impressed especially with new signing Manolo Gabbiadini and Southampton seem to have a knack of either finding gems and bringing them in or unearthing their own within their successful and fruitful academy much to the delight of our resident Southampton punters who love to see the local talent come through.

What our resident Saints fans in the Tavern do not like is that they always seem to lose their young players when the bigger clubs come knocking but due to the regularity of it throughout the last couple years, they have become more and more accustomed to seeing them leave.

This discussion has certainly lead to a lot of what could have been conversations amongst the Saints fans and they have pinpointed TWO players who have really progressed since leaving the South Coast…

Gareth Bale

When young Gareth Bale turned out for Southampton, little did the Saints fans that watched him that day know the phenomenon the Welshman would become – especially after remembering the fact that he played left back that day.

The Saints regulars in the Tavern often wish they had longer than the season and a half that they saw Bale for before he moved on to Tottenham Hotspur but it was testament to their academy when they saw one of their own move on to Real Madrid where he has already added two Champions League titles to his trophy collection.

Theo Walcott

Theo Walcott is a divisive player, but most of the fans in the Transfer Tavern definitely think that he has been a success.

With over 100 goals for Arsenal under his belt, our landlord believes that Walcott defies his critics more often than not, but we can’t help but wonder what could have been for the Saints had they kept hold of their young talents.

As a youngster, he had the potential to become one of the world’s best, but that hasn’t really happened. However, with a host of medals and goals – surely he’s been a success?