It was around 5:30 on the 11th of May 2014. Southampton Football Club had just written the final chapter to their most successful ever season, a 1-1 draw with Manchester United. The players deservedly basked in their glory with the customary end of season “Lap of  Honour”. Fans cheered and players waved, all seemed rosy and well. Little did we know that in the cases of some of the clubs prize assists, their waves were waves goodbye.

At the time things looked bright Chairman Les Reed made a huge statement of intent by saying things like “No Firesale” and “All offers/enquires would be rejected” but old Les didn’t stick to his promise. Soon the face of our fine establishment would depart for Tottenham and how could we expect the key players to remain if the man they saw so wise didn’t see his future at the club, soon those who could do no wrong in our eyes were begging to leave for a “shortcut” to the Champions League as our management put it. Our heroes were simply discarding us for a bit more pay and lets face it, a bit of overtime on Tuesday nights. We were the future of the England football team. 3 departed for Rio with the lions on their shirts. None returned. to put it simply we lost 6 key figures, and replaced them with unproven Europeans and with the exit doors still spinning its strongly rumoured that both Schneiderlin and Cork will follow. This was a horrific summer for Southampton FC.