Southampton is a club in decline. Three seasons ago, a fourth successive top-eight finish instilled the notion of sustainable success at the club. Today, this could not be further from the truth, culminating in a 9-0 harrowing at the hands of Leicester City followed by an admittedly less embarrassing 2-1 defeat to Manchester City.

Perhaps the most salient decline for Southampton has been in their player recruitment. During their extended stay in the top eight of the Premier League, we saw players like Sadio Mane, Toby Alderweireld and Virgil Van Dijk arrive at St. Mary’s. All of these players showed their immense worth at the club and moved onto pastures new, usually with large profits for Southampton. Resultantly, the Saints’ ‘selling-club mentality’ is often touted as the reason for their swift decline. However, there are plenty of examples around Europe which prove otherwise; Ajax have historically been a feeder club to Europe’s elite but their Champions League semi-final run last season proves that a club with their blueprint can still enjoy success.

In stark contrast to a club like Ajax, Southampton have lost much of their transfer nous when signing players. The Saints have paid over £20 million just once in the past two seasons, with Premier League rivals such as Newcastle and Watford spending more than £25 million on single players last summer.

The South Coast club seems to be unable to keep up with the rapidly developing transfer market, particularly with regards to inflation of player prices. For example, the £13 million they spent on a young Victor Wanyama with Champions League experience in 2013 doesn’t even cover the cost of a Championship-level striker in the form of Che Adams in 2019. Competing in the Premier League has to involve throwing your financial weight around, something that Southampton have found out the hard way.

However, not all of Southampton’s failures have been as persistently evident as their financial mistakes. Replacing Mark Hughes with Ralph Hasenhüttl seemed like a step forward when the Austrian was appointed in 2018. After all, Hasenhüttl had guided RB Leipzig to a second place finish in the Bundesliga in their first ever season in the German top-flight. In addition, he had bled in a number of players with world-class potential at the German club, namely Timo Werner, Naby Keïta and Marcel Sabitzer. Pairing Hasenhüttl with Southampton’s famed academy seemed like an inspired decision, undoubtedly conjuring visions of another wave of Southampton youth products dominating the first team.

For Hasenhüttl however, things just haven’t ever clicked. He has deployed a 3-4-1-2 system in recent weeks, relying on Vestergaard, Yoshida and Bednarek to hold up the back line, all of whom seem to have a mistake or two in them. Pairing this with a lack of leadership in midfield, a function of having one of the league’s youngest captains in the form of Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, results in a soft centre in a side that has given up 29 points from winning positions this season. For all his tactical proficiency that was shown at Leipzig, Hasenhüttl seems unable to mold the current crop of Southampton players into a winning team.

Overall, there are many underlying issues at Southampton that need to be fixed. Their esteemed academy and transfer policy have both fallen behind the times, and their current squad simply does not seem to match their manager’s progressive vision. It would certainly not be a shock to see their seven year stay in the Premier League ended with a whimper next May.