The arrival of Joe Shields from Manchester City as head of recruitment in the summer obviously had a big impact on the influx of players to St Mary's, now Saints manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has stressed the need to trust the recruitment programme in place going forward.

A few years ago Southampton FC were ground breaking in their so called Black Box system used to identify potential signings and assess their potential to play for the club, this was cited as part of the reason that the club were selected by owners Sport Republic to be the flagship club in what they hope to be a portfolio of clubs around the globe.

But they saw the system in place as a very good foundation and hoped to build on that and fine tune it.

Part of that fine tuning was the acquisition of Joe Shields then head of academy recruitment at Manchester City and now head of our recruitment overall.

With the arrival of Shield it was inevitable that he should use his knowledge of the gems that he had witnessed at first hand at the Etihad and that surfaced with firstly the signings of Gavin Bazunu & Romeo Lavia and then on the final day of the transfer window, two more signings in Samuel Edozie & Juan Larios.

This can only bode well for the club as under Shields, City had emerged as the most prolific producer of young talent in the Premier League, their problem was that given City's need to have a first team squad packed with experience and proven quality, the chances for youngsters coming through were few and far between.

In the past the team manager was seen as the man who identified the players he wanted and had the first and also the final decision on who was signed and who wasn't.

The problem was that meant new signings were pretty much limited to who the current manager wanted and that could be influenced as we have seen in the past at St Mary's on more than one occasion to what agents he was close to and also in one case family members.

But the problem with this was the signings were specific to each individual manager, when he left, a new man came in with his own ideas and wanted his own signings and the process was repeated with each new manager.

Saints sought to change that when they revamped their scouting system over the last decade and as they fine tuned it made the manager a big part of the process in terms of having the final say, but only part of that process and not the be all and end all of it.

This has taken time to evolve, some older managers have been very scornful of the system, but the more modern progressive managers have seen it as progress and have welcomed it with open arms and now Ralph Hasenhuttl has praised the Southampton way of doing things and the improvements made.

When speaking about the arrival of Joe Shields to St Mary's he had this to say:

“You know, as a manager, when you pick the players you have never the same knowledge about the player like people like this, who have watched them 20, 30, 40 times or even more.

“When you see them one time and you make some mistakes and think ‘I don't need him’, it’s not, that's not the way it goes.

“That's why you have a department, that's why you have people looking for the players over the years.

“And then you have to trust them and then you have to say, ‘okay, bring them in’, and then it's up to us to make them shine.”

Hasenhuttl also pointed out that the changes were not just inside the club itself, but that there was a new ability to act quicker due to the financial input from new owners Sport Republic.

“You need also to have the money to get them here, this is also important. I mean, we always had our eyes on the right players in the past but the difference was that we couldn't bring them, in time, when we knew that they were available.

“And most of the time we had to wait until we sold players before we can go to them, and then it was very often too late and they were playing for other clubs.

“Especially for the young players, I think we are good here. They know this and this makes it easier for us.

“But it doesn't mean that every young player in the world can play for us.

“We want to pick the best ones, and then invest all the energy and all the work, what we want to do, to make them better.

“And this is I think a good combination and I think Romeo Lavia and Gavin immediately shows that this is a good way to go.”

The summer transfer window just ended has been proof of how the club has changed and also improved, at the start of the summer there were many sceptics, but those people have been proved wrong, yes it is early days yet, but the tales of doom and gloom predicted in the transfer window did not emerge and we saw perhaps our busiest window.

But it was not only the in door that was busy, the door out of St Mary's was revolving much more, 7 players went out on permanent moves and 14 on loan deals.

That saw perhaps the end of an era where our ability to sign players was hampered by big wages on the books, perhaps £15 million per annum on a permanent basis came off the wage bill.

The 14 players out on loan was in some respects a culling of those who will not play a future in the club, but that is testament to our academy system that we can produce so many who will make a living out of the game at League level, although it should be noted that there were some youngsters sent out to give them experience they won't get at B team level.

Now these signings need to show they have what it takes, some already have and if the others follow in their footsteps in the next few months, we will have truly moved forward as a club.

Not everything is rosy at St Mary's, but it is far better than it was at this time last years both on and off the pitch and that is progress.

Photo: Action Images

derbydog added 08:52 - Sep 7 There is one inherent risk in this policy which you have analysed well Nick, and that is that patience is required in year 1. What if we flirt with relegation while the younger players get up to speed? You would think that this current selection plus Livramento would be very successful in years to come but they have to be good enough to stay up first! I’m obviously in a negative mood this morning because my second thought of the day is do we need to balance the books in January or next summer? Is AMN being groomed to be the new JWP if we sell him to pay for everyone else? I don’t see how else he fits into our current thinking…

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highfield49 added 09:27 - Sep 7 Well, rose tinted glasses from me this morning derbydog. In my view every one of the players we have signed and seen play so far is an upgrade on those they have displaced. Better goalkeeper, better central defender and better defensive midfielder, without doubt, and very positive starts from those further up the pitch. I'd actually argue that if RH took a gamble and played two of our new signings up front instead of last season's pairings we'd have more goals scored as well. Whether or not we are going to flirt with relegation is of course dependent on all those players maintaining and improving their performance levels. Considering the alleged £50m bid from Chelsea for one of our new signings on transfer deadline day I'd also say that the chances are that the books can be balanced if needed in the future. It also appears that Man City, as well as Chelsea, have buy back clauses in several player contracts which are probably worth more than any bid for JWP. See, I said I had my rose tinted glasses on this morning! What has slightly surprised me is the apparent lack of impact Rory Delap has had on loan at Stoke. So far as I'm aware, no goals and no assists as yet. Considering he was a player that we chased hard to sign he might actually not have been the answer to our goal scoring issues. Mara and Ariba could prove to be better signings than Delap in the coming weeks.

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halftimeorange added 10:10 - Sep 7 I think most of us on here are more excited over our current squad than we have been since the Koeman era - we're only missing a Rickie Lambert but, I bet that our recruitment team already has a list of January potentials for that slot, Delap included, although by that time we might have solved the problem from within the ranks. With so many promising players to choose from now it would truly be a shame for the EPL if we finished in the bottom three. After all, Saints is a unique club but, there again, we always have been in encouraging youth to fulfil their dreams.

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Saidou added 16:25 - Sep 7 Where is the striker we were promised? Why didn't we go for Umar Sadiq from Almeria in Spain? Did our black box malfunction? He is the profile we usually go for... Real Sociedad got him on the deadline day for just €16m.
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Colburn added 16:56 - Sep 7 I know we didn't pick up the major striker signing as touted all summer but I do believe that will be rectified in January and of all seasons, this is probably the only one we can get away with it, given the world cup interruption. As for the signings in we have made, it's early days but the signs are that we have made some incredible additions and I can't think of any window or summer in our history where we have gone anywhere near matching the talent secured over the last couple of months. Add to that the outgoings, where all bar 1 have gone from those who needed to go and positive game time for the fringe youngsters in the lower leagues on loan where for instance Tella has thrived. Magnificent work to be fair and Mara can still be the man to plug the gap until Jan.

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