"They will..." - Journalist drops big behind-scenes Southampton claim involving Sport Republic

Southampton’s mentality towards transfers ‘hasn’t changed’ despite the new ownership at the club, according to The Sun journalist Tom Barclay.

The Saints confirmed the deal in January which sees Sport Republic, a London-based investment firm in the sports and entertainment industry, acquire a controlling stake.

Dragan Solak, a Serbian-born cable television tycoon, has ended the majority ownership of Gao Jisheng, a Chinese businessman who bought an 80 per cent stake in Southampton back in 2017.

According to Sky Sports, Solak is understood to be behind a new holding company which will explore offers for clubs in other international leagues, replicating a similar strategy to the one employed by the owners of Manchester City.

However, Southampton remained inactive during the January transfer window, failing to make any additions to Ralph Hasenhuttl’s first-team squad.

And club captain and talisman James Ward-Prowse has been heavily linked with a move away from St. Mary’s in recent weeks following an outstanding 2021/22 campaign, indicating their key assets remain available to the top teams.

In the past, Southampton have regularly sold their star players to their more affluent and successful rivals, with the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Luke Shaw and Sadio Mane all moving on.

Barclay doesn’t believe that Solak’s arrival will change the mindset of Southampton when it comes to buying and selling players and reckons the club’s supporters are ‘pretty realistic’ about that.

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He told GiveMeSport: “I think most Southampton fans are pretty realistic. Ralph Hasenhuttl has said that Southampton will remain effectively a selling club, not that he would sort of express