Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham the beneficiaries of this £166m sale

Arsenal

The Gunners where the trendsetters when it came to poaching top talent from the South Coast, when they signed a young Theo Walcott in 2006, for a fee which rose to around £12m.

As well as the England international, who settled in quickly at The Emirates – taking only around a decade to find his feet – Arsenal have brought in fellow academy graduates, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Calum Chambers, the latter of which has been shipped out to Middlesbrough on a loan deal this season.

Over the past decade, Arsene Wenger has invested £40m on talent from Southampton, and it appears he is yet to get a fair return from his investments.