STEVEN Davis has admitted that his three years at Saints "couldn’t have gone any better" – but confessed he’s been unsettled by the constant ins and outs at St Mary’s.

Davis switched Rangers for St Mary’s in 2012 as the Scottish giants lurched from one financial crisis to another before being cast into the lower leagues.

When he arrived, Saints had just been promoted from the Championship under Nigel Adkins.

Davis became a firm favourite for Adkins, then Mauricio Pochettino and is now a mainstay for current boss Ronald Koeman, having played 11 times already this term.

The Northern Irishman has remained a loyal servant over that period while other players have come and gone.

“It has really (flown by), I couldn’t have wished it to go much better to be honest,” Davis said. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at the club.

“It’s an ambitious club and we’ve had a decent bit of success up until this point but I think this year the ambition this year is to match our league position from last season and pick up some silverware in one of the cups.”

In the summer of 2014, Davis was unsettled by the exit of first-team players Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Rickie Lambert, Luke Shaw and Calum Chambers.

“Last summer was the big one where everybody felt it,” he said. “You’d be lying if you said you didn’t (feel unsettled).

“It was a big period for the club but I think the club have got the recruitment right, in terms of the manager and also the players that they brought in to replace some big losses that we had.

“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind my time here, with the number of players that have changed over that time.

“But, as I say, I couldn’t have asked for things to go much better.”

Despite the ups and downs, Davis is proud of Saints’ ambitiousness.

“We’ve really seen the progression each year,” he said.

“The standards are getting higher, the demands are getting higher the ambitions are getting higher, so far we’ve managed to get consistently better and hopefully we can do that again this year.”

Davis is now on his third manager at Saints and is enjoying working with Koeman.

“He’s been great since he came,” he said about the Dutchman. “All the players would tell you that.

“He’s very level-headed, he doesn’t get too up or down and I think that’s a good approach to have because you know in football things start changing quite quickly.

“One week to the next it can be a different mentality but the manager’s very levelled headed and has been great since he came in.”