For all of the incredible facilities that have been built at Saints’ revamped Staplewood training ground, there is one thing Les Reed would still like to see constructed – a trophy cabinet.

“The aspiration is to be there at the top and compete with the best,” said the executive director, who heads up the club’s football operation.

“That’s what we want the players to buy into when they sign here at nine years of age.

“Not to go to perhaps a bigger club or a more successful club and go on loan into League One.

“We want them to believe they can come from there up to here [he points towards the academy pitches at the training ground and then to the first-team area] and then the next addition will be down in reception with the trophy cabinet.”

At £33m already, and with another £6m earmarked on additional facilities, the Staplewood project has represented an enormous investment.

Reed firmly believes, however, it is a smart one.

“I think it’s definitely the best kind of investment,” he said.

“One player has a shelf life. What happens when he goes? You have to buy another player.

“You’re continually spending that kind of money and turning it over on importing players, where the investment here could be for the next 50 years.

“Instead of buying one player, we produce five.”

Reed added: “I’ve never understood a lot of youth developers and academies say ‘If you get one player in the first team, that’s worth it, that’s success.’ “I’ve always argued you have really got to aim for five or six players to be successful in what you invest in your academy.”

Reed recalls the first-ever conversation he had with Markus Liebherr, when the late owner set out such a vision for the club.

“He wanted a team that played at the top level, that was successful and won matches, but one the fans would be proud to come and spend their money and watch every Saturday,” he said.

“I was asked ‘Can that be done?’ “That was the vision.

“I’ve always felt fans love home-grown players.

“They want good football, they want you to win, but the icing on the cake is when there are three or four players who they say ‘He is one of our own’ and they love that.

“So that all kind of blended together in a philosophy to develop an academy which was going to achieve that.”

To make it all work, though, Saints require a manager who is going to buy into their philosophy.

It is no coincidence, therefore, that their most recent appointments have been Nigel Adkins, Mauricio Pochettino and, now, Ronald Koeman.

“It’s clear we are looking for a coach who buys into that philosophy,” said Reed.

“We are not looking for a coach who is going to change everything we do. That way you have turmoil.

“It wasn’t a coincidence. It wasn’t a toss of a coin, ‘We’ll go for Koeman, oh, we’ve hit the jackpot’.

“It was a profiling process.

“What coaches are out there who have the track record that says they’ve been successful at developing young, dynamic teams and successful in playing a style which we could call the Southampton style?

“And who’s out there who can build on what Mauricio brought and then take it to another level?”

As well as developing talent, Reed believes the new training facilities will also make it easier to attract players into the club in the first place.

“Certainly with this building – and when the rest is completed – it will be a very impressive place to bring prospective players in,” he said.

“Even in the summer, with Dusan (Tadic) and Graziano (Pelle), to bring them there and show them what we had then was a big plus point.

“It makes players of that quality think that this is serious and I want to come to work here every day.”

So far, they have certainly responded to it, and Reed believes the team’s position of second in the table is well warranted right now.

“On our performances, on the way we’ve handled the rebuilding of the squad, on the way we’ve appointed the manager, on the way we’ve played, it’s deserved,” he said.

“We’ve got to get through December and January with some tough games, so we’ll see.

“My gut feeling is that we will maintain a position at the top end of the Premier League.

“Whether that’s eighth – where we finished last year – or first, I don’t know.”

So, does Reed take extra satisfaction from how Saints have done, given the number of people who left in the summer for supposedly greener pastures?

“What’s satisfying is that what we call the Southampton Way worked,” he said.

“Keep your focus, don’t panic, you know you’ve got systems and processes in place.

“No knee-jerk reaction here. Stick to it, see it through.

“Whether the guys who’ve gone look back and go ‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have left’, it doesn’t really bother us.

“For every problem, there’s a solution. Find the solution, move on. Don’t worry what’s left in your wake.

“It’s always next week, next year, the years to come. That’s what has seen us through the period in the summer.”

As for what’s ahead, it was put to Reed that five Saints academy graduates were involved in the Champions League this week.

Is the ambition in the future, therefore, to make sure players don’t need to leave St Mary’s to reach that level?

“Absolutely,” said Reed. “There’s been a lot of talk in the past about ‘We’ll win the Champions League.’ “It’s not about that, it’s about aspiration.

“There’s no point investing all this with an aspiration to survive. You’ve got to have an aspiration to be successful.

“We don’t know when it will be. If there’s a fair wind and we achieve it quickly, we’ll take that.

“If it takes a bit longer, at least we know we have all the right things in the right place to achieve it.”