Mauricio Pochettino insists Gareth Bale would NOT be sold if he were still a Saints player now.

The Welshman was first spotted as an eight-year-old by the then head of Saints’ satellite academy in bath, Rod Ruddick, and immediately joined the club.

He rose through the ranks and burst into the first team before Tottenham landed him in a Β£7m swoop almost six years ago.

The 23-year-old has become one of the world’s best since moving to north London in 2007 and this week picked up a clean sweep of gongs for the season's standout player.

However, Pochettino is adamant that Bale would not be sold if he were a Saint these days.

β€œWith this current club’s ambition, dedication and vision for the future, it would be very hard for Gareth Bale to leave this club,” said the Argentinian, who last week spoke of his Champions League ambitions.

β€œRight now, our mentality is to keep our best players and we spoke about that with Nicola (Cortese) from the first day. We want to keep our greatest talents but at the same time now we need more time in order to develop our greatest talents as it happened with Bale, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott.

β€œNow we need to be able to keep our greatest players, our greatest talents like Luke Shaw and James Ward-Prowse, in order for them to develop their football and become top footballers.

β€œIt is a shame we don't have these three players available for Southampton now but that is our project for the future.”

Saints face the unenviable task of attempting to shackle Bale at White Hart Lane this afternoon and Pochettino, a former team-mate of Diego Maradona and Gabriel Batistuta, has been impressed by his form.

"He is a very decisive player - an amazing player because of his speed, strength and goalscoring abilities," the Southampton manager said.

"He has shown that throughout the season this year so I rate him very highly.

"Our collective game needs to be very strong tomorrow. We can't just focus on Gareth Bale - there are other players in that team that can raise their game.

"In a collective sense, we need to be very focused and mentally ready as we need to be in every single game that we play in the Premier League.

"We always need to be mentally focused as you never know."

The aforementioned Shaw will be fit to face Tottenham after overcoming a knee complaint - a welcome boost given his replacement at left-back, Danny Fox, starts a three-match ban after last weekend's red card.

Gaston Ramirez was another sent off in a heavy 3-0 defeat to West Brom, which will have no doubt impacted Southampton's fair play ranking.

Saints are in the running for a potential Europa League place via UEFA's Fair Play League but, like Liverpool, have confirmed they would not accept a place in the competition.

"We would not accept it either if we were awarded that possibility," Pochettino, speaking through his interpreter, said.

"We have spoken with the chairman and decided not to take that offer because I think in football what you are awarded in football needs to be earned on the pitch.

"We will only accept possibilities when we've earned them on the pitch and not just by fair play, but actually earning it with points and results."