He may have questioned it at one point, but Saints midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin says he has no doubts about the club’s ambition now.

Schneiderlin finished off a sublime team goal to cap Saturday’s 4-0 demolition of Newcastle, a result that moved Ronald Koeman’s men into the top four in the early standings.

The France international admitted that, like many people, he had experienced serious doubts about where the club was heading when they were selling some of their top players in the summer.

It is no secret that Schneiderlin subsequently told the board he wanted to leave as well, and his outburst on Twitter after they informed him he would not be sold has been well-publicised.

But the 24-year-old quickly settled down and he says the club have since proved to him – and to everyone else – that they still retain lofty ambitions.

“It’s like I said before, for me, I never wanted to disrespect anyone and it’s just sometimes in life that you need to make choices,” said Schneiderlin, who thanked fans for their “fantastic” reception at the weekend.

“I think everyone – you, the fans, everyone – was a bit worried when we lose so many players at the start and, of course, you ask yourself the question.

“I had a big step in the World Cup, so I didn’t want to struggle in this year.

“But the club showed by buying players that they still have ambitions and that’s just what I was asking for.

“The fans, they’re very good with me for six years, for seven years now, and I’m very happy and I just want to give them back something.”

After the departures of Rickie Lambert, Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Calum Chambers, words such as “meltdown” and “crisis” were applied by some to the club.

Yet Saints’ results and performances at the start of the season have suggested this could be a team that challenges high up the table again.

Schneiderlin, who says there is still more to come, credits the club’s recruitment process for putting them in a strong position.

“There are some little aspects we have to improve, and we can improve,” he said.

“With some movements by playing games and by doing training we’re going to find each other even better.

“But you can see that the club don’t buy players randomly.

“They are buying good personalities and good people who want to work very hard in the training ground, and you can say that, every player who comes in, they integrate with the philosophy of the club very well, with a lot of hard working and they are very nice off the pitch.

“Not just as a player, but as people, and that’s very important to have a good mix.

“They have a very good scouting department I think, and they took some very good players and players who will integrate into the philosophy of the club.”

Schneiderlin added: “Losing players like Luke Shaw, like Rickie Lambert, like Adam Lallana (pictured left), like Dejan Lovren, it’s something that’s very hard to replace and after four games we are happy.

“But we need to make a judgement at the end of the season, or in six months.

“We have to stay with our feet on the ground, keep working and then doing our best, but it’s at the end of the year that everyone’s going to judge us.”