Saints have lost a lot this year.

First, they lost a chairman.

A short while later, they lost a manager.

After that, they lost a star player.

Then they lost another one, and another, and another, and another.

Yet, despite all of that, one thing they haven’t lost is many games.

So, you can understand why the impending departure of their head of recruitment is hardly likely to cause a panic at St Mary’s.

That is not to do Tottenham-bound Paul Mitchell down in any way.

The 33-year-old, whom the Daily Echo yesterday morning revealed has handed his notice in, ahead of an expected move to White Hart Lane, plays a significant role at Saints and does so extremely well.

He and his team of analysts and scouts were a crucial part of what, against all apparent odds, turned out to be a tremendous summer transfer window for the club.

When you consider how paramount good recruitment has become, and how detailed it needs to be, it is little surprise that there is interest in Mitchell, and his methods, from elsewhere.

Saints certainly didn’t want to lose him, but there is a reason why, behind the scenes, the club are relaxed about the situation.

It is because, while Mitchell may be leaving, the system he oversees remains in place.

Although it makes for a better story to single him out as Saints’ “transfer guru” or “super scout”, the reality is that the club’s success this summer was also down to the work of a whole team of people in his department, as well as executive director Les Reed and manager Ronald Koeman, not one all-seeing person.

When the revamped Staplewood training ground was unveiled earlier this month, Mitchell refused to take credit for the impressive rebuilding job in the playing squad, instead pointing at his team of staff busily working away on their computers in the state-of-the-art recruitment and analysis unit and saying it should be directed towards them.

It was, of course, a modest statement, because Mitchell is clearly a talented person who was a very influential figure in the process, and he will surely now be an asset to Tottenham.

But his point was valid – that he was only one cog in a bigger machine.

That is entirely by design. There has been a concerted effort at St Mary’s in recent years to ensure that the club do not rely too much on the knowledge or ability of individual people, but instead on the systems they operate within.

It is a philosophy that was designed with exactly this sort of scenario in mind, so that when they do lose a skilled member of staff they are not thrown into turmoil.

Instead, they simply carry on as before and look to find another accomplished individual to slot into the existing structure.

They did it this year in the boardroom, in the dugout, and in the playing squad.

So there is absolutely no reason to believe that they can’t do it in their recruitment department as well.