One of the standout achievements to come from an encouraging set of Saints accounts is the growth in the club’s commercial revenue.

Chief executive officer Gareth Rogers does not subscribe to the commonly held belief that because broadcasting revenue is so high in the Premier League that the club simply shouldn’t bother too much about their commercial growth. Instead, he has targeted it as a priority.

The period up to June 2016 – before deals with the likes of Under Armour and Virgin Media even kicked in - showed a 21 per cent rise in commercial revenue to £12.2m.

“We were in a position where the commercial revenue if you take out ticketing etc was almost non-existent,” insisted Rogers. “Yes, there were partners and things but we had to get out and seek partners and put them in place, the likes of Virgin, Under Armour and Garmin.

“They have been a real credit to the business and been great to attract.

“The majority of the Premier League has the likes of beer brands, betting brands, payday loans etc. We don’t want to be the type of business where that is sitting on our shirts.

“This is only the start of the journey.

“You can talk about the Premier League being global but we have to stay true to who we are to go global.

“We are not going to be a club that just goes round the world creating revenue while forgetting where we came from and what we achieved. The charm and the selling point of the club is who we are, the academy, potential into excellence.

“That is what people want to hear and that’s what’s different to other clubs.”

He added: “Is it right for us to always rely on broadcasting income? We have to rely on that significantly but we don’t want that to be our sole source of income. We want to supplement that to become more competitive.

“Something levelled at many football clubs is that you have the broadcasting income and so you don’t need to worry about commercial income as it is so small.

“Well actually everybody has the broadcasting income and the difference between the top and the bottom is not that great in the spread in the Premier League.

“Therefore, your competitive advantage comes from being able to have greater commercial income.”