RALPH Hasenhuttl has admitted that he does not think Saints will ever scrap their academy system in a similar style to Brentford, following the arrival of Rasmus Ankersen’s Sport Republic.
In 2016, Bees came to the conclusion that they could not compete with the plethora of huge clubs in London and shut down their academy system right the way up – leaving only a B team, similar in style to Saints B, standing.
The decision came after numbers of their best talents, whom they had spent years and money developing, were continuously poached for a pittance by the much bigger local academies.
Although it faced immediate backlash with tens/hundreds of kids – who had been promised the footballer’s dream – being told they no longer had a future with Bees, supporters then realised it was an astute decision.
The B team only really needed one success a year to financially sustain that vastly reduced pool of young players and produce a profit.
Sport Republic co-founder Ankersen had arrived at Brentford as a co-director of football almost exactly a year before the decision to get rid of the academy was put into action.
And with Ankersen’s new involvement with Saints at an owner level, Hasenhuttl was faced with the question of whether the St Mary’s club could do the same thing.
He responded: “No, I don't think this is possible.
“We are more than just a role model as a Premier League club, we are a club for the region and for the young people here.
“If you want to get a relationship for this club you have to start when you're very young and for it to be a target in your life. I think for the kids growing up in the region that is very important.”
He speculated: “There is still a target for kids to one day be in the first team. What I think could happen is that the under-23s comes under question.
“As you see, the guys who really make it to the highest level make their debuts at 16 or 17, not a lot do it at 22 or 23.
“In Germany, it is becoming more that the Under-23s are gone and the under-18s or under-19s are the last youth team. Until then, I think it should stay the same for us.
“We need not deliver players to the first team all the time but to get that relationship for the club.”
What Bees now do is give released academy players, or scouted players from abroad using data-driven metrics, and give them a new lease of life – aged 17 and above, in the B team – again, already so similar to Saints' current model.
But there is a critical difference between the situation of Saints and Brentford.
Although you may point at Saints’ academy and say they have not really produced too many big names in the last half-decade or so, they do not face the same existential issue that made Bees’ unsustainable.
The catchment area in which Saints compete with is less population dense but geographically larger and faces fewer threats from other clubs – Saints are the premium club on the South Coast and do not have a Chelsea or a Fulham right on their doorstep ready to take advantage of years of hard work and development, hoovering up younger talent, under the age of 18.
However, it does not mean that the model is without threat. Max Alleyne was signed from Saints by Manchester City for a seven-figure fee at just 15-years-old.
That threat will always be present for a club unable to compete with the pulling power of the behemoths.
Hasenhuttl explained: “I am maybe the wrong guy to speak to, I think Matt Crocker can give you move information about the future of the academy but what you can see is that it is getting harder and harder to get good players into the academy.
“The good talents are getting picked earlier and earlier, so it is hard for us at Southampton to get the very best young players.
“This is why we changed our way a little bit and now we get them when they are coming out of academies. This is a bigger opportunity for the future and this will cost a little bit more money, it will not be about a few hundred thousand points, it's more like millions.
“It's still a good deal for us because we can develop players to a good Premier League level and generate value. This does not make it easier for the guys in the academy to step up into our first team but it is still possible, we saw with Nathan Tella.
“He came through and got into the Premier League, and Will Smallbone. We will always try to focus on our own youth players.
“There have been a lot since I have been here, not a lot who have become consistent Premier League players but the way is always a very good-looking one. We'll try to follow it.”
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