Mauricio Pochettino has said Southampton will not need to spend in January in order to maintain their push for European football next season because of the number of young players striving to break into his first team.

Southampton, whose youth system has been praised extensively, could go top of the Premier League if they win at Arsenal tomorrow and Liverpool do not pick up the points at Everton, yet there is a danger that the relative lack of depth could see them fall away as the season progresses.

Although Southampton are above Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham, they do not appear to have the resources to maintain that. Pochettino, however, shrugged of those concerns, saying that he will simply promote youngsters into the first team.

Pushing hard
"We don't see that as a problem," the Argentinian said. "We have a lot of young players coming from the academy that are pushing really hard. They are making a case for being in the senior team. Players like Sam Gallagher and Harry Reid – very exciting players. We have a lot of young players that guarantee us a very good future in the immediate future. We are covered."

Saints had three men in the last England squad and two with the Under-21s, and Pochettino has not hesitated to give young players a chance. Luke Shaw and James Ward-Prowse, 18 and 19 respectively, are regular starters while Calum Chambers, an 18-year-old right-back, started the first three games of the season.

Pochettino added that his faith in youth is partly what persuaded Southampton’s chairman, Nicola Cortese, to appoint him last January. “It all comes down to individual decisions,” Pochettino said.

"Most of the time it is much easier to sign a player who is the finished product, probably from abroad, instead of using younger players and giving them confidence, time and the possibility of coming through the ranks and to be part of the senior side.

Good project
"It is understandable because managers depend on results of every single game. What's been the case here in Southampton is that two good things have come together – the fact that there's been a very good project in place for a long time, in the sense that we always push players through the academy, and a manager that fully believes in young players.

“In that sense Nicola found what he was looking for when he appointed me as manager because of the work I was doing at Espanyol.

“I had a similar kind of philosophy, where I was fully focused on young players, and that has been transferred to Southampton.

"People here didn't know me but Nicola did, he was aware of my work for five years at Espanyol."
Guardian Service