Romeu not afraid of any Southampton departures

Southampton fans may have developed a sense of resignation when the transfer window rolls around, but midfielder Oriol Romeu admits the players must also be prepared for departures this summer.

The Saints have lost the likes of Adam Lallana, Sadio Mane, Morgan Schneiderlin, Dejan Lovren, and Victor Wanyama in recent seasons – seeing their talented pool of players gutted time and time again, albeit for vast sums of money.

Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Bertrand, and Dusan Tadic have all been linked with moves away from St Mary’s this summer, with the former in particular highly likely to be moving to a top-four club for a £50million sum.

And Romeu, whose former clubs include Barcelona and English champions Chelsea, believes his teammates should brace themselves for the worst.

“As a footballer I need to accept that players move on,” he said.

“But if that’s what happens we will try to settle down and get better, but also we need to accept that it’s part of football.

“We believe we’ll be a strong side next year and we’re going to have a strong team to keep fighting for those places at the top of the table and give something surprising.”