One might expect Southampton to find themselves more closely watched in the transfer market by competitors but generally speaking the club believe they are able to go about their business as discreetly and unencumbered by rivals as they always have.

Their investment has been inward, in bigger contracts for established player, better sports science facilities, in academy signings and infrastructure and a general policy of making the club more robust every season. Beating sixth place next season will take some doing but then the same was said about their eighth place finish in 2014, and seventh place a year later.

One thing is certain, should Southampton drop a couple of places next season, or decide to adopt some best practice from an enlightened competitor elsewhere, then they will make the necessary adjustments without any panic that the slide is terminal. That, after all, is what well-run clubs do.

England's golden generation is over, but will we come to miss them?

Farewell at last to the England “golden generation” that timeless Adam Crozier soundbite to describe a talented bunch of players who, it turned out, never won an international trophy and always rather resented the then-Football Association chief executive for burdening them with the term. For nine tournaments, starting with Euro 1996, there was more than one member of the 16 players I would class as comprising the golden generation in every England squad.