Ronald Koeman is confident of completing up to three new signings within the next week.

The Saints boss handed a debut to Ryan Bertrand as his side completed a fifth win from five pre-season games with a 3-1 victory over Brighton at the Amex Stadium.

But that is only the start of what looks like a host of exciting news for Saints fans.

“We are close to signing two or three new players and we hope to bring them in in the next week,” said Koeman.

“We show our ambition.

“Of course we lost some good players but that’s part of the life and part of the good season Southampton had last season.

“Still we are with the same ambition as before.”

There was no place in the squad for Morgan Schneiderlin, though Koeman insisted that was already planned due to the Frenchman coming back late for pre-season due to his extended World Cup trip.

Koeman has spoken to Schneiderlin since the midfielder took to Twitter to complain after Saints told him he would not get his wish to be sold this summer.

Chairman Ralph Krueger also categorically said publically that both Schneiderlin and Jay Rodriguez would not be sold this summer, and Koeman said: “That was a very clear message of the board of the club.

“That was a good signal to everybody and I am happy about that.”

Of his discussions with Schneiderlin he added: “The conversations are between us and not to the media because we like to keep those sort of things inside.

“He was not in a good shape to play because he has been training only for five or six days and normally he will play next week against Leverkusen at home.

“About his situation, we wait.

“He is a player of Southampton and I hope he will continue as a player of Southampton.”

Koeman refused to be utterly unequivocal on anything to do with transfers with plenty of time still left before the window closes, and clearly expects further movement in the squad, possibly in and out.

“There are a lot of rumours and we will wait,” he said.

“It is still not the deadline and we will see.

“Normally there will come some more changes not only in Southampton but maybe the rest of the teams as well and that is normal but we prepare ourselves for the start in two weeks and I think we are in a good way to do that.”