Ronald Koeman is far more relaxed about the departure of Paul Mitchell than the outside world seem to be. Indeed, the Saints manager believes it is a sign of the club’s strength that Tottenham are looking to poach staff rather than players from St Mary’s.

Mitchell, the club’s head of recruitment for the last three years, has handed in his notice and is expected to join up with Mauricio Pochettino at White Hart Lane, with the story having received an unexpected blaze of publicity.

Koeman does rate Mitchell highly, but believes the move merely shows how right the club are getting things behind the scenes.

“What Southampton is doing the last four or five years is working from a very good structure in the club with a strong academy, with good young players, with a technical director, Les Reed, in the club for the long term,” said Koeman.

“That’s one of the qualities of the club because it’s seriously a good structure and it’s a pleasure to work in that.

“It’s a compliment for us that for example Tottenham is not trying to buy football players but trying to buy scouting people.

“That’s a compliment for us because that means maybe we have a better structure than they have.”

Speaking of Mitchell he added: “We like to keep everybody in the club because Mitch did a great job in the club but we understand on one side his decision because it’s football, it’s always changing people in the club.

“Southampton is not depending on one person and we will bring in a good one to continue with our philosophy and good luck to Paul in Tottenham.

“He was important in that (last summer when Saints signed the likes of Graziano Pelle and Dusan Tadic) because they had already a good scouting list and we had to change a lot in our team.

“We had good contact about that with Les Reed, Paul Mitchell and myself and we took the decision to buy the players we bought this season.

“It was successful because we work together.

“When I heard about the rumours because it’s a difficult time now until the transfer deadline in January but the final decision is of the board of the club.

“They agree with Paul Mitchell about leaving the club, but what I said before, Southampton is not depending on one person.”

With or without Mitchell, there is inevitably talk starting to take place around the corridors of St Mary’s about the January transfer window.

Saints are not expected to be particularly active, and Koeman admits if they do dip into the transfer market it will be a late decision based on a number of factors.

He explained: “It doesn’t depend on winning or losing of the next month, it depends on the players that we have and we know that (Sadio) Mane has to play Africa Cup, Maya Yoshida will play Asia Cup.

“We don’t need a lot of players because I am happy about the players that we have.

“Maybe it depends on injuries that you need somebody to bring in but it’s too early to make conclusions about that.”

Saints are the talk of the footballing world right now after their amazing start to the season.

Regardless of what happens elsewhere over the weekend or in their Monday night fixture away to Aston Villa, Saints will still be second in the Premier League table when they welcome Manchester City to St Mary’s next weekend.

It’s been an incredible journey from a summer that started with such turmoil to see a side now playing attractive and winning football having gelled together so quickly.

“In my opinion that has to be my job,” said Koeman, whose appointment was a key moment.

“In the beginning it was difficult with all the changes but the most important is to have a good spirit in the team.

“You can talk about practical things, about the way of playing, but the most important is the squad and they showed from the beginning a great ambition to be successful.

“Important was the first game, Liverpool away, because maybe some people were a little bit afraid about the situation of Southampton.

“We played well, didn’t have the result, but we are playing good football and that is very enjoyable for the players.

“The training sessions are a little bit different from the past but that is normal with a new coach and new ideas.

“We are winning games and the most important is the players know we have to go game to game.

“It is still the beginning of the season. We have 11 games and 25 points, last season they had 22 points from 11 games and that was also a very good start to the season.

“They had five points in the last nine games and that is a big difference.

“I spoke about that (on Friday) because it was the first time we had everybody in for the sessions and we know about a tough programme until the beginning of January but that is for everybody and we have a little more time because we play on Monday.”

Saints are certainly grabbing headlines for how well they are being run away from the pitch these days as well as their exploits on it.

It’s something that Koeman has very much bought into.

“We are growing as a club and we are doing well and the people are enjoying watching Southampton and that’s an important thing because that’s one of the philosophies of the club – to play attractive, good attacking football and that brings points and winning games and that’s the best way to play football,” he said.

“But still we have played 11 games and now we can show until January but we like to show until the end of the season that we have a strong team and it’s difficult to beat Southampton.

“I’m sure it’s difficult to beat us and that’s the challenge for the rest of the teams.”

Saints have certainly not been harmed by their great start which has added belief and confidence to the fans as well as the newly assembled squad.

“It’s always more easier to continue when the start of the season is good, is positive, because the belief that the players have is important to win games,” reflected Koeman.

“In my opinion the most important is that we keep the way of playing away or at home, against Liverpool or Man City, it has to be the same.

“That brings qualities and we work on the pitch every day.

“We don’t play European cup football and we have enough training sessions to develop individual players and the whole team.”

Saints’ progress domestically has also been recognised on a global level with another 15 international call-ups over the last break, and debuts for their countries for Jose Fonte and Nathaniel Clyne.

Indeed, if Steven Davis and Morgan Schneiderlin recover from injuries in time to face Villa on Monday, Saints could field an entire team of senior international footballers.

“A good opportunity,” smiled Koeman.

“I don’t think about those things because that’s not important in my opinion.

“I choose the best team for Aston Villa and not the best international.

“We have our way of playing and we analyse our opponent like always and then we make what’s in our opinion the best team to start and not those kind of things.

“Everybody is coming back and in all the international calls nobody was disappointed.

“We are very proud Jose made his debut for Portugal, Clyney had a great performance in both games for England and that gives more confidence to the player and to play good football you need confidence.”

And Saints are certainly not a club short of confidence these days.