FORMER Saints chairman Rupert Lowe has revealed he feels “very privileged” to have helpd kickstart the careers of so many internationals.

Lowe, who was chairman of Saints between 1997-2006 and 2008-2009, was a big supporter of the club’s academy.

During his first spell, Saints brought the likes of Adam Lallana, Gareth Bale and Theo Walcott to the club.

The academy has since continued to pump out players such as England internationals Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Luke Shaw and Calum Chambers – though some of those players have had to leave Saints before playing for the senior England side.

Lowe said: “They’re all products of the Academy that I implemented while running Southampton.

“Along with the new stadium, St Mary’s which we also built, it has transformed the club.

“It was a great team effort. We had Malcolm Elias who we basically told to go out and find quality young players and he covered a lot of miles going around our region unearthing players like Adam.

“On the coaching side we had Huw Jennings, who, like Malcolm, is now at Fulham, and Georges Prost from France who was great with young players.”

Lallana, who was drafted in from Bournemouth as a 12-year-old in 2000, was sold to Liverpool last summer for around £25m.

Lowe, speaking to the Liverpool Echo in a rare interview, does not believe Brendan Rodgers paid over the odds to sign Lallana.

He said: “Yes it’s a vast amount of money but that’s all part of football now.

“Relative to some of the fees being paid for other players I think the purchase of Adam represents good value.

“Some of the other fees are ridiculous but Liverpool have got a very gifted player.

“Adam sees a pass and is fantastic on the ball. He’s a very decent boy.”

Lowe added: “Like all the players produced by the Southampton Academy, he has intelligence and athleticism.

“He’s a great player. It’s taken some people a long time to realise that, but from the moment he and Morgan Schneiderlin were paired together in Southampton’s first team you could see how effective they were.

“Everyone who was involved in setting up the Academy at Southampton feels very privileged to played their part in helping to develop so many talented young players into the English game.

“It would have been nice to have been able to have finished our project. I had big plans for Clive Woodwood but unfortunately I was kicked off the board at Southampton.

“Players like Adam remain our legacy, though.”