MANCHESTER City manager Pep Guardiola claimed under-21s is “light competition” for Saints’ summer signings, confirming the champions retain buy-back clauses on all of them.
Saints, with new head of recruitment Joe Shields coming from City’s academy setup himself this summer, made four of their 10 acquisitions from the Etihad Stadium.
None of them had played a Premier League game before coming to St Mary’s, despite costing just under £40million between them.
So far, Gavin Bazunu and Romeo Lavia have already impressed, while deadline day additions Samuel Edozie made a substitute debut and Juan Larios awaits his.
As had already been reported, Guardiola confirmed City retain a buy-back clause on all of the youngsters – aged between 20 and 18.
“We have a buy-back on all of them so just in case they explode we have a chance to get them back,” the former Barcelona icon said.
“All of them are fantastic players.They could stay one to two years. The EDS (Elite Development Squad) competition is so light, it’s not real competition."
He added: “They want Premier League, so after agreement with the clubs we have a buyback on all of them so just in case they explode we have a chance to get them back.”
It is thought the buy-back clauses will be for a significant sum up to as much as 400 per cent of what Saints paid in the initial transfer fees.
Lavia is currently injured until October, but the other three are all likely to feature in Saints’ matchday squad for the trip to Aston Villa on Friday – should the Premier League go ahead.
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