Every word Southampton's Martin said on Ward-Prowse, Lavia and more

James Ward-Prowse leaving – difficult one to swallow?

It’s a difficult one for Prowsey as well, I think. Having only worked with him for six weeks, I’ve been immensely impressed with him as a person and a character – as a player goes without saying.

We had a really good chat on Wednesday, he’s really emotional about leaving this club and it shows he cares and how difficult it will be for him if it all goes through.

I would have liked it to end in a different way than the club being in the Championship. He has obviously been torn between wanting to be here to help get the club back to the Premier League.”

However, he also has real personal ambition and wants to force himself into the England squad and break some records in the Premier League.

I think he leaves here with an incredible legacy inside the club, in terms of the relationships he has with people. The most important legacy is how people feel about you.

He has been here since he was eight years old and I don’t think one person has a bad word to say about him, so we will miss him on and off the pitch.

We have other guys who need to step up now and take the mantle, and we need to find the next one – he’s a brilliant example for the lads in the academy.

The situation is what it is and we hope to have someone else come the other way as part of the deal. He goes with nothing but praise from us and from everyone.

It’s a big change and a big moment for the club but it’s one we have to make sure doesn’t affect what we set out to do, and I know he will be supporting from afar.

Everyone has to get past his exit and focus on the Norwich game?

Yeah, I think so. There will be more changes in the next three weeks, I’ve got no doubt about that with the transfer window.

We have been open and honest with everyone since we’ve been here and I don’t expect that to change. We need to be adaptable too.

It’s been an interesting week but that’s football. We had the high of Friday and the frustration of Tuesday before Prowsey leaving.

We will see where that goes and where that ends up but the lads have trained brilliant, I’ve been really impressed on Wednesday and today. It’s been nice.

We have to try and build some momentum. Tuesday is what it is, I haven’t lost any sleep over that. It was frustrating and I was annoyed on the night.

We analysed and reviewed it like we would any game and we made it really clear to the players what the problem was.

Tomorrow, we are at home against a team who will fancy themselves to be up there and amongst it – the supporters will definitely expect that.

It’s a really exciting day for us to have our first home game at St Mary’s with a huge crowd, which is great. The guys need to show what they did last Friday and what they’ve shown us all pre-season.

Lots of added time, what do you think of it?

There’s a balance to be had, isn’t there. It’s been frustrating in the last few years with teams time wasting and you want to see that punished or made up for.

It’s going to put a big load on the players. I’ve seen some of the stuff put out through the PFA this week from some players and I tend to agree with them. It’s a very hectic schedule anyway.

We have to be aware of that as well in terms of training and how long we train for. They’ve gone all out with it now and I’m sure there will be a balance.

The ball in play stuff will help us – having more of the ball in the Championship is really exciting for supporters and it helps the teams looking to dominate, so we need to make sure it helps us.

They needed to do something. In some games the ball was in play for 45 minutes of the 90 and that is a problem.

You spent a long time at Norwich City, what do you expect from them?

They will be very different to how they were at the end of last season. They are hungry to right a few wrong of last season and they’ve got some new players to help them.

They can do both sides of the game very well in terms of in possession and out of possession. It will be a really tough game but it’s a brilliant challenge for us.

Our challenge is to beat every team we play and it just happens to be against Norwich tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it, it’s a great club and I love my time there.

That chapter, however, is closed – and I really want to win tomorrow as I did when we went there in the spring.

Who is competing to replace James Ward-Prowse in the XI?

We have some good options in there, although not everyone is fully fit.

Stuart Armstrong has looked really good in the games he has come on, Shea Charles after 90 minutes is in a good place as Will Smallbone can play higher up the pitch.

We have some options. Joe Aribo is coming back to full fitness and we can drop Adam Armstrong back there, which we did a lot in pre-season. We have some flexibility.

Whoever we put there tomorrow will know the role and can deliver a good performance. Of course, we would have loved Prowsey to play but it’s not going to be and we are comfortable with that.

How is Romeo Lavia amid this transfer saga?

It’s not easy but he trained really well today. He’s not had enough minutes in pre-season.

I don’t think I’d ask him to start a game after the minutes he has had and everything that is going on. In these situations, you think back to yourself as a 19 year old.

How would you cope with that? He’s been great, some days much better than others but there has been so much noise and he is a really top lad and really top player.

The Romeo situation has been really fluid throughout and other things may happen in the market that influence the situation, we have no control over that.

Romeo is getting fitter and fitter and trained really well, whether he will be in the squad or not I just don’t know and I can’t give you an answer.

How much has your starting XI changed this week?

The Prowsey one has been the only real one we’ve had to contend with so I hope it doesn’t change again over night.

We’re really clear on the gameplan, what it needs or what we think it needs and what we need to improve on from both Friday and definitely Tuesday.

Player in from West Ham – will that be a loan?

I think it will be a loan, I think there might be some things in there that maybe address that side of it.

Is there any further incomings or outgoings expected shortly?

I don’t think there is anything else close. Jason keeps me on top of everything but I don’t think there is anything that close that will affect the squad or the group at the moment.

Fortunately we have no midweek games so that won’t affect anything and the market is starting to get moving now, isn’t it?

We’re still doing two sessions a day at the moment and that was why I was a bit late today as I was doing a session with the guys who are not in the squad, albeit not a big group.

It needs to happen and I am sure it will over the next few days and certainly in the next week.

Do the fees received for the likes of Ward-Prowse, Lavia and Livramento allow you to tell some in-demand players they must stay?

I hope so but I also hope that players are enjoying themselves and not in such a rush to leave. That’s all I can control, the rest is not in my control.

All I can control is the work we do, how they feel about us and how they feel about their work and their performance when they step over the white line – so that they’re in less of a rush to leave.

The club has recruited really positively in certain aspects, the assets they create, how well they’ve done and the financial value they create.

They need to be helped with people that have been here and been in the division or above and know what it takes for sure this season. They’re the ones we need to keep hold of.

What it does do is put way less pressure on everyone to sell and the club, the ownership group, Jason (Wilcox) have been so strong on the valuations they want to get from everyone. It’s really helped.

How do you replace Ward-Prowse the person and leader even more than the footballer?

I told the guys Jack will be the club captain now. They applauded him, they’re happy for him and Prowsey would tell me that’s the right choice as well, I asked him and he agreed, so yeah, it was a nice meeting to draw the line.

I think Prowsey has been a brilliant example for everyone and now it’s Jack’s turn to lead, which he does anyway, he’s a real leader, and now it’s his turn.

The reason he is a leader and the reason we chose him is because he has the two most important things you could ever have as a leader, that’s authenticity - he’s really himself in all situations - and he has courage, he’s really brave.

And for me if I was following anyone, I’d want them to have those two things and he’s got both of them.

Any updates on Armel Bella-Kotchap and Kamaldeen Sulemana?

Armel has trained all week fully and is in a good place but he has missed training today due to illness, there is a bit of a bug going around.

He still needs a week or two to be in consideration for any minutes as he hasn’t played at all. We will look to arrange a game for him or put him into an under-21s game for some minutes very soon.

With regards to his situation, there is no news on that – it is what it is. I know there is interest in him but we don’t know how concrete that is and it hasn’t been formalised.

Kamaldeen had a muscle injury and that is hard. He’s been away for the last few days getting some specialist treatment as it’s been a busy physio room and I’ve had to prioritise performance.

It was agreed he would go and do that and he’s happy with that, he will come back with renewed energy and vigour at some point next week – but his situation is also still the same.

He is our player and we want him as fit as we possibly can to try and help us on the pitch. In the meantime, it is what it is.

Would you like some the young lads in your EFL Cup team – Dibling, Ballard, Meghoma and Doyle – to play under-21s and be an option for you or get EFL loans?

Whenever you’re sending someone on loan, it needs to be of value – the business model here is not sending loads of players to get money back in like it is at some clubs.

Here it is about the fastest way to get them into the first team or to be considered first team players. They have shown themselves in a really good light in pre-season and we really like all of them.

They are at different stages of their development but I think they need to be here to learn our style of play and a new way of doing things. There will be some new under-21s coaches very soon.

Then it is to train with us and be around us as much as possible really. Would it benefit Jayden to send him to League Two, because being a defender is very different to being an attacking player.

Tyler could probably go and be an impact sub somewhere and put himself in the team but there is also no guarantees of that. Everyone is different and we will take each situation as it comes.

At the minute, there isn’t a drive to try and get these players out or anything. I think it will be really important for the next few months to be part of the development.

That is unless a club comes up where they are going to play the same way as us and a lot of minutes, somewhere we can keep a close eye on them and maybe somewhere we have a connection with – we will just have to see.

The plan is for them to be here to be with us as much as they possible can and put themselves in the best place for when January rolls around and then either here or maybe somewhere else.