KYLE Walker-Peters insisted he had no plans to force a move away from Saints this summer despite being aware there was "lots of interest" in him.

Southampton fans were pleasantly surprised that the 26 year old remained at St Mary's beyond the transfer deadline amidst a summer of change at the club.

Fellow key players like James Ward-Prowse and Romeo Lavia departed the club in big-money moves back to the Premier League, while Nathan Tella joined the Bundesliga.

Speaking to the Daily Echo, two-time England international Walker-Peters said: “Of course, I was aware that there was a lot of interest.

"I'm not someone who was going to try and force my way out or have things put in the media. That’s not my style.

"I came in and spoke to the manager on day one and I got to work. I worked as hard as I could to learn the gaffer’s new style.

"I’m really enjoying working with him. My main focus is on Southampton and getting the club back into the Premier League. Hopefully we can do that.

“First and foremost, I love Southampton," the defender continued, when asked if his early conversations with Martin convinced him to stay.

"With the new gaffer coming in, he was excellent with me. He was excellent with everyone actually.

"He has implemented his style really well. I’m enjoying it. The focus for myself and everyone in the dressing room is to try and get back into the Premier League."

Martin's possession-heavy philosophy has seen Walker-Peters adopt a slightly new role.

Daily Echo:

Both he and fellow full-back Ryan Manning have been tasked to play an inverted role, which sees them asked to come inside to help dominate possession and build attacks. 

Having previously trained as a midfielder under previous boss Ralph Hasenhüttl, the Spurs academy graduate admits it's a role he feels he is suited to playing.

“I enjoy it. I did it a lot under previous managers and it’s something that I’m really comfortable doing.

"As a team, we need to keep being brave and continue to trust the process of what the manager wants from us.

"If we do that we will get back to the form we showed at the start of the season. Luckily we have got another game on Tuesday where we can start to put it right.

“We have got to win (against Ipswich Town). There isn’t much else to it. Two defeats in a row is not great."

Southampton head into their fixture against newly promoted Ipswich following back-to-back 5-0 and 4-1 defeats against Sunderland and Leicester respectively.

The recent losses have taken Saints tally of goals conceded so far this season to 16, a figure which has matched the Championship record for most goals conceded in the first six games of a campaign.

"To go into the game with so much optimism and to concede after 20 seconds is totally unacceptable," a deflated Walker-Peters added when reflecting on the disappointing loss.

"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb. When you concede that early the opposite get a buzz.

"Leicester are here away from home and are expecting it to be a tough game. To score so early takes the weight off their shoulders and gives them a bit of confidence.

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“Like I said, we gave ourselves a bit of a mountain to climb. It was similar against Sunderland.

"If we keep conceding early, we are going to keep losing games. It’s something that we need to eradicate quickly."

Even in defeat, Saints manager Martin was still able to pick out some positives, even if Walker-Peters was less convinced with his side's performance.

“He spoke to us after the game and was quite complimentary about how we played in possession. He thought we continued to be brave and continued to try and play.

"As a player, I’m probably a bit more negative from being on the pitch and feeling like we weren’t really at it.

"It’s always good to hear some words of encouragement from the gaffer. The most important thing is the work we do defensively and he definitely told us we need to sort that out."