SAINTS chairman Rupert Lowe has insisted the club does NOT want to sell its star players in the January transfer window.

But Lowe admits the lure of Premiership football, and the top-flight wages that go along with it, is often too much for some to resist.

With Saints currently in need of raising as much revenue as possible, there is the very real prospect players will be sold next month.

Finance director Dave Jones said in the annual accounts last week that more players will have to be sold in 2009 to stave off pressure from the bank and loan note holder.

However, Lowe said the club is keen to keep hold of crown jewels such as Adam Lallana and Andrew Surman.

“We don’t want to sell players, we’d rather keep our squad together, because we’ve always said continuity is the right way to move forward,” he said.

But, according to Lowe, it is the players who ultimately hold the most power.

“While you’re in the Championship, there’s no point in saying that players aren’t going to move, because ultimately they’re the people who decide whether they’re going to go or not,” he explained.

“A club can’t make a player leave, a player makes a decision he’s going to leave.

“If he gets what he considers to be a better offer, and he’s making a career progression and he’s earning more money, then very often it’s them who will decide they are going to go.

“Our job then, as Southampton Football Club, is to get as much money as we can for them, strengthen ourselves and ensure that, with the academy pipeline, we’ve got players who are going to come into the team.

“We’ve always said we only want people here who are totally committed.

“We’ve got that at the moment, we hope to keep the squad together as much as we possibly can, but if some people leave that is football."

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