THERE’S another way. The Southampton Way. When Southampton take on Chelsea this afternoon, they will do so having violated so many of football’s mantras.

They’re on their fourth manager in less than four years. They sell their most talented players every summer: Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Calum Chambers and Rickie Lambert in 2014, Morgan Schneiderlin and Nathaniel Clyne in 2015 and Saido Mane, Graziano Pelle and Victor Wanyama last summer. And there’s no real pattern – or clear-cut underlying policy – to their managerial appointments: maybe you could see Ronaldo Koeman continuing some of Mauricio Pochettino’s work, but Claude Puel has gone in an entirely different direction.

And yet, despite the supposed upheaval, they finished in the top eight in each of the last three seasons, during which they managed to break even in the transfer market. And, this summer, they made a profit of around £20 million. And still they’re comfortably in the top 10, having shown last week, away to Manchester City, that they can force the Pepmachine to grind to a halt.

How do you regularly defy conventional wisdom and get away with it?

By being clever. By thinking outside the box when you need to and, when you take the conventional route, executing better than others. A top-notch youth academy helps too, though it’s worth noting that since Shaw and Chambers back in 2014, homegrown players have made less and less of a contribution. James Ward-Prowse and Matt Targett, the most-frequently-used homegrown players, combined for 27 starts last season. This year, they’ve made five between them.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know all about how they’ve bought low and sold high in a way few others have been able to do. That, more than brilliant scouting, has been at the heart of their success. Most of their signings haven’t been unknowns, but rather have fallen into one of two categories. Some, like Mane, Clyne, Van Dijk or Wanyama, were known to all, but it was Southampton who moved swiftly and decisively, putting cash (sometimes more than others were prepared to spend) on the tble. Others, like Oriol Romeu, Ryan Bertrand, Lovren and Pelle were guys who, for one reason or another, were perceived as damaged goods. Romeu was seen as a flop in La Liga (Valencia) and Germany (Stuttgart). Bertrand was viewed as inconsistent, Lovren as soft, Pelle as someone who could only score amid the generous backlines of Dutch football.

It’s not rocket science. Move strongly for your targets. Squeeze as much as you can out of your sales. Identify under-valued assets. The problem is doing it properly.

The last transfer window saw them do more of the same. Midfielder Sofiane Boufal is a hugely skilled passer and creator, albeit one whom many teams considered lightweight, which is why they balked at the £15m price tag. Pierre Hojberg made his debut at 17 for Bayern Munich and scouts swooned over his combination of size, strength and delicate technique. Since then, he’s been a bust in various loan spells. Nathan Redmond made his professional debut at 16, but, six seasons later, is coming off a lacklustre campaign at Norwich, where he struggled to hold down a regular place.

The jury is out on Hojberg, who had a bumpy landing on the south coast, while Boufal has only played 20-odd minutes. Redmond has been ever-present and is looking like the player many though he would become. But the point is the trio are 21, 23 and 22 respectively, which means even a so-so campaign ensures you’ll get more of your money back. And a good campaign can add up to a £20 or £30m profit.

It’s a tried-and-tested formula and credit must go to men like chairman Ralph Krueger and, especially, Les Reed, the executive director of football, who is in charge of everything from the youth set-up to recruitment and scouting.

Want a model club that can stay in the top-flight and maybe even make the owners some money?

Maybe you shouldn’t lavish cash on players or even the manager. Those come and go. Maybe you should start from the top down. Maybe it’s that simple.

PERHAPS there is a silver lining to the nose-diving pound. At least for those clubs who have stockpiled oodles of veteran players on huge contracts, of the kinds they simply can’t shfit. Manchester United are the prime example of this. And what strikes you most is how so many of those who don’t appear to fit the manager’s plans are recent arrivals.

In the summer of 2015, Manchester United spent some £125m to acquire Antony Martial, Memphis Depay, Matteo Darmian, Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Between them, they’ve started four league games this year (all of them Martial). Exclude Martial and, between them, the other four have played a grand total of 21 league minutes this season.

And then there’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who arrived this summer but through Friday had made just one league start, despite costing close to £40m.

All these players are costing United money. Other than Martial and Mkhitaryan, it’s hard to see them convincing Mourinho to give them a shot. And even Martial, who a year ago was hailed as some kind of Thierry Henry in the making, has not started a game in six weeks and hasn’t played 90 minutes of league football in nearly six months. As for Mkhitaryan – who, you presume, was a player Mourinho wanted – he hasn’t even been included in the match day squad since September 10, despite having been fit for the past month.

At some point, most of these players are going to have to make a choice. Take a pay cut to get playing time elsewhere or continue to cash a pay check for doing little more than showing up to training. It’s a manager’s prerogative, of course, to play whatever players he sees fit.

But in Mourinho’s case – and given his historical preference for squads of no more than 15 – it seems like another colossal miscalculation and blunder on the part of the club. It’s simply extraordinary that no takers were found in August for some of these players. And it’s in sharp contrast to what goes on at Southampton.