Southampton boss Mauricio Pochettino says there was no chance Gareth Bale would be sold to Tottenham if he'd been in charge.

Pochettino is adamant that Bale would not be sold if he were a Saint these days.

"With this current club's ambition, dedication and vision for the future, it would be very hard for Gareth Bale to leave this club," said the Argentinian, who last week spoke of his Champions League ambitions.

"Right now, our mentality is to keep our best players and we spoke about that with Nicola (Cortese) from the first day. We want to keep our greatest talents but at the same time now we need more time in order to develop our greatest talents as it happened with Bale, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott."