Southampton chief Les Reed admits there's rival clubs who deliberately set out to unsettle players during the transfer window.

Saints have endured another summer of big changes to their squad.

“It is very difficult, because there are certain clubs who play that game very blatantly, and it's almost like none of us will rat each other out," said Reed to the Daily Echo.

“My view is that there is a point where, if the effects of another club interfering with a player's mindset really does start to do damage, then maybe somebody has to make a stand and go 'Hey, you can't do this'.

“I think, to a certain extent, you have to play a bit of a cat and mouse game all the way through, but, at the end of the day, it does unsettle the player and there's a point where if it's gone so far – as we found with one or two of our players last year – you don't want it to unsettle the whole team.

“If one player's unsettled, and he's not going to be happy staying, then you've got a decision to make so it doesn't affect the rest of the squad, and we have a very, very good dressing room.

“We have a very good, tight squad and that's a big contributor to our success, and we can't allow something to affect that, so it does make it difficult and it is tactical, but it is part and parcel of that game as you call it and you have to try and be resilient and manage it as best you can."