New Southampton boss Russell Martin concedes they will be selling key players this summer.

Arsenal and Liverpool are both battling for young Saints midfielder Romeo Lavia following their relegation.

Martin said on BBC Radio Solent: "I hope I can convince some people to stay who were happy 50-50 about it. I think there will be some players who we can't avoid who will be back in the Premier League.

"That's the nature of the game and some of them will be far too attractive to Premier League teams and will want to go and play in the Premier League. You have to respect that.

"I will try my very best with the work that we do and the way we treat and interact with the players, we'll try our very best to keep some players who maybe weren't sure – or maybe some people weren't sure on.

"It's difficult playing in struggling teams, I've been in struggling teams in the Premier League and you can never give the best of yourself.

"There will be some players here who didn't have a great season last season who will hopefully be infused by the work we're doing and I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of players who'll look very different in the Championship by the way we're going to do things, hopefully."