Southampton FC made serious money after Austrian transfer gamble: View | OneFootball

During their time in the Premier League, Southampton have been able to secure some of the most talented players to ever grace the St Mary's turf, often leaving the club in a much better position financially.

While many of those players have gone on to achieve success at their new clubs, the Saints are often credited with bringing them to England with their transfer business model and shrewd pieces of business, giving them a platform that bought many years of big achievements on the South Coast.

But perhaps their biggest punt on an unknown striker playing his football in the Austrian Bundesliga proved to be one of their most prolific, going on to win the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup during his six years with Liverpool.

That man being Sadio Mane.

Sadio Mane Southampton statistics

Ahead of the 2014/15 Premier League season, the Saints announced that Ronald Koeman would replace Mauricio Pochettino in the St Mary's dugout for the new campaign.

Having finished in eighth place in the previous term, the Dutch manager was keen to build on the foundations laid on the South Coast, and went about adding to his squad to potentially achieve European football.

In a summer window that saw Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Rickie Lambert all leave the club, Koeman went about rebuilding his squad, making six permanent signings that included Graziano Pelle, Shane Long, Dušan Tadić and Sadio Mané.

Having scored 44 goals in 85 appearances for RB Salzburg, the Senegalese winger arrived at the club for a reported fee of £11.8 million, and his impact at the club would be felt almost immediately after his arrival.

He would score his first goal on his fourth appearance for the Saints in a win over Stoke City, going on to net 10 goals in 30 appearances in his debut season, including a hat-trick in their final home fixture of the campaign against Aston Villa, breaking the Premier League record for the fastest treble scored in the top flight, beating Robbie Fowler's record by almost two minutes in a time just shy of three minutes.

Mane would continue his goal-scoring form the following term, scoring 15 goals and providing nine assists which would include another treble towards the end of the campaign, this time against Manchester City at St Mary's.

His performances amounted interest from some of the division's top clubs, and Mane's time on the South Coast would come to an end in 2016, joining Liverpool on a five-year deal.

The Senegal international would end his Southampton career having played 75 times in all competitions, scoring 25 goals and one Premier League record that still stands to this day.

Sadio Mane's departure is one of many great pieces of business by the Saints

In recent years, Southampton have often been labelled as a selling club, with a number of their star players, including Mane, leaving St Mary's for bigger clubs for extortionate fees.

More often than not, those transfers have often seen players swapping the South Coast for Merseyside.

When focusing on those players in particular, Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren were the first to make the move to Anfield, closely followed by Nathaniel Clyne, Mane, Virgil Van Dijk and Danny Ings.

From the sales of those players, the money pocketed by Southampton equates to around £187 million, a huge upturn for the transfer fees paid for those respective players to be used in future transfer windows to bolster their squad.

But those departures further signify the brilliance of the Saints' business during their time in the Premier League, with Mane a prime example of signing a player relatively unheard of but performing on the pitch.

The Senegal winger, who now plays his football in Saudi Arabia with Al Nassr, is often regarded as one of the best players to have played for the club in recent years, with Southampton benefitting not only from his performances on the pitch, but his subsequent sale along with those before and after his departure.