Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl on glaring difference between his side and ‘very ambitious’ Aston Villa

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl says the biggest current difference between his team and Aston Villa is the financial power each club holds.

Villa have put over £116million into transfers over the course of both the summer and recent January window, including the purchase of Saints’ former striker Danny Ings for £25million.

That total is nearly £80million more than Hasenhuttl has been able to spend on his side in that same time period though Villa were of course helped by the huge money departure of Jack Grealish.

But whilst there may be a big gap on paper, the Saints boss was quick to say it’s not about the size of the pot but how you use it.

“I think they are investing more than we do,” said the Austrian coach.

“They took our best striker for a lot of money and they are very ambitious but we also with our limits we have at the club but you see it’s not only about how much money you spend, it’s also about how you spend it.

“For us, we had a very good transfer window in the summer, I think we made some good moves and we have a very balanced very young very hungry squad.

“It’s a fantastic atmosphere to work in at the moment for me as a manager and also as the players - at the moment everything flows really good.”

A message from the editor:

Thank you for reading. BirminghamWorld is Birmingham’s latest news website, championing everything that is great about our city - reporting on news, lifestyle and sport. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and keep the conversation going.