Before embarking on a new season in the Championship after a disastrous relegation, it's fair to say a number of Southampton's more expensive players left the building.
The likes of Nathan Tella, James Ward-Prowse and Tino Livramento all departed the Saints for pastures new, with all of these sales adding a handsome amount to Southampton's bank.
Whilst that trio have gone on to succeed and warrant their expensive price tags – with Ward-Prowse leaving for West Ham United at £30m now arguably looking like a steal as the ex-Saints man finds himself currently on 12 assists in all competitions – this other major sale has underwhelmed since leaving St. Mary's.
Romeo Lavia's time at Southampton in numbers
Romeo Lavia's time on the South Coast would go by in a flash, the ex-Manchester City youth product making just 34 appearances last campaign before the megabucks of Chelsea swooped in.
The 20-year-old did shine brightly for the relegation candidates considering their gloomy predicament for the majority of the season, helping himself to a singular goal for the Saints from 29 Premier League appearances.
Yet, Chelsea coming in with a bid of £58m – £28m more than Ward-Prowse's fee to West Ham – to land the exciting youngster looked like an eye-watering amount at the time and still does when you consider how much the Belgian defensive midfielder has been utilised at Stamford Bridge to date.
Lavia has failed to put in a full 90 minutes for Chelsea since joining last summer, only making one brief 32-minute appearance for the Blues to date against Crystal Palace in late December. That's largely been as a result of a wretched campaign via injury.
Yet, considering Southampton managed to win Lavia's services for significantly less at £10.5m before making a substantial profit on him just one season later, the Saints very much hit the jackpot selling on their former star asset when they did.
Romeo Lavia's transfer value now at Chelsea
The 5 foot 11 Belgian's transfer value has now plummeted down to €41.3m (£35m) according to Football Transfers as a result of this rash move to Mauricio Pochettino's men, meaning his worth has already decreased by more than £20m.
It's led to pundits such as Gary Neville to call out Chelsea's overspending for the sake of it, labelling the buy of Lavia as an "ego" signing recently by Todd Boehly and Co over a sensible investment for the future.
The Sky Sports pundit stated: “They [Chelsea] went and bought Enzo, they go and buy Caicedo and then through their ego they went and bought Lavia on the final day of the transfer window and then they have to sell Conor Gallagher? They didn’t need Lavia, he’s not even played a game for them anyway.”
1. Virgil Van Dijk
€84.65m (£72m)
2. Romeo Lavia
€62.10m (£58m)
3. Sadio Mane
€41.20m (£35m)
4. Luke Shaw
€37.50m (£32M)
5. Tino Livramento
€37.20m (£31m)
Southampton haven't ever looked back and wondered over whether they should have kept their former star around for longer either, excelling in the second tier with the likes of Flynn Downes, Stuart Armstrong and Will Smallbone forming a tight-knit synergy in the centre of the park for Martin's men over the flashiness of Lavia.
Pochettino will keep his fingers crossed that Lavia can come good for the up-and-down Blues eventually, not helped by his first season at Stamford Bridge being plagued by non-stop injury issues.
At the moment however, there's no doubt that Lavia goes down as a significant transfer blunder on Chelsea's end when you look at how rapidly the 20-year-old's transfer value has fallen off a cliff since coming through the door.
In contrast, Southampton must view the business as playing a blinder at the perfect time.