Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has refused to sympathise with Southampton following the summer exodus at St Mary's.

Rodgers has welcomed no fewer than three former Saints to Anfield during the close season - Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren - for a total of £49m.

Manchester United and Arsenal have also plucked Luke Shaw and Calum Chambers respectively, but the Northern Irishman insists that he has a clear conscience following his raid on the South Coast club.

"I have absolutely no sympathy for Southampton. They have a choice as a club. They don't have to sell. They had that choice," he told The Mirror.

"I suppose Liverpool have taken three players, but Arsenal have taken a player, Man United have taken a player and there might be one or two others.

"It's just ­football. It's just the way it works. We were after a certain type of player that fits the profile and the mould of the way we play. So, I don't have sympathy, no."

The Reds host Ronald Koeman's new-look Southampton team on Merseyside in their Premier League opener this afternoon.