This is what's happened in a nutshell.
1. Original 5 year plan and then cortese had told players we were going to become champions league club. By keeping the best players and buying better players. Summer of 2013 we bought Osvaldo 12million, wanyama 12 mil and lovren 8.5 million without selling any of our best players. A trend that other than selling the ox in championship had happened for 3 years. As a result of this plan the players ie lallana and Morgan etc signed long term contracts with the view we were going to become almost a superpower.
2. Katrina saw the money she was putting in and decided that she wasn't prepared to bankroll us to that degree and informed cortese that players would have to be sold and that we have to live within our means and basically have the budget of a mid to lower prem club. Cortese was offered fab deal to stay but said that if you sell best players you lose your ambition and that he wasn't prepared to stick around in that situation.
3. The players after seeing the club had 'changed course' then starting seeking moves as previously there was hardly any stories of our players wanting out. Shaw I know at the time was happy to stay here. Lallana made his 'happy to stay for life' comments thinking we were sticking to original plan. Lambert has side said all this was the case.
I don't think we can blame Katrina as she has put a lot of money in and we are in far better position now than under Lowe. At least we reinvest. Also, it's her money she can do what she likes with it. But we will struggle to keep improving on league positions IMO.
I don blame cortese as I see he was ambitious and wanted to take us to the top but it wasn't his money and who knows what Markus would have decided!
I don't blame the players as they were promised a plan that changed and why shouldn't they be able to try and get to the top once they saw that saints weren't anymore the vehicle to take them there?
Only thing I would say is I think saints need to ditch the talk of champions league as it gives the fans unrealistic expectations. Just be honest about the targets.