Oriol Romeu is happy to play the role of mentor at Southampton.

The Spaniard found minutes tough to come by before games were suspended amidst the coronavirus outbreak.

With the likes of Will Smallbone breaking into the first-team, Romeu says he likes giving advance to the next generation.

Speaking before to theDaily Echo, Romeu said: "It's more doing than saying.

"It's about how you are behaving and by doing the right things. If you want to be a good footballer, it isn't good enough just turning up for the game to do your job because you are wasting the other five days in the week.

"Having that good dynamic and habits is going to help everyone, not just the young players but also the older ones.

"Everyone is old enough to make their decisions and they will know what they want to do.

"But they have to look at guys like Ryan and Longy and think why they've been here over five, six or seven years because they must be doing something right.

"That's a good message for them."