Harry Winks believes that the exits of Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso and Dele Alli show that nobody is given a free pass during the Antonio Conte era at Tottenham.
Spurs shipped out all three midfielders - two of which were their record signings - alongside young winger Bryan Gil, who only joined the club six months ago for around £25m.
It was a sign to all of the players that nobody is safe under Conte and nobody can take their place at the club for granted.
"We always needed that. Everybody in football knows that," said Winks.
"Nobody is given a free pass - everybody is under pressure and under scrutiny.
"That is just part and parcel of football. I would not say it was a wake-up call. Everybody knows the high demands at a club like Tottenham and that you have to be performing."
Conte recently made it clear that there is a big 'important gap' between Tottenham and his old side Chelsea in between and after their three recent defeats to the Blues.
Winks explained that the Tottenham players understood the truth behind his statement and used it as more of a motivating tool than one meant to put them down.
"It is probably an honest reflection. The table does not lie and our results don’t lie and we’ve been inconsistent," he said.
"We have shown glimpses of real quality and good performances but we have shown the other side of things where we haven’t been so good.
"It is an honest assessment and we all understand that we need to strive to get back to the level we want to get to. We took it more as motivation that we can improve and really get better."
He added: "The attitude is that we have a manager who is a winner and we want to implement that into our game. He won’t let us be like that, but it takes time, there is a process and it does not happen overnight.
"It has been three or four months but it is a long process and we are working towards a goal and while it was a poor result [against Southampton], there were positive signs at the end and in the last four or five matches."
Tottenham were poor against the Saints in the 3-2 defeat on Wednesday night and will now turn their attention to Sunday's next Premier League match against Wolves.
"We are all disappointed and so is the manager and we will probably review the game and look at where we could improve," said Winks, "But look, the manager will say we have got a game on Sunday and we have got to work towards improving for that and we will start in training to get back to that level."
