Opinion
I’ll start by indulging in some nostalgia, and explain how I fell in love with Southampton.
It all began in the 1990s on the Premier League highlights show. We all knew Eric Cantona and Dennis Bergkamp, Man Utd and Arsenal, but one guy got my attention – Matt Le Tissier, the greatest Premier League player of all time, according to Eurosport.
The quality of his goals, his loyalty, and the yearly battle against relegation was real David and Goliath stuff that kept me enthralled.
After a long stint in the top flight, Southampton where finally relegated in 2005. A tumultuous period followed.
Two relegations, multiple owners and managers, and falling into administration left the club threadbare. Things turned around when Markus Liebherr took over in 2009 and saw the potential. They went back to their core strengths – developing players, buying smartly and selling for big profit.
I was lucky enough to see them during the 2010-11 League One season. Amazingly, the team that day featured future EPL stars Jose Fonte, Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Morgan Schneiderlin and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Consecutive promotions saw the team back in the EPL by 2012. There were good league finishes, impressive cup runs, and a couple of cracks at European football. They bought and sold Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane for massive profits, and held on to respectable players like Dusan Tadic and Oriol Romeu.
They even picked up Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman as managers for various stints.
Things started to go awry during the 2017 season. They had just escaped relegation and were bought out by businessmen Gao Jisheng, who had good intentions, but changes to Chinese law made it difficult for him to get funds out the country and into the club.
Ralph Hasenhüttl was appointed manager in 2018. His play was exciting and promising, and he had a pedigree for developing youth, but over four years he was never given the striker he so badly needed, and the team started to plateau.
In January 2022, Sports Republic, headed by Serbian businessman Dragan Solak, bought the club for just under $AU200,000,000 – half the price Jisheng paid. Their reign has been disastrous. The money came back, but experienced staff left as the inexperienced owners took over operations.
Husenhuttle was sacked as the team stalled, and was replaced by Nathan Jones, a prickly man from Luton Town FC who was clearly out of his depth – but was given a £60 million war chest to waste. He was sacked after one win in eight league matches and the team on the bottom of the table.
His replacement, Ruben Selles, fared no better, and most of the new talent was left on the pine as the team accepted their fate and drifted aimlessly towards relegation.
Southampton’s fall has been more of a slow leak than an iceberg collision, an old house rotting away on a back street that no one cared about. In their prime, they showed that a team can be successful with a moderate budget, clear business model and good nous.
When the ideas went, without mega-bucks, the fall was slow and painful.
Will they bounce back? I doubt it.
A lot of talent will leave, and James Ward-Prowse aside, I can’t see big profits coming in for poor investments. I suspect history may repeat itself – some turmoil, new owners, and a realisation that the club needs to get back to what it does best.
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