We Are Southampton, and We Know Our Place

It should have been a glorious time to be a Southampton fan. A thrilling, record-breaking league season, three players in the England World Cup squad and plaudits showering down around us – the culmination of a brilliant five years of uninterrupted progression. Surely in the closing weeks of the 2013/14 Premier League season I should have been able to bask in satisfaction of a club well-run.  

Why then, have I increasingly felt a creeping anxiety whenever my mind turned to the club? A similar sensation to that which might creep into the last few days of a beach holiday; unable to fully enjoy oneself in anticipation of the depressing moment when your sister picks you up from Heathrow. 'Damn', I thought as I witnessed the best Southampton side I'd ever seen tear Newcastle to pieces at St Mary's in March, 'I'm going to miss this.' 

This frustrating, irrational sensation did not accompany any of the Saints' excellent performances before Christmas, a time when I supposed I had years of these kind of exciting performances to look forward to. Ah, happy, heady days indeed! What could turn such optimism into the kind of pre-nostalgic anxiety I have described above? 

It was the change in the St. Mary's boardroom that brought about my shift in perspective, and sadly Wednesday's confirmation that Mauricio Pochettino had jumped ship to Tottenham after only 16 months in charge has justified my gloomy outlook.  

Rewind to August. Re-established in the Premier League, the club targeted the next, more difficult step - a permanent position challenging for places closer to the top than the bottom of the league table. Supplementing its settled yet hungry side with ambitious purchases from abroad – the aim was to take this opportunity to lay meaningful foundations for an exciting future. 

  

The entire organisation appeared to be on the offensive. ‘Who can we sign?’ it asked, not ‘Who can we keep?’ 

Even considering the talented squad he had at his disposal, Pochettino made quite an impact on the league in his first full season. Roy Hodgson regularly cast his eye over the English talent excelling at St Mary's, and soon called up four Saints to his international squad. In spite of boardroom upheaval midway through the season the team continued to impress, and watching our run-in there was little to suggest that Southampton's 8th placed finish represented a glass ceiling for this young set of players. As it turned out, the relative calm signified a grace period; it was the momentum of years of success that saw us cruise to a new record points tally.  

Upon arrival the new board, headed by chairman Ralph Krueger, preached patience. Amidst the escalating speculation of external interest in players and management we were reminded that all decisions would be made 'with the best interests of Southampton FC in mind.'

Such a strategy is not unusual. Indeed, I expect that every sports team or business implement a similar plan day on day. But the statement is not meaningless. In this context its meaning depends entirely on an interpretation, the owner’s, of what it is that Southampton FC should be. Given what we know about why the boardroom reshuffle took place to begin with, I find myself concurring with the stories of impending disaster in the press. Perhaps that explains the feeling in my stomach - after all, we are staring down from a great height. 

 It wasn’t until relatively recently that Katharina Liebherr began to take an active interest in affairs at the club, affairs which had previously been left entirely to Nicola Cortese. That their visions for the club did not exactly coincide is not surprising. Her thoughts are not his thoughts, neither are her ways his ways.

The reason for the Italian's departure is likely to have been what is called is the music industry ‘creative differences’. Ms Liebherr clearly did not share Cortese’s ambitious vision. She has inherited a business that she may very well have the intention and ability to run relatively successfully, but Cortese’s ambition to drive Southampton forward will have required more financial backing than ever. The suspicion that Liebherr was unwilling to support the chairman’s grand plans is not to say she her decisions are dictated solely by money, but that she didn’t share the optimism of his dream. 

  

Krueger’s statement from the mouth of Cortese while he wielded the power and (admittedly, not his own) money would have carried significantly more promise. Whether or not his replacements at the helm of the club are up to the task, evidently they were wholly unable to convince Pochettino that the club he enjoyed such a fine first season at was worth staying at for even a little while longer. As I said, ostensibly Southampton FC looks a fantastic place to manage, yet as I write this (and note, when I started this article rumours of player sales and managerial exits were only rumours, making for several unenjoyable rewrites) the majority of our most valuable assets appear to be clamouring for the exit. 

 At the risk of sounding sycophantic, defeatist and melodramatic: Nicola Cortese’s resignation as chairman changed everything. From the day he took over the club's upward trajectory has been dramatic, but it is important to recognise that our success according to English football's league standings is not actually the point. You would expect any moderately well-run and well-financed club the size of Southampton to make it back to the Premier League. His practical qualities as a football chairman are only half the story - it was his ability to sell his lofty ambitions to great young players and an equally ambitious young manager that made him so valuable to the club.  

Perception is key. How do you convince the likes of Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana and Morgan Schneiderlin that they are better off staying at Southampton over moving to more traditionally illustrious clubs? How do you convince the likes of Dejan Lovren to join? Cortese sold the players the dream, and provided them with everything they needed to fulfil it - but most important was the belief he inspired. That I believed in it too is what makes this summer's drastic backward steps so disappointing. 

For so many years the club and others like it have cultivated talented squads and enjoyed occasional successful seasons only to be stripped of their heroes and asked to try again. For a minute there I thought we might actually have found ourselves in a position to break free of a long-held tradition of passably enjoyable mediocrity, but it appears I was mistaken. Southampton are a fine example of 21st century football's cycle of futility. Like Promethus on the rock.*

For Southampton FC, losing players the quality of Lallana and Shaw is to be expected under ordinary management. Under our guise of an ultra-progressive, ambitious club we might have stood a chance of retaining them for a while longer, and threatened to upset the league's natural order. My fear, compounded by what is turning out to be a truly appalling start to Krueger's first summer in charge, is for how much less Southampton FC expects of itself now. 

*Apologies, all avoidance of melodrama is now abandoned - the Rickie Lambert transfer story brought about rewrite number 3, and has hit me hard. 

Arsene Wenger: A Most Underrated Man

On the back of seven straight league wins few expected Everton’s European charge to falter so badly against Crystal Palace on Wednesday night, but now that it has Arsene Wenger has reason to be optimistic going into the final four games of the league campaign.

A penalty shootout win over serial overachievers Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup on Saturday was followed by victory at home to West Ham on Tuesday, and Palace’s heroic performance capped off what could be a hugely significant week in Arsenal and their manager’s future. On the face of it, the week’s achievements are hardly ground-breaking, but coming off the back of yet another disastrous away defeat to a league rival last weekend the players must be given due credit. Not for the first time in recent years, Wenger’s side grit their collective teeth and got the results they needed to avert disaster.

At this point I can almost hear the howls of frustration as Arsenal’s army of keyboard warriors struggle to articulate the severity of their disagreement within the character limit, having already used up 10 on #wengerout. Yes, it has been 9 (nine) long years for Arsenal fans to endure the ridicule of their neighbours, rivals and just about anyone else au fait with English football. And yes, Wenger has sometimes appeared to prioritise the riches of European football over the glory of lifting a domestic trophy. Disillusioned by another season of promise embarrassingly spurned at the hands of their title rivals, it is true that many of their supporters have reached breaking point.

There are probably even some who would have preferred not to have seen three such pivotal results go in their favour this week if it meant the end of Wenger’s time in charge. I sympathise, but they should endure a little longer. There is much about their club to be envious of, and the manager’s ideology is at the heart of it all.

Wenger has never failed to supply Champions League football despite having to show an unparalleled restraint in the transfer market. In contrast, David Moyes – an excellent manager despite his painful first season as United boss – may not even finish in the top 6 despite adding expensive signings to the championship winning side he inherited. Wenger’s consistency, while no match for the devastating form of the Invincibles, is a remarkable feat. His endurance in the face of such ardent criticism is perhaps even more remarkable.

It might not seem like it, as they try to fend off a late charge from Everton coming up on the rails, but this season wasn’t far from being one of Arsenal’s greatest. Despite long-term injuries to the majority of their key (and mostly British) players at one point or another, Arsenal held onto top spot until a red-hot Liverpool dispatched them in February and were still well in the title-race before Chelsea ran riot at Stanford Bridge the following month. Unacceptable and embarrassing defeats, yes, but none of their rivals’ plentiful, expensive squads have had to cope with so many players in the physio room.

I find it hard to fathom how Arsene Wenger continues to operate, seemingly resolute and personally unaffected, after his depleted young side suffered those defeats at Anfield, Goodison Park and Stanford Bridge - and the football world declares it his fault with a gleeful vitriol. That’s what you get, Arsene. That’s what you get for trying to win the league without throwing money at it.

The philosopher Thomas Nagel wrote that there is something what it is like to be a bat; a consciousness is always experienced. Sometimes it is easy to forget that there is actually a consciousness that we call Arsene Wenger, reading a paper in his office, listening to a radio phone-in in his car, overhearing the opinions of laymen everywhere - and the laymen all think he should be sacked from his job. “Why can’t we be like Chelsea?” they cry to Alan Green. “Why can’t we be like Manchester City and have all the expensive players?”

That hardly seems fair, he must think to himself in his car, because for years this football club has asked me to nurture young talent into world class performers who actually give a toss about the club they play for, and not just buy ready-made stars because generally that’s a poor business model and it makes football all a bit soulless and depressing. And even now I have done that, a lot of my best players have been injured for long parts of the season and I don’t have a £30m foreign replacement in the reserves who we signed on a whim on the last day of the transfer window. And even after that we spent most of the season at the top of the league. Yes, it does seem rather harsh to blame me for our falling away in the latter stages of the title race, but I take Tim from Bournemouth’s point.

How many points’ difference would Walcott have made? Or Ramsey, if his astonishing season wasn’t curtailed? Oxlade-Chamberlain? Wilshere, a player who is in desperate need of 18 months injury free, was hurt playing in an England friendly. It’s wholly unsurprising that Wenger’s side couldn’t keep up the pace, although of course the manner of their defeats in the springtime made it harder for their supporters to take.

Clouded by that disappointment and embarrassment it may be harder to see, but progress is being made and were Arsenal to beat Hull to win the FA Cup next month there will be something of a redemptive element for Wenger. Stoically, he takes the abuse, he avoids disaster and he rebuilds. Hopefully he’s seen the last of that pattern. If he indulges himself a few calculated forays into the transfer market this summer and keeps his key players in good shape, Arsenal’s fans might just see something altogether more worthy than the free-spending overhaul they pine for.

St Mary’s Draw Highlights Saints’ Staying Power

In a season which has seen Southampton uniformly showered with plaudits, Mauricio Pochettino will perhaps be more encouraged by Saturday’s display against Manchester City than any of the headline-grabbing results his side have recorded since August.

With first-team mainstays Boruc, Wanyama, Clyne and Schneiderlin all sidelined by injury the Saints starting lineup was an unfamiliar one, and coming off the back of a midweek defeat to Aston Villa the home fans could be forgiven for fearing the worst prior to kick off. Defensively they had looked decidedly fragile in the absence of their Polish keeper, while their makeshift midfield had lacked the its usual authority during Wednesday’s setback.

Hopes of avoiding a fourth successive defeat were quickly dented when City took the lead on ten minutes; Kolarov’s overlapping run took Chambers out of the game and his cross somehow dissected five Saints defenders and fell to Aguero, who comfortably finished past Gazzaniga. In recent weeks Manchester City,’s strikers have been scoring freely and this pattern looked like continuing as they threatened to breach the Saints goal again in the opening quarter of the game. Kolarov glanced a header wide from Nasri’s corner, while Zabaleta’s pull-back was badly wasted by Aguero who spooned his shot over the crossbar.

As the half wore on, however, Southampton began to assert their own attacking style on the match, and the visitors struggled to retain possession of the ball under pressure from their hosts. Jack Cork and Steven Davis may lack the physical presence of those they replaced in the lineup, but their energy and distribution were slowly turning the balance of play in Southampton’s favour.

Davis, Cork and Ward-Prowse all threatened with shot from outside the area, while Lallana and Rodriguez’s positive running were always a worry to the City defence. Luke Shaw was finding more and more space on the left, and when he was afforded time to cross he brilliantly picked out his side’s other young full-back Calum Chambers, but he was just unable to direct his header inside the far post.

These encouraging signs reawakened the home support and noise levels had increased accordingly, only to be sent off the scale by the sheer quality of Southampton’s equaliser five minutes before the break. Lallana and Davis combined neatly to release Osvaldo who was being tracked closely by Kompany on the left-hand side of the penalty area. The Italian twisted and turned, shaking off the attentions of Kompany and two further defenders, before curling an audacious effort over the not insignificant frame of Pantillimon and back under the crossbar in the far top corner. It was an immaculate finish, and the perfect way for Osvaldo to ingratiate himself to a fan-base whose patience with his start to life in Southampton had been wearing thin.

Southampton continued to stifle their illustrious opponents in the second half; Cork, in particular, impressing as increasingly he was winning his duels with Yaya Toure in the centre of the pitch. Rodriguez came close from a Ward-Prowse corner before racing onto a loose ball in front of the City penalty area and ghosting past three defenders, only to be thwarted by an excellent Pantillimon save, and Osvaldo’s composure failed him with the follow-up. Saints’ record signing came closer with his next effort, a snapshot from a narrow angle, but was eventually replaced by Lambert to appreciative applause.

At the other end, Aguero, frustrated by a lack of clear openings, managed to evade Fonte with twenty minutes remaining but dragged his left-footed shot wide of the far post. In truth, the Saints’ defence had looked comfortable throughout the second half and neither side seriously threatened again as an entertaining game drew to a close.

Their away record may have hamstrung City’s title-bid thus far, but they may come to look back on a point at St Mary’s as a positive result, despite the home side’s injury list. Saturday’s game demonstrated a hitherto unseen strength in depth in Southampton’s squad as they comfortably contained City with a team that contained four 18 year-old academy graduates at the end of the match, with another waiting in reserve.

The next test will be supplied by a visit to in-form Newcastle next week, but Pochettino’s squad will be buoyed by a result the manager described as ‘psychologically significant’; injuries or not, this is a side that can go into any game with hopes for maximum points.

Adkins, Cortese and Why We Keep Coming Back

One of the biggest challenges in writing about sport is the difficulty of imbuing everyday sporting events with any kind of real-world significance and sentimentality. Beyond the factual and occasionally the analytical, there is often very little left to say about what is essentially a large collection of adult men - ranging from board-room executives to youth academy products - all scrabbling to get to the top of their respective piles, for that season at least.

What elevates football from being nothing over and above what I have just described are the ongoing plots and sub-plots where a manager and his team become something more to their fans than temporary mercenaries, where they have become part of the fabric of the club to the extent that their personal characteristics can almost be equated to that of the club itself. During Nigel Adkins’ reign at Southampton FC, he reached that status. You will understand, then, that I have had no such difficulty imbuing sentimentality into Friday’s events; Adkins changed the way everybody thought about the club for the better.

Upon hearing news of our manager’s sacking yesterday morning I experienced the crushing realisation that the qualities of loyalty, unity and dignity ran only skin-deep at the club; those who possess the ultimate power see little merit in them. Perhaps I was naïve to believe otherwise.

It goes without saying that I believe the ‘decision to relieve Nigel Adkins of his duties’ is as unwarranted as it is unwelcome given the remarkable job he has done since October 2010 - but what really makes this news so heartbreaking goes far deeper than the simple matter of our on-field prospects, with relegation still a very real possibility. What is truly painful about this episode was summed up in a concise email I received overnight from my father who provided me with a link to the story and wrote simply: ‘And I thought we were different.’

Cortese is undoubtedly an excellent businessman. The change he has overseen at Southampton has been dramatic and far-reaching, and it should be remembered that he is one of the main reasons why we have a football club to support at all. The decision to recruit Mauricio Pochettino will have been painstakingly researched and, as he said, ‘has the long-term ambitions of the club in mind.’ For that reason, I have little doubt that our new manager is of a very high pedigree and can be a success at St. Mary’s. Putting aside my furious response to the injustice yesterday’s events (no easy task, I can assure you), the truth is that Nicola Cortese might not have made a bad business decision yesterday – he rarely does. Nevertheless, on sporting grounds his dismissal of Adkins is completely inexcusable.

I had hoped that our Chairman understood that the memories Adkins’ side have supplied me with over the past few years are what make the time and effort people like me dedicate to supporting a football club worthwhile. The moment I heard the news, though, it became abruptly clear to me that the Italian’s idea of what Southampton Football Club should be and my own are two very different things.

Cortese has now shown our true colours – and the most depressing thing about that is that I now know that the man shares none of the things that I value about sport. This is what made yesterday morning’s realisation so tough to take – it was the realisation that I support a business. Until that moment I was enjoying life as a football fan in the truest sense of the word – I was a Rickie Lambert fan, an Adam Lallana fan, a Nigel Adkins fan. These men could be identified as Southampton FC, something we all were a part of - ‘together as one’.

Today I cannot remember what it is that I support. We are a faceless entity, ready to dispense of its tools as soon as it identifies an upgrade. I anticipate having real difficulty in emotionally reinvesting because I, too, had thought we were different, and stood for more than the burning personal ambition of an Italian businessman.

When the Saints travelled to Loftus Road in November with just five points on the board, the fans’ feelings could be heard loud and clear from the very start of the game– unequivocal support for their manager, displaying the unity he did so much to promote. It was a demonstration of just how far his influence had spread; the fans bought into his philosophy - as Nigel might say, they were all on the bus.

Yesterday we were effectively informed that Adkins’ rejuvenation of Southampton FC was little more than a means to an end. Having taken on Cortese’s five-year plan in League One and bettered it, Adkins’ sacking has lain bare our Chairman’s intentions for the club for all to see: Nothing is more important than the most efficient fulfilment of our goals. Cold, hard business decisions now run roughshod over any concerns of those whom the game is really for, and for whom the game means most.

That being the case, it will take some time for me to look back on the Adkins years without a bitter melancholy that they were cut short well before they had reached a natural end. Adkins more than deserved a chance to take us further and really build something special on the south coast. Now the mantle passes to Pochettino to try to satisfy our Chairman, and if he can do that he will have done quite some job.

In a typically defiant display of his positive outlook, Adkins left a note to his players in the dressing room at the training ground before he departed. It instructed his team to smile, remain positive and to believe in what it was they were doing. It is in this spirit that I resolve to move forward as a football fan, as a Southampton fan. All clichés aside, Adkins’ legacy may be further reaching than he knows – I for one will be tuning in for Monday’s visit of Everton.

One day I would love to thank the man personally for making me proud to be a Saints fan for the past two and a half seasons, it has been truly memorable. That pride is lost for the moment, but give me a few months - a successful relegation scrap perhaps – and I might just be able to look back on the journey we have been taken on and smile: Thank you, Nigel. That was one hell of a bus ride.