In less than a year, Southampton went from the highs of a champagne-filled Championship play-off win celebration to walking off the pitch on Sunday as the first Premier League team relegated with seven games still left to play.
One of my sons in law is a season ticket holder and is so
fed up that he has stopped going to games. But with all three promoted teams
probably relegated, is the gap between the Championship and the Premier League
just getting wider? Soon we will hear
calls from American owners for less relegation to protect their investment in
their franchises.
During those 316 days, more than £100million ($128m) was
spent on new signings, Russell Martin, their promotion-winning manager, was
sacked, Sport Republic’s Henrik Kraft stepped down as chairman and resigned
from the board, Ivan Juric was hired, and Johannes Spors became the technical
director.
If you add an extra day to the total, then you can include
that Juric, who replaced Martin in December, was sacked following the club’s
relegation, having overseen one Premier League win in his 14 games in charge.
This means that since Sport Republic bought a controlling
stake in Southampton in January 2022, they have been relegated twice, churned
through multiple managers (Ralph Hasenhuttl, Nathan Jones, Ruben Selles, Martin
and Juric), and arguably assembled the worst Premier League side in history.
With Southampton chasing promotion towards the back end of
last season, they were dealt a significant blow when Jason Wilcox, then their
director of football, was headhunted by Manchester United.
Wilcox accepted the technical director role at Old Trafford,
with Southampton releasing a statement to say they had “reluctantly agreed” to
let him go. It was quickly decided that Wilcox was not going to be replaced,
even ahead of an important summer transfer window that had the potential to
define what their return to the Premier League would look like.
Sport Republic, funded by Dragan Solak’s vast wealth, has
not been afraid to spend money, and did so again leading into the 2024-25
season.
As the transfer window ticked on and key targets joined
other teams, internally, there was a concern about the quality of the squad and
its ability to stay in the league.
Before a ball had been kicked, conversations had taken place
at a senior level in relation to using the season to develop some of the
younger players — Dibling and Fernandes, for example — and turn them into
assets, knowing relegation was almost a foregone conclusion.
What followed in the opening weeks of the season did not
come as a surprise, with Southampton losing eight times in their opening 10
league games, picking up only four points.
Martin, who had guided the club back into the Premier League
at the first time of asking, was now being ridiculed for his possession-heavy
style of football that sees his teams playing out from the back. It was a risky
approach, and they made far too many mistakes, often giving the opposition
goals from needless turnovers.
Martin, however, was not for turning. It was his way of
playing or no way. There was no plan B in that regard, much to the bewilderment
of supporters. Although positive results were non-existent, Martin maintained a
positive relationship with his players and was a popular figure.
Juric highlighted the club’s recruitment as a key
reason for their struggles. “I think
the recruitment is everything in football and you have to find the right
players for this league so they can be intense, physically good players,” Juric
said in his post-match press conference. “What I notice the most in these three
or four months I am here is a completely different physicality between us and
the other teams in the Premier League.”
Southampton have given themselves some breathing space to
assess the market, work out how they recover from such a disastrous season and
formulate a plan to ensure they have a good chance of being promoted from the
Championship in 2025-26.
A fan commented: ‘Here’s an alternative. In a year
Southampton went from being the 24th best team in England, playing against
Championship level teams, to being the 20th best team in England playing
against Premier League opposition. That reflects the nature of the challenge
facing promoted teams. Almost none of the teams you play to get promoted will
be nearly as good as the worst team you’ll face to avoid relegation. The reality seems to be that you need Prem
level players to stay in the Prem and the chances are that teams in the
Championship don’t have them. Or can’t keep them.”
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