When people have spoken of Southampton Football Club this past 12 months it will have been rare for them not to mention the summer of 2014. It seems almost a weekly occurrence that a Match of the Day pundit will laud the club for its exploits ‘considering the summer they had.’ This article is no different – not two sentences in and the elephant in the room has reared its ugly head.
The 2014/15 season for the Saints has been defined by the period of June to early September last year – ‘exodus’, ‘meltdown’, ‘relegation’. Social media was, of course, full of taunts and mockery of Saints as ‘poor old’ Southampton had once again been successfully robbed of all their worth, living up to its reputation as a selling club – manager gone, key players gone, a club on a downward spiral.
The Saints’ journey from League One and administration was and is well documented – back-to-back promotion, Pochettino’s new brand and World Cup call ups for Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Luke Shaw all contributed to the romanticised narrative that had seen the rise and rise of the Saints. But when Lallana, Lambert and Shaw were all enticed away by bigger clubs, alongside Callum Chambers and Dejan Lovren, the journey was over and a sour taste had been left at the end of the fairy-tale.
Liverpool Manager Brendan Rodgers summed up the general mood towards Southampton thusly: “I have absolutely no sympathy for Southampton.
“They have a choice as a club. They don’t have to sell. They had that choice. Maybe Southampton’s objectives have changed. They were on course to be a Champions League club, I believe, but, obviously, that has changed.”
Southampton spent the majority of this season in the top four; they didn’t finish there and were found out in the second half of their campaign as fatigue grew and confidence waned. However, Ronald Koeman’s appointment and consequent success did one major thing for the Saints this year – it rubbished Rodgers’ view that the ambition of the club had gone. It kept the ‘Southampton Fairy-tale’ alive.
Looking back over this season, it is impossible to review without looking at this period – it provides the context by which this season must be considered. Southampton finished in seventh on 60 points – their highest ever Premier League position and highest ever points total. They bettered last season’s exploits with Mauricio Pochettino at the helm by four points and one league position – after losing half a team.
Of course, the Dutchman’s job was to make sure first and foremost that Saints were successful on the pitch but his job went a lot further than that – belief needed to be reinstalled into a club that couldn’t catch a break. And now with ‘We’re all going on a European Tour’ ringing around the city walls one can only conclude that Koeman and Co have succeeded.
