Southampton Football Club have won over a lot of hearts and minds since their return to the Premier League in 2012/13 under the much-liked Nigel Adkins, who was subsequently replaced by current Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino. It was under Pochettino where the Saints really started to cement their place in England’s top flight and build on their solid reputation both on and off the pitch.
The club pride themselves on their youth academy, which has produced the likes of Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, with current first-team star James Ward-Prowse another name to come through the club’s youth coaching process. But with many youth products and first team stars constantly moving on, can the Saints retain their Premier League status this campaign?
Southampton have been labelled as Liverpool’s feeder club after the number of transfers between the two clubs which has seen the likes of Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk and Adam Lallana swap the south coast for Merseyside. Understandably, the Saints can’t turn down the huge sums of money a club like Liverpool can throw their way and players, who will always leave for the bigger bucks Liverpool can offer, are impossible to keep hold of when a club of that stature comes calling.
This model hasn’t been an issue in the past. The club’s sell to buy policy has worked extremely well on the whole, until perhaps last season where things were fairly dire under Argentine coach Mauricio Pellegrino.
Pellegrino arrived at the club with a decent pedigree having managed in Spain and having worked under Rafa Benitez, a Champions League winning boss. Sadly, as the season wore on and the slow, pedestrian football continued, the Saints found themselves in an unfamiliar position since their Premier League return in 2012/13 – they were in a relegation fight. Fast forward to March 2018 and, unsurprisingly, Pellegrino was dismissed and replaced by club legend and a man all Saints fans adore – Mark Hughes.
The rest is history, as they say, and Hughes kept them up in the end, but the season revealed a few new scenarios for the club. Can selling their best players continue? Unlike previous season’s, why hasn’t the void left by big name players departing been filled? Is Southampton’s selling model finally catching up with them? These are all questions that will essentially be asked throughout the upcoming season as Mark Hughes looks to build his own Saints side.
There are a number of 2018/19 Premier League Betting Offers & Free Bets out there, which can be used on all aspects of Southampton’ season. Odds of 7/1 (bet365) suggest the Saints could be in the relegation mix next season, although under Hughes Southampton fans should be fairly confident of staying up.
With ‘Sparky’ looking to build on last season’s scraped survival, momentum could also send the south coast club in another direction. Top 6 odds, priced at 16/1, represent fantastic although perhaps unlikely value. A more solid option is a top half finish, priced at a decent 5/4 (Sky Bet).
Fans of the club, who have become increasingly disillusioned with the never-ending changes with regards to playing staff, might need to prepare themselves for another season of struggles. Expectations need to be lowered somewhat. Gone are the days of Pochettino, an influx of talented players both young and old and the fancy, progressive football he brought. Under Hughes, an honest and demanding boss, it’s back to basics for the club. The Premiership relegation scraps Saints fans are all familiar with, under then owner Rupert Lowe, could well be returning at the club.
