I’ve been a Southampton fan for exactly one fifth of their 125 year history, and it’s fair to say it’s not been the most successful fifth.
There have been a few positives throughout the past two and a half decades, like the time we reached the FA Cup final under Gordon Strachan in 2003 and enjoyed a brief stint in the UEFA Cup as a result. Also under Strachan we made the dizzy heights of 8th in the Premier League, and under George Burley we reached the Championship play-offs in 2007. But in truth our recent history has been a slow decline from the glory years of the 70’s and 80’s, when players like Micky Channon, Kevin Keegan, Terry Paine and Alan Ball were gracing the turf at The Dell.
Throughout my lifetime, Southampton have been competing at the wrong end of the table. Most of the glorious last day pitch-invasion inducing moments have been due to us surviving by the skin of our teeth. It was a constant struggle throughout the 90′s, with Matt Le Tissier keeping us in the top division every year virtually single-handedly with his 20+ goals from midfield. The noughties saw his retirement and shortly after that, two heartbreaking relegations in five shambolic years. Following a dreadful second tenure as chairman for the massively unpopular Rupert Lowe, the club was in financial crisis and in April 2009 were put into administration, getting docked 10 points for the start of the next season and nearly – very nearly – folding completely.
It was then, during the clubs darkest moments where staff were being asked to work for nothing because the club couldn’t afford their wages and fans were starting to prepare for the unthinkable, that an Italian banker persuaded a Swiss businessman that Southampton FC were a club worth saving.
The Italian is Nicola Cortese, who is now the chairman, and the Swiss billionaire who put pen to paper to save us from oblivion was the late great Markus Liebherr, who sadly passed away just over a year later in August 2010.
Liebherr was attracted to Saints from the start, and it was obvious why. Here was a club with a rich sporting heritage, a large and loyal fan base, a first class stadium in St. Mary’s, fantastic training facilities and an infamously successful youth academy, as well as the potential to climb the leagues and regain their place at the higher echelons of English football. But in Liebherr’s own words, Saints had Cortese to thank for helping push the takeover through:
“Nicola has been pivotal in conceiving the purchase of the Club and making it happen. I am now delighted to entrust him with overseeing the Club’s progress, development and achievement of success over the long term. Nicola and I have enjoyed a long business relationship and it was Nicola who convinced me about buying the Club. He then conducted what proved to be a very difficult process very expertly and professionally. Ultimately, it happened because Nicola was at all times focused on strong business and ethical principles. Since our early conversations about the deal I made it clear that I would only buy the Club if he remained involved following the purchase. I am therefore very happy that he has accepted the role as Executive Chairman.”
Along with the takeover came not just new hope for the fans, but new ambition for the club. A five-year plan was outlined to reach the Premier League, an ambitious but realistic target given the new resources available. An experienced manager was needed to oversee it, and in July 2009 the club announced the appointment of Alan Pardew.
However, although the cogs were now in place to turn things round at Southampton, it didn’t click into place immediately. Pardew’s initial job was made tougher given the aforementioned 10-point penalty that we started the 2009/10 season with, but that meant a good start was vital, and after no wins in our first 7 league games we were rock bottom on -5 points. It wasn’t the start we’d hoped for and optimism soon turned sour as we started to contemplate yet another relegation battle.
Pardew did manage to improve things, although the form remained hit and miss, and we soon found ourselves out of the relegation zone and starting a push for the play-offs – but it was one stretch too far and with the excellent form other sides were hitting, we narrowly missed out, finishing 7th. Pardew did however manage to win the clubs first piece of silverware in 34 years by winning the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, following an emphatic 4-1 win over Carlisle at Wembley.
By that time though there were already rumours that things weren’t right behind the scenes. It was alledged there was low morale throughout the backroom staff amid talks of a rift between Cortese and Pardew. All the same, it came as a surprise to the fans when just 4 games in to the 10/11 season, and immediately after a 4-0 thrashing of Bristol Rovers, Pardew was sacked as manager. This was a decision that at the time caused dismay amongst the fans, who have long believed stability is what the club needs going forward – not least because we’d had 17 different managers in the last 16 years, and look where that had gotten us.
However, Cortese didn’t get where he has without getting big decisions right – and the appointment of Nigel Adkins on 12th September 2010 is where I think it all fell into place.
In his first year alone, Adkins has guided Saints to promotion from League One and broken several records along the way. A rejuvenated Brighton won the league at a canter, but Southampton’s 2nd place finish was no mean feat. Huddersfield Town enjoyed a magnificent run towards the end of the season, going unbeaten in their final 25 games, but Saints were ruthless and won 14 of their last 17 matches to pip them to the automatic promotion spot. We won our last 6 games of the season, and took that form into this season where we broke the club record on the opening day by winning our 7th consecutive league match. We won the next 3 league matches as well, and beat Torquay 4-1 in the League Cup to make it 11 straight wins in all competitions. After stuttering at Leicester – in a match I went to and thought it was the best losing performance I’ve ever seen from Saints – we beat Swindon in the Cup and beat Nottingham Forest last weekend to make it 13 wins out of 14 in all competitions, 12 consecutive home victories and our best start to a season for 76 years.
Stats, stats, stats. Records, records, records. Saints fans are in dreamland, particularly my generation who have never before seen a Southampton side look so confident and capable of winning games, and I believe this is thanks in the main to Nigel Adkins.
There is no doubt we have a talented squad, and I am not suggesting that what the players do on match day is not partly due to individual ability, but Adkins has them playing as a team, and that team certainly benefits from having a manager with such an even temperament and analytical approach. I have read that he believes in studying every match with his players in order to help them improve. He compiles a post-game report that is made up of five positives and one negative. He uses a video display and discusses his thoughts with the squad. When this is done, he draws a blue line under the name of the opponent on his whiteboard and starts preparing for the next fixture.
In short, he possesses all the qualities a top manager should have; thorough tactical knowledge, excellent man-management and motivational skills, and the ability to pull the squad together as a team and get them all working for the same goal. He believes in his players and gets them believing they can win.
That is why I think it all started to go so drastically right the day Nigel Adkins was appointed.
Written by Chris Warne, We Are Going Up’s Southampton Blogger
Chris tweets at @chriswarne85
