Southampton

[Mantis]

 

 

 

 

They're nothing like last season's West Brom if you've actually watched their games. They're not winning by scraping results and backs to the wall tactics, they're genuinely outplaying opponents on a regular basis, have an extremely solid defence and retain possession at a great level. They're unlucky there are so many very good teams this year, so it's very unlikely they'll be top 4, but they're certainly in that top 8 group that will probably separate from the rest in a month or so.

Agreed. They're playing the type of football I want to see us playing this time next season (I accept this year will remain a bit of a grind).

It shouldn't be impossible when you consider Saints were in league 1 3 years ago.

They have backing from their chairman, it shows.

 

 

And a good manager. You need both of those things to do what they're doing right now.

 

 

We did it with MON and you don't rate him.

 

 

It never lasted throughout the entire season - that's why he was never that good a manager. Also, our football wasn't good like Southampton's.

[Biskitt]

I think there's a hell of a lot to admire about them personally and there much closer to the Dortmund model than we are IMO. They play really good football, are solid defensively and have really got the pressing game working well. They also have a an academy that most clubs are envious of.

If you look at the team at the weekend, it has a nice mixture of academy players ( Ward-Prowse, Lallana, Shaw ), some players that have been with them through the leagues and signed for peanuts ( Lambert , Schneiderlin, Fonte ), some good players signed from lower leagues ( Clyne, Rodriquez ) and some bigger money signings ( Lovren and Wanyama ).

The actual first 11 that beat Hull cost less than £35m to put together ( I appreciate Ramirez and Osvaldo are expensive substitutes ) which is still not a lot of money in today's premier league standards.

I'd be interested to see how they get on in their next few games against the better teams but I can see them being this seasons surprise package

[Guest av1]

From bbc text.

Matthew Harmonyx: If this homegrown quota thing happens, Southampton might very well become the dominant force in European football.

Don't think I'd go that far Matthew.

[Zatman]

dont really have a grudge against them myself, lot of the media praise about cracking Top 4 can be over bearing but cant remember many of our fans complaining when we got the hype around 08-10

 

am sure some of our fans were acting the same way as the Southampton fans are reacting now

[KHV]

I think there's a hell of a lot to admire about them personally and there much closer to the Dortmund model than we are IMO. They play really good football, are solid defensively and have really got the pressing game working well. They also have a an academy that most clubs are envious of.

If you look at the team at the weekend, it has a nice mixture of academy players ( Ward-Prowse, Lallana, Shaw ), some players that have been with them through the leagues and signed for peanuts ( Lambert , Schneiderlin, Fonte ), some good players signed from lower leagues ( Clyne, Rodriquez ) and some bigger money signings ( Lovren and Wanyama ).

The actual first 11 that beat Hull cost less than £35m to put together ( I appreciate Ramirez and Osvaldo are expensive substitutes ) which is still not a lot of money in today's premier league standards.

I'd be interested to see how they get on in their next few games against the better teams but I can see them being this seasons surprise package

Your right, they are very close to the Dortmund model. We are a million miles away from that model.

[BOF]

dont really have a grudge against them myself, lot of the media praise about cracking Top 4 can be over bearing but cant remember many of our fans complaining when we got the hype around 08-10

 

am sure some of our fans were acting the same way as the Southampton fans are reacting now

Yup I've no grudge either. It's refreshing to see a new name up there legitimately playing with the big boys and there's a lot to admire about how they play the game. They've had a bit of a soft opening schedule but they've still gone and beaten plenty of sides that would traditionally handle them or at least draw them.

My only beef is when people use Southampton as a stick to beat Villa with, in a "why can't we do that" kind of way. They've spent a bloody fortune and there's no getting away from that. We did that once and we were exactly where they are now, so we HAVE done that. I don't think it'll end well for them but I don't mind them for doing what everyone around them in the league has done i.e. spent a few bob.

[AVFCforever1991]

Even we were 4th at Christmas, should be interesting to see how Southampton get on.. But they are certainly looking good.

[BOF]

Even we were 4th at Christmas, should be interesting to see how Southampton get on.. But they are certainly looking good.

We were 3rd in February biting at 2nd placed Chelsea's heels.  Arsenal fans had resigned themselves to 5th that season then we gave them the mother of all capitulations.

[Big_John_10]

They're nothing like last season's West Brom if you've actually watched their games. They're not winning by scraping results and backs to the wall tactics, they're genuinely outplaying opponents on a regular basis, have an extremely solid defence and retain possession at a great level. They're unlucky there are so many very good teams this year, so it's very unlikely they'll be top 4, but they're certainly in that top 8 group that will probably separate from the rest in a month or so.

Agreed. They're playing the type of football I want to see us playing this time next season (I accept this year will remain a bit of a grind).

It shouldn't be impossible when you consider Saints were in league 1 3 years ago.

They have backing from their chairman, it shows.

And a good manager. You need both of those things to do what they're doing right now.

We did it with MON and you don't rate him.

Haha

Great point.

[BOF]

They have backing from their chairman, it shows.

 

And a good manager. You need both of those things to do what they're doing right now.

 

We did it with MON and you don't rate him.

We had serious backing then too and look what happened. Basically two things can be taken from this. Firstly that Southampton's current purple patch could be very short term and secondly and more pertinently to the MON discussion is that the quality of a 'manager' (in the true sense of the word) can only be judged over the fullness of time. A few good seasons of financial mismanagement with brief high league positions followed by years of recovering from same does not a good manager make.

TL;DR Yes we did it with MON and no he's not a good 'manager'. Thankfully with ROI he won't be signing players or have access to any finances

[Zatman]

but they are different than us under mON, they are signing young hungry players from europe and abroad while we signed a load of journeymen cloggers. OSvaldo, Wanyama and Ramirez were highly prized around europe while we got Sallfou

they have also tapped into their youth team which we never really did under him

[BOF]

My response was mainly taking issue with the leap of logic that MON is someone you should rate because of the league positions we attained while he was here. This despite what we've witnessed since he left, all owing to his transfer mismanagement.  You can't judge him as a manager and ignore the other stuff.

 

I completely agree that Southampton's transfer tactics are different to MON's.  My opinion that theirs could be a short purple patch owes more to them being a small club that players will want to move on from in double quick time.  More so than the Ashley Youngs and James Milners did for us.

[Big_John_10]

but they are different than us under mON, they are signing young hungry players from europe and abroad while we signed a load of journeymen cloggers. OSvaldo, Wanyama and Ramirez were highly prized around europe while we got Sallfou

they have also tapped into their youth team which we never really did under him

Interesting that you compare one of our worst signings with their best.

We also did buy up and coming players. Davies and NRC were both very highly rated young players that didn't live up to their price tag.

Under him we also gave chances to youth players early on. Gabby showed he was good enough while Luke Moore showed he wasn't. Ultimately apart from Cahill and gabby I don't think or youth players were good enough to help us challenge the top four whereas they seem to be a higher standard at Southampton.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Big_John_10

[BOF]

They certainly do have an academy to be proud of; as do we in fairness .  Along with Watford they're some of the best academies in the country but the Saints must put something in the water down there.  Gareth Bale, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott & Wayne Bridge are the pick of the ones who left.  That doesn't include Le Tissier & Shearer who came through before the current academy set up (thanks wiki...)

[Big_John_10]

It's ridiculous the players they've produced. Obviously doing something right.

[Zatman]

i wasnt comparing the signing I was pointing out how up to date they were with scouting compared to our dinosaur ways.they got Lovren and Wanyama for nearly what we paid for NRC and Davies while one is playing really well at moment, I think a lot of people saw NRC as a dud from moment he got here

[Isa]

It's ridiculous the players they've produced. Obviously doing something right.

Giving them a chance from a young age?

[Zatman]

cant get link at moment but was a good article on Guardian today about it and how was set up

[AVFCforever1991]

cant get link at moment but was a good article on Guardian today about it and how was set up

 

This one?

 

England's grassroots flourishing under the successful Southampton regime

 

The Southampton youth academy that produced Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain just keeps on giving

 

No player epitomises how far Southampton have risen in such a short space of time better than Adam Lallana. The homegrown talent was their shining light during the dark days of administration and their struggles to escape from League One and he now finds himself cast as the poster boy for a flourishing youth academy that is being hailed as the future of English football.

 

There is a reason Roy Hodgson could be seen beaming in the stands at St Mary's as he watched Southampton thrash Hull City 4-1 on Saturday, a victory that lifted them up to third, three points off the top of the Premier League. It is unlikely to be the England manager's last trip to the south coast this season.

 

Hodgson, his thoughts turning to next summer's World Cup, was right to be pleased. Two days after he selected three Southampton players in the England squad for the upcoming friendlies against Chile and Germany, with Luke Shaw and James Ward-Prowse named in Gareth Southgate's Under-21 squad, Lallana had provided the game's stand-out moment, a shuffle of the hips and a bewitching change of pace confounding the Hull defence and allowing him to score a wonderful solo goal. Hodgson's other call-ups, Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez, also impressed, while Nathaniel Clyne, on the fringe of the squad, was as solid as ever at right-back.

 

Something special is blossoming at Southampton. Perhaps it is not too much of a surprise given that Gareth Bale, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott emerged from their youth system. Lallana was part of the team that reached the FA Youth Cup final in 2005 and played with Bale, who became the most expensive British player of all time when he joined Real Madrid for £86m from Tottenham Hotspur in September, and Walcott. Yet while both Bale and Walcott were sold to raise funds, Oxlade-Chamberlain also leaving a few years later, Lallana stayed, progressing at a slower rate and honing his skills at the club he joined from Bournemouth when he was 12. Now 25, he is Southampton's captain, the leader of a new generation.

 

"It's great when we look at the players that have come through and with Gareth [bale] it gives us high hopes that we can become like them one day," says Ward-Prowse, a 19-year-old midfielder whose right foot has been compared to David Beckham's by Matt Le Tissier. Shaw, 18, puts it nicely when he says that Southampton's youth players are mates who have known each other since they were eight. It means they understand each other, both as people and as players, and the challenge for Southampton is to ensure that they enjoy their best years at St Mary's, unlike their predecessors.

.

Southampton have been rewarded for their foresight and, while many bemoan the state of English football, they offer proof that it is not a lost cause, not when youngsters are given time to develop together or someone like Lambert, who had previously spent his career in the lower leagues, can become an international striker. Rodriguez, too, had never played in the Premier League before joining Southampton for £7m from Burnley last year. Having scored three goals in his past five league matches, he could start on the left of England's attack against Chile on Friday.

 

The foundations for Southampton's success were laid down years ago, the former chairman, Rupert Lowe, employing Huw Jennings, Steve Wigley, Stewart Henderson and Malcolm Elias to spot and develop local talent, while there has been no shift in emphasis just because the current chairman, Nicola Cortese, is Italian and the manager, Mauricio Pochettino, is Argentinian.

 

Although Jennings, Wigley and Elias are now at Fulham, their legacy lives on. Calum Chambers, an 18-year-old right-back, has been given a chance by Pochettino this season and is an England Under-19 international, while there are high hopes for a number of other youth team players.

 

Determined not to stagnate, Southampton have also invested £30m in redeveloping their training ground in Marchwood, which will provide greater facilities for their youth teams when it is finished. It is little wonder that Pochettino is so optimistic about the future.

 

"English football is very much alive," he says. "It is in a very healthy state. As for Southampton, we are on a very positive run, we want to keep on working as positively as we have done. We want to keep on working with young players. I think we're a very good example of the future of English football in that sense.

 

"The English media talks about things that have happened. So the reality is that this summer there were bad results with the Under-19s and Under-20s, so you speak about what has actually happened. What I've been seeing here is there's a very positive mentality towards young English players. In the short time that I have been here I have been very surprised at how well the English players are doing. I think there's a lot of belief in young players, especially at Southampton from the under-8s to the under-21s. I see a lot of belief. There's a very good structure in place.

 

"I don't see the future of English football in a negative way, I see it in a positive way. But I think there has to be that belief that there is a future for these young English players and we definitely have that here at the academy at Southampton. It's then down to the responsibilities of the managers. We have to believe in young players. We have to have confidence in them."

 

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/nov/12/england-grassroots-southampton-youth-academy

Edited November 13, 2013 by AVFCforever1991

[Electric Avenue]

Went to St Mary's last season after the Benteke debut & 2-0 v Swansea thinking we'd smash them especially being 1 up at HT. Then the wheels came off in spectacular fashion. Hoping this time is better, much better. 0-2 away win.