The Preview: Southampton v Norwich City

After City’s unexpectedly impressive start against Hull City, things step up a couple notches this weekend when they head to St Mary’s for what we expect to be one of the toughest tests of the season.

For some inside info on a new-look Southampton, there’s no one better to turn to than my old mucker from our Metro Sport days, Saints fan and former blogger, Chris Rann.

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GG: Well… this is unexpected. I didn’t see us locking horns again for several seasons if I’m honest. I had you guys down as solid, Premier League mid-table perennials for the foreseeable. What went wrong last season? Surely it can’t be as simple as Nathan Jones?

CR: Not so unexpected for me, unfortunately, we had been largely terrible for two years. The odd big results (away at Spurs for example) had papered over a lot of cracks coming into the start of last season.

Jones was perhaps the biggest of a plethora of mistakes that made for the perfect storm and the shambles of a season.

Firstly the hesitancy of a board that was too friendly with Hassenhuttl to sack him in the summer and give a new manager a decent run-up meant we started as things were to go on. Hassenhuttl started his Southampton career in fine fashion – exciting, high-pressing football and made us competitive again after a few years of rubbish – but he had completely lost his way. Perhaps it was the two nine-goal drubbings, a lack of decent recruitment, etc. but the football was both negative and ineffective. His time was up long before he was shown the door, despite the fanbase misguidedly still backing him in the main because he was a ‘nice bloke’.

When they finally did pull the trigger there seemed to have been zero planning involved and we ended up with Nathan Jones. More out of depth than an Oceangate submersible, Jones coupled being neither the quality of coach required for success in the Premier League with being a pretty unlikeable human being. Strange pre and post-match interviews mixed David Brentesque sound bites, weird bragging about his own achievements with other clubs, and even referring to us as Southampton not ‘we’. He was on a hiding to nothing and results were abysmal. The writing was on the wall, and it seemed obvious the club needed to right their mistake and fast. They waited too long and then made their third big mistake.

When a club is in trouble and they appoint from within that usually only ends one way. No change here. Ruben Selles had been an assistant coach of some reputation who had worked under Hassenhuttl and Jones. The players liked him (as they often do with number twos/coaches) but it was the final nail in the coffin in terms of results. There was no definable identity to Saints at this point other than they consistently lost games, even those where they had got themselves in a position to win.

If you add to three pretty poor decisions on a coaching front with some odd recruitment and a reliance on tried and tested dross (money spent in January to save us was used on players barely used in the games going forward), plus a growing apathy amongst the support, the end result was unstoppable. We managed to be both toothless going forwards and error-prone at the back.

We were the worst team in the Premier League last season and by a distance.

Tell me about it. We know all about being the worst team in the Premier League by a distance. Anyway, Russell Martin. Early impressions. I should warn you… he’s a talker.

He’s a good-looking fella and has a tough job on his hands. A lot of our support (wrongly in my opinion) think we should be bouncing straight back up first go. Personally, I think it will take time to remove the losing mentality and the hangovers of last season from a relatively unchanged squad. He clearly likes to keep the ball (Saints made nearly 300 more completed passes than any other Championship side on opening weekend) but that will require patience in the stands.

We looked decent against Wednesday and the scoreline didn’t reflect the dominance, but we looked equally dreadful against Gillingham last night (Tuesday). We had the lion’s share of possession in both games but only converted three chances across them both. Martin needs a consistent goalscorer and fast or, for me, we will be well off the promotion discussion.

At the time of writing, you’ve just sold Tino Lavramento to Saudi FC, so I was going to ask you if some of that money will be used to bring Max Aarons to the South Coast, but events have overtaken us. So… let’s instead talk about those who have already arrived over the summer. Any standouts?

Aarons is a player we were linked with every summer. Whether there was ever anything in that or not I don’t know. We still have Walker-Peters (who is too good for this division) and Bree (who was reportedly statistically the best right-back in the division last season when we signed him) so I’m not sure they would have focused on another right-back unless one of those two left.

We have signed Shea Charles from Man City who is an unknown quantity, but if he is half as good as Roman Lavia who we got from there last summer we are on to a winner. Ryan Manning has come in from Swansea and his numbers last season at this level speak for themselves. I would hope we might bring in a few more prior to the window closing but moving on our unsellable assets seems to be putting a stop to that.

Since I asked that daft question, it looks as if you (reportedly) made a late bid for Max before he opted for Bournemouth. As an aside (and also at the time of writing) the Southampton to Liverpool fast track still seems to be going strong with Lavia being the latest on their list of most wanted. He’ll eventually end up in their Under 21s? What a lovable bunch they are.

One thing that has changed in that respect is that our owners are standing firm in not letting our players go for less than we value them. Hence why some of our bigger names are currently still with us. Lavia is going to be a star and Liverpool won’t regret paying the £50 million we want. Chelsea offered us that in January and we turned it down. I think he will go straight into their first team. They’ve lost a couple in that position and I’d have him over Jordan Henderson every day of the week anyway.

Of course, we are having to put up with their fans on Twitter telling us we should be caving into their lowball offers and the usual nonsense that surrounds ‘big six’ fans and their sense of entitlement, but it would seem we aren’t the pushover we once were.

I’d lost track of your ownership, but it looks like you’re now owned by an investment group led by a hard-as-nails Serb. How’s that been going and has he/they dug deep? Or are you guys tempted by the self-funding model? (NOTE: As noble as it sounds, never be tempted by the self-funding model).

They certainly can’t be accused of a lack of investment. They have spent plenty of money, the question mark is over whether they have spent it well. Rasmus Ankersen’s involvement has been closely watched as he seemed to be making all the (wrong) footballing decisions and their tenure so far can only be seen as a failure.

If they’ve got it right this time with Russell Martin then that will soon be forgotten. They’ve bought Jason Wilcox in as Director of Football and that seems to have been a wise decision.

It’s too early to ask you who we should be wary of on Saturday afternoon, but who in your squad do you expect to rip up the Championship this season? (Who we can then be wary of on Saturday afternoon).

Nathan Tella spent last year on loan at Burnley and looks to be a new player. If he stays then he could be key, but one who looks to be definitely staying is Charly Alacaraz – he is a very good player with attacking intent and an eye for goals from midfield. He will make mincemeat of this division if his desire is there.

James Ward-Prowse and Walker-Peters are unfathomably still around and unless someone meets the asking price we might have them until at least January. They are both too good for this division. 

Am assuming you also have good players with single-barrel names? 😀 You mentioned earlier that, unlike many Saints fans, you don’t expect to do a Burnley and bounce back to the dreaded PL at the first opportunity. So where do you predict you’ll finish?

I have a feeling we will be somewhere between 10th and 13th. If this is achieved with a clear playing identity and some returned confidence and continued player investment then I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with that. This division is so competitive. I have a feeling we will either blow teams away or lose scrappy 1-0s.

And while you’re at it… a loose prediction for our finishing position? (It’s okay to be brutally honest).

CR: Well, I am confused that you decided to revert from your usual Modus Operandi and go straight back up, which makes this more difficult. You have to expect Norwich to be there or thereabouts given the experience of the division and what it takes. Top 10.

Finally, standard, care to offer up a score prediction for Saturday?

Tough one. If we play well and click then I would back us at home to get a result. If the shadows of last season are still there and the home crowd grows nervous and frustrated then all bets are off. I am going to go for a safe and steady 1-1.

Cheers mate. Appreciated. Go well.