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Southampton progress despite recent fall

By on April 7, 2015

Where was your club five years ago? Manchester United were at Wembley, playing Barcelona in the Champions League final after winning the Premier League; Arsenal finished fourth, yet again, and Manchester City achieved their highest Premier League finish in the modern era, at the time, third.

Southampton FC were at the small home of Brentford FC on the outskirts of London, suffering an obscure, unimportant 2-0 third division defeat. They’d only just been salvaged from administration — and incredibly, for a long while this season, Southampton were at the top of the Premier League table challenging the big boys.

The rapidity of their rise is dumbfounding: back-to-back promotions lead to a Premier League spot in 2012/2013, and Southampton have not looked back since.  Spearheaded by owner Markus Liebherr, the club developed a new identity with a Moneyball-esque outlook.  Their academy had always been one of the best in England, producing the likes of Alan Shearer, Theo Walcott, and Gareth Bale over the years, but for the first time they placed much of their first-team success on the shoulders of young stars such as Nathaniel Clyne, Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers, Adam Lallana, and James Ward-Prowse.

They breezed through the Championship in 2011/2012, comfortably achieving automatic promotion and even the challenge of staying up in the Premier League the next season.  Southampton have had managers picked off by the big boys on three occasions, season after season.  Most recently, Mauricio Pochettino took offers from Tottenham Hotspur last summer, and yet, the club have defied all odds and only continued to improve. The club is always bigger than its given manager, and its identity and goal never altered.

Last season they found themselves on the brink of European football, finishing in seventh place in the Premier League. The past summer they lost the likes of Shaw, Lallana, Chambers, Rickie Lambert, and Dejan Lovren to Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal, yet still managed to improve this season. It’s a story that has been told many times and will go down in club folklore. But how; how did Southampton manage to continue their upward trend? Many teams — Everton, for years — have been standing at the foot of European football but most always failed to break the hold of the big boys; and if so, not for long. Manchester City poured millions upon hundreds of millions of dollars on a long term project and even they were laughed upon as “noisy neighbors” for years. How can a mid-table team break the doors of the big boys, when they will be picked apart at the end of the season?

Most teams attempt the expensive way out and lure players with cash. Queens Park Rangers have recently taken that approach through making their own expensive purchases.  A Moneyball philosophy was at the heart of Southampton’s approach, and the club embraced their role as a “mid-table club”.  They let their in-form players go for wads of excess cash to the big boys, then reinvesting their earnings into cheaper, slyer buys. It’s not glorious by any means, but Moneyball never promised glittering lights — only results.

And yet, glories it achieved. On Boxing Day of 2014, Southampton sat in third place in the Premier League more than halfway through the season. Their form peaked around the New Year with a draw at Chelsea and wins over Manchester United and Arsenal, although it has slowly trailed off since.  They have won just twice since early February. Now, Southampton sits again in eighth place, but with European football still solidly in their sights, only a point behind Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool.

Ronald Koeman may very well move at the end of the season, as will outstanding performers such as Graziano Pelle — but Southampton won’t be deterred in the slightest. They’ve set up a long-term plan to break into the top six, and their recent fall shouldn’t in the least alter their viewpoint. This past season hasn’t been a disappointment at St. Mary’s at all — given their improbable rise, sitting comfortably at the top end of the Premier League can be considered nothing but a resounding success. And they continue to make progress, as well.

Photo credit: Ingy the Wingy on Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.