Occasionally we find a good 'un on the Twitter, and this week is no exception. An excellent interview with Southampton fan Mark Higgins may ring a few bells with QPR fans ahead of Saturday's trip to St Mary's.
Apologies for being obvious, but let's start with the summer when the manager and a number of talented players left. What did you make of that? Was it inevitable? Could the club have tried harder to hold onto them? Were you worried before the season started?
MH: You learn fairly swiftly not to take anything for granted at Southampton. It might appear that I’m being facetious in suggesting that the departures of Lovren, Chambers, Lallana, Lambert and Shaw and was similar to losing Andrew Surman and David McGoldrick in 2009, but to me the situations have a lot in common.
Back then, we’d been relegated from the Championship, and the term "crisis club” was being bandied all over the media just as it was this summer. McGoldrick scored twelve goals for us that season, more than any other player at the club and was a very important part of a struggling Championship squad. Andrew Surman was an academy product who played over a hundred games for the club. To see players like that leave as a result of administration hurt.
It was looking pretty bleak and there was a good chance that the club wouldn’t continue to exist in its current state. How likely that was is pretty difficult to say speaking as someone not involved with the club, but a complete collapse could have meant supporting AFC Southampton in the 2009/10 Wessex Football League, facing up against Poole Town and Bemerton Heath Harlequins.
When I thought about that possibility I realised that, if the worst come to the worst, I’d probably still have a club to support. I’d still have players to shout "CHASE IT” at and still have a disappointing cup of tea at half time. Once I realised that, I calmed down. Obviously shortly after that we got bought by a delightful Swiss billionaire, Rickie Lambert single-footedly kicked us up the leagues and everything was rosy. Having been down to a fairly dark place as far as football goes, when we started selling players this summer I was reasonably content that we’d be alright. It might be slightly unromantic but I’d rather have a bit of financial security and a club to keep supporting than do a Leeds.
I suppose the one thing that rankled was the accusations of people like Brendan Rodgers that players were leaving because of a "lack of ambition” at Southampton. This was supposedly instigated by the departure of former executive chairman Nicola Cortese and manager Maurico Pochettino, a form of domino theory that when one person goes everyone worth their while would drop off as well. I don’t buy into that.
Much has been made of the role that Les Reed took in the whole transfer saga, as head of football Development, with people suggesting he lacked the backbone to force players to stay. I think the Schneiderlin situation proves that he was happy for players like Shaw to go for an eye-watering £27m, but the paltry £10-15m Spurs were offering for Morgan wasn’t going to be entertained. Let’s not forget that we let Gareth Bale go to Spurs for just £7m in 2007, selling our rights to any sell-on clause for a lump sum of about £3m a year later.
Perhaps the view was that finishing in the top half of the Premier League gave us more weight to hold onto players this summer - certainly more weight than when we were in with a chance of going out of business - but nowhere near the clout of any team playing European football. The higher you fly the more your players are going to get noticed. The only transfer I was truly surprised by was Lambert. I had expected him to finishing his career at Southampton, like in Football Manager when you let an old timer see out their contract in a rare display of sentimentality - but you couldn’t begrudge him a move to his boyhood club.
I’ve been telling everyone it would all be fine this season and results seem to be bearing that out, but as usual with Saints we’re only a few months away from the next scheduled "crisis”.
What did you think of the appointment of Ronald Koeman at the time, and how do you feel he's done so far? What has he changed style of play wise?
I was relatively pleased with the appointment of Koeman — from the quick online searches around him and the customary view of his Wikipedia page (ooh, loads of lovely Dutch honours) he looked like someone with a bit of knowledge in the game and in turn, respect from players and other managers alike. Of course, we’ve been burned before in this aspect. When Jan Poortvliet was given the job back in 2008 we were regaled with the stories of his performances for Holland in the 1978 World Cup, with little idea of the horror to come. Then again, Nigel Pearson looked resolutely unimpressive and managed to keep us up so it’s generally important not to get too het up either way when you get a new chap in.
I prefer ignoring the glorified training matches of pre-season and look at the results in competitive matches, and on that basis Koeman’s done staggeringly well. The performance at Anfield on the first day of the season was extremely encouraging, and then seeing our first win at Millwall in the League Cup was a real catalyst. Having brought in Graziano Pelle, a journeyman of a striker with a record eerily similar to Lambert, it was crucial in my eyes that he started scoring as soon as possible lest he become another Dani Osvaldo — a hyped player that couldn’t find the back of the net.
Pelle represents Koeman on the pitch — a player he knows, that plays the way he likes, that he brought in to score goals. If he fails, to some extent Koeman fails as well. The effort Pelle was putting into that Millwall match, the desperation for him to score that was finally vindicated, was encouraging to see. He’s slotted a few more in since then, which has been a treat.
Koeman’s got the team playing a slightly less intense pressing game than we had with Pochettino — the line’s further back and there’s more control in defence. It was quite a sight last season to see every player running for the ball when they didn’t have it, which certainly put the wind up a few opponents, but there’s a quiet confidence to our play at the moment. It allows Schneiderlin a lot of room to play that he didn’t have before, and the fact that we have seen him, Victor Wanyama and Jack Cork all playing at the same time — something that could never have worked in a Pochettino system — is very exciting indeed.
Tell us about the summer transfer business incoming, because it rather got ignored amid media coverage about the apparent disintegration of your squad. Couple of the players seem to have very useful records, albeit in the Dutch league…
Last season we brought in three players — Lovren in defence, Wanyama in midfield and Osvaldo up front. You could argue that Lovren was outstanding for us, Wanyama generally solid and Osvaldo a mistake, but it was viewed as good business for a club of our size. This season, if you looked at the players we brought in and ignored the ones that we let go you’d say we’d done some very good business indeed.
The records of Graziano Pelle and Dusan Tadic in the Dutch league were exceptional, and probably the signings that best represent Koeman’s approach to the game. Pelle is big, powerful and potentially dangerous with a frankly silly goalscoring record in the Eriedivisie. It always takes a while to see how a player will adapt to the Premier League but he’s done well so far and barring injuries should do a decent job for us. Tadic on the other hand was clearly signed as a ready-made replacement for Adam Lallana, and while he doesn’t quite have the pace and highly endearing sideways-lean-while-running, he’s shown a lot of quality in his touch with a few clever flicks here and there.
Bringing in Fraser Forster for £10m is as much a sign of ambition as you’re likely to get from a side like Southampton. I’d much rather have him in goal than attempt to pay Luke Shaw £100k a week, so perhaps my view of "ambition” is slightly different to his. Regardless, keeping Artur Boruc in goal probably would have been okay but Fraser is a much better keeper in almost all regards. Mainly, he’s more reliable and that’s the sort of thing that builds confidence in a defence.
The loan signings of Toby Alderweireld and Ryan Bertrand are about as good as we can get in the market. I’d love it if Bertrand was able to stay with us permanently, as I don’t think it’s any good for a player of his talent to be stuck in Chelsea’s rotating loan case, but he’ll do a job for us as long as he’s here. Similarly, Alderweireld looked good at the World Cup and despite only playing a few games for Atletico Madrid last season is an undoubted talent.
Shane Long was probably one of the stranger moments of the transfer window but a pleasant surprise. He’s never going to be prolific in front of goal but he does get on the nerves of defences and never makes things easy for them. Also, we had £12m to spend and he was well up for it, so why not? Considering that we ended the window with £30m of profit the board can be forgiven for overpaying on this one.
This week’s game at Arsenal gave me an opportunity to take a look at Sadio Mane and Florin Gardos in a bit more detail. I saw Gardos play the second half of the Swansea game and as he wasn’t forced to do a lot wasn’t able to make much of an impression, but against the Gunners he was much more present and formed a solid partnership with Jose Fonte at the back. Fonte’s rise over the last few seasons has been outstanding — he was tremendous in the Championship but it took him some time to adjust to the Premier League. For many he was seen as the weak link in the partnership with Lovren, but with him gone and Fonte taking the captaincy he’s now assuming the role of head boy at the back. Gardos has been bedded in slowly but looks a solid backup to Alderweireld. Anything to stop Yoshida playing is fine by me.
It was Mane’s debut at Arsenal and he certainly looks like he could be an exciting player to watch, one way or another. For the first ten minutes he was either fouling someone, being fouled or falling over. Let’s blame the slippy pitch. When he did stay on his feet he was fast — probably not quite as fast as he thinks he is yet — but watching him run down the wing was very exciting. After being switched to the left halfway through the first half he looked much more effective.
One of my favourite Koeman moments this season was a press conference in which, with some glee, he exclaimed that having Rodriguez back in the squad "would be like having a new signing”. To an extent he’s right — a player that he hasn’t seen in action yet, probably reaching peak fitness by January, and one that did tremendous work for the team last season. His goals will be very much appreciated when they come. You could argue that holding onto Rodriguez and Schneiderlin was the best business we did in the transfer window, assuming Sadio Mane doesn’t end up winning the Ballon d’Or next year.
The media also seemed to think that Nicola Cortese's departure would be the end of the upward curve. What did you make of him, a controversial figure at times? And what impact, if any, has his departure made?
The difficulty I have criticising Cortese’s reign at Southampton is every decision he made benefited the club. Convincing Markus Liebherr to buy the club, bringing in Alan Pardew, signing Rickie Lambert, sacking Pardew, bringing in Adkins, sacking Adkins, bringing in Pochettino. It was a remarkable upwards curve that he presided over and as such despite the number of misgivings I had over his decisions, you had to respect that the club had only benefited out of it.
I’m not sure if that was part of his strategy at the club — complete control over every aspect, and success vindicating all his decisions. There were a few of his changes that I never really understood,— banning the local paper from the ground, banning photographers from games, alienating ex-players such as Matt Le Tissier and generally building a wall around himself. The fact that Pochettino and the players bought so deeply into his vision of what the club could and should achieve was obviously fantastic when things were going well - nothing like a sense of unity for a football club — but when he decided to leave it set about a chain of events that couldn’t really end any way other than with wholesale changes.
One of the changes he made that seemed trivial at the time was getting rid of the programme stalls around the stadium staffed by old boys, and replacing them with a team of very smartly dressed women who would sell them by hand. He also made it possible to buy a programme at every other outlet inside the stadium where money could change hands — the bars, food outlets and club shop. This represented Cortese’s ideas for the club in two ways — maximising opportunities for revenue generation where he could, and making the match day experience (in his eyes) a classier affair all round. Obviously this meant that the programme sellers got wet when it chucked it down, so now Cortese has gone they’ve got a booth. Takes bloody ages to get a programme now. Get him back in.
Any more future £25m players coming up through that academy system?
One of the most exciting things about the club is seeing the new talent come through, getting a chance in the first team. Luke Shaw, Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are some of the best examples of that and spotting who might be next is always a treat.
Our League Cup tie with Arsenal earlier this week handled a start to Matt Targett, a player who we’ve been hearing good things about for a while so it was good to see him get a run out at a decent level. He didn’t disappoint — an excellent eye for the ball and started a number of moves from the back that led to decent goal scoring opportunities. I’m always delighted when a player can seek out a ball coming from forty yards away and maintain possession, and he managed that on a number of occasions. Only eighteen and a worthy successor to Luke Shaw in that regard — should provide decent cover for Ryan Bertrand in the left back position.
Targett’s been called up for England’s Under-20s this season, as has Harrison Reed who’s been banging around on the edge of the first team for a couple of seasons now. Regularly gets compared to Paul Scholes for no other reason than they’ve got the same hair colour as far as I can tell. He was called to train with the England first team before the last round of internationals, which was presumably very exciting for him, and will probably get a run in the first XI at some point this season when someone gets an injury.
Lloyd Isgrove made his Premier League debut against Liverpool at the beginning of the season and gave a decent account of himself, despite the loss. He’s got a confidence, much like other academy prospects, that you wouldn’t expect from someone with the little experience he has. Picked up a knock a few weeks ago which isn’t ideal but should be competing for a position on the wing with the rest of them. He’s a great example of having decent options from the academy that have the hunger to push into the first team, something that’s being encouraged more and more at the club.
Short, medium and long term aims for Southampton…
In the short term the aim has to be to solidify as a team and try to maintain the incredible start we’ve had to the season — six games undefeated, five wins in a row and ten points in the league. It might seem a cynical view but that’s a quarter of the way to Premier League safety, and that has to be the immediate aim. Injuries and suspensions will take their toll on the squad as the season rolls on, so it’s important to make the most of this star to the season and the optimism that surrounds the club. James Ward-Prowse is looking like he’ll be out until Christmas with a stress fracture in the foot, and a few more of those injuries could stitch us right up. December sees us take on Arsenal again, United and Chelsea, with Man City at the end of November which could be a very tricky time for the club.
Medium term, there’s no reason why a decent run in the cup shouldn’t be on the cards. The performance at Arsenal shows that Koeman is taking the competition seriously, something his predecessor failed to do by sending out a second-string team to take on a distinctly average Sunderland side in the fourth round last year. Realistically it’s our best shot at both silverware and a European spot this season so it’s worth pursuing. I’d like to see a similar effort in the FA Cup as well which would be a real shot on the arm for the fans and some of the fringe players to prove their worth.
This season was hyped as one where a club in disarray could end up going down in flames, and the start of the season has seen us do better than even someone as optimistic as me could imagine. I think long term the aim has to be to finish higher than last year’s eighth in the league, to push on and aim for that Europa League slot. European football raises your profile, invites a higher class of player and helps you keep hold of your stars. We’ve done alright out of this transfer window with some shrewd signings and retentions but I wouldn’t want to put any money on being able to repeat the trick two seasons in a row.
The Twitter @loftforwords, @higginsmark
Pictures — Action Images