In which it all comes good.
As Saints headed into thel ast 15 games the situation was as follows, we had 52 points and my prediction at the time was that 85 was the target, given the league and the form of Brighton, Bournemouth & Huddersfield at the time, two of which we had to play away from home this was a hard task, it meant an average of 2.20 points per game, given that so far we had played 31 and got 52 given a ratio of 1.67 it looked harder, Adkins now had to really impose himself on the team and get it playing not only well but consistently.
I wont bore you with detail as we can all now look back on the fixture list, but it has to be said that Adkins started to show why he might have a long term future at the club, only 1 defeat in those games including great wins at both Bournemouth and Brighton saw promotion achieved in style and indeed Brighton almost caught, in fact take away the opening day of the season and Saints were a better team than the Seagulls in terms of points and goal difference, it ended up that close, perhaps emphasising what a decent squad we had.
But its no use having a big squad unless you use it well and in fairness to Adkins although he did still make mistakes, in the main he overcame the problems, as in when we lost Lee Barnard and used the squad to full effect as we effectively played two games a week for two months.
Yes there was still a suspicion of tinkering too much, yes he did still seem to not quite root out those making individual errors and yes he did still have his favourites, but you fel that finally he was starting to become his own man and impose his way of thinking rather than having to compromise.
Nigel Adkins also seemd to do things the right way and that has endeared him to the fans, he shows respect to the supporters and conducts himself in a calm manner, perhaps this is why it took a little bit of time before he got going, back in September the team was in turmoil, in the short term perhaps it needed a loud voice to get them back on track, but in the long term Adkins way is better and that showed in those final 15 games as the squad finally seemed to be pulling together.
Adkins stock has never been higher and this has both its advantages and disadvantages in that yes he can now dominate the dressing room etc but other clubs will be watching and hovering.
I would hope that there is no friction between manager and chairman, but only time will tell us that as was shown by the Pardew situation, if they are united then the club can progress, but obviously now Adkins is in a far better bargaining position, football is a mercenary sport and managers demand to work under their own terms, for the best part of 2010/11 season Adkins was a man given a chance at a higher level, he was not in a strong position to make demands etc, now he is and that could cause friction in the boardroom, its a very finely balanced scale at the moment.
Hopefully things will be OK, ifAdkins has enjoyed a cordial relationship with the Chairman then he is undoubtably a man who will be loyal, my only concern goes back to the January transfer window, Adkins was not given money to spend and that quaestion remains unansered, at the time as we have now seen, he was given a new 4 1/2 year contract, however that was not announced and seemingly was dependent on promotion being obtained, would Adkins feel that at that time he was still on probation and not quite yet trusted.
I think it is only now we will see the real Nigel Adkins, he can now finally start to stamp his own ideals on the squad and indeed make it truly his squad rather than Alan Pardew's, there are those that would say that if Pardew had stayed we would have still gone up, that view has credence in that very few of those that played a big part in our promotion were signed by Adkins, in fact most of his loan signings and his one real signing in Forte turned out to be distinctly average and couldnt break into the team even from the bench on a regular basis, we will now find out whether he signed these players because he wanted them or because they were all he could get with the budget available.
From this point of view there is still a question mark over Adkins, yes he undoubtably passed the biggest test, in that he took a good squad and got them promotion, but in truth it wasnt a job as he did at Scunthorpe were he took players and got them to punch above their weight, he inheirited the biggest and best squad in thedivision and got them to where they should have been, that being said, he could only do what he did, it was a thankless task to be blunt.
On a plus point perhaps the way that Nicola Cortese wants to run things will suit Adkins, clearly the manager does not decide on transfers at St Mary's nowadays, yes he will have an input, but so will Cortese himself and others including Les Reid, but this might be the way forward at football clubs, it was the way Lowe was trying to head when he appointed Sir Clive Woodward and others and its the way Liverpool are going now, personally I think its the way forward, but lets not pretend its something new from our Chairman, we have seen it before and we have seen the supporters rail against it then.
But as i say this might suit Adkins who clearly is a great man manager and coach but lacks experience at buying players apart from the bargain basement.
This article is not meant to be critical of Nigel Adkins, far from it, its meant to be a fair analyse and overview, in life few things are black or white, sadly today;s football fan seems to feel that they are, players, managers, chairman even are only seen in the context of the last defeat or win not the long term view, I have high hopes for Nigel Adkins, but he will get things right and he will get things wrong, all managers do even the best and most experienced ones.
The future can be very bright with Adkins in charge at St Mary's he has passed his first tests and done what was demanded of him, now the real work starts for him.