Success was distictly measurable over the past few seasons, but with Southampton Football Club's return to the Premier League, setting the standards and measuring them is a lot more complex.
When Markus Liebherr bought Saints back In July 2009 and appointed Nicola Cortese to oversee the running of it, short and indeed medium term success for the club was easy to set and indeed measue whther it had been achieved or not, mention was made of a five year plan, a plan that at the end of it success would be the Club back in the Premiership within that time scale. It was specified right at the start that in the first year it would be about rebuilding and that aligned with the points deduction meant that promotion in the first year, although it would be welcomed, was not part of the plan.
In the first year of course we did not achieve promotion, however the season was still seen as success due to the squad that he been put together alongside the winning of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, at the end of that season, most concurred that Saints had taken some big steps towards the five year plan although that was tinged with a little bit of a belief in some quarters that the team had got itself into the promotion race around Xmas time and it was a little disapointing that they didnt kick on and achieve it, however overall despite that the plan was on course.
The second season of Markus's time at the club began on a note of sadness with the death sadly of the man who stepped in and bought the Club at its lowest hour and all Saints fans mourned, but the business of the football club had to continue and for season 2010/11, the measure of success was very clear, promotion to the Championship was the only target and to keep the five year plan on track it had to be achieved, history shows that of course it was.
Season 2011/12 had a far less stringent target, most supporters felt that stability should be the key to this year, success would be seen as a top ten finish, a position that would leave us well placed to build on the foundations to mount a good challenge in 12/13, a play off place would be seen as overachieving, we know of course that we smashed all expectations, not just of our own support but of the footballing world and won promotion automatically.
However we have now set the standards and this means that we have to set the parameters of what we see as success and how we can achieve it. For teams in the premier its not so clear cut, there is a definate difference in standards from club to club and what would be a triumph for say Everton would be a sackable offence at Liverpool as we have just seen with the departure of Kenny Dalglish.
Certainly there seems to be a big chasm in the expectations of Saints fans next season, there are those who seem to think that we are on the verge of greatness, that European Qualification should be achievable and that our players are up there with the top prmier stars, on more than one occasion I have seen supporters demanding that Lambert & Lallana go to the Euros and how it would be a travesty if they didnt. Of course there are those with more modest expectations, older supporters who remember the 90's and consider success to be 4th from bottom next year.
But in any line of business targets have to be set and they have to be measurable, over the past two seasons on this site i sat very measurable targets to gain promotion, two points average per game and indeed last season Nigel Adkins aluded to the fact that he was measuring our progress in that was as well, targets have to factor in short term highs and lows and Nigel was well aware of when the team was not performing over a period of time, at no time did he ever during a bad run, give the excuse that we were top of the league what were people moaning about, he knew that the season was 46 games long and he knew whether our form was improving or deterioating over any given time, the managers targets definately factored in many things.
When setting targets they need to be several things, SMART is a well known acronym in the business world and it works well in any business including football.
S = Specific & Stretching
M = Measurable, Moveable & Motivational
A = Achievable
R = Realistic
T = Time based or trackable
In Saints terms this means that for S our target should be a little above our comfort zone, yes we would be happy with 15th but we should be capable of 12th and that should be our target, Nicola Cortese once famously said if you reach for the moon you get the stars and thats very true, but you have to remember that although the moon and stars may be achievable, we havent yet put a man on mars, so that perhaps isnt, im digressing to A & R here.
M is for measurable and for a football club thats very easy, we have the league table to do that for us, add to that the cup competitions and we can measure our success simply, however a football club is a lot more complex, most supporters measure it alone by league position, but with any business there are many other areas of the business that have to have SMART applied to them, be they marketing, merchandising or even catering, all have to play their parts, most supporters however care only about one thing and that is where the team lies in the table, if its top they assume that everything within the business is rosy and it the team is bottom they assume everything is going to hell in a handcart.
M is also for moveable, last season it became clear that our initial target of a top ten finish would be achieved and indeed smashed, we therefore had to reassess our targets, and alongside that keep them motivational, you cant have a dressing room of players turning round to the manager after a defeat and saying "dont worry boss you have only targetted us for tenth and we are second" you have to keep them focussed and motivated to keep stretching that target.
A is for Achievable, it is fine reaching for the moon, but you have to assess what is really within our powers, most supporters would say a top ten finish would be achievable, but if we set the target at 4th then that wouldnt be, Achievable some would say could be the same as Realistic, but there is subtle differences, not least when setting Achievable you have to ask yourself the question about outcomes, the simplest example would be 17th & 18th position, which position would you be happy with, if Saints finished 17th they would be safe, 18th and relegated, so the target would be 17th, that is the achievable target, up that a knotch and say 16th & 17th, if you were happy with 16th would you be happy with 17th, if the answer is yes then 17th is the target, of course like any area of SMART they are all cross referenced at times.
Realistic is self explanatory, if you set Nigel Adkins the task of winning the Premier League you have set him up for failure, its just not realistic, nor does it fit in with other areas of SMART, NIgel's target needs to be realistic as does all his players, Rickie for instance has got well over 20 goals in each of his three seasons, however this will be a harder ask in the Premier, so perhaps 15 goals this season is a realistic target for him, given that only three players hit 20 or over in 2011/12 and only four hit over 15, this would be perhaps a realisitc target for him and one that fits in with all other areas of SMART, certainly its no use saying that 14 is poor as he hit double that in 11/12
Finally its time based or trackable, for supporters its again simple, we have a season to do that for us, the only position that truly counts is the final one and despite all the little side targets that you run along side, its that final league position that is the only one that truly matters. But as I said earlier you have to have more than one overall target, each part of any business has to be playing its part and you also have to have long and short term plans, we all have heard of Saints five year plan and we all know that has been achieved in three years, thats because we have kept focussed with short term targets that keep the longer term ones in sight.
So cutting to the quick what now constitutes success for Saints ? applying SMART, I would say this
12th would meet all requirements, its specific, its stretching, Swansea were 1tth and Norwich 12th both on 47 poits, so its also achievable and realistic and of course its time based and trackable.
So to attain 12th we have to track our season based on a points average of 1.25 per game, if we keep to that then relegation should never be a worry and we will like the aforementioned two clubs who were promoted the season before us, have built some good foundations for our long term goal which has to be to re establish ourselves as a perrenial top flight club