Saints Prepare For Life Outside The Premier League With Redundancies Thursday, 8th Jun 2023 13:30 Being relegated from the Premier League has big financial implications for any football club and Southampton FC are no different in this respect, as we prepare for an exodus on the playing side comes news that the non playing side will see a lot of trimming also. Professional football players in the main no longer have much affinity for the clubs they play for, even those who are locally born such as Danny Ings showed not loyalty when Aston Villa and more money came knocking. Whilst the players themselves are relatively secure, they can't be made redundant, in fact quite the opposite, they have secure contracts that must be paid whatever, Ok some will have relegation clauses inserted that will reduce down their wages, but that elicits little sympathy in the fanbase, after all it must be a big struggle to survive on £30k a week instead of £60k. An article on line at TheAthletic claimed a week or so ago that the club had sent out 340 "at risk" redundancy notices even before the last ball of the Premier League season had been kicked. It is fair to say it didn't include any of our bloated playing squad. But who really suffer when a club gets relegated are those that work for it, at the top Martin Semmens as CEO is already leaving by that old chestnut mutual consent and Managing Director Toby Steele was already working his notice. The next layer is those considered Executives and heads of department, many of these are not Southampton natives but hired in, they themselves simply move on and find another job in whatever field they can.
But below that the staff roster is a lot more local and this is where it really starts to be a question of quantity, as mentioned by TheAthletic 340 people were at risk and that is now believed to be down to the fact that around 140 people will leave the club completely, the other 200 either keeping their jobs or being redeployed elsewhere. The consultancy period has now begun and over the next few weeks, those affected will find out their fate. Many of them will be lifelong fans of the club who perhaps achieved their dream of actually working for it and are now going to have their dreams shattered, although I suspect that this will be the least of their worries, they will be more concerned in these difficult times about paying mortgages, bills and how they are going to support themselves and their families. But truly do Southampton FC need to get rid of so many people on what looks like a knee jerk reaction?
After all they have put out some big words about next season and challenging for an immediate return to the Premier League, so why do something on a whim, surely they would have been better to have waited a while, seen how next season was progressing and review the situation at the half way point, after all if we go straight back up, surely we will need to fill some of these roles again. Most of those leaving will not even be on an annual salary of half what most of the first team squad earn in a week, perhaps those responsible for our relegation would like to put their hands in their pockets to pay for these people to stay at the club. In simple terms if our 30 or so First team squad players, plus the 3 managers each donated a weeks wages then that would pay for 60 or so people's wages for a year and enable them to stay on. I suspect that this will not a topic of conversation in the dressing room and the club has not been approached by the players, this would be a drop in the ocean for the players, but a vital lifeline for 60 employees. Of course this will never happen, some professional player still have a connection with the real world and our squad has usually been better than most, but in our 11 seasons since returning to the top flight a lot has changed and little of it for the better. I feel more sad about those losing their jobs than I do about the actual relegation itself, although I was well aware that we had far more employees than seemed necessary in certain departments and that some of those going perhaps don't deserve our sympathy for the way they have done their jobs , the person who chose this season's kits for instance.
Sadly I don't feel there will be a happy ending, but I have to say that the swiftness in which Sport Republic have acted here does not endear me to them, I trust them to put right what they have made a hash of on the playing side of things, but the callousness of the redundancies makes me thing that they have not connected with this football club at all. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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