x

The Club Is Bigger Than One Man !

Its an old saying, but the fact is that Southampton Football Club, like all football clubs does not rely on one employee to keep it running.

In today's social media driven witch hunt's it's easy to forget that Southampton Football Club has survived for 129 years with more than just one manager and the same squad of players.

If you believed some supposed Saints fans out there if Mauricio Pochettino leaves for Spurs then the club will collapse faster than a house made of cards in a gust of wind.

These supporters seem to think that football clubs are not run by manager's these days, but by messiahs and that getting it right one season is a guarantee of doing the same the next, they also seem to think that football is an exact science and that a good manager + good youngsters + massive investment will always = Champions League Football.

That is certainly not the caseas was shown by David Moyes at Manchester United this season and perhaps we should learn a lesson from them in how the "desire" of the supporters for success can drive a manager out of a club.

Saints have always survived and always will, Chairman come and go, managers come and go, players come and go but what remains constant is the club itself and the supporters behind it.

This takes me back to our history, on several occasions its seemed like the club is about to implode, the summer of 1982 would be one such occasion, the departure of Kevin Keegan lead to mass protests from supporters about how we lacked ambition etc, especially when we replaced him with the likes of Justin Fashanu on loan etc, however within two years we were second in the league and within a whisker of an FA Cup final and competing for a League & Cup double.

Likewise when Lawrie McMenemy left in 1985, this was to be the end of Saints in the iorst Division, yet under Chris Nicholl we prospered the following year, a reasonable League finish aligned with another FA Cup semi final with then invincible Liverpool needing extra time to beat us.

The moral is that over the ages we have often lost managers and players that have brought the gloom merchants to the fore, yet we have always marched on because in football managers will always come and go, the trick is to replace them well.

So at Saints we are about to enter a new age, in some respects nothing has changed, we are still owned by the same person we were when we got promoted from League One, her commitment both financially and physically is as much as ever, if not more, absolutely nothing has changed in that respect.

What has changed is that some sections of the support had bought into Nicola Cortese's so called dream, a dream that he did not have the money to implement and as we now know Katharina Liebherr did not wish to back financially to the degree that would be needed, ironically Spurs are the club vying for Pochettino and look at what happened a year ago, they could not hang on to Gareth Bale, but that wasnt their problem, it was what they did with the money, indeed Saints made three signings last summer and of that one was a £15 million failure, another £12 million spent on a position we did not need to strengthen and a third ironically the cheapest of the bunch was the most successful.

What Saints supporters should remember is that Markus never intended to spend multi millions in changing Saints into a club challenging for the Champions League, this was not a business venture for him, this was his train set so to speak, something to enjoy at weekends, so blaming his daughter for Pochettino leaving as some seem to be doing is ludicrous, Katharina Liebherr has honoured the memory of her Father well and continues to do so, because she knows that money does not guarantee success and that stability is the first step is no reason to lambast her as I have seen some do.

So fr Katharina Liebherr hasn't let us down, if Nicola ortese was still in charge then the offers for our players would still come in, Manchester United will get Luke Shaw if that is what he chooses to do whether it is Gareth Rodgers or Nicola Corte in charge, football has always been about the big clubs attracting players by paying them big wages and the selling club using a big fee to build stronger, this is what we at Southampton have always done since the days of Ted Bates it is the Southampton Way.

Yes some fans don't like that, for them its about showing ambition by showing your wallet, but our wallet will always be smaller than at least six other clubs whether we like it or not, that is a fact, some supporters have lost sight of this lately.

We are in a great position, if Pochettino and a couple of players go then we will have a chance to be in a greater position next season if we appoint the right man to succeed the Argentinian and allow him to spend the transfer money wisely.

This club has had many periods of turmoil over the last 129 years, it will have many more, if we are to succeed then our supporters need to get behind the Club and not hamper its progress by waging campaigns against the owners based on nothing but a few fine words from an ex Chairman.

I of course want Saints to achieve everything possible, but before we run we must walk, only a year ago we were amongst the relegation favourites, no one talked of Lallana to Liverpool or Pochettino to Spurs back then, there was good reason for that and that was no one was interested, our success comes at a price and we are finding that out now.

What to read next: