The Welsh David Brent and £120m wasted – Southampton’s three big mistakes that led to relegation
Southampton have been relegated from the Premier League – but why, and what went wrong for the Saints?
A long, limping journey towards failure is finally complete – Southampton have been relegated, having been bottom of the table since Boxing Day, and having failed to win since the 1-0 defeat of Leicester City in early March.
At the heart of a painful and fruitless season has been a string of board-level decisions which have made this season’s struggles all but inevitable. The takeover of the south coast club by Sport Republic – headed by former Brentford director of football Rasmus Ankersen and backed by two billionaire investors – seemed like good news at first, with Ankersen’s data-led recruitment strategy having proven itself in west London. The inference was of a takeover backed by serious money but spearheaded by a man with the experience and game knowledge to make sure it was spent in the right places.
Instead, a series of errors has been made both in the transfer market and in managerial appointments. Southampton spent over £120m on incoming transfers this season – more than they will now receive in parachute payments – and much of it was spent in the wrong places or wasted entirely. Let’s go step by step and see where Sport Republic and the Saints went wrong, and see what lessons can be learned from a deeply disappointing season.
Lots of players but no tactical direction
15 signings came in the doors at St. Mary’s Stadium this summer, and 24 players made at least 10 appearances for the club – but only nine started more than 20 matches. The enormous rotation of the squad is symptomatic of a failure to find an underlying tactical direction, a direction that Sport Repblic didn’t find or attempt to inculcate as they cycled disastrously through managers.
Ralph Hasenhüttl tried out a 4-2-3-1 double pivot and a 4-2-2-2. After his removal, Nathan Jones tried to institute a 3-5-2 formation with wing-backs, to disastrous effect, eventually tossing and turning between that system and the 4-2-3-1 his predecessor had used. When Rubén Sellés’ turn came around, he switched back to the 4-2-2-2, only to wind up running the double pivot back again for the defeats to Nottingham Forest and Fulham. Players found themselves chopping and changing roles, in and out of the squad, and very few had a settled position – a tricky situation for experience hands, but even harder for one of the youngest squads in the Premier League.
That tumbling tactical morass may explain why Southampton’s passing and possession statistics were routinely among the worst in the league – even James Ward-Prowse’s passing numbers are little better than mediocre, and most of his team-mates figures fall far below that description. There was ceaseless tactical uncertainty throughout the season and players rarely knew where the next man was – or who that man would be, as different managers chopped and changed line-ups on a regular basis. A settled strategy makes playing football easier, and Southampton never had that.
