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In this two-part feature, Prost International takes a look at the finest managers Southampton have had since the club’s arrival back the Premier League in 2012, as voted by Southampton fans.
It’s fair to say Southampton’s managerial musings have been a bit like marmite since their return back to the top-flight.
Seven years on from the departure of Nigel Adkins, Southampton have had six permanent managers. Each one having a definitive degree of success or failure. They can turn out to be an astounding supernova of a boss, of whom share an innate propensity to transcend the club and the city. But by the opposite token, they can be utterly awful, and instead possess the single-handed power to shake the foundations of the club to its very core.
A life in football is a precarious one, and at times on the south coast, that viewpoint has shown to be never more apt. You can be such a glorious enigma, supporters feel staunchly beholden to you. But fail to reach those supreme heights, more likely than not, you are set for a tumultuous reign on the south coast.
Every decision to install a new manager has proven seismic, one way or another. If we cast our minds back to the very beginnings, the earliest erstwhile stop being at Adkins, the cornerstone of Saints’ ascension to the Premier League.
He was the poem-loving, positivity-exuding, former goalkeeper and physiotherapist, who arrived from Scunthorpe. He guided Southampton into the promise land on the back of successive promotions from League One and the Championship. But four months into life within Premier League football, Adkins was sacked amidst acrimonious circumstances.
The club have had six managers since, by common consensus, three of whom were successful, which equates to a 50 per cent hit rate. These numbers only surmises to the opinion that Southampton’s appointments are the pure definitions of either being a colossal hit or a catastrophic miss.
Adkins was replaced by a 40-year-old former Espanyol coach called Mauricio Pochettino. And this is where the debate begins.
Mauricio Pochettino (January 2013 to May 2014, 60 games, 23 wins)
Mauricio Pochettino is now one of the most vaunted managers in world football and perhaps the most attractive free agent in the game. However, it is easy to forget no one knew him nor wanted him at Southampton seven years ago.
He had been announced as the new man on the same day Nigel Adkins, arguably the most popular man on the south coast, was handed his P45. Fans were still reeling in shock that one of their greatest managers was ruthlessly shipped out, in the most uneasy and divisive way possible. And it only rubbed salt in the bruising wounds that his successor, was unknown and unable to speak a word of English. The emotional attachment to Adkins meant Pochettino was unable to have the early fan optimism or be given the benefit of doubt supporters would normally give a new manager.
There were problems arising in the boardroom, too. Chief executive Nicola Cortese, who had sought to bring Pochettino to the club, was deeply unhappy with the finances available and thereby the apparent lack of ambition from the owner, Katharina Liebherr. It meant Pochettino’s closest ally was already creating an exit-strategy of his own out of the club.
The appointment was supposed to be a hard sell to Southampton fans and be made even harder with the shock still resonating over his predecessor; it turned out to be anything but.
In his 14 months at Southampton, Mauricio Pochettino went from the manager no one knew, to many left wondering how a club the size of Southampton acquired him in the first place.
In his first and only full season, he lifted Saints to eighth in the Premier League, while playing the most demanding, high-pressing physical game in English football. Club stalwarts such as Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana lifted their game to another level and special youth talents such as Luke Shaw and James Ward-Prowse were nourished and grown to perfection.
During his time at the club, Pochettino inherited a group of happy-go-lucky Premier League rookies who just seeked survival. By the end, he had revolutionised them into to a high-end Premier League outfit that were able to compete with anyone on any given day. Before moving onto Tottenham, Pochettino had earned a Premier League points-per-game record of 1.39, the club’s third-best.
Ronald Koeman (June 2014 to June 2016, 64 games, 34 wins)
Pochettino’s exit triggered a fire sale at St Mary’s. A settled, progressive squad was instantly ripped up and put on the market. Liverpool, the prominent vulture circling, took captain Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Southampton’s all time leading goalscorer, Rickie Lambert. Homegrown products Luke Shaw and Calum Chambers were snatched by the bigger boys, in Manchester United and Arsenal respectively.
The nucleus of the side had vanished. From targeting year-on-year progression, and perhaps a European push the next, Saints became one of the favourites to go down. Instead, Koeman’s win percentage of 53.1 per cent underlined how impressive the club’s managerial and player recruitment was at the time.
Lallana and Lambert were replaced by Eredivisie duo Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle. Toby Alderweireld arrived on loan from Atletico Madrid. A little-known Senegalese winger called Sadio Mane from RB Salzburg also joined.
Despite the squad undergoing a transitional phase in personnel, they continued to improve their league position under Koeman, finishing seventh in the Dutchman’s first season. The ensuing summer saw more transfer upheavals, with Morgan Schneiderlin and Alderweireld departing. But in stepped Virgil Van Dijk and all doom and gloom was quickly forgotten.
Koeman guided the side to their highest Premier League finish (sixth), qualifying for the Europa League. He left for Everton in the summer of 2016, boasting the highest points per game of all Southampton managers in the Premier League (1.62).
Koeman’s managerial reign coincided with the Southampton squad at their apex for multi-faceted quality and psychological fortitude. Koeman was the beneficiary of detailed and structured planning from the recruitment team, who had brought in numerous first team players that were on the crest of reaching supersonic heights. The 2015-16 squad would end up having three future Ballon d’Or nominees in Van Dijk, Tadic and Mane.
And while rumblings of frustrations do still exist at St Mary’s over Koeman’s apparent disregard for the academy, his winning record proves there can be no quibble over the efficient and excellent job he did at Southampton, particularly considering the unsettling circumstances he had to contend with.
In part two, Prost International includes Ralph Hasenhuttl to complete the trio and finds out who supporters voted as their finest boss.
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