Southampton will be delighted to wave 2021 goodbye on Tuesday, but what does 2022 entail for the Saints?

Southampton will wrap up the calendar year when they host Tottenham Hotspur at St.Mary’s Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, their 41st Premier League game of a hectic year that has, in truth, been largely distasteful and bland.

It began with a famous 1-0 win over Liverpool at St.Mary’s which gave false hope for what was to come over the remaining 361 days…a whopping 21 league defeats which included, quite remarkably, a second 9-0 defeat in as many seasons, this time against Manchester United.

After a catastrophic second half of the 2020/21 campaign which saw hopes of European qualification extinguish and be replaced by occasional nervy glances over the shoulder, Saints really needed the summer break to re-find their identity.

The run to the semi-final of the FA Cup kept fans content but after a torrid run of form and a concerning lack of financial backing going into the transfer window, there were genuine concerns that the south-coast side’s run of consecutive seasons in the English top-flight would halt at number 10.

Fast forward six months and Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side are a healthy distance away from utter crisis after picking up 20 points from their opening 18 Premier League games of the 2021/22 season.

The transfer window was somewhat of a success, given the circumstances, with the addition of young stars Tino Liveramento and Armando Broja from Chelsea particularly impressing this term.

Although Danny Ings did eventually depart, the £30m fee the club received for their star player was reinvested in the squad and the Saints are comfortable for the time being.

But as we approach a new calendar year, there is a feeling that 2022 could be a year of great importance for the future of the football club.

The club still remains up for sale and the majority, if not all of, the fanbase will be desperate to see a takeover completed in the next 12 months.

CEO Martin Semmens and co. did well to sniff out some shrewd bargains, the £5m fee paid for 19-year-old Livramento stands out, but that isn’t a sustainable business model.

To rely on the luck of finding quality players for a low fee to replace star players that have been sold in order to fund transfer windows is suicide. The club needs financial support and there will be hope that Jisheng Gao’s reign as owner of Southampton will come to an end in the new year.

Moreover, April 2022 will mark a decade since the Saints were promoted back to the Premier League.

10 consecutive seasons in the top-flight is something to be proud of but the club can’t pat itself on the back for reaching the feat and relax, it needs to keep pushing.

Having been in charge for three years now, Ralph Hasenhuttl’s time as Southampton manager has seen little progress with a 16th place finish being followed by an impressive 11th then back down to 15th.

The Austrian can clearly get his team playing attractive football, and there has been an argument that with more financial backing, the Saints could be sat higher up the table, but Hasenhuttl has to find the formula of finding wins on a more consistent basis.

That is what has really held Southampton back under the 54-year-old, particularly in 2021. 29 points have been dropped from winning positions this year by the Saints, a sickening amount when you consider where the team could be had they held on for a handful of those points.

Fine margins will make the difference, and right now Southampton fans head into a new year unsure whether their club will sink or swim.

If Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side improve their game management and hold onto more leads, then we may be able to start mentioning Southampton in the same breath as the likes of Aston Villa, Everton and Leicester as the Saints will knock on the door of a top-half finish.

However, throw more leads away and the side are a couple of injuries to key players away from being dragged into a dogged battle to stay up.

2022 proves to be a vital year for Southampton Football Club. They’re on the brink of progress but the repetition of bad habits will continue to hold the club back from taking the next step.