Southampton F.C: Ascension of the Saints

May 15th 2005 marked the end of a 27 year stint for Southampton in the top flight of English football. Since then, the club has ultimately spiralled downwards with relegation to League One in the 2008/09 season being the culmination of disastrous management on and off the field. While many football commentators saw the club’s exit from the Premier League long overdue, the Saints did not perennially struggle with relegation battles, having finished well in the 2000/01, 01/02 and 02/03 seasons (10th, 11th, 8th respectively), as well as reaching the FA Cup final in the 02/03 season and as a consequence qualifying for the UEFA Cup for the 03/04 season.

Mid-table mediocrity was successfully achieved in the 1994/95, 1996/97, 1997/98 and 1999/00 seasons (10th, 16th, 12th and 15th), so the club had established itself quite well in the Premier League since it’s creation, and the escalation of the finances involved as a consequence. I would argue that the pinnacle of Southampton’s years in the top flight was the FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal in May 2003, and since that game, the club, especially on the pitch, started to decline.

Whatever the reasons for this steady decline (there are many), the club and fans have endured so much. On 1st April 2009 the club entered administration after failure to secure funding. I say ‘club’ because, although technically it was Southampton Leisure Holdings which entered administration, Lord Triesman of the Football Association announced that as the club and company were seen to be inextricably linked, the football club would be sanctioned. Saints fans came together and with bucket collections scraped together enough funds to make sure staff got paid. But the club was on the brink and by May staff were asked to work for nothing to try and save the club. After numerous statements about due-diligence, it was finally announced on July 8 that a group controlled by Markus Liebherr had bought the club. As a testament to Markus, without his intervention Southampton would have surely ceased to exist in its current form. But Markus passed away suddenly in August last year – he is greatly missed by everyone associated with Southampton Football Club.

Southampton’s appearance in the third tier of English football was a shock to most fans, and like Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton, Norwich and Manchester City before them, it’s hard to think that a club that seemed to be relatively secure could slip into League One. But the majority of fans who have witnessed this are humbled – the true nature of finance in football can, no matter the capacity of your stadium or ‘history’, turn the most optimistic football fan into a crumbling wreck. Never listen to a fan who bemoans the fact that their club are ‘too big to go down’ or ‘should be back in the Premier League where they belong’ – they haven’t got a clue how the game works in the real world.

The sad truth is that money is the only thing that matters in football. Money has destroyed clubs, money has saved clubs, money is what makes the Premier League one of the best in the world and coincidentally one of the worst. As a Southampton fan I was upset to see the club potentially cease to exist, and yet I didn’t complain when we were pushing up the Premier League table and making some decent signings, which leads on to the ultimate point of this article – as a fan I don’t want the club to throw caution to the wind and allow itself to be placed in a position where the wages and transfer fees belie the true status of the club.

The Championship, as the second tier league, is one of the most exciting leagues I have had the pleasure of experiencing. Any given team can beat another on the day, teams can be pushing for a promotion place in January and battling relegation by March, games are well attended by extremely passionate fans and fans that truly appreciate that although they may never see their club become competitive in the Premier League and sign world class players, they can enjoy exciting, competitive football. Now I can hear fans of Blackburn, Aston Villa et al. reading that last piece and thinking “What, our league isn’t competitive or exciting? We aren’t passionate?” No, that’s not what I’m saying – but I believe fans in the Championship are more passionate, and the league is far more exciting for all teams concerned.

I’m not going to point to only the fallacies of the Premier League as the sole reason behind this – the other side of the coin, and one which is hard to take for any fan, is that Southampton Football Club belong in the Championship. That doesn’t mean that there is a divine right to be there of course (thinking of Sheffield United at this point), but that the club can sustain itself comfortably as a Championship club in terms of finances. The next two to three seasons will hopefully see the club push for promotion again, and the plan is to get back to the Premier League under the guidance of Nicola Cortese and the financial backing of Markus Liebherr’s family. Pushing for promotion is fantastic progress if we can manage that, but what is the point of becoming a yo-yo club between the first and second tier if it means the club could over-extend itself financially?

West Bromwich Albion have set a standard of recent promotions to the Premier League and once there, never spending large amounts in order to attempt to secure a nice cosy mid-table position. This seems to be a solid position to take, and yet it’s one which Southampton FC would never do – but it’s one I believe we should adopt. The problem with that is the club would endure the highs of promotion and the lows of relegation much too frequently for any sane fan, and I cannot believe that aside from the board at WBA and perhaps one or two other clubs, those in charge of Southampton would not pump money into signing ‘big’ players on large wages from any windfall of the parachute payments, just as the club did in the 2006/07 season – spending around £6 million on players such as Rudi Skácel, Marek Saganowski and Kelvin Davis in an effort to make a dash for promotion back to the Premier League.

This culminated in the heartache of losing to Derby in a penalty shoot out, but even worse the fact that the board had gambled on promotion and subsequently the following season was forced to sell players in order to survive. In 2007/08 the likes of Gareth Bale, Chris Baird and Kenwyne Jones (arguably the better players) were sold on with Rudi Skácel and Grzegorz Rasiak sent out on loan to reduce the wage bill – and yet this was only a temporary stay of execution. By the 2008/09 season the financial problems had grown to such an extent, even with the much publicised return of former directors Michael Wilde and Rupert Lowe, that the club was forced to enter administration in April 2009.

The bottom line from this experience is the simple fact that time and time again clubs will over extend themselves beyond their capabilities in search of glory. I’m sure Manchester City and Chelsea fans are very comfortable now knowing that there is a seemingly endless pot of money behind them, because that’s how I felt as a Saints fan in League One signing Rickie Lambert for £1 million and Jose Fonte for £1.2 million. But it is not something I’m entirely comfortable with, especially after the recent history of the club.

What makes sense is that Southampton should not overreach in an effort to get back into the Premier League, but doing so could potentially risk the well-being of the club in the future once again. Jacob Friis-Hansen, a former scout at Liverpool has joined the club in the capacity of ‘Director of European Recruitment’ at the club. This seems quite a job title for a Championship club, but certainly a further indication of the ambitions set. Here we go again…