It's hard work being a Southampton fan right now, there's no doubt about that. But is it really the end of days? The falling of a wobbly experiment? The gnashing of teeth on various fan forums and that paragon of intelligent thought, Twitter, would seem to indicate that it is, but it's not all bad news. It really isn't. And here's some reasons why.
1 -
We're not actually down yet. Yes, I do realise that the portents aren't great, I'm far from a 'Happy Clapper' (a fairly dreadful phrase that's entered the lexicon. File alongside 'bed wetter', 'critical thinker' and 'sheeple' - thanks, social media, you've been ace) - something fairly remarkable needs to happen for Southampton to retain Premier League status. But only fairly remarkable. Not miraculous. If you want miracles, go to 1993/94 or 1996/7. Far worse positions than we find ourselves in now, but we achieved survival. Okay, we may not have a Marians Pahars to call on, but I'd rather have Ruben Selles in charge than Graham Souness...
The Latvian Michael Owen would be pretty useful right now. Added to that, look at the games we have left to play. Yes, they're tough games on paper, but we're better against the good teams, and we're better away from home. There's a reason for that. Brentford was always going to be the type of match we would struggle in - a well drilled, physical, direct outfit, who are highly effective from set pieces. It's like a tick-list of all the points that wake us up in a cold sweat. Coupled with the fact they're perfectly happy to knock in a goal and then sit in their two banks of four. "Come at us Saints, let's see if you can break us down" - well no. No we can't. Even if we were still playing now. It was always thus. One thing we desperately lack, and have done for a long, long time, is guile. The wit to unlock a stubborn defence. We couldn't do it against Grimsby, why would you think we would against Brentford, whose identity and success is based on being hard to break down. Charly Alcaraz looks like he might have that magic, but he needs another season to fully come good (more on that later). I've suspected for a while that the Spurs game is the greater opportunity for us. They're in a mess at the moment, and have a manager that seems to have one eye on an extended holiday in Italy (and who can blame him?) They make us look like a model of consistency, but they'll still come at us. They'll leave spaces in transition, rather than us having to *create* space. Something our attackers don't seem to be terribly good at. If they click, then of course they have the talent to beat us, and probably beat us handsomely, but we'll get chances in this one in a way that despite all the possession we conspicuously failed to generate on Wednesday. Win against Spurs and, well, things look possible again.
Rasmus Ankersen considers the fixture list...
2 -
Take a look at our last three fixtures. Fulham, Brighton and Liverpool. On the face of it, tough games all. But in reality, it may well be three teams with not much to play for. The kind of sides you want to be facing at the end of the season, flip-flops at the ready. Fulham aren't getting into Europe, so they may go through the motions. Brighton will likely have their European place assured by then (and they won't be going for Champions League), and Liverpool...well Liverpool is the interesting one. They've been nigh on hopeless away from home all season, plus I just keep replaying a scenario in my head, where a Saints win sends Everton down. It could be an unusual case of having support from all four stands for that one. Straw clutching? Maybe, but football is weird.
3 -
Relegation. The worst case scenario. But would it really be the worst thing for us?
I don't think so.
When Sports Republic came in, they had a clear-cut strategy to buy young, buy talented. The problem is, as has been the case with a few of Rasmus's decisions, it's ended up with him not looking anything like as brilliant and clever as he'd love you to believe. They went in way, way too hard on that idea, and barring Romeo Lavia and probably ABK it hasn't worked. Yet.
When you look at the likes of Juan Larios, Sekou Mara, Gavin Bazunu, Samuel Edozie (and you could probably pop Charly Alcaraz into that list too), in a sane club (or even Chelsea) those are all players that would be sent out on loan to a Championship club to learn their trade. They'd then come back to the club the following season toughened up, game ready, cooked up for the Premier League. Case in point - I present, Nathan Tella.
There's a lot of revisionist history being spoken amongst the fans regarding Tella, since he's gone to Burnley and started scoring and creating for fun. The reality is though, when we sent him out on loan, he didn't look like he could kick the ball hard enough to reach the goal from the penalty area. There was latent talent there (as there is with the aforementioned players), but he was nowhere near PL ready. The loan to Burnley has done him the world of good, and he's going to come back (presuming he does) twice the player he was when we let him off the leash to play consistently in the league below.
Nathan Tella doing a smile. They'd be welcome at St. Mary's
Now, if we are to get relegated, there are two parts which are enough to make the whole scenario miserable. The first of which is that it's an almost certain goodbye to our two talismans, James Ward-Prowse and Kyle Walker-Peters, our most talented player, Romeo Lavia, and our second most talented, Armel Bella-Kotchap. We'd probably likely lose Mohammed Salisu to somewhere like West Ham, though with Sally you are never quite sure if you're going to get Virgil Van Dijk or Dick Van Dyke, he'll be a loss all the same. Romain Perraud feels like a very Aston Villa kind of player and may go too. We'd also lose the out of contract pair of Moi Elyounoussi and Theo Walcott, but, well, yeah. That's okay. Along with our Croatian contingent. Same response.
But look at the squad that we would have, and think about how they might develop over the season. I think this team goes up first time of asking, regardless of money spent on new players, and they come back into the Premier League far, far, far more ready for it than this season.
Bazunu/McCarthy
Livramento/Bree Bednarek (c)/Lyanco Stephens/Simeu Larios/Vokins
Diallo/Smallbone A.N. Other
Alcaraz/Aribo
Tella/Dibling Adams/Onuachu/Armstrong Edozie/Sulemana
That for me is a squad that comes straight back up, and ironically considering the troubles we have at the moment, it's a squad whose front line scores a lot in that league.
To coin another grim phrase, it's a great reset. It will make Sport Republic's initially botched strategy start to make sense (though in any business I've worked in, if the CEO presides over losing in the region of £100m, they aren't the CEO for long).
The only other downside I can see from that, and it's making my teeth itch already, is that I can just hear Rasmus now, like a Poundland Aslan, golden locks glistening, convinced of his great wisdom and knowledge far beyond the rest of us mere mortals - "sometimes to make something great, first you need to break it".
"Sometimes, to make something great, first you have to break it..." - Rasmus Ankersen (probably).
It's not all doom and gloom though, that's the point. It's long term, potentially quite sunny.
Let's beat Spurs first though, and see where that takes us.
COYR!!
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