England

Matt Oldfield

Could things finally be looking up for Southampton Football Club after four years of turmoil and relegation? With the club slipping ever faster into administration and closure following several unsuccessful bids, Swiss investor Markus Liebherr has saved the club with a last-minute takeover deal. The Saints are safe for now and Liebherr has promised both immediate and long-term investment. However, is it all too late for a club which spent 27 years in the top flight of English football?

The Saints will start next season in League One with a ten-point deduction due to their parent company going bust. Promotion rests almost entirely upon the highly successful youth academy which has produced and nurtured talents such as Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale and Kenwyne Jones in recent years, and using whatever money is available wisely. Few talented youngsters remain at the club and it could well be an uphill struggle for Liebherr and the new Southampton manager. Can the club be saved and more importantly, how have Southampton ended up in this unenviable position?

Former chairman Rupert Lowe has rightly taken much of the blame for the club’s decline. Lowe was chairman between 1996 and 2006 and then returned as chairman of the club’s parent company in 2008 before resigning earlier this year when Southampton entered administration. Lowe has never been a popular figure at St Mary’s Stadium, due to his supposed lack of interest in football, what was seen by many as poor decision-making, and a lack of investment.

The key turning point in the fortunes of the club came when Gordon Strachan, one of Southampton’s most successful managers of all time, refused to extend his contract due to ‘personal reasons’. Many believed that Lowe was indeed the reason, a belief that was backed up by the chairman’s decision to replace Strachan with Paul Sturrock before the season had ended.

Strachan had taken the Saints to the FA Cup final and fourth place in the Premiership at Christmas. Sturrock could not compete, leaving by mutual consent after six months and his replacement, untested coach Steve Wigley, fared even worse. Lowe became more and more involved in the day-to-day running of the club, which coincided with a period of rapid decline. With Southampton facing relegation, Lowe appointed Harry Redknapp, former manager of local rivals Portsmouth, to steer the Saints to safety. However, with a poor set of players, Redknapp was not quite able to save Southampton and they suffered relegation for the first time in nearly 30 years. The resources at Redknapp’s disposal had been poor; Lowe always favoured a policy of selling the club’s best players, but the profit rarely seemed to serve squad strengthening.

Things seemed to go from bad to worse after relegation from the Premier League. With the way the ‘parachute’ support system works, Southampton should have worked as hard as they could to gain promotion within the first two years, as clubs such as Birmingham and West Bromwich Albion do successfully. Lowe and the club should have been spending money, but instead cutbacks were made left, right and centre. Lowe himself, however, according to a report in the Guardian, remained on £406,513 a year, which the year before had made him one of the highest-paid chairmen in the Premier League. Walcott and Bale were soon sold but Southampton fans did not see the transfer money being spent on new players. Instead, the Saints seemed to rely more and more on their youth system, cheap, veteran professionals and unknown foreign imports.

In their first season in the Championship, Southampton flirted with relegation before finishing in 12th, as they struggled to cope both on and off the pitch. Lowe was forced to resign at the end of the 2005/06 campaign and at first things did improve under new chairman Leon Crouch. The playoffs were reached in 2007, but Southampton were beaten in the semi-final by Derby on penalties. To avoid financial ruin, the club had to gain promotion next time; with the two seasons of financial support over, Southampton were in great danger. Key players were loaned out to save wages and George Burley, the impressive Scottish boss, was replaced by a series of unsuccessful managers. The appointment of Jan Poortvelt, a disciple of the Dutch total football school, was the beginning of the end. Southampton played well in defeat but lacked the clinical edge and the toughness needed in the Championship. In 2008, Saints narrowly avoided relegation; in 2009, the club succumbed. League One beckoned.

So what hope does the new takeover bring to a club decimated by the last four years? With a ten-point deficit, Southampton would have struggled to gain immediate promotion even if key players Andrew Surman and David McGoldrick hadn’t been sold, to Wolves and Nottingham Forest respectively. Without them, and with Adam Lallana likely to leave soon, the squad looks threadbare and inexperienced. However, Liebherr’s takeover does provide the club with at least short-term security and the Swiss businessman seems determined to restore them to their former position. As Liebherr himself said, there are still many plus points for Southampton. The Saints have a rich history, a good fanbase, a very strong youth system and a wonderful stadium. All is not lost, but there is plenty of work to be done.

This work began with a new contract for West Ham-bound goalkeeper Kelvin Davis and a P45 for manager Mark Wotte. Liebherr looks intent on rebuilding the club from the ground upwards and the initial signs are good. Next, Southampton must find a manager with experience of lower league football and build a squad suitable of challenging for promotion.

Hopefully the takeover has made some money available and it is crucial that the money is spent on players who know League One football. The Saints are not a bad footballing side but they lack grit and confidence. Rather than a tactician or an inexperienced coach, Southampton need a motivator to get the best out of a group of players who need galvanising. With the right manager, ten points could be no obstacle to a return to the Championship. In 2008, Leeds United still made the League One playoffs despite a 15-point deduction, so Southampton must feel they have a chance if they are strong and united on and off the pitch.

For Liebherr and Southampton the hard work starts now.

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