24/25 Season Preview 20 in 20 - Southampton

18 of 20 - The Saints

Author

nick lochner
August 12, 2024

The 2024/25 Season kicks off Friday August 16 when Fulham travel to Man United.

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Southampton

2023/24 Finish - 4th in The Championship - won the playoff for promotion.

Quietly Successful. Southampton is a medium sized club with lots of history. They’ve been in the PL 24 of the last 32 seasons and have challenged for the FA Cup and top of the table, with their best finish being 6th in 2015/16. In 2022, the Saints sat 3rd in the PL after 13 matches - and had a great run to the semi-finals of the FA Cup. By November, Southampton sat FIRST in the PL. Despite the early success, injuries and a loss of form meant the club had to go to its youth development program to get players for the first team. That went as you might expect. They fell all the way to 15th, changed managers and then the wheels came off. In 2023, the team was relegated finishing last.

Right Back Up. Southampton was relegated from the Premier League two seasons ago, so they made some changes, hiring a new manager and many many new players. In his first season at the club gaffer Russell Martin led the Saints back to the PL with NINETEEN new players. Southampton had a 25-match unbeaten run during the season, finished 4th in the table with 87 points and beat Leed’s United for a third time, in the playoff championship, to earn promotion.

Best of the Three. Bookmakers have the Saints to be the best of the three newly promoted sides. Some of that may be due to Leicester City’s threat of a point deduction for FFP violations, but still, S’hampton have had a great run the last 30+ years in the PL and there is a good chance the clubs experience on what it takes to stay up will carry them through this season.

Getting Right To It. The Saints have been busy this offseason and will be bringing momentum into the season. Keeping gaffer Russell Martin and being very active in the transfer market are a great way to go into the season. Adam Lallana, Charlie Taylor and Ben Brereton Diz are 3 big time pickups and not the only ones as the Saints have brought in 7 new players.

The Club

Located in Southampton, Hampshire (South Coast on the English Channel)

St Mary’s Stadium, 32,000 capacity

Rough estimates

$220M Annual Revenue (4th PL 7th World)

$40M Player Payroll

History on the Pitch

  • 0 Titles, runner up in 1984

  • 1 FA Cup, 1976, 3 runners-up

  • 0 Europe Cups

Sponsorship

Home Shirt

Away Shirt

Third Shirt

Ownership

Sport Republic is a London-based investment firm founded by Rasmus Ankersen (Author and involved in soccer) and Henrik Kraft (equities). In early 2022 Sport Republic bought Gao Jisheng’s 80% stake in the club. The idea is to create a multi-club ownership group that has become popular. In late 2022 SR bought 70% of Goztepe SK in Turkey and in 2023 bought 70% of Valenciennes FC in France.

We Are Going Up

Biggest Rival - Portsmouth - South Coast Derby

  • 19 miles separate the clubs.

  • In 71 matches Southampton are 35W 25D 21L.

  • Prior to 1970, fans of opposing sides would root for the other side when not playing each other. That all changed as the economic fortunes of the two cities started to diverge, and it began like it did between Liverpool and Manchester -when shipping/new port was constructed in Portsmouth. This was seen as a threat by the dockers of Southampton.

  • Bournemouth and BHA are 30/60 miles from Southampton and consider them a rival, but for Southampton fans its Portsmouth.

The Culture

Aside from being a port town, Southampton is also a “college” town. The University of Southampton has 15,000 students and brings quite a bit of culture with it - art venues, live music, entertainment, parks and sports. The city was a finalist for the prestigious title of UK City of Culture 2025, awarded every four years to one city across the UK.

Like the city, the FC have been focused quite a bit on its culture. In 2014 there was a significant focus on bringing the club together by bringing all the employees together to define “The Southampton Way”. They defined it this way - respect, unity, accountability, creativity and aspiration - and took to implementing specific changes to make it real. In 2015 Roger Bennett (currently of Men in Blazers) created a documentary for NBC Sports titled The Southampton Way. In 2017 the club won their own prestigious award, UK Employee Engagement Company of the Year.

Needless to say, the club and the town are very focused on their culture. They are known to “outkick their coverage” by competing with the big dogs even though they are not the biggest or wealthiest of clubs. They need to find other advantages and relish the opportunity to strategize and find ways to compete.

Crest Symbolism

Going top to bottom, the top is pretty self-explanatory - the halo represents “saints”, the ball “soccer” and the scarf “fans”.

The tree is for the “New Forest” in the south of England, the water is the connection of river and sea, and the flower is a white rose, the symbol of the city.

The Crest

Did You Know

In 1912 a cruise liner set sail for America on its first ever voyage. The Titanic never made it, you know the story, but maybe you didn’t know the Titanic set sail from teh Port of Southampton. Of the 1,500 who died in the North Atlantic, 500 were Southampton residents. 200 more Southampton residents were on the ship and survived.

I’m King of the World

Supporters You May Recognize

  • Rishi Sunak

  • Lucy Pinder

  • Chris Packham

Song

You may wonder, like other clubs, “how does Southampton change the lyrics of the song to fit their team”. Answer: They Don’t. Several other clubs use the tune, for example, Chelsea sing “oh when the blues, go steaming in”.

The song originated as a Christian hymn but is often played by jazz bands. Louis Armstrong has a famous recording of it from1938.

Game Day Pub Guide

Pretty good pub like atmosphere right at the stadium with 3 options.

  • Deanery - by the bridge

  • Gasworks - Kingsland Stand, with live music

  • 8 Bells - Chapel & Kingsland

If you prefer off-site.

Admiral Sir Lucius Curtis Pub

Fan Sites

According to the AI tool COPILOT - here is an image of a Southampton fan at St. Mary’s Stadium, based on Wiki’s description of a Saints Supporter.

Official Twitter

@SouthamptonFC

High Follows on Twitter

@dailyechosaints (30k)

@TheSaintCentre (18k)

@SaintsExtra (20k)

@talkSAINTS (20k)

@TotalSaintsPodcasts (8k)

The Team

The Gaffer

  • Russell Martin (Scottish), 38yo.

  • Played on 9 different teams across England and Scotland.

  • Started managing at Milton Keynes Dons in 2019, then to Swansea City in 2021 and to The Saints in 2023.

  • This will be his first year in the PL.

  • Had colitis issues and went to a Vegan diet to manage it - he is now co-owner of the largest vegan restaurant in the UK.

Russell Martin

ODDS

  • To Win League +100,000

  • To Be Relegated +138

  • To Finish Top 4 +10,000

  • To Finish Top 10 +650

Roster Notes

Full Roster click link

Projected to finish 18th

Americans on the team (as of Aug 7)

  • None

Interested in playing Fantasy Soccer? Here are the basics. Typical teams have a budget of $100M and 15 players - $6.7M per player.

  • Adam Armstrong (FWD) $5.5m

  • Will Smallbone (MID) $5.0m

  • Adam Lallana (MID) $5.0m

  • Kyle Walker-Peters (DEF) $4.5m

  • Jan Bednarek (DEF) $4.0m

  • Taylor Harwood-Bellis (DEF) $4.0m

Goalkeeper

  • Alex McCarthy - Bottom 5 in PL.

St Mary’s Stadium

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