https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/southampton-paying-the-price-for-transfer-failings-and-divided-team-r3x0m2m9r
An insight into the siege mentality that has developed at Southampton during this surprisingly turbulent season came during a visit to the city’s general hospital this month. Mark Hughes’s whole first-team squad were in attendance, handing out signed cards and gifts on the children’s ward before talking to some lifelong Southampton fans in the elderly-care wards, but all requests to speak to the television crew filming the visit organised by the Saints Foundation were politely declined.
All the players stuck to the line, showing a resolution and esprit de corps that has often been absent during a campaign in which there has been a growing divide between the club’s British and foreign contingents, a lack of leadership and at least one physical confrontation between Hughes and a player. If such defiance and determination had been shown on the pitch, then Southampton would be far less likely to be in desperate trouble near the bottom of the Premier League, four points from safety with four matches remaining.
Southampton are facing an unexpected return to the Sky Bet Championship having sleepwalked into relegation trouble, a remarkable collapse from their eighth-place finish last season and apparently the result of complacency on and off the field. Despite having slipped into the bottom three for the first time only last month there is a growing fear that they have left it too late to engineer a recovery, with the players accepting in a team meeting this week that they are likely to need three wins from four to stay up.
That must seem especially tough for a Southampton side who have won just one of their past 21 Premier League matches, and none since Hughes replaced Manuel Pellegrino last month. It has reached the stage that, with away trips to Everton and Swansea City to come, followed by Manchester City’s visit on the final day, failure to beat Bournemouth today at St Mary’s will lead the club to begin planning for life in the Championship.
Southampton’s decline from an unlucky Capital One Cup final defeat by Manchester United and a top-eight finish last season has been a gradual one, to such an extent that for a long period it was barely noticed. While there are a number of causes — not least the sale of £234 million worth of players in the past four years and repeated managerial turnover — the roots of the crisis can arguably be traced to the club’s willingness to listen to the senior players last season who expressed misgivings about the then manager Claude Puel. Five players are understood to have made their feelings known to the board about Puel’s tactical rigidity as Southampton’s season petered out with one win in their final eight league matches. It led to the Frenchman’s dismissal last June. While the club were helpless to prevent the unwanted departures of Mauricio Pochettino in May 2014 and Ronald Koeman in the summer of 2016, losing Puel was a self-inflicted wound from which they have not recovered.
While not necessarily the wrong decision — Puel is now under pressure at his new club, Leicester — his sacking had far-reaching consequences that are still being felt.
With hindsight the appointment of Pellegrino was a mistake, shown by the fact that the Argentine won just five of his 30 league games in charge to leave the club deep in relegation trouble, but having attracted criticism for dumping Puel last summer, Southampton then stuck with his successor for too long.
The club considered sacking Pellegrino after a 2-1 home defeat by Crystal Palace on January 2, but after giving him more time, went undefeated in their next six matches, albeit winning only one in the league with their other two victories coming in the FA Cup.
Those cup wins and a series of home league draws helped to mask deeper problems which have been bubbling away in the dressing room all season, with Pellegrino losing the backing of many of his players as long ago as November.
The former Liverpool defender was initially a popular choice to replace Puel, as he is a far more engaging character, but issues between manager and squad soon emerged, particularly regarding his attitude to training.
Pellegrino is understood to have objected to the robust approach taken by many of the club’s British players in training — both in the extent of their physical commitment and willingness to criticise each other’s mistakes — and attempted to change the culture in a way that several players felt made them softer and easier to beat. The increasing absences of Steven Davis through injury have not helped. The Northern Irishman is one of few natural leaders at the club, particularly given that Virgil van Dijk barely played this season before joining Liverpool in January.
Pellegrino’s refusal to alter his tactics despite indifferent results at the start of the season also baffled many players, particularly his reluctance to consider fielding two strikers when the team were so short of goals. Southampton have the worst shot-conversion rate in the league. It is instructive that Charlie Austin has scored more league goals (seven) than Southampton’s other three strikers — Manolo Gabbiadini, Guido Carrillo and Shane Long — combined despite having played less than a quarter their number of minutes.
Pellegrino’s shortcomings were exacerbated by Southampton seemingly losing their touch in the transfer market, which, under the guidance of the vice-chairman Les Reed and director of football operations Ross Wilson, had long been one of their greatest strengths. Gabbiadini has faded badly after making a superb start following his £14 million move from Napoli in January last year, to the extent that the Italian has scored four league goals in 13 months and only one since October, while more recent signings have made even less of an impact.
The midfielder Mario Lemina has done little to justify his £18 million transfer from Juventus last summer while the club’s record signing Carrillo has not scored since his £19 million arrival from Monaco in January.
At the other end of the pitch Wesley Hoedt, the Dutch defender, has lost the confidence of many of his team-mates due to repeated errors, leading to tension between homegrown and foreign players for much of the season. Many of the former group believe that some of the club’s more recent signings do not work hard enough in training and have behaved badly when dropped, a problem that Hughes hinted at this month by referring to players “who are not willing to put their bodies on the line”.
Hughes is understood to have been restrained by members of his coaching staff when clashing with Sofiane Boufal in the dressing room after the league defeat by Chelsea a fortnight ago when the Morocco winger suggested that they settle their differences in the club’s gymnasium. Boufal has since been ordered to train on his own, although his behaviour has come as little surprise to his team-mates as he also clashed with Pellegrino earlier in the season.
Hughes has impressed many of Southampton’s players by putting on more thorough training sessions and introducing a more direct approach in matches. They are encouraged to play higher up the pitch and use more crosses, which, initially at least, increased their goal output, but he has been unable to improve their woeful defensive record. Even since his emergency appointment — until the end of the season — there has been an element of complacency in the dressing room, with the players said to be “shell-shocked” following the 3-0 defeat by West Ham United in his first Premier League match in charge last month.
Southampton’s players are no longer in any doubt as to the gravity of their situation, with many now wishing that Hughes had been appointed sooner. The board’s hope was that the Welshman would quickly stabilise what they continue to believe is a talented squad, but he inherited a divided group for a difficult run of eight fixtures featuring Arsenal, Chelsea, City and several relegation rivals.
Instead of activating plans to give Hughes a long-term contract once Premier League status was secured, Southampton are facing the prospect of a very different summer, which would be complicated by taking a wage bill of £112 million – the eighth-highest in the top flight — into the Championship. Unlike West Bromwich Albion, they have not handicapped themselves further by inserting small release clauses into several players’ contracts, so Southampton will at least be able to negotiate any sales from a position of relative strength, while those players who do remain will face wage cuts of between 25 and 50 per cent.
There are also likely to be changes higher up. The new majority shareholder, Gao Jisheng, who has taken a hands-off approach, did not pay £210 million for an 80 per cent stake last summer to potentially experience Championship away-days at Burton Albion and Shrewsbury Town.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/southampton-paying-the-price-for-transfer-failings-and-divided-team-r3x0m2m9r An insight into the siege mentality that has developed at Southampton during this surprisingly turbulent season came during a visit to the city’s general hospital this month. Mark Hughes’s whole first-team squad were in attendance, handing out signed cards and gifts on the children’s ward before talking to some lifelong Southampton fans in the elderly-care wards, but all requests to speak to the television crew filming the visit organised by the Saints Foundation were politely declined. All the players stuck to the line, showing a resolution and esprit de corps that has often been absent during a campaign in which there has been a growing divide between the club’s British and foreign contingents, a lack of leadership and at least one physical confrontation between Hughes and a player. If such defiance and determination had been shown on the pitch, then Southampton would be far less likely to be in desperate trouble near the bottom of the Premier League, four points from safety with four matches remaining. Southampton are facing an unexpected return to the Sky Bet Championship having sleepwalked into relegation trouble, a remarkable collapse from their eighth-place finish last season and apparently the result of complacency on and off the field. Despite having slipped into the bottom three for the first time only last month there is a growing fear that they have left it too late to engineer a recovery, with the players accepting in a team meeting this week that they are likely to need three wins from four to stay up. That must seem especially tough for a Southampton side who have won just one of their past 21 Premier League matches, and none since Hughes replaced Manuel Pellegrino last month. It has reached the stage that, with away trips to Everton and Swansea City to come, followed by Manchester City’s visit on the final day, failure to beat Bournemouth today at St Mary’s will lead the club to begin planning for life in the Championship. Southampton’s decline from an unlucky Capital One Cup final defeat by Manchester United and a top-eight finish last season has been a gradual one, to such an extent that for a long period it was barely noticed. While there are a number of causes — not least the sale of £234 million worth of players in the past four years and repeated managerial turnover — the roots of the crisis can arguably be traced to the club’s willingness to listen to the senior players last season who expressed misgivings about the then manager Claude Puel. Five players are understood to have made their feelings known to the board about Puel’s tactical rigidity as Southampton’s season petered out with one win in their final eight league matches. It led to the Frenchman’s dismissal last June. While the club were helpless to prevent the unwanted departures of Mauricio Pochettino in May 2014 and Ronald Koeman in the summer of 2016, losing Puel was a self-inflicted wound from which they have not recovered. While not necessarily the wrong decision — Puel is now under pressure at his new club, Leicester — his sacking had far-reaching consequences that are still being felt. With hindsight the appointment of Pellegrino was a mistake, shown by the fact that the Argentine won just five of his 30 league games in charge to leave the club deep in relegation trouble, but having attracted criticism for dumping Puel last summer, Southampton then stuck with his successor for too long. The club considered sacking Pellegrino after a 2-1 home defeat by Crystal Palace on January 2, but after giving him more time, went undefeated in their next six matches, albeit winning only one in the league with their other two victories coming in the FA Cup. Those cup wins and a series of home league draws helped to mask deeper problems which have been bubbling away in the dressing room all season, with Pellegrino losing the backing of many of his players as long ago as November. The former Liverpool defender was initially a popular choice to replace Puel, as he is a far more engaging character, but issues between manager and squad soon emerged, particularly regarding his attitude to training. Pellegrino is understood to have objected to the robust approach taken by many of the club’s British players in training — both in the extent of their physical commitment and willingness to criticise each other’s mistakes — and attempted to change the culture in a way that several players felt made them softer and easier to beat. The increasing absences of Steven Davis through injury have not helped. The Northern Irishman is one of few natural leaders at the club, particularly given that Virgil van Dijk barely played this season before joining Liverpool in January. Pellegrino’s refusal to alter his tactics despite indifferent results at the start of the season also baffled many players, particularly his reluctance to consider fielding two strikers when the team were so short of goals. Southampton have the worst shot-conversion rate in the league. It is instructive that Charlie Austin has scored more league goals (seven) than Southampton’s other three strikers — Manolo Gabbiadini, Guido Carrillo and Shane Long — combined despite having played less than a quarter their number of minutes. Pellegrino’s shortcomings were exacerbated by Southampton seemingly losing their touch in the transfer market, which, under the guidance of the vice-chairman Les Reed and director of football operations Ross Wilson, had long been one of their greatest strengths. Gabbiadini has faded badly after making a superb start following his £14 million move from Napoli in January last year, to the extent that the Italian has scored four league goals in 13 months and only one since October, while more recent signings have made even less of an impact. The midfielder Mario Lemina has done little to justify his £18 million transfer from Juventus last summer while the club’s record signing Carrillo has not scored since his £19 million arrival from Monaco in January. At the other end of the pitch Wesley Hoedt, the Dutch defender, has lost the confidence of many of his team-mates due to repeated errors, leading to tension between homegrown and foreign players for much of the season. Many of the former group believe that some of the club’s more recent signings do not work hard enough in training and have behaved badly when dropped, a problem that Hughes hinted at this month by referring to players “who are not willing to put their bodies on the line”. Hughes is understood to have been restrained by members of his coaching staff when clashing with Sofiane Boufal in the dressing room after the league defeat by Chelsea a fortnight ago when the Morocco winger suggested that they settle their differences in the club’s gymnasium. Boufal has since been ordered to train on his own, although his behaviour has come as little surprise to his team-mates as he also clashed with Pellegrino earlier in the season. Hughes has impressed many of Southampton’s players by putting on more thorough training sessions and introducing a more direct approach in matches. They are encouraged to play higher up the pitch and use more crosses, which, initially at least, increased their goal output, but he has been unable to improve their woeful defensive record. Even since his emergency appointment — until the end of the season — there has been an element of complacency in the dressing room, with the players said to be “shell-shocked” following the 3-0 defeat by West Ham United in his first Premier League match in charge last month. Southampton’s players are no longer in any doubt as to the gravity of their situation, with many now wishing that Hughes had been appointed sooner. The board’s hope was that the Welshman would quickly stabilise what they continue to believe is a talented squad, but he inherited a divided group for a difficult run of eight fixtures featuring Arsenal, Chelsea, City and several relegation rivals. Instead of activating plans to give Hughes a long-term contract once Premier League status was secured, Southampton are facing the prospect of a very different summer, which would be complicated by taking a wage bill of £112 million – the eighth-highest in the top flight — into the Championship. Unlike West Bromwich Albion, they have not handicapped themselves further by inserting small release clauses into several players’ contracts, so Southampton will at least be able to negotiate any sales from a position of relative strength, while those players who do remain will face wage cuts of between 25 and 50 per cent. There are also likely to be changes higher up. The new majority shareholder, Gao Jisheng, who has taken a hands-off approach, did not pay £210 million for an 80 per cent stake last summer to potentially experience Championship away-days at Burton Albion and Shrewsbury Town.