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what exactly is "The Southampton Way"?


Saint J 77
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There have been a few articles on the OS mentioning the Southampton way and its been mentioned by Cortese whenever he talks about the future of the club. So what exactly is it? Is it the style of football we aim to play? The way we are going to develop our youth players to one day be our first team? Or that we look after SOME ex players and give them roles with meaning within the club after they hang up their boots? I'll start and answer my own questions and say it appears all three of those seem to be part of it. So are there other things you can add to the list, that already are, or should be part of the Southampton way?

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Isn't it just copying what loads of other clubs have done before us and then re-branding it 'The Southampton Way' to make it seem like we're one step ahead of everyone else?

agree,

just like our "5 year plan"...most clubs have them...they just sound good and something to work to

seems many on here take this 5 year plan as gospel...again, it is just another gimmick

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It's a marketing strapline used for branding and differentiation from our competitors.

 

Generally these things tend to be organic in that their meaning can change and evolve over time to suit the needs of the brand.

 

This is a particularly good approach for things that are aspirational rather than absolute, which I think a lot of what Cortese and others refer to as the Southampton Way is.

 

Whatever it is, it is unique to Saints.

 

I would like to think it includes a more ethical business model for top class football, where glory rather than money are the key motivators. We can already start to see this I think with the Academy development and future plans to half of our team come through the Academy.

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I would like to think it includes a more ethical business model for top class football, where glory rather than money are the key motivators. We can already start to see this I think with the Academy development and future plans to half of our team come through the Academy.

 

There you go! I'm pretty sure rebranding it doesn't change the fact that we've been trying to do that for decades! I can remember going to see Saints teams with the 3 Wallace brothers, Shearer, MLT, Benali, Dodd etc etc.

 

But no; its the revolutionary Southampton Way.

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agree,

just like our "5 year plan"...most clubs have them...they just sound good and something to work to

seems many on here take this 5 year plan as gospel...again, it is just another gimmick

 

I understand where you are coming from and agree - but it is almost a necessity these days - if we didn't have a '5 year plan' (in effect a roadmap of where the club should, or hopes to, be at a specific point in time), i'm sure people would probably be deriding the club for lack of ambition.

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There you go! I'm pretty sure rebranding it doesn't change the fact that we've been trying to do that for decades! I can remember going to see Saints teams with the 3 Wallace brothers, Shearer, MLT, Benali, Dodd etc etc.

 

But no; its the revolutionary Southampton Way.

 

Of course it can include things that we have always done - that makes sense. The only thing that is new....is branding it the Southampton Way!

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Its the way to go for Saints' home games, so from where I live, going the Southampton Way is the A272 from Sussex back to Hampshire. For you, of course, it might be entirely different.

 

That's also the Southampton way for me, it's starts at the junction of the A272 and A23!

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The "Southampton Way" for me has always been the same. It's like getting on a dodgy roller coaster except that you don't know it's dodgy and need of repair when you climb aboard.You start off slowly and all nice and secure and all you can see is up. Then following a sure but steady rise just as you think you're going to get to the top the track gives way below you and you are plunged into a world of uncertainty and have no idea where you're going to end up. Then just as you think all is lost the car finds the track again and whisks you onwards and upwards again. Then again sometimes you don't actually reach the top but instead are plunged forever downwards. Down and down and down with no end in sight. There are no ups on the horizon and just as you think you're going to crash off the end and all die lo and behold you're whisked away onto another upward spiral to start the whole process off again. It's a wonder any of us survive. That's the "Southampton Way"

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There have been a few articles on the OS mentioning the Southampton way and its been mentioned by Cortese whenever he talks about the future of the club. So what exactly is it? Is it the style of football we aim to play? The way we are going to develop our youth players to one day be our first team? Or that we look after SOME ex players and give them roles with meaning within the club after they hang up their boots? I'll start and answer my own questions and say it appears all three of those seem to be part of it. So are there other things you can add to the list, that already are, or should be part of the Southampton way?
Peckham
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it's a blueprint created by les reed and others detailing how to develop young players in the right way with the right habits in terms of technique playing style and football intelligence.

 

From a coach at saints. Thanks

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it's a blueprint created by les reed and others detailing how to develop young players in the right way with the right habits in terms of technique playing style and football intelligence.

 

From a coach at saints. Thanks

 

And of course no other club have thought of this.

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The "Southampton Way" for me has always been the same. It's like getting on a dodgy roller coaster except that you don't know it's dodgy and need of repair when you climb aboard.You start off slowly and all nice and secure and all you can see is up. Then following a sure but steady rise just as you think you're going to get to the top the track gives way below you and you are plunged into a world of uncertainty and have no idea where you're going to end up. Then just as you think all is lost the car finds the track again and whisks you onwards and upwards again. Then again sometimes you don't actually reach the top but instead are plunged forever downwards. Down and down and down with no end in sight. There are no ups on the horizon and just as you think you're going to crash off the end and all die lo and behold you're whisked away onto another upward spiral to start the whole process off again. It's a wonder any of us survive. That's the "Southampton Way"

 

Nail on head!

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The "Southampton Way" for me has always been the same. It's like getting on a dodgy roller coaster except that you don't know it's dodgy and need of repair when you climb aboard.You start off slowly and all nice and secure and all you can see is up. Then following a sure but steady rise just as you think you're going to get to the top the track gives way below you and you are plunged into a world of uncertainty and have no idea where you're going to end up. Then just as you think all is lost the car finds the track again and whisks you onwards and upwards again. Then again sometimes you don't actually reach the top but instead are plunged forever downwards. Down and down and down with no end in sight. There are no ups on the horizon and just as you think you're going to crash off the end and all die lo and behold you're whisked away onto another upward spiral to start the whole process off again. It's a wonder any of us survive. That's the "Southampton Way"

 

You make Alpine Saint look chirpy.;)

 

BTW read the above post in a Frazer out of dads army voice for maximum effect.

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The Southampton Way is diametrically opposed to the Portsmouth Way. For a few years their "way" appeared to be the correct way to the outside world (but not of course to Saints supporters), however the natural order of the universe has been restored and now everyone can see that the Southampton Way is the way to go.

 

A bit like everybody knows that 42 is really the answer.

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haha

such a simple tactic that has served us well

 

however, many teams now will wise up to such simplicity

 

Most teams have been wise to it so far, just their centre backs haven't been able to win the ball in the air against Lambert. Obviously though, you'd expect this to change given the far higher standard we'll be playing next season.

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I notice you're not deriding "Jonno quick" though, that's a legitimate empirical measure.

 

Indeed it is, "johnno Quick" is one step up from "genuine pace" which in itself is far superior to just normal pace.

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There have been a few articles on the OS mentioning the Southampton way and its been mentioned by Cortese whenever he talks about the future of the club. So what exactly is it? Is it the style of football we aim to play? The way we are going to develop our youth players to one day be our first team? Or that we look after SOME ex players and give them roles with meaning within the club after they hang up their boots? I'll start and answer my own questions and say it appears all three of those seem to be part of it. So are there other things you can add to the list, that already are, or should be part of the Southampton way?

 

The Southampton Way is quite simple:

 

He pulls a knife, you pull a gun

He sends one of yours to the Hospital, you send one of his to the Morgue,

He sends flowers, you send candy,

He gets Sky+, You get Sky+ HD.

 

Now THATS the Southampton Way.

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The Southampton Way is a special way of thinking... Which includes Algeria and Morocco as being in East Africa.... And then when someone points out to you there in West Africa... Updating the OS to state west Africa ...

 

It's called David Brent Management!

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it's a blueprint created by les reed and others detailing how to develop young players in the right way with the right habits in terms of technique playing style and football intelligence.

 

From a coach at saints. Thanks

 

Good answer, thanks!

 

Hopefully they are also setting in place a mind set of principle too. One that teaches the youth players to show some loyalty to the club that has spent the time and investment developing them. And not to leave as soon as a big club comes along, waving a golden carrot under their noses as they start to show their potential. For example Theo and Ox going maybe a little bit too early for there own benefit as well as ours.

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it's a blueprint created by les reed and others detailing how to develop young players in the right way with the right habits in terms of technique playing style and football intelligence.

 

From a coach at saints. Thanks

 

Wasn't this the Woodward/Brazil luvvie bloke strategy?

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I think that the club are trying to develop a distinctive way of doing things through all the age groups. At the moment it is meaningless.

 

If you think about a club like Ajax, they have a very distinctive training regimen that operates at every level of the club. This article by the New York Times is really interesting http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html?pagewanted=all (warning: it is pretty long). They have an idea of the kind of attributes that they want from their players, they have a model of the style of football they want to play, so they make sure that they bring in the right players from the age of 7.

 

It's the kind of thing that can't be brought in over night, but over time, if pursued could reap real results. If you wanted a model to copy, Ajax's is a pretty good one. Think of all the great players that their Academy produced. They all went into the first team and then got sold on to teams abroad for generally pretty large sums.

 

It has worked well for them for a long time, why not copy it? The 'Southampton Way' is a slogan, but could actually effect the mindset of people within the club and could help to build the culture that they are aspiring towards.

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The Southampton Way is a special way of thinking... Which includes Algeria and Morocco as being in East Africa.... And then when someone points out to you there in West Africa... Updating the OS to state west Africa ...

 

It's called David Brent Management!

 

And there I was wondering how much potential there was for somalian footballers in the premier league.

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Wasn't this the Woodward/Brazil luvvie bloke strategy?

 

Sounds like a fairly generic piece of good practice. Though I'd be inclined to say Woodward's focus would be infrastructure and mental focus, and Clifford's focus was ball skills based on Futebol de Salao, rather than the generic "developing habits" stuff.

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