Who are Southampton's Rivals?

[sportprof101]

Hi Saints fans,

Since 2014, we—the students and professors of the Know Rivalry Project—have been studying rivalry for sports in North America with the help of message board members. Now we are expanding our research to the English Premier League. Please help us ensure that Southampton is included by taking 9 minutes to complete our updated survey:

https://umassamherst.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3FdJ8eN2EgFCfCB?grpID=1336

Our previous results in the US have been featured in numerous sports media outlets, as well as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. You can view those results, links to media coverage, and learn more about us at our KnowRivalry.com website.

We use the Qualtrics online survey software for data collection. This academic research has been approved by two US universities' Institutional Review Boards (IRB) and it poses no risks to respondents. You'll find more information on the disclosure agreement that is required to start the survey. Thank you for helping us to include Southampton by participating and please share this with any other fans that may also help.

Jonah, Student Researcher, Northern Kentucky University

Dr. Joe Cobbs, Northern Kentucky University

Dr. David Tyler, University of Massachusetts—Amherst

[jawillwill]

Anyone who knows anything about English football will tell you that there is no rivalry more fierce than Southampton v Bournemouth.

[LiberalCommunist]

Well this season, I'd suggest it was Arsenal. Then Fulham*. And now our very own club seems to be the biggest rival holding us back. Whether that is down to finance or incompetence well the jury is still out. 

 

*calm down im joking!

[Roo1976]

9 hours ago, LiberalCommunist said:

Well this season, I'd suggest it was Arsenal. Then Fulham*. And now our very own club seems to be the biggest rival holding us back. Whether that is down to finance or incompetence well the jury is still out. 

 

*calm down im joking!

Both .

[kwsaint]

Winchester City

[Singapore Saint]

It's usually whoever else is wearing red and white stripes in the Premier League. Bye Sheffield United and stay put Sunderland 😆

[sibster]

Until recently it was Old Etonians (For obvious reasons) but nowadays the only time saints fans get really worked up is for blockbuster games against the mighty Doncaster Rovers; you are lucky to get home from one of these games alive if I'm honest. 

[Turkish]

Hey Jonah, a few p1ss takers on here but let me tell you The truth. 
 

Reading is a very passionate local derby. Although we don’t play them much any more. Historically Reading were always a small club made up largely of fans who have moved out of London, as they don’t support one club (most Reading fans support Reading and someone else) then it’s difficult to take them seriously 

Due to our maritime heritages there is a huge rivalry with Sunderland, rumors that this stems back to their jealousy as a boat building city similar to Southampton, But it was us that was chosen to launch the titanic. It wasnt always that way as Sunderland even changed their shirts to red and white stripes Back in 1912 to honour the superior maritime city but more recently there is a bitterness stemming from our north east cousins which has spilt out onto the football terraces. Of course Sunderlands hooligan element are no match for the Dell Elite Force (DEF) but few are! matches between the two major ship building cities are never lacking incident on or off the pitch.

Let me tell you Jonah the Southampton DEF are largely regard as the most notorious hooligan gang in Europe happy to assist if you want more information 

 

 

Edited 15 April, 2021 by Turkish

[sydney_saint]

Is this a pisstake? It only takes a researcher a couple on wiki to find out our rivalry, for fucks sake. What are they teaching nowadays? It would tell you everything to know about our infamous rivalry with Plymouth. 

Like most rivalries, it's partly geographic based and partly history. We share the same short coastline and as such battle for naval esteem and domination. 

I feel a little embarrassed saying this, given your US knowledge, but more just a reminder for fellow saints fans particularly those living abroad. But the rivalry actually stemmed from your history and the Mayflower. 

Despite Southampton playing a pivotal in the pilgrams voyage, arguably more definitive than Plymouth, it was the lather that got the recognition in Massachusetts and name recognition. This catapulted Plymouth to international fame, and remains one of the UKs, if not the world's (!) wealthiest city's. 

Around 50 years later as Plymouth was establishing itself as a global force, we challenged them to a game of feetsround, a primitive version of football. Despite comprehensively beating them by 17 foots lengths, they have remained one of the UKs most developed cities, though this contrasts against our great accomplishments as one of the UKs most successful footballing sides. They are bitter at our various footballing achievements, and we remain bitter of their huge and undeserved wealth. 

[benjii]

Don't forget the North London Yobbos.

A pivotal figure in the history of Southampton FC was Rupert Lowe, a loved and respected figurehead for the club who dragged it into the modern era. Bon viveur, polymath, man of the people. Rupert was the talk of the town.

Unfortunately some Tottenham fans were jealous of our new success and took a dislike to Rupert. One day when he was out ducking, they followed him and kept shouting "Swing Lowe" whenever he tried to get a shot off. Poor Rupes bagged barely enough for a 1/4 Peking Crispy and was, rightly, enraged. 

He denounced Tottenham as "North London Yobbos" and the DEF, that Derek Turkish mentions above, were put on orders to thrash on site any North London Yobbos spotted between the bollard shape formed by drawing a line connecting the points of Winchester Services on the A34 to the north, Rownhams Services on the M27 to the west, and Bursledon Tesco to the east and dropping two vertical lines south to the coast from the east/west points.

Suffice to say, they don't dare encroach and matches between the clubs are now extremely fiesty, with much bad language. 

Edited 16 April, 2021 by benjii

[Saint Billy]

Ignore the above posts, for some reason they haven't taken your request seriously, I assume it is because it is a subject we tend to avoid due to the extreme bitterness and rivalry the two sets of fans have held for decades. 

It pains me to even talk obout those blue few but to assist in your studies over the pond I suggest you look at World War 2 being at the center of this hatred and if you delve into the history of the Spitfire (the sacrifices I have made to write that word down) the more apparent it all becomes. 

The fact that due to underhand dealings they managed to steal the land from us for the Airport and name it is an outrage especially when it is clearly in the territory of Southampton although they seem to take the M27 as the dividing line, damn them. This is just one example of how deep this rivalry goes but if you study more intensely you will find that the waring goes right back to saxon times when they used blue face paint and us red as depicted by the recently found patchwork with scenes of King of Hampshire Aethelberht Le Tissier who dressed in red and white stripes. After his reign as king ended he was made Le God. hope this helps on your road to discovery. 

Edited 16 April, 2021 by Saint Billy

[whelk]

Many  households will have both Portsmouth and Saints fans hence why it always referred to as the friendly derby. 

[SKD]

All of the above are clearly oldies living in the past. The Modern fan will Tell you about a new blue and white franchise causing a stir. Eastleigh FC. 

[Turkish]

Forest Green are our big rivals for the virtue signal trophy. As a vegan only team they provide stiff competition for us with our flying of trannie flags and world class wokeism as a progressive club. We had it with a few of their firm at king cross back in 2017, they had a good go but when one of them got a pork pie wrapped round his canister they all started grizzle gutting about the poor pig and threw themselves in front of an oncoming train, tragic really.

[Colinjb]

Any answer given in the survey will not matter. Until you have witnessed the pure rabid hatred of Worthy's YFC and Littleton then you havn't lived.

[SNSUN]

Everton installed the first dugouts in England, we installed the first permanent floodlights in England. We’ve be rivals in trying to set records ever since.

[TWar]

Northampton, ever since Easthampton went bust.

[TWar]

2 hours ago, whelk said:

Many  households will have both Portsmouth and Saints fans hence why it always referred to as the friendly derby. 

Is it even a rivalry? My set of half and half scarfs say otherwise...

[ChrisPY]

7 minutes ago, TWar said:

Is it even a rivalry? My set of half and half scarfs say otherwise...

Don’t think it can be described as a rivalry.

Me and my Portsmouth supporting brother have matching ‘Harry Redknapp, King of the South’ tattoos.

Surprised nobody has mentioned our joint rivalry with England which started because the great man was continually overlooked for the top job.

[JustinSFC]

Someone's already beaten me to Forest Green.

[jawillwill]

On 14/04/2021 at 21:49, sportprof101 said:

Hi Saints fans,

Since 2014, we—the students and professors of the Know Rivalry Project—have been studying rivalry for sports in North America with the help of message board members. Now we are expanding our research to the English Premier League. Please help us ensure that Southampton is included by taking 9 minutes to complete our updated survey:

https://umassamherst.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3FdJ8eN2EgFCfCB?grpID=1336

Our previous results in the US have been featured in numerous sports media outlets, as well as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. You can view those results, links to media coverage, and learn more about us at our KnowRivalry.com website.

We use the Qualtrics online survey software for data collection. This academic research has been approved by two US universities' Institutional Review Boards (IRB) and it poses no risks to respondents. You'll find more information on the disclosure agreement that is required to start the survey. Thank you for helping us to include Southampton by participating and please share this with any other fans that may also help.

Jonah, Student Researcher, Northern Kentucky University

Dr. Joe Cobbs, Northern Kentucky University

Dr. David Tyler, University of Massachusetts—Amherst

Hi Jonah, please can you post a link to the New York Times / Wall Street Journal article about this once its published. Sure it will be a great insight to our club based on the wide range of responses above.

Southampton are unique as an English club to have so many fierce rivals, whilst also being considered most people's second favourite team due to all our successes against all odds. In my living memory alone, we have:

- Been attributed with all of Liverpool's Premier League titles to date due to our production line of talent.

- Scored a famous equaliser in the Carabao Cup Final

- Finished second only to Brighton in League 1

- First team ever to have a Hashtag on the stadium seats

- Scored an equaliser in a Championship Play-Off semi-final against Derby.

- Signed George Weah's cousin.

- Came from 2-0 down to beat Burnely and all but secure an unprecedented 9th consecutive season of Premier League football.

[sydney_saint]

1 hour ago, jawillwill said:

Hi Jonah, please can you post a link to the New York Times / Wall Street Journal article about this once its published. Sure it will be a great insight to our club based on the wide range of responses above.

Southampton are unique as an English club to have so many fierce rivals, whilst also being considered most people's second favourite team due to all our successes against all odds. In my living memory alone, we have:

- Been attributed with all of Liverpool's Premier League titles to date due to our production line of talent.

- Scored a famous equaliser in the Carabao Cup Final

- Finished second only to Brighton in League 1

- First team ever to have a Hashtag on the stadium seats

- Scored an equaliser in a Championship Play-Off semi-final against Derby.

- Signed George Weah's cousin.

- Came from 2-0 down to beat Burnely and all but secure an unprecedented 9th consecutive season of Premier League football.

As you can see, Southampton fans are known for being bashful and humble. Whilst we are all very proud of this list of achievements, as is much of the footballing world, it only skims the surface of our various achievements. Off the top of my head I can recall

- In 11/12 season, Southampton secured back to back promotions, the ONLY team to achieve such a success that season

- In the 08/09 season, Southampton rewrote the rules of English football by bringing the famous Dutch Total Football to England. Under the guidance of esteemed manager Jan Poortvliet, we played a thrilling style of football with a team of youngsters, many of which have become stalwarts in the English Football League. The project has wildly been considered a great success

- Southampton prides itself as a family for its fanbase. There was no clearer evidence than when we outsourced to a local fan the building of a statue of footballing giant Milan Mandaric, This was a fantastic tribute to our great friends over in Portsmouth. The statue united the fanbase and was described unilaterally as 'extraordinary'

- Whilst all of this obviously paints a glowing picture of our club, we as fans don't take things too seriously. This was evident when when we printed a number of t-shirts with the slogan 'Saints go Wilde'. Now I know what you are thinking. That's not how you spell Wild. Fear not! This was a humorous and witty remark at Southampton's new owner, billionnaire Michael Wilde, who would go on to have two stints running the club in a new direction. 

- Another outstanding example of our humor can be found in our upcoming transfer threads. If you have a browse, you will often see a reference to 'Has Skacel signed yet'. And you may be wondering, has he? But who is Skacel, there doesn't seem to be an active footballer by that name. This again is a humorous recollection of a period in our history where we had  a long drawn transfer saga with Hearts legend Rudi Skacel. Fortunately we managed to get the transfer over the line and he went on to make appearances for the club. 

Edited 16 April, 2021 by sydney_saint

[whelk]

8 hours ago, jawillwill said:

Hi Jonah, please can you post a link to the New York Times / Wall Street Journal article about this once its published. Sure it will be a great insight to our club based on the wide range of responses above.

Southampton are unique as an English club to have so many fierce rivals, whilst also being considered most people's second favourite team due to all our successes against all odds. In my living memory alone, we have:

- Been attributed with all of Liverpool's Premier League titles to date due to our production line of talent.

- Scored a famous equaliser in the Carabao Cup Final

- Finished second only to Brighton in League 1

- First team ever to have a Hashtag on the stadium seats

- Scored an equaliser in a Championship Play-Off semi-final against Derby.

- Signed George Weah's cousin.

- Came from 2-0 down to beat Burnely and all but secure an unprecedented 9th consecutive season of Premier League football.

I had forgotten about the first hashtag on the seats. Ahhh I have just welled up with pride 

[benjii]

I did the survey. It was quite fun.

[Singapore Saint]

I'm sure in China our rivals are seen as Wolves and West Bromwich Albion for obvious reasons.