EDIT: Originally posted May 14 - continued on post 13 The class of Twenty Thirteen Players come and players go - Thats football isn't it. It happens at every club in every league in every country. Players who simply arent good enough get moved on, players who are too good get snapped up by bigger fish. Squads change throughout the season from season to season. Some players dont fit or settle at a new club and there is always an element of risk in buying or selling a player. Have you brought or sold him at the right price or the right time. Fans at all clubs watch in the transfer windows waiting for the next 'big' player to join them. Rumours and transfer speculation these days are made to be almost as exciting as a game itself. Fans glued to ipads,phones,radio and tv channels waiting for that piece of breaking news that involves your club. Why are Southampton any different in losing players. The player leaves, you get your money, you buy someone else and life goes on. Southampton fans should be use to it, frequently described as a selling club in the past, it is frightening to see the talent that has left the club in the past. After their most successful season in top flight football for many many years its only natural that interest will be attracted by other clubs. We are not just talking about any old other clubs but the cream of the premier league when clubs like Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal are linked with the likes of Lallana, Shaw and Schneiderlin. Lets just be proud that we have watched these players grow into the footballers they are today, look forward to seeing who their replacements are going to be and hope the risk means we will have an equally good season next year. Thats football for yer. Now i would like to apologise for 5 paragraphs of bollocks. Because its not like that this time round. Much is said of manchester uniteds class of 92, in fact 22 years on it still gets brought up in the media, Giggs, Neville, Butt, Scholes, Beckham etc and what made the class of 92 work was that they were the basis of the team over a number of seasons. It always helps of course when the club you play for are the best in the country, if not the world, its far easier to keep that team together. Southamptons class of 2013 is special too. Its not a club of disjointed overpriced and overpaid players who have been assembled from all over the world and told to play together and win trophies. Its a club of togetherness, unity, passion, of good honest hardworkers, working for each other, chasing down play or making that killer pass. Its a family club and a club fans have taken to their hearts. The relationship off the pitch seems just as strong as on it. The English contingient especially seem to have a good bond with Lambert, Jrod, Lallana, Shaw, clyne all looking out for each others national interest like a band of brothers. Whilst we can still be proud of our fabulous academy bringing through replacements we are only a few players short of achieving something special. Taking just one player out of this group will burst the bubble. We are not Chelsea who have a conveyor belt of expensive signings coming in and going out with no connection we are a team of players who many of us have never met but we seem to know so well. And to our headteacher, Pochettino who has brought the best out of everyone at the club, stay and see how far we can make it together. Lets not dismantle and start again but instead build on what we have. Come on Katharina, your dad saw the potential of the club, we are all looking at you to fulfill it. This could all be easily shortened to Liverpool, Man Utd, spurs and anyone else f** off. Its been pleasing to see Ms Liebherr at St Marys on matchdays, taking an interest but her and the board are facing one of their biggest tests. Pass that test and let the class of 2013 be remembered in years to come. What are your views of Katharina. She let Nicola virtually run the club when she inherited it 4 years ago but has been far more visable over the last 6 months.
I'd like to point out, in the last five years alone, 77 players have contributed to our league campaigns. Players come, players go... please log in to view this image
How many of the players on that list are still with us? More to the point 3 from that list started that match against Millwall in August 2009!! That's not bad!!
I think that many more players would leave if we don't name the Kingsland stand after Iago Falque. Apparently it was his favourite stand. The Chapel was a close second.
Actually it's 76 ... Corby Moore never played for the first team, but did make the bench. And those players includes cup, not just league appearences, just to be pedantic
Good post OP. The "Southampton way" has been geared towards bringing through a group such as this and you're right it would be utterly counterproductive to break it up.
Yeah, I feel the same way RWMK, This season was a case of what might've been. What if we'd bought a top quality International Striker who wasn't sociopathic?, what if we had a Premier League quality back up GK, CB and LB?. With a few top signings we could be on the cusp of something special indeed. Your Point about "a band of brothers" is very true, you can see it in every game when one player misses a pass or a tackle and somenoe is immediately busting a gut to win the ball back, that's why our possession stats are so high. If we can keep Poch and this group together and bring in a top GK, CB and a prolific Striker as a minimum in the Summer, then next season we might threaten the top 5 again and possibly even stay there as Liverpool managed this season. PS, are you going to post an end of season table or did I miss it?
The player list has Sam McQueen in the wrong position. He came on for Lallana v Sunderland in the 5th round of the FA Cup but was told to play centre forward a position he often played in U21s whenever Gallagher didn't play, despite being known as a left wing.
Interesting seeing how many have come and gone...my impression was that there had been few changes, but I think that was because the team carried on being successful throughout the 5 year period. Mustn't forget how much Nigel had to do with that...not just Mauricio. We should try and remember that the club can and will survive changes of managers and players. I love our present style, so want to hold on to MP, but we will not plummet off the cliff if he leaves. Important thing is keep the manager or keep most of the players...mustn't lose both at the same time.
I originally posted this just over 4 months ago now, at the very end of last season when speculation started about our squad. At that point Lambert leaving was not even thinkable and then the events of the transfer window played out. I feel abit of a numpty now over the second part of my post about building on what we had and 'band of brothers' comment and this feeling of a unique opportunity to replicate Uniteds class of 92 with our very own class of 13. What we should know by now is that there is very little loyalty in football but loyalty is more of a nicety than a necessity. At the end of the day we will support whoever wears that red and white kit, we always have, we always will, occassionally there will be that club legend but as long as we are entertained and see committment with a winning mentality we are happy. The summer of 2014 was eventful from the day the last ball was kicked against United until the window closed on 1 September. If i have learnt one thing its that no-one is bigger or more important than the club as a whole. Hats off to Ms Liebherr and the set up at Southampton. Out goes 97million pounds of talent and in comes 74million (including loan buyout clauses). It appears we have a better stonger squad and a net profit of 23million. Out goes Pottechino and incomes Koeman who comes accross as world class. Already out was Cortese and in a more resolute board. Is there anyone i would swap back? - probably not Saints best start to the premier league for decades - All respect for the class of 2014.
This is the main thing that I will take from this summer. Don't really care who is wearing the shirt anymore, have accepted the reality that if they do well for us then it will be just a matter of time before they move on to one of the bigger clubs, but they obviously would have to have done well for us for these moves to materialise, so can't bear any grudge towards them. Was very telling the interviews/comments made when Tadic and Mane were brought in, both were along the lines of "yeah Saints were a good move for me right now rather than moving straight to a bigger club, establish myself in the Prem then move on at a later date".
Yep I was in the camp of not knowing if the board knew what they were doing or not and to this point it seems as though they knew very much what they were doing, once it was obvious what a lot of the players and manager' plans were. The whole situation seems to me like it was exceptionally well handled by the board, everything happening behind the scenes and them only letting out little snippets of info when they were getting a whole load of flack from all angles must have been hard. One thing I've learned, and something Cortese said, that is not getting too attached to any players. To me now they are only serving us and whilst I'm cheering every performance I realize that they are out for themselves, as possibly well they should be. I think Cortese did a very good job of brain-washing to a certain extent not only the players but fans as well, I'd say people like him thrive in business in general for that reason. Trying not to get carried away with the season so far, followed Saints for too many years for that. Yet it really does seem like the board could be going about it the right way, playing the long game, I hope so. UTS
Just looking through that list, and if I was to name my favourite ex-players from there, the line-up would go: GK: Bart - not just because he's the only one left, but he's a link back to the dark days and he was a good keeper who got an attack of the heebee-geebees at the wrong time against Blackpool. Before then he was a dependable stopper. As I remember, he saved penalties for fun. RB: Either Frazer or Danny. I'll have both. Both had almost Painer like accuracy with their crosses. One goes to the bench. RCB: Difficult one, as Jose has been such a fixture since January 2010. Probably Chris Perry. Trotman to the bench. LCB: Well, it's either Jaidi or Jos. Jos gets it because Radhi is already comfy in his new job. That's enough excuse for me. LB: Funnily enough, Dan Harding. Still getting forward at Nottm Forest, though at RB, it seems. I'll never forget that he was supposed to have something of lavender about him, which always made me smile. RMF: Crikey, what am I supposed to do here..? There's Punch, OXO, Steeeeeve, Antonio and Papa. Loved them all, but I'm going with Waigo, simply because I loved his dead man walking goal celebration, and I miss him even today. I think the clincher is that he left some of his gear at SFC in the faint hope that one day he would return. Says enough for me. RCM: Easy. That bald headed Dickensian geezer, Mr Chaplow. AMF: Guly..! Guly..! Who f**king else..? LCM: Deano, all day long. No contest. I'd have Simon Gilllet on the bench. LMF: Between Lee Holmes and Ben Reeves for me. I'll have Holmes keeping the bench warm with Reeves as my little assist merchant. RS: This one is a real bastard. I'm not best friends with Rickie at the moment, so he's coming under pressure from David Connolly, in my warm glow. Plus, I have a soft spot for Saganowski, as a link to the past, and the way he demolished Wolves, and Lee Barnard. Got to be Rickie, hasn't it. I've got to forgive him for going to Liverpool some day, so he'd better be in my team of sentiment. I hear Saga was good in goal, in training, so he gets in, and David and Lee get on my bench. Phew..! LS: This is much easier. I can't say I have a huge soft spot for any of the ex-Saints there. Besides, I'm aware that I have 11 outfield players [thought I wouldn't notice eh..? ] Let's see how the 7 subs are doing..? Dammit, it's filled with Saga, Connolly, Barnard, Holmes, Gillet, Trotman, Butterfield. So no room for anyone else. Oh well. That's sentiment for you.
Makes interesting reading.....anyone care to update DTLW's original listing in green and add the new players? Might just make a good piece to add to the newsnow site if someone did. Original and addendum is a very good post.
