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English Football League

A tale of two cities - part one: Southampton in a right old mess

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"Knowledgeable" Nik Wardle tells us how the fortunes of neighbouring football clubs Southampton and Portsmouth have changed over the last few seasons. Firstly, a look at Southampton....

Following on from a fortunate draw at Scunthorpe, Southampton are just four points away from the drop zone in the Championship. For decades, Saints had the upper hand over their rivals, Portsmouth: mainly being in a higher league, reaching three major cup finals, signing players such as Ball, Channon, Keegan and Shilton and having several forays into Europe. So what has gone wrong for the Saints?

Saints were relegated from the top tier in 2005, ending a stay of twenty-seven years. It seems incredible now but they actually finished second in 1984. What is also implausible is that Saints got relegated just two seasons after reaching the FA Cup final, where they lost to Arsenal. Former chairman Rupert Lowe bore the brunt of their fans frustrations - and I think two non-decisions by him were key in sending Saints into freefall.

From reading Gordon Strachan's autobiography, Strachan: My Life in Football it appears the then Saints boss wanted to sign Malbranque and Saha from Fulham, the summer following the FA Cup final defeat. Lowe wouldn't release the money and both players have since proved their abilities by going on to play for bigger clubs. Saints missed the opportunity to kick on and also crashed out of the UEFA Cup in the first round to Steaua the following season. The second key non-decision was the failure to re-appoint Glenn Hoddle, following Strachan's resignation. Lowe wanted Hoddle and Hoddle wanted the job but Lowe bowed to pressure from the fans and instead plumped for Paul Sturrock. And the Scot's plumpness was apparently a matter of some humour to the Saints players. He was swiftly sacked,

Steve Wigley's caretaker spell was disastrous, and then came Harry Redknapp. I appreciate Hoddle couldn't be classified as a success in his last job at Wolves - twice failing to get them into the play offs - but he galvanised Saints when he was there last and there were enough quality players at the club (Beattie, Niemi, Svensson etc) to be kept afloat if the players responded to a manager.

Conspiracy theorists may delight in thinking Redknapp took Saints down on purpose but it appeared to me that Redknapp never looked comfortable at Saints. Having left Pompey, largely due to the appointment of Velimir Zajec as executive director, he was hardly likely to thrill at the prospect of working with Sir Clive Woodward when he was appointed performance director. Still, Saints fans will wonder how he managed to keep Portsmouth up in 2006 from a worst position than Saints found themselves when he took over the season they were relegated. He's since called going to Southampton 'a bad mistake' and perhaps, performances reflected his lack of desire to be at the club.

On the surface, things looked good at St Mary's at the start of last season, as Rupert Lowe, to the delight of many fans, was ousted as chairman to be replaced by Michael Wilde. To be fair to Lowe, during his reign, Saints moved to a new stadium, reached the FA Cup final, finished eighth in the Premiership and returned to European football for the first time in 20 years. But his frugality (in the fan's eyes) proved to be his downfall. With Lowe ousted, big money was spent on players such as Raziak, Skacel and Wright-Phillips.

The appointment of George Burley (by Lowe) to replace Redknapp looked a good one too as they only lost on penalties to Derby in the play off semis last season. However, Wilde has since departed, so has his successor Leon Crouch, and the new funds promised haven't been forthcoming. The club is now so in debt that Raziak and Skacel have been loaned out simply to get their wages off the books.

Burley has now left to take up the Scotland post, Dodd and Gorman have since been removed from their role as caretaker managers and Nigel Pearson has surprisingly been appointed as manager on a rolling contract. How rolling this will be remains to be seen. He does have experience of saving a club from relegation having been in charge at Carlisle on the last day of the season in 1998. Mind you, his overall record there was: won five, drawn thirteen and lost twelve. A similar record over the remainder of this season at Saints would probably see them relegated.

Saints are now fourth favourites for relegation at [3.55]. This for a team which reached the play offs last season. This weekend sees Ipswich visiting Saint Mary's and both sides are available at [2.8]. With sides below them having games in hand and Saints having only won once in the league in two and a half months, it looks grim. Like so many clubs, they're waiting for a big business to bankroll the club - but there's only so many to go around and men of this ilk would have little interest in a club in the lower reaches of the football league.