| A Rough Guide To Fulham | A treat for those that like going to traditional football grounds, two sides of the ground date back many years … 03-01-2018 |
A disastrous defeat to Crystal Palace last night has left Southampton FC above the relegation only on goal difference.
Manager Mauricio Pellegrino is defiant over his future and insists he can make a success of the Saints job, despite angry supporters calling for his head after losing to Palace.
So we have a simple question for our readers - will Saints be relegated this season?
The club was relegated in 2005 following a 1-2 home defeat to Manchester United, and promoted to the Premier League again in 2012.
Various bookmakers have Saints at 11/2 and 5/1 to be relegated despite the dire situation, but what do you think?
BOURNEMOUTH manager Eddie Howe watched Saints’ disastrous defeat to Crystal Palace last night - but insists only ‘huge money’ would improve his squad.
Saints took the lead against Palace thanks to a rare Shane Long goal, but eventually lost 1-2.
The defeat leaves Southampton FC above the relegation zone on goal difference alone, while Cherries currently sit one point above them in 15th position.
Cherries are free to do business following the opening of the January transfer window but Howe has warned finding players to better his team is “almost impossible”.
He was at St Mary’s although Cherries don’t take on Palace until April 7 and Saints until April 28.
And he admitted spending big on his relegation-battling side offered “no guarantees”, while reiterating his faith in his current crop.
Asked if he had money available for signings, Howe said: “That’s a difficult one to answer. I think the board would always be supportive of me if I felt we desperately needed something.
“The problem I’d have is looking at players we could afford, who would be available and would make the team better. It’s a difficult mix when you put the those things together. To find those players is almost impossible.
“Where are you going to find a player who is going to improve our squad? How much money are you going to have to pay another club to find a player who is better than our players? You are talking huge money.
“That’s the difficult position we find ourselves in.
“Spending money in this market is incredibly difficult. There are no guarantees. You could spend a huge sum and not help the team whatsoever.
“I believe we have a good enough squad to survive without bringing anyone in. The only thing we have to consider is whether injuries are long term.”
Dutch star Virgil van Dijk on Monday completed a reported £75million move to Liverpool from Southampton – the highest fee paid for a defender in history.
The hefty price tag raised eyebrows in some quarters, prompting debate over how long football’s transfer fees could continue to rise.
“I don’t have the answer to that one,” said Howe. “People have been talking about a ceiling for a while. It was said back in the 1970s when Trevor Francis went for £1m that it could not keep going beyond that point and now here we are.
“It’s incredibly difficult to imagine how much more they can keep going up but while television revenue is so big and the worldwide appeal of the game is so huge and continues to develop, fees will only go up.
“It is imbalanced with the television money and if that revenue to the clubs went down, that’s the only time I can see transfer fees going down.”
Asked if rising sums were a concern, Howe added: “It’s been a worry for me since we got into the Championship and started to pay transfer fees I never thought this club would pay.
“But you have to join the party otherwise you will be left at home and way out of it. We have had to get involved.”
Cherries’ club-record signing is Dutchman Nathan Ake, who joined from Chelsea for £20million in the summer following a spell on loan in Dorset last season.
The left-back played at The Dell in the 1980/81 season, making 24 appearances and scoring once for the team.
The first of his appearances also coincided with the debut of Kevin Keegan, with McCartney part of the side that finished sixth in Division One under the guidance of manager Lawrie McMenemy.
A Scotland schoolboy international, who was born in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, McCartney had arrived at Saints after seven seasons with Carlisle United – a club he made 287 appearances for, across two spells.
McCartney, whose opportunities in the Southampton team became limited after Nick Holmes took possession of the number three shirt, had begun his career with West Bromwich Albion, ahead of his switch to Cumbria in 1973, where he established himself as a firm favourite.
Following his time on the south coast, he would move to Plymouth Argyle, before returning to Carlisle for his second spell with the club in 1983.
After an ankle injury forced him out of League football at the age of 33, McCartney moved back to Scotland, becoming player-manager at Gretna in 1988, who were then in England’s Northern League.
He would lead them to back-to-back titles in 1991 and 1992 and, in the latter of those seasons, helped them become the first Scottish club in 105 years to feature in the first round of the English FA Cup.
McCartney eventually left Gretna in 2000, working in the building trade and as a delivery driver in Carlisle.
Everyone at Southampton Football Club sends their condolences to Mike’s family and friends at this time.
Hagiology Publishing’s All the Saints was used to help compile this piece.
Southampton have given new manager Mauricio Pellegrino their “full backing” despite their dangerous slide towards the relegation zone and remain determined to add two or three players this transfer window, including Theo Walcott.
Everton are also interested in Walcott but a potential loan or permanent deal has so far been delayed by Arsenal, with manager Arsene Wenger as yet undecided on whether he will allow his longest-serving player to leave this month.
Walcott just wants to play in a final attempt to force his way back into the England World Cup squad and is open-minded about a move if his first-team chances at Arsenal will be limited. Wenger, though, has his own concerns this month over other attacking players, notably Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud, and is expected to wait several weeks before making a decision.
Southampton’s home defeat against Crystal Palace has left them just a point above the relegation zone following the £75 million sale of Virgil van Dijk and a dreadful sequence of just one win in 13 games. The final incoming fee from Van Dijk will be around £60 million due to a large sell-on clause to Celtic but that money is being made available to reinvest, even if it is likely to be spread over several transfer windows.
Saints face Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday 11th February (4pm). Ticket information is as follows:
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| Southampton in talks with Walcott’s agent | Southampton are in talks with Theo Walcott’s agent over a deal to sign the forward. According to Sky Sports, … 03-01-2018 |
Virgil van Dijk has gone from restaurant pot washer to world football’s top table – stunning those who felt he would never make it.
Van Dijk became the world’s most expensive defender when Liverpool paid Southampton £75million for the Dutchman, who will earn £10million a year at Anfield.
It is a far cry from a decade ago, when a 16-year-old Van Dijk washed dishes to make ends meet for a few Euros in as he dreamed of making it as a professional footballer.
Van Dijk worked as a kitchen hand at the Oncle Jean restaurant in his native city of Breda, where those in charge tried to convince him to forget about a career in football.
But Van Dijk has had the last laugh, with those who doubted him proud of how he has proved them all wrong with his meteoric rise to the summit of world football.
Restaurant owner Jacques Lips was stunned when his former employee became the world’s costliest defender, earning £55m over the next five-and-a-half years.
“£75million? I had to repeat the figure when I heard it,” said Lips. “Se-ven-ty fi-ve mil-lion. I still can’t believe it. Absolutely crazy money.
“He was a good worker. He would scrub hard and do his job properly. He was always here on the two busiest nights of the week. He was training hard to try and become a professional and had joined the academy of neighbours Willem II.
“After work, his dad always used to pick him up. I would often tell him he should wash more pots and stop trying to become a professional player.
“‘Stay here, Virgil’, I used to say. ‘Here you have the opportunity at least to earn a few quid’. He has absolutely made it and I hold my hands up. He deserves everything he is getting.
“Nobody at this place has ever forgotten Virgil. He was a great lad. In fact, we’ve always kept his name and phone number in our work book for temps.
“His name and number is still there. I’ve tried to call him. No not to ask him to come back, I just want to congratulate him.
“I’m so proud of him. He’s now the £75m man in the world of football."
Lips was not the only one of Van Dijk’s former associates left astounded by the defender’s record-breaking move to Liverpool.
Van Dijk’s youth coaches at his first club, WDS in Breda, were just as shocked. Ferdi Hoogeboom, John van den Berg and Rik Kleyn helped nurture the young Van Dijk.
The trio took training twice a week and would coach Van Dijk on a Saturday morning when the aspiring world star of the future was just seven-years-old.
Van Dijk has never forgotten his humble roots and has returned to where it all began for him to say thank-you for helping him on the road to stardom.
“Despite our coaching, he’s made it!” joked van den Berg. “Last year he turned up here with his signed Holland shirt. That was very emotional.
"He came to show his respect for his very first club and the people at this club who helped him. I’m not surprised he’s become a central defender. When he was seven he was bigger and stronger than the others.
“He was always in a central position. He would direct the play and take care of everything at the back. As he got older, he was so much stronger than the others. Physically he was head and shoulders above any other team mate or opponent."
After leaving Breda, Van Dijk joined the academy at neighbours Willem II, where he was told he would never make the grade and was forced to move 200 miles to FC Groningen.
After impressing there, Van Dijk earned a move to Celtic and then Southampton, where his performances convinced Liverpool to spend on him a world record fee for a defender.
Van Dijk used to clean up in his part-time job as a teenager, with Liverpool now hoping he can rinse their rivals and provide them with a platform for a fresh period of success.