Epilogue and Prologue
2024/25 was, as we know, a complete disaster but there’s a new optimism with season tickets and the first game sold out while the club are second favourites to win the Championship. I don’t see that and suspect that, with global sports betting, expert odds setters don’t concern themselves with something as humble as the EFL Championship – instead chances might be based on value of players and/or wage bill. Either way, Southampton’s bloated squad count against punters because quantity trumps quality; the only players leaving seem to be the good ones.
What went wrong last time out? I think those in charge saw relegation, with its parachute payment, as preferable to debt. That’s fair enough, but the strategy was pursued with such enthusiasm that we campaigned with very nearly the worst Premier League team ever, and established a record for most defeats. Another penny-pinching decision not to replace Jason Wilcox when he was head-hunted didn’t help. Jason’s year didn’t go well either, of course, presiding over three managers and what the world-wide Old Trafford ‘faithful’ call their worst side ever (but those of us of a certain vintage remember MU accompanying Southampton into the old Second Division 51 years ago).
That three manager ploy never works out well, does it? The worst of our set, statistically, was Russell Martin whose 16 matches yielded 3 points at 0.1875 per game. Ivan Jurić did a bit better with 3 points from 14 at 0.214, while Simon Rusk’s two periods as caretaker gave us 3 draws from 8 games which is 0.375 p.p.g. The stats are suspect because opponents were different, and there is the suspicion that Rusk was really in charge at the end of Jurić’s reign. Goals against per game, though, may be significant: Jurić 2.7857, Martin 2.1875, Rusk 1.5.
Project Still feels like something that needs time, but he has impatient fans and a trigger-happy board to deal with – it could be a bumpy ride. At least we avoided defeat against Premier League opponents pre-season… thanks to a deflected shot and a dodgy penalty.
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