Football News: Southampton Season Review

Image from: teamspictures.com

Southampton's was a tale of ups and downs last season, even before the season started the ride was white knuckle in the extreme with a whole group of players forcing their way out of the club. Before the season kicked off people had already decided Saints were relegation candidates that would need there to be three teams worse than them in order to stay up.

How wrong people were! Ronald Koeman came in to replace Mauricio Pochettino, who jumped ship along with a whole raft of players, bringing his brother Erwin with him and settled things down. A couple of signings followed, Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle in particular, and the season kicked off with everyone expecting the worst.

Koeman proved everyone wrong though, with Southampton coming out of the blocks like a steam train and put Saints in contention for a top four place from the very early stages of the Premier League season. Pelle and Tadic were a revelation, goals were flowing, the media were effusive in their praise and it all seemed rosey in the South Coast garden.

Unfortunately the team faded a little in the second half of the season, Pelle's goals dried up and Southampton dropped out of contention for the top four in the final weeks. In the end though, finishing 7th in a season you were expected to be relegation candidates has to be seen as a major success.

With European qualification assured to the Europa League, this is the time for Saints to show how ambitious they are, with European competition there to tempt new signings and hold on to the players they have. This could be the foundation stone of a new era, or it could be the high point of a short lived blaze of glory, it all depends on how the Southampton ownership handles this summer.

Written by Tris Burke June 03 2015 10:14:56