It’s been nothing short of an interesting summer for Southampton FC. After finishing off a fantastic 2013/14 season in the Barclay’s Premier League which saw them finish in 8th place, the future quickly went from bright to rather frightening. It all began with the departure of manager Mauricio Pochettino, whose high pressing game won the hearts of his players, the fans, and unfortunately the eye of Tottenham’s Daniel Levy. After his departure, rumors began to swirl around almost every single player on the squad and the ‘mass exodus’ of a talented squad began before a ball was ever kicked at the World Cup.

The Outs:

Rickie Lambert sealed a move to his boyhood club Liverpool, which definitely caused feelings of sadness for Saints fans, but one that they couldn’t ever begin to begrudge the striker for. The same could not be said for captain Adam Lallana however; whose move to Liverpool was much more negatively received by the fans, due to having signed a new 5 year contract just over a year ago and gave the fans this heartfelt message. Then Manchester United shelled out a massive deal for teenage left back Luke Shaw and moves for Dejan Lovren, and Calum Chambers have followed suit over the course of the past few months. It seemed that once the floodgates opened, they just wouldn’t stop. Just about every day a new article would come out linking a Saints player to another team around England. But in the mixture of all of this madness some positive things happened, some things which can give Saints fans hope moving into the new season.

The Ins:

On June 16, Southampton announced that they had appointed a new manager in the form of the prolific Barcelona and Netherlands center back, Ronald Koeman. Since joining the club, Koeman has been able to spend the transfer funds earned from all of the player sales, which has amassed to nearly £90 million. Some of the players that he has brought in have been able to fit directly into the holes left by the exodus of players: Italian striker Graziano Pelle joined from Koeman’s former club Feyenoord and offers a goal-scoring threat. He posted fantastic numbers in the Eredivisie (69 in 159 appearances) and is being seen as a suitable replacement for Rickie Lambert, although we’ve seen Jozy Altidore struggle to adapt to the English game after playing so well in the Dutch league. Serbian winger Dusan Tadic was purchased from FC Twente for a reported £11 million, and should provide adequate replacement for the departed Adam Lallana.

To fill the void at left back, Koeman worked a loan deal for Chelsea’s Ryan Bertrand but will perhaps also give a few opportunities to the next product of Southampton’s famed academy, Matt Targett. Yet another player was loaned in, in the form of Inter Milan’s young midfielder Saphir Taider. And the most recent purchase by the Dutchman came in the form of England goalkeeper Fraser Forster, who was purchased earlier this week from Celtic. Having both Forster and Artur Boruc will provide two good options, which was not the case last year when Boruc missed a portion of the season with injury and the young Paulo Gazzaniga had to fill in and had his inexperience exposed numerous times. 

Moving Forward:

So where do the Saints stand heading into this new Premier League season after such a busy summer? After losing so much of their starting squad that performed so incredibly well last season, many pundits and journalists were quick to write off the club as relegation favorites. But here’s a crazy thought: what if Koeman actually knows what he’s doing and is beginning to build something special at the club? Could this plan allow them to enjoy the successes of his predecessor? After all, he was forced to manage Feyenoord on an extremely tight budget yet with those restrictions he was able to guide the club to two 2nd place finishes (and Champions League football) alongside a 3rd place finish. Koeman was able to do this by utilizing Feyenoord’s youth academy, and must be extremely excited to come to a club with another famed academy.

All of this is cause for a positive outlook in my opinion. Hopefully by the end of the month, Koeman will be able to purchase another center back to partner new captain, Jose Fonte. Current backups Maya Yoshida and Jos Hooiveld both displayed shaky performances over the course of last season when Dejan Lovren and Jose Fonte were out injured at times. If the current rumors of players like Virgil van Djik come to fruition, the club will have a second quality center back to shore up the back line. Nathaniel Clyne will continue to offer his great services defending but most notably making runs forward down the right wing. The midfield is stocked with talent and it will be interesting to see who earns a place in Koeman’s starting eleven on Sunday at Anfield. Club favorite Jack Cork had a very solid season last year (although he is linked with a move to Crystal Palace), Victor Wanyama will be hoping to avoid injury in his second season in England and become a staple in the team. James Ward Prowse will look to step up and make a position his own, and then there’s Morgan Schneiderlin. After rumors of a bid from Tottenham were shut down by chairman Ralph Kruger, the Frenchman has posted this to his Twitter and told his new manager that he wasn’t ‘mentally or physically ready’ to play in the last preseason friendly last weekend. It will be interesting to see if the Frenchman is given an opportunity to play for Koeman or if he will make him earn his spot back among the new signings and old faces. The front line has been buoyed by Shane Long joining from Hull City. Plus, Florin Gardos has been signed as a defensive midfielder, who can also play centerback. Once Jay Rodriguez returns from his knee injury, he will provide another avenue for goals and will hopefully regain the form which saw him on the verge of earning a spot on England’s World Cup squad.

With all of these items of business taken into account, I am predicting a 10th place finish for the Saints. Although it would not surprise me one bit if they splashed a bit more cash by the end of the window to bring more quality into the squad and if the team is able to gel quickly, they could make a push for a similar 8th place spot that they earned under their former manager. Call me an optimist, but I foresee great things for the Saints under Ronald Koeman moving forward and am very intrigued by what the future holds for the club.

After the success of back-to-back promotions to earn a spot in the Premier League, Southampton found life difficult initially. They weren’t assisted too well by an extremely difficult first few months of the campaign, and ultimately seemed destined for a year-long relegation scrap.

That is until things turned around when Saints’ new manager Mauricio Pochettino arrived to the club and ushered in a new high-pressing style and fast-paced tempo for the club to play with. Many Saints fans were massive backers of former boss Nigel Adkins and continue to be to this day, and his sacking was untimely and out of nowhere really, but nobody can argue with the results of the change triggered by chairman Nicola Cortese.

The Saints ultimately achieved the goal that they set out for last season: survival. And with the new season getting ready to kick off before we know it, the club’s ambitions provide a new challenge and exciting times for the fans of the club.

Many people still see Southampton as a small club with no funds for decent players. Quite the contrary, the club owners — the Liebherr Family — have made Southampton the fifth richest club in England and have fully backed the ambitions that Cortese has laid out for the club.

This is something that can be seen by the caliber of player the club is looking to sign (or have signed in the case of Croatian center back Dejan Lovren) including Victor Wanyama, Pablo Osvaldo, Mathieu Flamini and Éver Banega. These are players that Saints fans could only dream of a few years ago while sitting in League 1 thinking of the day that we would return to the promised land. Only time will tell us how many of these rumors pan out; We all know that they can get a bit out of hand with social media these days. But the ambition to move the club forward is clearly there for Cortese, which is something he has never shied away during his time at the club.

When Markus Liebherr and Cortese took over at Southampton, saving them from the brink of extinction, they publicly outlined a 5-year plan to put the team back in the Premier League. They successfully achieved that in record time, achieving the back-to-back promotions under Adkins and have always run their ship to ‘Premier League standard’ including a top notch training center in Staplewood.

The club recently released images of a possible stadium expansion with the question “Our Future?” This is something that would be a key aspect of pushing the club forward should they push into European competitions. It’s clear to see that the club have massive ambitions, and Cortese is the man to take the club as a whole forward.

One of the things that I personally enjoyed about last season with Saints was the way the team played cohesively. The team had no superstars who created Balotelli-esqe drama within the team, with the exception of keeper Artur Boruc’s incident with the fans during a match against Tottenham that can really be noted as a one-off scenario.

The team is anchored by talent that was mostly brought through the academy such as Adam Lallana and 17-year-old phenom Luke Shaw, while also featuring players who were brought in for bargains such as Rickie Lambert who signed for a bargain £1 million. But the spine of the team is located in the heart of midfield where Morgan Schneiderlin and Jack Cork have become a serious dynamic duo for the South-coast club. Schneiderlin finished the season with the most successful tackles of any player in the Premier League, and the entire season for Saints changed when Cork returned from his ankle injury. That partnered with the goals from the joint-top English goalscorer from last season Rickie Lambert and his budding partner up top Jay Rodriguez, and the solid young center backs Luke Shaw and Nathaniel Clyne, has set up great expectations for the Southampton faithful going into the 2013/14 season.

Hopefully the team will be able to put great runs together during the next season and prove the doubters wrong. There is no reason why a club can’t make an ascendency in the way Southampton have the opportunity to in the Premier League. They have an ambitious chairman, backing of the owners for necessary costs, plans to expand the stadium, and a phenomenal fan base who have recently been through the lowest of lows and new highs. It will be interesting to see the respect that Southampton will be able to earn should they pick up and leave off where they ended last season. One thing is for sure, the future is bright in red and white.