Inside Saints' fresh start

Southampton slid to a 15th-placed Premier League finish last season, only five points above the relegation zone.

But does the new campaign signal a fresh start for the club? In conversation with Sky Sports, Ralph Hasenhuttl explains:

• Why he has changed his coaching staff
• How the new owners are helping him
• Why honesty and reflection are key
• How Saints’ transfer strategy is unique
• Why he needs a game-changing striker

Ralph Hasenhuttl heads into the new season as the fourth longest-serving manager in the Premier League but it has been a summer of change for Southampton.

New players. New coaches. A new head of recruitment.

All of them working under new owners too.

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“It was important for us, I think, after nearly four years with me and the same group, that we make some changes,” Hasenhuttl explains to Sky Sports in the press room at St Mary’s Stadium.

“It doesn’t mean we have done a bad job in the last years. I think we definitely did a very good job to stay in the league with this team every season without any relegation problems.

“But we have tried to give the players a new input and we have tried to give them some new voices on the pitch because they deserved to get that after such a long time.”

Hasenhuttl is referring primarily to the changes to his backroom team.

Out went assistant coaches Kelvin Davis, Dave Watson and Craig Fleming at the end of last season; in came Ruben Selles, Carl Martin, who previously led the club’s U18s, and set-piece specialist Alex Clapham.

The overhaul followed an internal review carried out by Sport Republic, the club’s new owners, following their £100m takeover in January, and it did not end there.

Joe Shields, previously in charge of Manchester City’s academy recruitment, was named Southampton’s head of senior recruitment following Martyn Glover’s departure to Leicester.

The transfer window Shields is overseeing has been a busy one.

Last week, 19-year-old striker Sekou Mara became Southampton’s sixth signing of the summer following the additions of Gavin Bazunu, Mateusz Lis, Armel Bella Kotchap, Romeo Lavia and Joe Aribo, his £10m arrival from Bordeaux taking their total spend to £58.5m.

The expectation is that more will follow before the end of the window and the ultimate aim of the on and off-field changes is to improve the level of the team at Hasenhuttl’s disposal – and to ensure Southampton’s form does not tail off as it has in each of the last two Premier League campaigns.

“The first step, if you want to get better, is always to see what you haven’t done well, being self-critical and honest to yourself,” says Hasenhuttl as he reflects on the run of nine losses from 12 Premier League games which saw Saints drop to 15th in last season’s Premier League table.

“We have had every year the same situation. One time we ended up higher because we had the Covid break and we could reset a little bit and work on some behaviours.

“But otherwise, we were always struggling with keeping the level high at the end of the season.

“It looked that we couldn’t overperform for the whole year, otherwise it wouldn’t be overperforming, it would be our normal level.

“We definitely didn’t underperform last season,” adds Hasenhuttl. "The level that we reach at the moment is the level we have as a club. But that doesn’t mean that we have to accept it.

“It means that we have to find ways to push this level higher.

“This is what we are trying this season again.”

Starting against Tottenham on Saturday, Saints will seek to "push the level higher" with an even younger squad than last year.

Hasenhuttl had the third-youngest starting line-up in the Premier League last season and Southampton's commitment to youth is one thing that won’t change under the new owners, who feel emboldened by the success of Tino Livramento and Armando Broja following their arrivals from Chelsea last summer.

Indeed, while Broja has returned to his parent club following the end of his loan spell and Livramento is currently sidelined by a knee injury, the club are hopeful Bazunu, Bella-Kotchap, Lavia and Mara – all aged 20 or younger – will prove similarly successful.

“I think that the young players we have brought in are very good,” says Hasenhuttl. “They were good for us to get, because we have shown last season that young players get a good chance to play here.

“In football, very often rumours are reaching the agents and the players, and then they want to come to you, especially the good young ones.”

Shields was appointed with that in mind.

The 35-year-old, who started out as a scout for Crystal Palace and Fulham before moving to Manchester City in 2013, has a stellar reputation in youth recruitment circles.

He was responsible for signing a host of outstanding young players during his time at Manchester City, including a 14-year-old Jadon Sancho, and his influence can already be seen at St Mary’s.

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Southampton have raided City for two players in goalkeeper Bazunu and midfielder Lavia, both of whom Shields previously helped recruit for City, while they have also been linked with forwards Liam Delap and Sam Edozie.

“I think he knows, especially in England, all the good young players and all the kids who have potential,” Hasenhuttl says of Shields.

“He is coming from a fantastic club and that’s the reason why I expect a lot from him in the future.”

Hasenhuttl’s expectations have been raised further by what he has seen from Bazunu and Lavia in pre-season.

“He knows them and he knows how much potential they have,” adds Hasenhuttl.

“The good thing is that you could immediately see that they are good.”

Southampton’s youth-focused recruitment strategy is of course instructed by the financial resources available to them too.

The club’s new owners have delighted supporters with their investment in the team. They are, however, still operating on a budget which makes paying a premium for more experienced performers difficult.

Indeed, while seven Premier League clubs have spent in excess of £30m on individual players this summer alone, Southampton’s record signing remains the relatively modest £20m fee paid to take Danny Ings from Liverpool in 2018.

“With more experienced players, who have shown that they are good, it is a bit harder for us because then it’s all about money,” adds Hasenhuttl.

“This is where we are miles away from the other clubs in the Premier League because we have no £40-£50m transfers and we will not do that in the future.”

Instead, they will look within for the experience and proven quality needed to complement their rising stars this season.

“It is not possible only to play with young players, this is right,” says Hasenhuttl. “A good balance must be there, but we also have a lot of players in the squad now who have played for a long time.

“Even Prowsey [James Ward-Prowse] is not a [young] talent anymore, he is an experienced player, and you can see we have also grown our players.

"They have shown they are competitive in the Premier League.

“Jan Bednarek, for example, is not a young player anymore, he should be now turning into a leader.

“We have some others on the pitch who are able to do this.”

Happily for Hasenhuttl, Southampton’s new owners are fully supportive of his way of playing.

This summer’s new recruits have been identified, in part, because of their suitability to the Austrian's high-intensity, high-pressing style.  

“This is a big factor when we sign players but it’s also something you don’t learn from one day to the other, it takes a little bit of time,” says Hasenhuttl.

“It will be interesting how quickly they can adapt to what we want to do.”

Hasenhuttl is showing a willingness to adapt too.

Southampton conceded 67 goals in the Premier League last season, the fourth-highest total in the division, and Hasenhuttl has used their pre-season games this summer to trial a switch from his favoured 4-2-2-2 formation to a back three.

“It’s a shape that you hope will get you more stability,” he explains. “You will lose a player up front. That means the high pressing will be a little bit more difficult, I think. Not impossible, but sometimes more difficult.

“I don’t want us to be too deep because it's a long way to score goals like that and you need a lot of quality up front to do it.

“So, it is a change of shape, but we have played it also in the past as well. It is not something completely new.

“It is always good in modern football, if you’re a team that doesn’t have this extra quality and can always focus on themselves because they are so good, to surprise the opponent a little bit and find different ways to stress them.

"This is what we try to do.”

They will try to increase their goal threat too.

Southampton generated a high volume of chances last season, ranking in the top half for shots, shots on target and touches in the opposition box, but they lacked a ruthless streak, with Ward-Prowse the only player to reach double figures for goals scored.

The hope is that Mara will rise to the challenge of playing in the Premier League much like Broja did last season, albeit without being as prolific as Southampton would have liked.

Mara, a French youth international, scored six goals for Bordeaux in Ligue 1 last season, his statistical output placing him among the most productive strikers under the age of 22 in any of Europe’s major leagues.

“He is a young player who scored goals in the French league but has to prove that he is a good one for the Premier League,” says Hasenhuttl.

“This is a different level. We have seen it last season. Armando Broja coming in took a little bit of time, but then suddenly he was there and learnt very quick. I expect the same from him.”

Hasenhuttl is quick to add that Mara will not be Southampton’s only addition up front. “There is still somebody else to come,” he says, albeit without giving any names.

The club can of course call on Che Adams and Adam Armstrong, but Shane Long has departed as well as Broja, meaning there is room in the squad for another addition to the forward line.

“In the end, we need guys who make a difference up front,” says Hasenhuttl. “I think it’s definitely a fact that last season, we had the best time when Armando Broja was on his highest level.

“That makes a difference in those games for us. You can see that some goals, when there is no chance, can change completely a game and turn things around.

“This is what a lot of Premier League teams have, an exceptional striker up front who makes a difference in some moments, and that makes it easier for the whole team to do the rest of the job.

“That is what we need. We were strongest last season when we had it. This season, we need the same.”

Southampton are looking to the transfer market to fill that void but not only there. The changes to Hasenhuttl’s coaching staff have been implemented in order to get more from the players they already have.

Selles, Hasenhuttl’s new assistant, who, at 38, has previously worked with clubs in Spain, Greece, Russia, Azerbaijan, Norway and Denmark, has a key role in that regard having impressed during the interview process.

“He has worked everywhere around the world, I must say, and with his age, that shows how much he wanted to invest, to get better and to learn,” says Hasenhuttl.

“I have always had assistant coaches who were really driven to get better and this is something of his character. He has a very good voice on the pitch and he coaches very loud.

“It is immediately a new impact to the team. As I said, I wanted to have some new voices on the pitch and it definitely helps the players to be more attendant and more switched on.

“But in the end, what really matters is the performances we produce.

“The changes we have made don’t mean we have done a bad job in the last three-and-a-half years. We did what we can do with this team, to make them better and reach the highest possible level.

“But it was time, after such a long time, to change things and add something new to it.

“Now we will see if it is more successful.”

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