Southampton chairman Nicola Cortese may believe that his decision to sack Nigel Adkins, and replace the Scouser as manager at St Mary’s with Argentine, Mauricio Pochettino, was necessary to achieve the club’s long-term ambitions, but he could just have unwittingly provided a real boon to Saints’ rivals in the battle to avoid relegation.
Of the Premier League’s bottom six teams, Southampton are the form side and have been looking far more likely to tentatively climb the division than remain embroiled in a nerve-shredding scramble to retain top-flight status with QPR, Reading, Aston Villa, Wigan Athletic, and Newcastle United. Such has been the nature of Cortese’s leadership however, that his decision to remove Adkins at a crucial juncture of the season has led to bewilderment rather than shock.
Matt Le Tissier, arguably the Saints’ finest ever player reflected that feeling when giving his reaction to Adkins’ sacking;
‘Sadly, it doesn’t surprise me. It has come at a very strange time of the season, considering that we’ve only lost two of the last twelve games and come back from 2-0 down against Chelsea earlier in the week.
‘So it seems a little bit odd to me but the way the club has been run for the last couple of years by the chairman, nothing surprises me anymore sadly and once again he’s made Southampton a bit of a laughing stock.’
During the nascent stages of this campaign Adkins struggled to strike the right balance with his bright team, as he admirably sought to remain true to his own enterprising and attacking principles. Saints proved able to score goals in the Premier League, but were equally unable to prevent their defences being regularly breached. Most notable in Southampton’s early games was the fearless manner in which they approached clashes against the division’s best sides, Manchester City and Manchester United. The two powerhouses could consider themselves very fortunate to have scraped 3-2 wins against the newly promoted outfit.
The heat was turned up on Adkins in late October and early November when Saints suffered three straight league defeats, most worryingly losing 4-1 at West Ham United and 2-0 at West Bromwich Albion. Added to that mix was a thoroughly unsatisfactory Capital One Cup humbling at Leeds United.
Nonetheless, Adkins reputation as a formidable manager, established while earning successive promotions during his first two years with the Saints, was not earned due to an inability to adapt. That is exactly what the 47 year-old did, as he tightened his unit and gradually began to bed down a more settled eleven.
That twelve match run to which Le Tissier referred has included some notable results and performances. Crucial encounters against immediate adversaries in the table, QPR, Newcastle, Reading, and Aston Villa were all won. Visits to traditionally tough environments at Fulham and Stoke City brought hard-fought draws, while a home point against Arsenal could conceivably have been three. In his final match in charge, Adkins’ side wiped out a two-goal deficit at Stamford Bridge against European Champions Chelsea to take another point.
The unseemly situation that has seen a new man anointed to the Saints’ helm on the day Adkins lost his job adds weight to the theory that the ex-Scunthorpe boss wasn’t working entirely on his own terms during 28 months at St Mary’s. How much input, for example, did Adkins have into the £12m purchase of Uruguyan Gaston Ramirez, or the club’s latest move for Norwegian defender Vegard Forren?
Despite any possible interference and, in keeping with his entire time on the South Coast, Adkins had assuredly and efficiently moulded a unit that were displaying welcome signs of consistency. Rickie Lambert’s effortless transition into Premier League goal-scorer has been well documented, while the form of Jason Puncheon has been a revelation.
Saints boast one of the top-division’s most exciting full-back pairings. 21 year-old Nathaniel Clyne has the potential to be an England right-back, and represents an absolute bargain having been acquired for a little over £2m from Crystal Palace. Equally likely to receive international recognition is 17 year-old Luke Shaw, who upon his emergence into the Saints first-team has quickly proved his prodigious ability.