It is more than Ramirez’ irrefutable quality that was testament to Saints’ revived ambitions. At 21 years of age, – he has since turned 22 – an integral part of his national side, and fresh from two years spent playing for Bologna in Serie A, this was no mercenary flying in for one last pay-day.
With Ramirez, Southampton were signing an authentically high-class performer, with definite potential to evolve into a special talent.
Wanyama comes with identical credentials. In the aftermath of Celtic’s incredible Champions League victory against Barcelona last November the plaudits were predominantly bestowed upon the heroism of goalkeeper, Fraser Forster, and the young match-winner Tony Watt.
As the scorer of his team’s opening goal, Wanyama was in receipt of some praise. His display, however, principally in intelligently utilising his bottomless energy reserves to suppress the influence of Xavi and Andres Iniesta in Barca’s beguiling passing carousel, bordered the sensational.
The Kenyan’s arrival in the Saints’ ranks follows that a month previously from Lyon, of the stylish central defender Dejan Lovren. Another international of the right-age (24) to give his best years to Saints, the 17 time capped Croatian will offer a sure presence in an area of the field which fell short last term of the burgeoning standards elsewhere.
Allied to their enterprising recruitment policy, the club have evidenced a hard-edge when it comes to disposing of players deemed to have run their course.
Dean Hammond was the club’s captain during their promotion year of 2011/2012. With Premier League football on the horizon, a judgement was passed that the midfielder didn’t possess the necessary attributes to make the step up. Hammond was subsequently sent to Brighton & Hove Albion without a top-flight appearance to his name.
Billy Sharp was signed in January 2012 to kick-start that final Championship season, and fulfilled his side of the bargain by contributing 9 goals in his fifteen outings. No matter, early in the next campaign Sharp found himself farmed out to Nottingham Forest.
On the same day that Wanyama completed his move to Saints, Vegard Forren, a Norwegian defender whose £4m signing in January came at the behest of the erstwhile management team, was shipped back out at a £1m loss, and without a first eleven showing to his name.
Of course, many a supporter declares their desire to watch exciting and attacking football. That longing is rapidly forgotten if results are negative. It has been vital to his integration therefore, that Pochettino’s methods have reaped dividends.
Consistency is yet to be attained, but there has been plenty in cavalier home wins against Manchester City, Liverpool, and Chelsea, and in the refreshing willingness to go toe-to-toe with Manchester United and Newcastle United away from home, to indicate that the Saints could be stood at the threshold of a celebrated period.
In addition to the new men, there is already a group of footballers at the club to rival the era when, in the early 1980’s, McMenemy could pick from a bunch containing; Ivan Golac, David Armstrong, Alan Ball, Steve Moran, Mick Channon, and Kevin Keegan – or indeed Nicholl’s group a decade later which featured; Tim Flowers, Barry Horne, Le Tissier, Danny Wallace, and Alan Shearer.
Now, this coming club can boast two of English football’s finest full-backs, Luke Shaw and Nathaniel Clyne, the direct and adroit attacking of Adam Lallana, Morgan Schneiderlin’s midfield poise, Jack Cork’s craft and steel, and the twin forward threat of Jay Rodriguez and Ricky Lambert – the latter of whose 15 Premier League goals and wider contribution quickly dispelled any doubts about his capacity to operate at the highest level.
18 year-old James Ward Prowse’s cautious introduction to life in the first-team last time out will surely be a forerunner to his establishing himself as a constant at the top of English football for the next decade-and-a-half. The Portsmouth born player has the touch, vision, awareness, and passing range of a man ten years his senior.
Cortese’s staying in post points to the club’s owners, The Liebherr Trust, having committed to a sustained financial backing, commensurate with Saints’ modern-day drive for loftier heights.
If a blueprint for achieving a harmonious football environment were to be published, the course sailed by Southampton would not be used for reference.
In their own unique and anarchic way though, the Premier League’s southernmost outfit have hit upon a formula which might yet translate into the shift from a standing of ‘coming club’, to their chasing the tails of Tottenham Hotspur in pursuit of a major breakthrough.
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