Southampton one step away from making Will Still mistake which nobody expected

Tom Cleverley has been pictured at Southampton’s U21 game and may become the new Saints boss instead of relatively much proven manager Will Still.

In between the Everton and Arsenal matchdays, Southampton have displayed a good sense of urgency to bring in a new manager. Even Sky Sports mirrored these feelings and suggested that Will Still is set to be handed the keys to the Saints dressing room.

At this point, the whole manager search was concluding well. But then, Southampton have intervened to pull off a Southampton again at the final hurdle.

Yes, this time the Saints are on track to lose Will Still, similar to the countless Premier League points they have dropped from winning positions.

Southampton showing interest in Cleverley despite Still’s availability

According to journalist Joe Bray, Southampton has inclined towards hiring Tom Cleverley at the expense of Still.

In his own words, Joe said: “Tom Cleverley is at the City Southampton under-21 game tonight – reportedly in talks over the vacant Saints job”.

Talking about Cleverley, he is a decent coach and can likely bring Southampton into the playoffs. But going all the way and achieving a Premier League spot, that’s a far cry for Cleverley, that too in his debut season.

Plus, the Manchester United midfielder hasn’t managed in the Premier League so far, so Southampton will be bound to restart their coaching hunt from scratch again.

Honestly, these problems are almost certain to be avoided by hiring Will Still and backing him in the transfer markets.

But again, it’s Southampton we are talking about who have made it a routine habit of distancing them from shrewd managers. And this season, they can end up rejecting the elite trio of Carlos Corberan, Danny Rohl and Will Still who are almost guaranteed to fare better at their new clubs.

Clearly that’s a disappointing move for the fans who expected Southampton to show ambition and a better transfer vision this time around.

Southampton v Arsenal: recent past games suggest there might be a problem

While there is no doubt that the results in the last ten games or so in the league have been disappointing, the reason for the Arsenal downturn is easy to see.  The two games against Paris St Germain which both ended in defeat, had in between them the ludicrous home loss to Bournemouth.   But the away draw with Liverpool which followed that and the home win against Newcastle in the last match, surely must have helped restore confidence a little.

And there can be no doubt from this that if Arsenal do want to try and make it to the final of the Champions League next season the depth of the squad must be improved.

However, this is not the same as simply saying “buy a centre forward”.  For it means having players who not only can replace the first-choice man when he is injured or off form, but also players who will accept a certain amount of rotation through the season.   But such players are hard to find.   “I’m playing well, why drop me?” is a phrase often heard and it needs to be fought from the start.

Arsenal led the way in finding a way to deal with the League Cup by playing a reserve team in its games – and the strengthening of the squad can lead to progress beyond the semi-finals of the Champions League – which is where a loss of confidence seemed to seep into the squad this season.

So the Southampton game tomorrow will give Arsenal a chance to explore its squad options to some degree as the home side will contemplate how on earth they can return to the form of the previous season and try and give their supporters something to cheer in 2025/26.

Although leaving aside their current form, Southampton’s past record against Arsenal, doesn’t really offer much in the way of hope.   Arsenal have beaten the Saints 54 times and lost 23, with 30 draws along the way although maybe they will take a little hope from the last dozen games between the two in which Arsenal have won just five, three have been Southampton wins and four have been draws.

Worse, of the last four games between the two, Arsenal have won only one.   And if we just look at games at St Mary’s, Arsenal have only knocked up two wins, a 1-2 victory in 2020 and a 1-3 in 2021.   So although the league table makes everything look simple, this might not quite be the case.

Southampton’s problems however are easy to understand: they, like so many other clubs, keep changing managers.  In fact since Ralph Hasenhüttl left in November 2022 they have had seven managers, of whom one has been called a “caretaker” and three have been designated “Interim managers”.  One of their managers, Russell Martin won the EFL Championship play-offs but still only lasted 18 months.  On 2 July 2024, he signed a three-year contract extension and then five and a half months later he was sacked after the club lost to Tottenham.  It doesn’t seem to have done the club much good, and must have impacted their bank balance.

Of course, the 32,000 capacity stadium could be seen as a reason for Southampton’s lack of success but then again Bournemouth, just along the south coast, has an 11,000 capacity ground and they are surviving, so ground size is not everything.

However a comparison of the last three seasons shows just how big the gap between the Premier League and the Championship has become.