James Ward-Prowse looks likely to give his boyhood club one more chance this season. And with a chance to represent England at the World Cup looming, it’s a massive decision.
This is a ‘make or break’ summer for Southampton Football Club. An oft-overused phrase, this really does look like the season that will define the club’s medium to long-term future.
If the club continues on its recent trajectory of Premier League points tallies – 52, 43, 40 – then it will be a campaign marred with doom, gloom and potentially relegation.
And the less successful the team, the less a move to West Ham, Everton or Aston Villa looks like a sideways move for James Ward-Prowse. Ambition is never a crime and the 27-year-old has felt a distinct lack of it coming from the club.
Saints’ new owners – the London-based sports investment company backed by Serb media mogul Dragan Solak – have a lot to prove since taking the reins in January 2022. But what they don’t have is a lot to follow.
The club’s former owner, the elusive Gao Jisheng, operated with a model based on significant income from player sales and not much expenditure in the other direction. Figures from June 2022 indicate that Saints have a net spend of -£2.8m over the last five seasons, second only to Norwich City’s -£46.8m – these two being the only teams of the 20 which have made a net profit over the previous five seasons.
Couple this with the grim reality of Burnley, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace all outspending Southampton on a consistent basis and a problem emerges in the form of a deeply stagnant playing squad.
There are some gems in this side – Tino Livramento had a revelatory impact last season and Kyle Walker-Peters did similarly in the season before, but there’s far too much mediocrity around them to believe that the best players will be around for a long time.
Southampton have become worse than bad, they’ve become boring. The ultimate ‘and finally’ club on most instalments of Match of the Day, the European nights in San Siro and Prague back in 2016/17 feel a lifetime away.
Rasmus Ankersen was held in very high regard at Brentford, whom he departed in January as part of Sport Republic’s takeover of Southampton. The Dane’s transfer approach – I daren’t use the word Moneyball – has been characterised by shrewd business, exploring unexpected markets and acquiring players that fit into an overarching football identity.
The club’s manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has…
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