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@SouthamptonFC - Southampton FC
Today’s the day!
#MarchToWembley https://grabyo.com/g/v/l9QbKSsvEII
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@SouthamptonFC - Southampton FC
It’s time for us to #MarchToWembley!
#MUFC vs #SaintsFC
@EFLCup final
@wembleystadium
4.30pm GMT https://grabyo.com/g/v/XiSOEpL7f7a
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Summary of non-mainstream articles: 26/02/2017 07:32:17
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| Graeme Murty on Southampton’s meteoric rise: "If clubs are looking to build and invest, I’d look at how they’ve done it"HERALD | ...tremulously whittled by Optimus trousers...beta v1.9 - now with EXTRA pictures!
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Southampton striker Gabbbiadini set to start EFL Cup final
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Southampton manager Claude Puel insists there will be no room for sentiment when he names his Wembley line-up – and that is likely to mean heartache for semi-final hero Shane Long.
Throughout Southampton’s march to the arch Puel has rotated his team, putting faith in a number of home-grown youngsters and fringe players.
But the ruthless Frenchman will pick his strongest available side as he bids to become only the second boss in the club’s history to lift a major trophy after 1976 FA Cup winner Lawrie McMenemy.
Puel said: 'This competition has been a good journey since the beginning of the season with young players and they have improved.
'We started the competition with young players and we will finish with experienced players which shows the good philosophy of the club.
'It’s always about finding the right balance to continue to develop the young players as they are the future of Southampton.
'Our project and our philosophy is important but we are also ambitious and we want to find possibilities to play in finals more often.
'It’s the first time for me not to just win a trophy but to continue to develop the squad ahead of next season.
'All the players have participated in this journey but now the most important thing is to use our experience to win this game.
‘For me the participation is not the most important thing, winning is. Not about what will happen if we get a good result at the end.’
Forward Long scored the goal at Anfield to book Saints’ place in the final, but is expected to be named on the bench with £17m January signing Manolo Gabbbiadini taking centre stage.
Puel added: ‘Twenty-five different players can participate but all of them can’ t play in the final and I think it’s important to put the best team into place.
'If I considered Manolo Gabbiadini for example to play this game it is because I am confident he will score goals and that is why he would start the game.
'Manolo came in and has scored in his two last games and this is important to give a good reward for the player.
'In many league games this season we can do a fantastic job and play fantastically on the ground but without being clinical which was difficult to accept sometimes.
‘When a player like Gabbiadini scores it gives confidence to the team and also to the other striker. It’s important to find a way to be clinical in our game.’
Despite his likely omission from the starting XI, Puel insists guitar-loving Long will still have a key role to play, using his singing skills.
Puel said: 'I know Shane Long is a very good singer and he can do this before the game.
‘Players always have different songs on in the dressing room and it’s a good atmosphere but for me I don’t sing. I’m too old now, I like to be discreet.’
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@SouthamptonFC - Southampton FC
If you’re on the #MarchToWembley today, please read this: http://sfcne.ws/OTRWembley
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@JPW_NBCSports - Joe Prince-Wright
A message to fans of @SouthamptonFC from Claude Puel. He’s been blown away by huge support, 8,000 fans away in Mila… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/835592963862450176
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@SouthamptonFC - Southampton FC
Six years ago today, we lost one of #SaintsFC’s greatest defenders.
We’ll never forget you.
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Summary of non-mainstream articles: 26/02/2017 08:32:31
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...sententiously mustered by Optimus trousers...beta v1.9 - now with EXTRA pictures!| Connections: Southampton – A couple of Louis van Gaal signingsMUFCLATEST |
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@SouthamptonFC - Southampton FC
All eyes on Wembley!
Where will you be following from, #SaintsFC fans?
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Graeme Murty says Rangers can learn from Southampton
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In the English third tier for the first time in 50 years with a ten-point deduction after almost going bust, it sounded like a sorry way in which to start life at Southampton.
Graeme Murty sensed nothing of the sort. The lowest ebb, perhaps, following years of decline, but not a lost cause.
For Murty had paid close attention to the mission statement from the new owners who had stepped in to save the club. He recognised an infrastructure that was right, and an academy which boasted outstanding credentials.
Each building block put in place and each obstacle overcome has led towards occasions like the EFL Cup final where the Saints aim to defeat Manchester United and claim their first major honour for 41 years.
The key thing for Murty to note, as the club at which he has been thrust into an unforgiving caretaker role bids to revamp its structure, is that Southampton were sustainable first before they could be this successful.
The notion that a crazed chase of Celtic by Rangers was possible, at what remains an embryonic stage of a club in rebuild, started to look premature and silly rather early on this season. On reflection, following another defeat under Murty at Inverness on Friday, it was ridiculous.
His experience of Southampton is worth paying attention to. Rangers are redrafting the set-up, targeting a director of football to go with a head coach, and it is to be hoped that clarity is offered and realism preached.
‘Fans want success now, we know that,’ said Murty. ‘But Southampton fans could see, back then, vast strides forward being made because the club were very overt with the message about what they were trying to do and how they were trying to achieve it. So they bought into it.
‘When you get on board with something like that, and have the energy and investment ready to go, it’s very hard not to be excited by it. The people who started that off deserve massive credit.
‘The club was always capable. Seeing the infrastructure you realise that it’s been built knowingly and very professionally to go one way. All the things you’re seeing now were put in place many years ago.’
Injury limited Murty’s playing days at St Mary’s to eight games. Then, in February 2012, he joined the famed Southampton academy as a youth coach and for two years worked in an environment that has produced a succession of multi-million pound graduates.
‘I don’t think it is just this club, I think lots of clubs can learn,’ said Murty of what Rangers might gain from examining the model club. ‘It’s about having people in the right post at the right time.
‘We have to make sure all young players get the right challenges and right stresses to ensure their development goes on. And that first-team players get the right amount of support so they can be great on the pitch.’
When asked if Celtic’s march to ten in a row should be treated as an irrelevance in the bigger picture of creating a healthier long-term Rangers, Murty said: ‘I’d never say it would be an irrelevance because I understand the passion and the drive to stop that happening. But that’s not something we can control. Celtic are going invest, spend whatever they want to spend.
‘Just coming up into the division, would finishing second and getting to a cup final and challenging for that, be a success for us this year? I think it would. All of the players realise that first is the aim but aims have to be made at a time when we can go and challenge.
‘Every single time we walk onto the football pitch we will challenge and try and strive to go and get and be at that next level. You will always be judged by success on the pitch, so we have to make sure that we accelerate things forward and, if the gap is big at the moment, we have to make sure it is noticeably smaller and smaller until the time comes that we make sure that the gap isn’t there and we are first again.
‘But where we are currently, we have to be realistic. Let’s make sure all the processes are in place so we can focus on the small steps that are going to get us to the end target and lead to continuing success.’
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COMMENT: Saints on the brink of club’s second greatest day
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IT is a moment which has not come around all too often in the history of Southampton Football Club.
For most of the past 50 seasons - all but 10 of them, in fact - Saints have been a top flight club.
A stellar cast of players have appeared for them in the last half century - a list too long to name here.
But the simple statistic is this: Saints have only ever won a solitary major trophy in the club’s 132-year history.
The 1976 FA Cup success is still so well remembered there was an open-topped bus parade, four decades on, last year to celebrate it.
Now Saints stand on the brink of doubling their list of major trophies won.
Today they take on Manchester United at Wembley in the League Cup final.
Ok, it is not the FA Cup final.
But it is a competition which provides a route back into the Europa League.
And it is a Wembley final.
Lest we forget, the national stadium was first built 94 years ago.
Since then, Saints have only ever been there five times - in 1976 (twice), 1979, 1992 and 2010.
In contrast, today is Manchester United’s 49th visit to Wembley.
Quick recap time: this is Saints’ third major cup final - and the first since the 1979 League Cup - and only their sixth Wembley visit in almost a century.
That is why the 2017 League Cup final is a rare moment for Saints, and one everyone associated with the club must celebrate.
These are the moments, the cup finals, which provide memories that last a lifetime.
Especially if you win.
Without these moments - which for Saints fans have been extremely rare - what is football distilled down to?
Saints performed a minor miracle to finish sixth in last season’s Premier League, finishing above Liverpool (for the first time in their history) and defending champions Chelsea.
But if they finish anywhere above the relegation zone and win the League Cup, 2016/17 under Claude Puel will have been a more successful season than 2015/16 under Ronald Koeman.
Seriously, it will.
Saints could finish 17th and win the League Cup and that would be a better season than finishing sixth and not winning a trophy.
The end result is the same - entry to the Europa League - but this time the players get to frolic around Wembley with a decent piece of silverware.
They get to put a major English domestic winners’ medal on their mantelpiece. Adam Lallana hasn’t got one of those. Or Dejan Lovren. Or Nathaniel Clyne. Or Sadio Mane. Or Luke Shaw.
And the Saints fans get a joyous day out at an ultimate sporting cathedral, creating memories that will last a lifetime.
Just like Bobby Stokes’ goal created memories in 1976 that still live on now for those thankful to have been alive and witnessed them in the flesh.
It’s been 41 years, too long, since Southampton Football Club won a major trophy.
Since then, the likes QPR, Oxford United, Luton, Birmingham, Norwich, Coventry, Wimbledon, Swansea and Wigan (whisper it, even Pompey!) have all danced with joy after lifting the FA Cup or League Cup.
Saints are bigger than all of those, yet tomorrow will be only the club’s fourth major post-war cup final.
Claude Puel has struggled to win over the Saints fans since he arrived to replace the popular and successful Ronald Koeman. Well, popular until he walked out on the club, that is. And successful in so far as Saints finished seventh and sixth under him.
Yet finishing seventh and sixth don’t earn you medals. They don’t earn you a day out at Wembley, forever Mecca to all English football fans.
To be honest, they don’t earn the players legend status either.
Bobby Stokes is a legend, though. And Jim Steele. And Peter Rodrigues. And the other eight FA Cup winners and boss Lawrie McMenemy.
They are legends because of a Wembley win.
Today Claude Puel could join the above mentioned as a Saints legend. And who’d have thought that two months ago?
This afternoon, Saints will run out at the national stadium on the brink of the club’s second greatest day in their entire history.
Like the first, it is against Manchester United and, like the first, they are the underdogs.
Saints were underdogs against Liverpool in the semis. Lincoln were underdogs at Burnley last weekend. In football, the underdog often has its day.
Let us fervently hope 1976 repeats itself tomorrow and a new generation of fans salute new legends and celebrate memories that will never fade.
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“Come on the Saints!”
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Benali recalls FA Cup 2003 memories
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FRANCIS Benali recalls the moment he “choked up” when team-mate Danny Higginbotham offered him his FA Cup 2003 runners-up medal.
Saints had just lost 1-0 to Arsenal in the final at the Millennium Stadium, in which Benali wasn’t picked in the matchday squad by boss Gordon Strachan and therefore didn’t qualify for a medal.
In an act of recognition of long-serving defender Benali’s achievements at Saints, Higginbotham, who was an unused substitute on the day, planned a kind gesture.
Benali, who was in the twilight of his career, was in his last season at St Mary’s and barely played with Wayne Bridge first choice left-back.
“I was part of the squad but not in the 16,” he said. "I had played in the fourth round win against Millwall, but wasn’t picked for the final.
"On the day the squad all got medals, obviously the runners-up ones.
"In the changing rooms I was sat next to Danny Higginbotham and afterwards he turned to me and said ‘you’ve been here your entire career, you deserve my medal, I’ve only been here a short amount of time’.
"It really choked me up at the time, although I didn’t accept it.
“I’m not sure if it was a winners’ medal the same would have happened though!”
Bridge was injured for the fourth round home win over Millwall, meaning Benali came in at left-back for one appearance in the run to the Cardiff final.
And despite refusing Higginbotham’s offer, Benali eventually did get a medal, receiving one of three spares sent by the FA.
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EFL Cup final: Which clubs have won the competition most often?
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MANCHESTER UNITED take on Southampton at Wembley in the 2017 EFL Cup final - but who has won it the most times?
The Saints have never lifted the competition, which was first founded in 1960 and is contested by all 92 clubs in England’s top four tiers.
Manchester United last won it in 2010, beating Aston Villa in the final, but they are not the most successful team in League Cup history.
CLICK THROUGH THE GALLERY ABOVE TO SEE ALL THE CLUBS WHO HAVE WON THE TROPHY MORE THAN ONCE.
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From birdwatching to chess… favourite hobbies of each Prem club’s fans according to YouGov
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WHAT is your club’s fans’ favourite hobby, according to data from YouGov?
The polling company lists data associated with each Premier League side’s supporters based on responses from the general public.
So what is the favourite pastime of your club’s fans?
Some of these are hilarious!
Click through the gallery above to see the favourite hobby of each club’s fans - according to YouGov.
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Paine in “bullish” mood as he backs Saints upset
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Saints club president Terry Paine has declared himself in “bullish” mood ahead of Saints’ League Cup final – and believes a win would open the door to the big time.
Paine, the club’s record appearance maker with 713 Saints games to his name, and part of England’s 1966 World Cup winning squad, admits it has been hard to watch some of the club’s star talent sold in recent years, albeit he accepts it is an inevitable part of the modern game.
However, he thinks a cup win is just what is needed to help move Saints towards the elite status enjoyed by just a handful of top flight sides and that, combined with the club’s recruitment policy, will bring sustained future success.
He said: “Obviously it (a League Cup win) will have a big impact.
“It impacts the kind of players you can bring in if they can see you are a club that wins silverware.
“Domestically at the start of every season there are only three things you can win and so if you get one of those then you are showing the consistency you need to be amongst the big clubs.
“We have been on the fringes of the top six and unfortunately lost some influential players but the work on bringing in others has been very successful.
“A win does attract players, it does make an impact financially, and I think we are at a stage where that is important.
“We don’t like to see all the homework done by the club and Les Reed and his team in finding these players and then when somebody finds a bit of form the vultures come in.
“We know that is football these days – let’s put it this way, nobody is going to break my record.
“It does show how good we are at bringing in the right players and when I look at us signing Sadio Mane from Austria and Virgil vans Dijk from Celtic. I can’t help but wonder what the other clubs are doing. That’s not a complaint, long may it continue, but we are obviously much better structured.”
He added: “It’s a big step forward for the club.
“Regardless of how the League Cup is looked at now, and we know not all the teams play their strongest sides, we have beaten four Premier League sides and that takes some doing.
“It’s a massive step forward and if we can finish off the league in a bit of style and all goes well at Wembley then we would be more than satisfied with what’s going on.
“Bearing in mind we have lost the big man (van Dijk) at the back and with Jose Fonte going as well it’s more credit to those who have come in and done the job.”
While facing Manchester United and Jose Mourinho may seem a somewhat daunting task, Paine is actually pleased they are Saints’ opponents for the big day at Wembley.
For Paine the start to the game will be key to his side’s chances but he feels if Saints can weather an early storm then they have every opportunity to cause an upset.
“I would rather play Manchester United than a full blown Chelsea or Arsenal,” insisted the 77-year-old, who now lives and works in South Africa where he is a top TV pundit.
“If we can keep it nice and tight they have had problems as well. They are not prolific in front of goal.
“I imagine Jose Mourinho will play a very strong side. They aren’t going to win the league and he likes to get trophies on his CV as everybody does so he will want to this.
“But if we can keep it nice and tight for the first 20-25 minutes we can build on that and we can cause a surprise.
“The fear factor of Manchester United has gone temporarily. Even in their recent unbeaten run there has been quite a few draws, and some of them against the lesser sides in the league.
“I am very bullish about our chances.”
Paine has been particularly buoyed by the arrival of Manolo Gabbiadini.
The £14m Italian striker has netted three times in his first two games for Saints and provided an extra cutting edge in attack.
“It’s early doors but he really looks like a front man,” reckoned Paine. “He looks like a finisher, a striker who loves to get in behind.
“It is early but he looks like our saviour in some ways, just a natural striker and not a player you need to manufacture in any way.
“First impressions are that we have done a good bit of business again.”
Paine has seen the ultimate English football success story at Wembley in 1966 and is delighted for Saints fans that Claude Puel has taken the League Cup seriously and may now get his rewards.
“He is on the verge of greatness,” insisted Paine.
“I don’t care what cup competition it is, I still believe the fans are so important and it rattles me when I see some of the team selections in cups, not only at Southampton but other clubs much more so.
“They forget to look at the big picture which is that day at Wembley for your supporters.
“I know on the day somebody has to win and somebody has to lose but it’s a big deal to see your team get to Wembley in a cup final.”
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Puel urges Saints to keep their emotions in check at Wembley
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CLAUDE Puel has urged his side to keep their emotions in check at Wembley as Saints take on Manchester United in the League Cup final.
It is a valuable and rare opportunity for Saints to win a piece of major silverware and, as such, it is important in Puel’s mind not to become overawed by the game’s significance.
For many of the players it will be the first sniff they’ve ever got at winning a trophy and the St Mary’s chief recognises the value of a “good balance of emotion”.
“We know it’s an exciting game,” he said. “It’s a fantastic game to play, but it’s always important to keep a good balance of emotion, with a good attitude, because if we lose this we haven’t stayed with concentration and quality on the pitch.
“The most important thing is to play good football with a strong togetherness, then we can have chances to win and perhaps to make a fantastic game.
“But at the beginning it’s most important to play this game, to stay in the action and not to dream about what can happen.”
Calmness may well be a vital ingredient for Saints as they come up against a club well-versed in occasions such as these.
United have played three times at Wembley in the last ten months, having played there in last season’s FA Cup semi-final and final as well as the Community Shield.
Puel knows that picking his strongest team without any sentiment to those who have helped out during this impressive run to the national arena is essential.
“Perhaps we have 25 players that can participate, but we, of course, can’t use all of them for the final,” he said.
“It’s important to try and put in place the best team to try and win this game.
“If I consider it Manolo [Gabbiadini] has to play this game because he’s got confidence and is scoring.”
Saints have used nine academy players on the way to Wembley with one of them, Olufela Olomola, making his debut in the fourth round win against Sunderland.
Puel believes that the youngsters’ impact on the tournament is “important for the future” of the club.
“It’s important to continue to develop young players because it’s the future for Southampton and to also have good results,” he said.
“It’s always difficult to develop young players because we don’t know without experience if they can play well.
“But it’s important for the future of Southampton.”
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Saints have the chance to go to the next level with League Cup final win
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JAMES Ward-Prowse believes that a League Cup final victory will act as a springboard to take Saints to the next level.
Claude Puel’s men take on Manchester United in the final on Sunday and a victory would mark another high point in Saints’ rise from League One to Premier League.
Saints have improved their league position in each of their last seven seasons, have been in the Europa League for the past two campaigns as well as establishing themselves in the Premier League – despite a number of players and managers leaving.
A major accolade like the League Cup is one thing that has been missing from their years of improvements.
He said: “I really do think it could be [a springboard]. The club have been on that journey for a long time.
“The club has done very well to keep that going.
“I think it can go even higher.
“We have spoken about a cup run for a number of years now. To finally be there, we are going to make the most of it.”
For Ward-Prowse, who is Saints’ longest serving player at the tender age of 22, pulling on the Saints shirt and heading out at Wembley will be an emotional moment.
Ward-Prowse, who joined the club at eight years of age, plans to take a moment just before kick-off at the national arena to reflect on the journey he and the club have been on.
“There will be a part of me that will be looking back and see how far you have come, especially as a young player, and the journey you have made,” he said.
“It’s great to think I was watching the first team many years ago - and now I am representing them at Wembley.
“But the end goal is to be walking up those steps as a winner, holding the trophy aloft for the fans. And that is what we will be aiming to do.”
But once he’s out of the tunnel, he will be focussed on trying to thwart United’s immense quality.
He wants Saints to make an impact on the game early.
He said: “Especially in the final it’s important to make your stamp early on in the game.
“Those are the sort of things we will be working on and making sure we have watched videos of them and we know what to do. “I’m sure we’ll be tactically clued up on what the game plan is.”
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Puel pleased with leadership options
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CLAUDE Puel has hailed Saints’ leadership qualities ahead of the League Cup final at Wembley.
The St Mary’s chief has lost two captains this season, with Jose Fonte leaving in January for West Ham and Virgil van Dijk suffering a long-term injury.
Puel isn’t worried, however, with Steven Davis now wearing the armband and numerous other experienced options for the skipper’s position existing within the team.
“We’ve had to change many times the captain,” he said. “It’s difficult for the team because the leadership is always important.
“We started with Jose, we know it was difficult with his position in the club.
“But after it was Virgil, a strong character and personality with quality on the pitch.
“Now he’s got an injury and now Davo [Steven Davis] takes his place with good leadership.
“I think Davo and Romeu, Yoshida, Ryan Bertrand can give good leadership now for the second part of the season.
“It’s important to have many players that can take this important place.
“We’ve had great people and strong characters, like Jose or Virgil, Davo also, but he’s more calm than the others.
“Davo and other players can give good leadership for this team.”
Manolo Gabbiadini has scored three goals in two games since his £14.5m arrival from Napoli in January and Puel believes the Italian’s form has breathed new confidence into the side.
Prior to the 25-year-old’s arrival, Saints were on a miserable run in the Premier League.
“Manolo has played two games and scored, it’s important,” he said. “Many times since the beginning of the season we have done a fantastic job but without a good clinical.
“It was difficult to accept sometimes, but when a player like Gabbiadini scores it gives confidence to the team and the other strikers.
“We saw this for Shane in the last game against Sunderland.
“It’s important to find a good clinical in the game.
“I don’t know how many games we deserved to win with many chances without opportunity for the opponent.”
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COMMENT: Is this Claude’s redemption day?
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February 26, 2017, might just be Claude Puel’s Southampton redemption day.
The Saints boss may well reflect that he has already delivered so much of what many fans said they wanted before the season started – a return to Wembley in a major final.
But even that has not been enough to shield himself from criticism.
It really would round off a remarkable first nine months in charge perfectly for Puel if he could win the League Cup.
The course of this season has always felt like something unexpected would happen.
Remove the EFL Cup final from the equation and Puel would probably be clinging onto his job by his fingernails in the face of some quite vocal opposition.
Frustrating However, as frustrating as things have got at times, he has found an uncanny knack of just getting a result when things start to teeter.
It has often been likened to Saints walking to the edge of the cliff, staring over the edge, and then taking a step or two back, before repeating the process again.
To achieve some form of success, when that habit has felt as if it has become so ingrained, has an air of inevitability about it given the way this campaign has gone.
Before the start of this campaign, like before the start of many seasons, there was been a clamour from supporters for a good cup run.
Most said they would happily accept an average league season in return for a trip to Wembley and the chance to see their beloved club finally follow up that sole big victory in 1976.
Great times There have been some great times, players and managers in the intervening years, and yet there has been no more big silverware to show for it.
How odd, then, that it is Puel, one of the most fan base splitting managers for many years, who stands on the verge of this long-awaited success.
The man whose head so many have called for. The man whose team have been hammered for a lack of consistency, entertainment, for crashing out of a winnable European group.
This cup run has really protected Puel’s position. Should he go one further and actually win the thing he goes into the history books, and will be assured his position – excepting disasters – for a long time to come.
What a strange old time in charge it has been for Puel.
Part of this has, of course, come through the sheer number of games.
While leaving analysis of his tactics and selection for elsewhere in this supplement previewing the Wembley final, the weight of fixtures has contributed heavily to this weird feeling of ups and downs racking up at a shocking rate.
The League Cup showpiece will be the club’s 40th first team game of the season – and it’s still only February.
There have been top flight seasons where Saints have only played 40 games in total, including cups, and yet they still have a third of the league to play when this match is over.
With games pretty much every weekend and midweek, aside from international breaks, there has been a feeling of things rolling along as if the brake cables have been cut.
Due to the inconsistency of results, there have been vast ups and downs, highs and lows, which would normally take place over a couple of months crammed into just a couple of weeks.
It has been hard to have time to reflect, to compute what has been going on, to really take stock and assess.
You have felt yourself hurtling from one game to the next, and then onto the next, and then going again.
It has all added to the sense that the season has felt out of control, without the clear markers in momentum we normally associate with a campaign.
The widespread view of supporters that Puel has shown an inability to really explain himself clearly via the media has also factored into the equation.
Ultimately, people judge on results first. After that, they look at performances. After that, it is an explanation from the manager.
While wins trump everything else, a good performance can buy extra sympathy.
But on occasions when you are getting neither, the manager has to try and defend himself, to explain what they are trying to do.
That is particularly true when you have changed a winning system and style upon your arrival.
Puel has attempted to offer explanation, but fans have been turned off by his delivery style, whether due to a language barrier or just content.
As such, he has only had what people have watched in the 90 minutes on the field to fall back on.
When that hasn’t been good, there has been no back-up for him. At least, he has provided no back-up for himself.
But for all that, for all the griping and introspection around the club – which also includes the recruitment policy, the ownership and other things which, in fairness, Puel does not have control over – they stand on the verge of something very special.
Maybe it’s not quite got the magic of 1976 or 2003, but this is still a milestone thanks to its rarity.
Make no mistake, for a club the size and stature of Southampton to go so long between major honours is an underachievement of considerable proportions.
How incredible, then, that it is one of the most criticised managers for many years who might just do it.
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