Collymore Posted 27 April 2009 Posted 27 April 2009 Link Former Saints midfielder Matthew Oakley has offered his old club some valuable advice having been in the same position with Leicester City a year ago…Oakley was joined by ex-Saints boss Nigel Pearson at the Walkers Stadium last summer and revealed the secret behind the Foxes' success this campaign which has seen them take the League One title this week. "You need to be mentally strong but you also need a bit of financial backing to keep the squad together," he said. "Whether or not Southampton can keep the players together I don't know, but certainly it is tough mentally to adjust. "At Leicester we struggled at places like Tranmere, Carlisle, Hereford and Yeovil. Those sort of places might come as a shock to the system for some of the lads because they're used to seeing Southampton style stadiums. "Changing rooms are box sized, pitches aren't great and there are Tuesday nights away from home at cold and windy places like Hartlepool, so it is tough, but if you've got goal scorers in your side then you've always got a chance." In a Leicester team that has scored over 80 goals in the League this season, Oakley stressed the importance of not just having an out and out goal scorer, but also the ability to spread goals amongst the side. Matt Oakley "What stood out for me about Southampton on Saturday is that there were no out and out goal scorers in the team. What we've had at Leicester is plenty of goals, with five or six players chipping in with ten or more. "But you also need goal scorers in game situations like Burnley at the weekend. There were two one-on-ones and a penalty that weren't scored, so Saints could have won that game against a top six side quite easily. "It might be a case of buying somebody in if they have the money or relying on somebody to come through the ranks at the club and step up in that league." The 31 year-old has found the back of the net eight times for the Foxes this season and took time out of his schedule to represent a Saints XI in David Hughes' testimonial at Eastleigh on Sunday, where he expressed his sadness at the plight of Southampton. "I was invited back here on Saturday by Franny Benali to be in the suites for the Burnley game and I think the whole place is just in shock really at the moment," he stated. "It didn't look like it was going to happen even though administration had been talked about. Now that it has happened you almost hoped that it had taken place sooner because now the ten point deduction applies next year. That disrupts next season now as well, which makes it two years before anything serious happens with this club which is just shocking really. "Had it happened earlier on, then next season would have seen them start on zero points with everybody else and it would have been a much easier task to bounce back first time like we have just done at Leicester. "I can't stand here and criticise the team though," he continued. "There are some good young players there that are trying their best but I think the board has caused them problems outside of football. Some fans might say that players are just there to play football and it shouldn't affect them, but it does. "I think players like Jason Euell have been in and out of the team because of wages and things like that, so for the players it is difficult and it's not as easy as saying that they will do it on the football pitch despite everything that is going on. The team have been doing their best, but the board have caused the most problems. "I hate to say it, but Nigel Pearson has changed the team at Leicester around. Everybody took his ideas on board and we've gone in the right direction, so unfortunately it probably proves that over the past year that's probably the worst thing that Southampton have done. "You see what he's done at Leicester, all the fans and players at the club love him, so you have to ask, 'Why did he leave Southampton?'" Kick them when they're down eh Matt :crylaugh: :crylaugh:
Koke Posted 27 April 2009 Posted 27 April 2009 Sounds like fair and honest assessment of things, really. Letting Pearson go was probably their biggest mistake and then hire that Dutch maniac. I'll see if I can dig out the quotes by their board as to why they let Nige go and hired Poortvliet and then later Wotte.
Guest Posted 27 April 2009 Posted 27 April 2009 Kick them when they're down eh Matt :crylaugh: :crylaugh: He's only really asking what most of the fans would be asking anyway to be fair.
Koke Posted 27 April 2009 Posted 27 April 2009 Chairman Michael Wilde said: "We are extremely grateful for Nigel's contribution. He came to the club at a time of crisis and through his hard work and commitment we were able to avoid relegation on the last day."We held a meeting with Nigel which was extremely constructive and helpful. We're sure he will be a well respected manager in the future at whatever club he ultimately goes to. "However, the board have been looking closely at the situation on the playing side of the club whereby we are inevitably going to have to depend to a large extent on the quality of our youngsters in the academy and the reserve team. "Our view on that was we would need to adopt a European-style coaching system comprising head coach, with the objective of linking the academy to the first team. "The board believe this will create opportunities for our younger players, which might not occur within the traditional English management structure." Quite the opposite. That decision backfired big time on them.
Guest Posted 27 April 2009 Posted 27 April 2009 Quite the opposite. That decision backfired big time on them. Precisely. You can see the amount of faith that Nige has put in younger players, even if they're not all our own, and the dividends it has paid this season
potter3 Posted 28 April 2009 Posted 28 April 2009 I thought one of the problems was that they relied too much on youth?
sham Posted 28 April 2009 Posted 28 April 2009 Seeing as he watched the game, I hope he had his scouting specs on and has a few words with Big Nige.
Fox92 Posted 28 April 2009 Posted 28 April 2009 Pearson kept them up but was on too much money. The money they were paying him paid for a manager and a few other coaches for them.
davieG Posted 28 April 2009 Posted 28 April 2009 Former Saints midfielder Matthew Oakley has offered his old club some valuable advice having been in the same position with Leicester City a year ago…Oakley was joined by ex-Saints boss Nigel Pearson at the Walkers Stadium last summer and revealed the secret behind the Foxes' success this campaign which has seen them take the League One title this week. "You need to be mentally strong but you also need a bit of financial backing to keep the squad together," he said. "Whether or not Southampton can keep the players together I don't know, but certainly it is tough mentally to adjust. "At Leicester we struggled at places like Tranmere, Carlisle, Hereford and Yeovil. Those sort of places might come as a shock to the system for some of the lads because they're used to seeing Southampton style stadiums. "Changing rooms are box sized, pitches aren't great and there are Tuesday nights away from home at cold and windy places like Hartlepool, so it is tough, but if you've got goal scorers in your side then you've always got a chance." In a Leicester team that has scored over 80 goals in the League this season, Oakley stressed the importance of not just having an out and out goal scorer, but also the ability to spread goals amongst the side. Matt Oakley "What stood out for me about Southampton on Saturday is that there were no out and out goal scorers in the team. What we've had at Leicester is plenty of goals, with five or six players chipping in with ten or more. "But you also need goal scorers in game situations like Burnley at the weekend. There were two one-on-ones and a penalty that weren't scored, so Saints could have won that game against a top six side quite easily. "It might be a case of buying somebody in if they have the money or relying on somebody to come through the ranks at the club and step up in that league." The 31 year-old has found the back of the net eight times for the Foxes this season and took time out of his schedule to represent a Saints XI in David Hughes' testimonial at Eastleigh on Sunday, where he expressed his sadness at the plight of Southampton. "I was invited back here on Saturday by Franny Benali to be in the suites for the Burnley game and I think the whole place is just in shock really at the moment," he stated. "It didn't look like it was going to happen even though administration had been talked about. Now that it has happened you almost hoped that it had taken place sooner because now the ten point deduction applies next year. That disrupts next season now as well, which makes it two years before anything serious happens with this club which is just shocking really. "Had it happened earlier on, then next season would have seen them start on zero points with everybody else and it would have been a much easier task to bounce back first time like we have just done at Leicester. "I can't stand here and criticise the team though," he continued. "There are some good young players there that are trying their best but I think the board has caused them problems outside of football. Some fans might say that players are just there to play football and it shouldn't affect them, but it does. "I think players like Jason Euell have been in and out of the team because of wages and things like that, so for the players it is difficult and it's not as easy as saying that they will do it on the football pitch despite everything that is going on. The team have been doing their best, but the board have caused the most problems. "I hate to say it, but Nigel Pearson has changed the team at Leicester around. Everybody took his ideas on board and we've gone in the right direction, so unfortunately it probably proves that over the past year that's probably the worst thing that Southampton have done. "You see what he's done at Leicester, all the fans and players at the club love him, so you have to ask, 'Why did he leave Southampton?'" So what you need is a good strong team, capable of scoring goals, a good manager and financial backing - hardly ground-breaking advice but I'm sure he means well.
Guest Posted 28 April 2009 Posted 28 April 2009 Pearson kept them up but was on too much money. The money they were paying him paid for a manager and a few other coaches for them. Which ultimately could end up costing them a fook load more money in the long term
Fox92 Posted 28 April 2009 Posted 28 April 2009 Which ultimately could end up costing them a fook load more money in the long term Yep. Why don't we help them out and buy Surman and Skacel? etc
daveyboy Posted 28 April 2009 Posted 28 April 2009 Yep. Why don't we help them out and buy Surman and Skacel? etc It's the least we could do...
Sir Fynwy Posted 28 April 2009 Posted 28 April 2009 Pearson kept them up but was on too much money. The money they were paying him paid for a manager and a few other coaches for them. No way was Pearson on a high salary at Soton, saying he was on too much money was their useless boards attempt to hide the fact they were dumping the manager who saved them from relegation for a total unknown. If NP wasn't such a nice bloke he'd be laughing his head off at those planks.
Corky Posted 28 April 2009 Posted 28 April 2009 Southampton will find it much harder than we did. Not just the points deduction, but the lack of money, the expectation, other clubs going down (*Norwich and Charlton will be big clubs) and the fact teams will see a trip to St Marys as a big game. *Norwich aren't down yet, but it looks likely.
J.Lisemore Posted 28 April 2009 Posted 28 April 2009 Be interesting to see whether most of the team stay together. Feel sorry for their fans, i'm just glad this isn't the way we ended up.
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