England manager Roy Hodgson made history this May by dialing the numbers of three Southampton players to join him in an England strip for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, and Luke Shaw (bar injury) will be etching their name on to a stunted list of Saints that will have represented the Three Lions on the game’s greatest stage. Poor Jay Rodriguez was cursed to miss out with his late season ACL tear but it’s the first time ever that more than a single player from the club will have been summoned to participate in the same tournament for their homeland. In fact, only four have ever preceded the south coast trio (Wayne Bridge 2002, Peter Shilton 1986, Kevin Keegan 1982, Terry Paine 1966). All the wiser, the Saints provided England more national team players this time around than the likes of thicker Premier League sides Chelsea (2), Arsenal (1), and Tottenham Hotspur, who had none selected despite providing five in 2010.
For many of St. Marys’ faithful, this is the embodiment of a journey in which their fabled Saints have risen from their own smoldering ashes and ascended back, and well into the top flight of English football once again. As history knows it, Southampton’s financial woes caught up with them in 2005 and the club were relegated from England’s first division after a 27-year run, eventually landing with a thud in the dungeons of League 1. However, with a dense team core and strong academy, Nigel Atkins lead his men to back-to-back promotions in 2011 and 2012 re-entering the pearly gates of the Premier League.
Though, controversially sacked in his first season back amongst the big boys, Atkins heavily relied on Lallana and Lambert throughout the process. Both players continued their maturing form under the more pressing system of Mauricio Pochettino this past campaign and recorded a club record of achieved points in the Premier League, 56. Club captain captain Lallana, like Shaw, is another one of many players Southampton will boast to have produced in their academy to add to the list of Allen Shearer, Matt Le Tissier, Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, and more recently Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Lambert on the other hand is what some like to call a later bloomer. Having only earned his first cap against Scotland last August, the bulky front-man scored with his very first touch off the bench to lift England to a 3-2 victory at Wembley. Now 32, the public is no longer ignorant to how far Rickie has come. Between 2002 and 2005, Lambert appeared for Stockport County 98 times; he scored 18 goals. Now this summer, he will be representing one of the most dynamic England teams in recent memory, and for the romantics possibly bring home a trophy.
Yet, it’s these success stories that could ultimately derail the ascension that lifted Saints to an eighth place finish this past season. The sad but all-to-real truth about smaller clubs having success in the modern game is that the eyes of superior employers are always lurking, trying to seduce town heroes into historic jerseys with pound signs and prestige.
Luke Shaw is only eighteen years old but is already be crowned by pundits as England’s left back for the next fifteen years. At such a feeble age, his abilities have outgrown his creators and even the most committed Saints’ supporters know that one day the birds will leave the nest. Shaw is being courted sweetly by Manchester United and the club of his boyhood dreams, Chelsea. It’s only a matter of time before he prances into the hearts of one of these suitors’ fan bases.
Losing a left back is one thing, but it’s no secret both Liverpool and Manchester United have been keeping tabs on Adam Lallana as well, who pushed his way into the Premier League best XI in 2014. But to lose the captain, a local hero who has been in a Saints shirt through all the hardship, would not only be a crippling blow to the team dynamic but also to the comradery that’s been forged amongst the key nucleus of the squad.
Despite Lambert’s age, he’s already been reported to have signed for Liverpool, but by scoring 29 goals in the last two seasons and becoming a club icon over the last five years has cost Brendan Rodgers four million pounds. Reports as recent as May 29th claim that Southampton had rejected a bid for their striker who still flaunts a flawless penalty record in a Saints uniform but the move looks to be all but done now.
Players aside, it’s perhaps the loss of manager Mauricio Pochettino to Tottenham that will cripple them next season most. His arrival was received by a lukewarm reception. Fans were loyal to Atkins and just when the Premier League learning curve had started to lull, he was given the ax in place of a foreign unheard-of who didn’t give press conferences in English.
Fairplay to Pochettino because he quickly began to win fans over by plugging holes in the ship’s hull and turning the already energetic team he inherited into a fluid footballing machine, pulling their bodies from the wreckage of a leering relegation battle last year. This past season, Saints were one of most flamboyant and attack-minded competitors in the table, even doing a chin-up to second in early November. Their defensive frailties were hardened by the organization of Artur Boruc between the pipes and master class signing of Dejan Lovren. The center back, who formed a stalwart partnership with Jose Fonte, will in be on Croatia’s plane to Brazil when the selection is trimmed in popular opinion.
With Pochettino now jumping the ship he kept afloat, and certain stars on the brink of deciding their futures elsewhere, Southampton’s fate looms uncertain. Their identity that has been a five-year task to create is at risk of being pulled apart like a Twizzler. Whether or not this is the peak of that journey is equivocal, but providing their country with three of their own paladins is a testament to what it took for Southampton to get to this point.