In 1909 a young basque man returned to Bilbao from England. With him he had around 50 Southampton shirts. The red and white stripes matching perfectly with the flag of Bilbao. Athletic Bilbao dropped their blue kit and began wearing the strip of Southampton.
My New England Saints are no longer Southampton, but thanks to Southampton’s excellent 7th place finish the Saints are participants in the Europa League. The opening league fixtures have been kind, but the Europa League has not. In the final qualification round New England Saints face Athletic Bilbao. Resplendent with Iker Munian, Inaki Williams, Aymeric Laporte and Aritz Aduritz.
The opening fixtures in the league allowed us to cruise past West Brom and Sunderland (2-0 and 3-0) but Athletic not allow any such cruise. The first leg was away from home.
Injuries stripped me of strikers. Two wingers pushed up top. Really I should have switched to the one striker formation but the team are much less familiar with this shape.
The performance was not bad. A young team with several key players missing came very close to a positive result. The lack of options from the bench hurt the team as the minutes passed by. Still, a vital away goal as the cliche goes.
Athetic Bilbao are famed for their Basque only player policy. Providing them with possibly the strongest sense of identity in Europe’s big leagues. Daniel Fieldsend spent time at Bilbao for his book The European Game. In it he describes the importance of their youth academy.
“It is difficult to pinpoint where the first team ends and the academy begins, such is the club’s dependence on it’s youth sector.”
In a way this is similar to what I am trying to attempt with my squad packed with young English players to develop. Bilbao have a tendency to bring back old players for 2nd, 3rd and even 4th spells. Aduritz is a prime example. In my Saints side we have Calum Chambers and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain fulfilling that role. Though perhaps the presence of Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle slightly skews the local talent rules. Maybe we are more Real Sociedad than Athletic Bilbao.
Following another red and white interlude (1-1 away at Stoke) the Saints and Bilbao would face off once more. The injury problems had not abated. This time I decided to dip into the U21 squad for a striker and play Sam Gallacher.
It could not have gone any better. The Europa League was going to be vital for the development of this squad. The more fixtures available the more opportunities for the players to get those vital minutes.
After overcoming Bilbao things were looking good. Unbeaten in the league and with a relatively kind Europa League draw. Fiorentina, CSKA Moscow and KR (an incomprehensible Icelandic name).
Then came Manchester City. My squad was pretty strong by this stage. Pelle had dropped down the pecking order and Jay Rodriguez had hit fine form. Harry Maguire was injured but Kortney Hause filled in nicely.
Too much class.
The squad rotated giving players as much time as I could. It just was not enough. The U21s could not get a look in because of the amount of players within the first team. They had to go on loan. This time I had the final say, no interference from Les Reed. Only saying yes to those clubs that offered first team football. By the new year almost the entire squad would be out on loan. Their development placed into the hands of others, simply because I could not do it myself.
Others will also have to go out from the first team squad. Both Alfie Mawson and Doninc Iorfa have spent time on loan. Shyi Ojo has only managed 7 appearances and Joshua Onomah has only played 4. I have to move them on, they are good players but not quite good enough. In the meantime I decide it is a good idea to sign Naby Keita for just over £6 million. This is not the Red Bull Leipzig megastar, this is the Red Bull Salzburg kid that non one had heard of. His arrival will mean that either Nathaniel Chalobah or Lewis Cook will go on loan. Or both. Only to clubs who offer first team football. I have to repeat this mantra or I will just get lazy and hit the “accept all offers” button.
The Europa League proving ground only really proved that the players needed more time. The final game was a win or crash out encounter away to CSKA. The team had drawn too many games away from home but the league game before would make my observing eyes pop.
This was not a weak Chelsea side. Yet they were powerless to resist. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain finally put in a big performance. I had been considering using the two striker formation against CSKA but the Chelsea result changed my mind.
This was a big run of fixtures. Upon second glance it was even bigger than I had imagined.
Arsenal’s third appearance on the list would be the first leg of the league cup semi final. Another competition which had allowed my young players their minutes. The Leicester result was a let down. A 3-3 draw. I was 3-0 up. Moving on.
I could really story these events. Journalism has been accused of sensationalism for many years when often just the facts are sensational enough. Here are the facts.
The United 4-0 and the Arsenal 5-0 were astonishing. The Liverpool result less astounding as they sat 16th and had just sacked Klopp. Then we won 6-0 at Arsenal. Playing my “conservative” formation. Amazing.
It would be if this was a different story. Of course I want the Saints to be a success but I really want to develop these players. Only in the West Brom game did young players really get a big chance. The other games relied upon experienced players, including the Sociedad gang. Their fine performances now mean that the big clubs are interested. Creating a further dilemma. They all want out. Mane wants to go to Real Madrid. Ward-Prowse to Chelsea. I will sell Mane, but will make sure he goes at the end of the season. I will fight for Ward-Prowse. He is the standard bearer for the club. The link to the Southampton past that can lead us into the New England Saints future.
Having leaned so heavily on the experienced players in December I must now give more minutes to the young players again. Having ridden out the toughest set of fixtures thus far there are opportunities on the horizon. The only chance these players have is if they can get around the 25 game marker for the season. Who cares if I don’t win the league?
There will be other chances. Right?