Adkins minority exposes fickleness of football fans
Recently after the 6-1 drubbing of Southampton by Arsenal, I heard some bizarre criticisms begin to be levelled at Southampton. Claims that the side had been promoted a season too early and that, although the Saints couldn’t buy players because the transfer window had passed, the club could still get rid of Nigel Adkins, their manager. I have a few issues with this that I will now address.
Promoted a season too early? Sorry? So when Southampton were flirting between either winning the league or going through the torment of the play-offs Southampton fans were sat in a depression because they so definitely wanted them to go up next season. Of course not, they were over the moon to regain Premiership status. You can’t seriously want to miss out on promotion, as a fan, it’s impossible.
Secondly, anyone who believes Southampton haven’t brought in enough new players of a certain quality, only have to look at their spending this summer to realise this isn’t the case. Southampton bought eight players in the summer spending just over a massive £33 million pounds in the process. This puts the Premier League new boys in the top ten biggest spenders in Europe.
Finally, to get rid of Nigel Adkins now would be ludicrous and I hope yesterdays comfortable win against Villa has put these rumours to bed. When I heard the radio caller saying Adkins out, I thought he was crazy but since then I have seen numerous sites suggesting he is under pressure, some even suggesting replacements.
Nigel Adkins has been a hero for the south coast club bringing them back from the brink in League 1. He spearheaded back-to-back promotions, which is an almighty achievement. His first four games saw him narrowly beaten by Man City and Man United, scoring four goals in the process. Sure, they lost their first four games and perhaps a 2-0 home defeat to Wigan is disappointing, but most teams would be happy to lose to the other three teams Southampton were unfortunate to start their season meeting.
Adkins side comfortably came from a goal behind to beat Paul Lambert’s Villa 4-1. His team are outside the relegation places and have three of their hardest games out of the way. If as fans we want to be taken seriously, rash claims like these can’t be thrown around.
Tom DiMaio
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