Southampton Football Club are an English professional football club based in Southampton, Hampshire. They currently play in the Championship and were one of the Premier League's founding members.
The team's nickname is The Saints and they have spent a large majority of their recent history in the top flight since their first promotion in 1966. Their longest continuous period was between 1978 and 2005 - 27 years.
They play their home games at St. Mary's Stadium, which has a capacity of 32,384, having moved there in 2001.
In May 2023, their 11-year stay in the Premier League came to an end after they were relegated with two games remaining.
Southampton FC were founded at St. Mary's Church on November 21, 1885. The club were initially known as St. Mary's Young Men's Association FC and then became St. Mary's FC. When the Saints joined the Southern League in 1894, they became Southampton St. Mary's.
In 1896/97, the club won the Southern League title. They became a limited company and were renamed Southampton FC.
Southampton won the Southern League for three successive years between 1897 and 1899 and again in 1901, 1903 and 1904. It was during this period that they moved into the Dell, which would be their home ground for 103 years.
The Saints made the final of the 1900 FA Cup, but lost 4-0 to Bury. In 1902, they made the final again, but were beaten 2-1 by Sheffield United in a replay.
Southampton joined the newly formed Football League Third Division in 1920 and the league would go on to split into North and South sections in 1921. Southampton were promoted at the end of the 1921/22 season and went on to stay in the Second Division for the next 31 years.
Saints briefly had to switch home grounds and play at Fratton Park, the home of rivals Portsmouth, after a bomb landed on the Dell pitch in November 1940.
Southampton were almost promoted in the 1947/48, 1948/49 and 1949/50 seasons, when they finished third. In the middle of these three seasons, they squandered an eight point lead with eight games to play, while in the latter they were beaten to second place by Sheffield United by 0.06 of a goal.
In 1953, Southampton suffered relegation and they had to wait until 1960 to play Second Division soccer again. Derek Reeves scored 39 goals for the Saints en route to promotion.
In 1966, Southampton gained promotion to the First Division with Martin Chivers scoring 30 league goals.
The Saints finished seventh in the First Division in 1968/69 and again in 1970/71. In 1969/70, they featured in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, losing in Round 3 to Newcastle United. In the 1971/72 UEFA Cup, they lost in the first round against Athletic Bilbao.
In 1974, Southampton suffered relegation, but they rebuilt in the Second Division with signings such as Peter Osgood, Jim Steele, Jim McCalliog and Peter Rodrigues.
In 1976, a goal from Bobby Stokes handed the Saints a 1-0 upset win over Manchester United in the FA Cup final, securing the trophy for the first and only time in their history. The following season, they featured in the Cup Winners' Cup and lost 3-2 on aggregate in the third round to Anderlecht.
In 1977/78, a Southampton team captained by Alan Ball finished second to Bolton Wanderers in the Second Division and gained promotion to the First Division. The following season, they reached the final of the League cup, but were beaten 3-2 by Nottingham Forest at Wembley.
In 1981/82, Kevin Keegan starred in a Southampton side which led the title race for some time. However, a back injury hampered the Saints' title push and ultimately they finished in seventh place.
In 1983/84, Southampton finished second in the First Division, three points behind winners Liverpool. They reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup in the same season, but were beaten 1-0 by Everton at Highbury.
The late 1980s saw the rise of former academy players Matt Le Tissier and Alan Shearer.
Le Tissier would go on to become one of Southampton's most iconic players, while Shearer left the club in July 1992 and won the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers.
Southampton were founding members of the Premier League in 1992/93. They were generally a mid-to-lower-table club until an impressive season in 2002/03 saw the Saints finish in eighth place.
Saints also lost the 2003 FA Cup final 1-0 to Arsenal that season at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. James Beattie scored 24 goals for the Saints in all competitions in 2002/03, including 23 in the Premier League.
However, manager Gordon Strachan resigned in March 2004 and Saints fell into turmoil, which was not helped by the appointment of former Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp in December 2004.
Redknapp couldn't prevent relegation in 2005 and later that year, he would go on to manage Pompey again, much to the disgust of Saints supporters.
Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman enjoyed successful spells in charge of Southampton and turned them into a competitive Premier League outfit.
Under Ralph Hasenhuttl, Southampton bounced up and down the table, but were a relatively stable force in the top flight for over a decade.
Eventually the relegation trapdoor grew larger as the seasons went on and the Hasenhuttl was sacked after almost four years in charge following a poor run of results in November 2022.
Hasenhuttl had survived two 9-0 defeats during his time in charge but Saints finally swung the axe following one win in their last nine matches.
On November 10, 2022, Nathan Jones, who had guided Luton to the Championship play-offs, was announced as the new Southampton manager.
Southampton sacked Jones on February 12, 20223 with the club entrenched in a desperate fight for Premier League survival.
Five wins and nine defeats from his 14 games in charge left Saints seeking a third boss of the season.
Southampton turned to Hasenhuttl's assistant manager Ruben Selles, appointing him head coach until the end of the season after beating Chelsea in his first game in charge as caretaker boss.
But two wins and three draws from 15 games was not enough to keep Southampton away from relegation trouble and Fulham inflicted the killer blow on May 13, 2023.
It was a club-record 24th defeat of the season and left them eight points from safety with just two fixtures remaining.
Southampton's 11-year stay in the top flight was finally over.
On June 21, 2023 Russell Martin was confirmed as Southampton’s new head coach on a three-year deal after leaving Swansea.
The Saints endured a rollercoaster ride during the 2023/24 season, losing four in a row in September before Martin oversaw a 25-match unbeaten run, which broke a 103-year-old club record.
A poor end to the campaign, which included a 5-0 loss at Leicester, threatened to derail Southampton's promotion bid, but they regrouped, finished fourth in the table and then beat West Brom in the play-off semi-finals.
It set up another clash with Leeds at Wembley in the play-off final and Martin tasted success for a third time against old boss Daniel Farke, with Adam Armstrong’s first-half strike, and 24th goal of the campaign, the difference.
Martin signed a new contract in on July 2, 2024, but he didn't see out the three-year deal.
With Southampton rock-bottom of the Premier League, Martin was sacked after a 5-0 home defeat to Tottenham in mid December 2024.
Croatian Ivan Juric was named as the new Southampton manager on December 21, after the departure of Martin.
The former Croatian international midfielder spent all of his managerial career in Italy, leading clubs including Roma, Genoa and Torino. He also guided Crotone to Serie A for the 2016/17 season.
Southampton's recognition and popularity in the early 1900's brought an Athletico Bilbao representative, who was also an Atletico Madrid player, over to the south coast, where he bought 50 Saints shirts and brought them back and shared them between his two teams.
The two clubs are only separated by a distance of 19 miles, with both cities being important ports. However, due to the two sides often being in different divisions, there have only been 71 encounters between them.
Southampton have won almost half of them, while they have regularly been the most successful of the two sides, featuring higher in the soccer pyramid. Southampton have won six of their seven cup encounters too.
Southampton went into administration in 2009 but ultimately recovered. Their current chairman is Gao Jisheng, who completed a multi-million pound takeover of the club in 2017.
He acquired an 80% stake for approximately £210m following talks with the club that lasted over a year. The investment was in a personal capacity rather than through his company Lander Sports.
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