A message from our CEO, Phil Parsons

Whilst we are all hopeful that we will be heading to London at the end of the month and finish the season in the best way possible, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your support this year and look back at how far we’ve already come as a club this season.

Off the pitch we have worked really hard to try and implement some positive changes in and around the club. You’ll already have seen that we are in the middle of delivering a great safe standing option for fans, turning the Northam End into a home wall of our own supporters to help boost the atmosphere at St Mary’s and give the team an even bigger boost. Whilst this is popular with a lot of fans and it is nearly sold out for next season, we understand some are not in favour of this change.

The players are very grateful for your support but are keen for us to try and make St Mary’s more of a fortress. I am a strong believer that if we can make it five per cent tougher for the opposition with a good atmosphere then we set ourselves up for success, so we will try everything possible and having a wall of home supporters behind the goal will help this.

The infrastructure work going on over the summer will be the biggest investment in the stadium since it was built over 20 years ago, as we start the ongoing project of improving the stadium facilities with new fan parks and live event areas, all designed to make a matchday an even better experience for fans.

We have also been asked to build some more varied hospitality spaces at the stadium and we will hopefully combine some boxes to create another lounge for the start of next season. Next year’s season tickets will offer some great upgrade opportunities for everyone to have the chance to experience hospitality spaces for some games without having to commit for the full season.

We also hope to be able to announce a new pub at the stadium opening later in the year. This will be a place where our fans can meet on a daily basis and we can hold regular events with a great atmosphere. Our thinking is this should be named “The Dell” to ensure we remember and celebrate our history. We will let fans know more as soon as we can, once these plans have been signed off with local authorities.

Whilst on the topic of our history, we have also tried to improve relationships with a lot of our ex-Saints players this year. It’s great to see so many are still coming to a lot of games, and more are now joining us as guests in the boardroom on matchdays. Today’s game will host Matt Le Tissier, James Beattie, Nicky Banger, some old friends of mine Glenn Cockerill and Mark Dennis, plus the legendary Peter Rodrigues who of course lifted the FA Cup back in 1976!

For those interested in still seeing some of your former heroes pull on the famous red and white stripes, please keep an eye out for the ex-Saints games that are advertised. Tomorrow will see a host of players including Shane Long and Steven Davis visit the Isle of Wight for a game against their local legends side.

We’ve also introduced stadium Wi-Fi this year to enable our fans to keep connected when they are at games, which has been supplemented really nicely by the introduction of our new club app which is already seeing over 50,000 monthly users engaging with our content.

On the pitch we have enjoyed so many great moments, from the opening day win against Sheffield Wednesday all the way through to the fantastic win against Leeds at Elland Road at the start of this month. Of course, along the way we also set a new club record for going 25 games unbeaten, an achievement that highlights the togetherness and drive within the club as such a run doesn’t happen without everyone working together in harmony.

There are also lots of things that we have learned this season that we will improve on ahead of next season. We not only have a young group of players and coaching staff, but also behind the scenes at the stadium and training ground too. There is a great energy at the club with everyone keen to learn, push themselves out of their comfort zone and improve every single day.

Our backroom team have had some of the best results this season for player availability. The team work closely with the players daily to ensure we get the most out of the squad on the training pitch and keeping them fit and ready to play. Mark Bitcon has made great strides after joining the club last season and continues to work closely with Russ to ensure we are working as an elite outfit.

In the Academy we have tasked Andy Goldie to push more players through to the First Team over the coming seasons. This is so important to who we are as a club and having a strong pathway from Academy to First Team will be vital to us if we want to succeed in the future. We have started to see some of our young talent feature in games and I hope this increases next season to ensure the huge investment into the Academy is paying off.

It is important to mention the Women’s Team who came so close to promotion but fell slightly short. We go again next season with the aim to get to the WSL, allowing us to get some big crowds to St Mary’s. If you are one of those who haven’t experienced Women’s football before, I encourage you to visit a game next season, it is a great day out for the family. Marieanne will now step up to a Director of Football position and we will be recruiting a new Women’s First Team Manager for the coming season.

Sport Republic continue to support us a huge amount. Our owners like to be hands on, knowing what is going on at the club but equally leave space for us to get on with our jobs. Dragan, Henrik and Rasmus are all fully invested in the project we have here, not only financially but also in terms of the passion and desire they have to see Southampton become a real success story. It will be no surprise for you to hear me say that staying in the Championship will be more challenging, but if that does happen, we will stay focused on the longer-term plan of returning to the Premier League and maintaining ourselves in the division.

Finally, I just wanted to highlight our Fan Advisory Board whose job it is to represent you, our fans. If you have any feedback for the club that you would like to be put to us, I encourage you to write into the FAB. We have had good, healthy debates this year about the right actions for the club and supporters. I hope by continuing to show that we are happy to speak face to face on important issues will ensure we hear more from fans and that you see we are listening to you.

I hope you all enjoy the game this evening and get behind the lads from the first minute to the last. With your positive backing we can get the job done tonight and go to Wembley full of confidence and optimism that we will achieve our goal of returning to the Premier League.

Phil Parsons
CEO, Southampton FC