Chris Nicholl: 1946-2024
Southampton Football Club has today learned of the passing of former player and manager Chris Nicholl, aged 77.
Nicholl served Saints for 12 years, evenly split between two different roles. The first six were as a reliable central defender, signing from Aston Villa in 1977.
Despite having won the FA Cup a year before his arrival, Saints remained a Second Division side, but the capture of Nicholl helped Lawrie McMenemy’s team win promotion in the defender’s first season at The Dell.
Nicholl helped Saints to three consecutive top-eight finishes in the top flight, and the 1979 League Cup final, before leaving for Grimsby in 1983 at the age of 36.
Heading for goal at Villa Park in 1979
Two years later he was back at The Dell as manager, succeeding McMenemy’s 12-year reign.
In his six seasons in charge, Saints reached the semi-finals of both domestic cups and had a highest league finish of seventh in 1989/90, a campaign in which Liverpool – who won the double that year – were thrashed 4-1 at The Dell in what is still considered one of Saints’ greatest performances.
Nicholl the manager was perhaps best known for bringing through a number of stars from the club’s academy, including Matt Le Tissier, Alan Shearer, Franny Benali and the Wallace brothers, Rod and Ray (Danny was already established in the first team).
Though he was born in Cheshire, Nicholl played international football for Northern Ireland, where he lived as a young boy, earning 51 caps. He later worked as McMenemy’s assistant manager with the national team in the late 90s.
Everyone at the club sends their condolences to all of Chris’s loved ones at this time.
Chris Nicholl
12 October 1946 – 24 February 2024
