Southampton F.C.
(originally St. Mary's YMA) is an English football team,
nicknamed The Saints. Based in the city of Southampton in
Hampshire, the team was formed in November 1885. In 1898 the
team moved into The Dell, the ground which was to be their
home for over 100 years. However, as a result of poor
stadium capacity, the team moved to St Mary's Stadium in
2001.
Their finest hour was their FA Cup win in 1976, when they
beat Manchester United 1-0. They also were the runners-up in
2003 against Arsenal and runners-up in the 1979 League Cup
final against Nottingham Forest.
Southampton enjoy a fierce rivalry with Portsmouth Football
Club; despite Southampton being in a superior division for
much of the 1980s and 90s, this derby was recently reignited
by Portsmouth's promotion to the Premiership in 2003.
On 4 March 2004, Paul Sturrock was named as Southampton's
manager, succeeding Gordon Strachan. However, just over five
months later, on August 23, 2004, it was announced that
Sturrock was leaving the club 'by mutual consent', after a
disappointing run of form and rumours of boardroom
dissatisfaction with his management. He was replaced by
Steve Wigley as head coach, despite rumours at the time that
former England Rugby Union coach Sir Clive Woodward was to
switch codes to football.
On October 11, 2004 Frenchman Christian Damiano was unveiled
as the Saints' 1st team coach, to work alongside Wigley.
However, following a string of 14 Premiership games with
only one win under the leadership of Wigley, Harry Redknapp
was appointed as manager on December 8, 2004, signing an
eighteen-month contract. This shocked much of the
footballing world as Redknapp had recently resigned as
manager of the Saints' arch rivals Portsmouth. |