Having lost their bright prospects to supposedly bigger, better clubs during the summer, Southampton have spent the season streaking out ahead of them in the league. They need to keep it up, for the good of the English game.

Overview

Sinclair the guy who had first team football at Bristol Rovers aged just 15 but decided to walk away from it to spend five years playing no football at all for Chelsea. He had no fewer than six different loan spells while at Stamford Bridge, including a memorable month at QPR which he openly admitted he was using to get fir for a League Cup tie against Liverpool he'd been told he'd be playing in for his parent club. He jumped so high out of a tackle at Burnley one Tuesday night he had to pay an admission fee to get back into the ground.

When he finally did join a club permanently, and play regularly, he was bloody good. Sinclair was part of the Great Britain Olympics squad after two fine seasons on the wing at Swansea during which time the Welsh side were promoted from the Championship into the Premier League and consolidated their place. What did he do next? Moved to Manchester City for more money and Coronation Street clunge of course, replacing previous bench-dweller Adam Johnson. Sinclair hasn't started a league match for City since September 2012. He's now as close to an England call up as I am.

This is the problem the England national team faces more than any other. The clubs at the top end of our game will happily hoover up any half-decent teenager, or any player in consistently good form for somebody lower down the table, more to stop rival clubs having him than because they have any need for him themselves. Chelsea haven't graduated a player from their youth team to their first team since John Terry and yet they have a vast academy of players swept up from all over Europe — often loaning out 28 players at a time. Young boys who should just want to play football are instead drawn in by colossal contracts, fast cars and loose women. Great for them, rich and well sexed, but not good for the future of the game in this country. Occasionally they come out, blinking in the light, on a loan deal, and we saw with Will Keane last year just how sheltered an existence they clearly lead.

Southampton's 2014/15 season could be a big moment in this. Could a Premier League club that actively works to promote young English players from its academy into its first team make the Champions League? The pundits say no, and a poor performance and home defeat to Swansea last weekend just as Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs are roaring into form behind them suggests it's a pipe dream after all. But the Saints have come through one bad spell this season and are still throwing punches.

Anybody with any interest in our national team performing well, and our top division remaining competitive (if indeed it still can be classed as that) should be cheering them on. Southampton are succeeding despite their manager and five of their best players last summer to supposedly bigger clubs. Tottenham took Mauricio Pochettino and tried hard for Morgan Schneiderlin; Arsenal took Callum Chambers having previously had Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain as well; Man Utd took Luke Shaw and Liverpool had it away with Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Rickie Lambert.

Of those, only Man Utd are currently above Southampton in the league, and only Adam Lallana can really be said to be playing as well and regularly as he was at Southampton. The Saints meanwhile appointed a new manager, Ronald Koeman, signed new players, notably Dusan Tadic, and promoted new academy players such as James Ward-Prowse and Harrison Reed to fill the gaps and have actually improved.

If they can maintain that improvement, maintain that fourth spot, it might just be the start of a glorious utopia where young English players get the money and women that come with the big money moves elsewhere, but also get first team football in the Champions League at a club that suits their style as well. Roy Hodgson needs players to look at what has happened to Lambert and Shaw, both big parts of the England team at the World Cup last summer, since they left Southampton and start to consider whether the extra money is worth it. Ryan Bertrand, another young man at Chelsea who only ever played football out on loan, has actually gone past Shaw in the England reckoning now he's moved to Southampton and is playing regularly. Is the grass always greener on the other side? It's not like they're badly paid at St Mary's is it?

Drop away, fail to qualify for Europe at all, and there will always be that horrible lingering feeling that even when Southampton were having their best season in decades, it still wasn't good enough to finish above Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool who have all been very poor by their standards at different points of the campaign. That realisation you'll always need to take the risk and move if you want to play Champions League football will prevail.

Big few months ahead, for Southampton and English football.

Scout Report

Ronald Koeman set his team up much as he has done all season — in a 4-2-3-1 shape with Graziano Pelle as the loan striker. The Italian, signed from Feyenoord last summer, scored ten goals in his first 13 games in this country but has only managed three in 18 since and this wasn’t the first time I’d watched Southampton dominate a match, fail to score, and subsequently fail to win. They were beaten at home by Man Utd before Christmas despite being much the better side for the entire match.

Dutch winger Eljero Elia has arrived on loan from Werder Bremen this January and scored twice in a recent 2-1 away win at Newcastle. He played on the left of the supporting three behind Pelle against Swansea and impressed, but the noticeable affect of his presence was the lack of ball for Dusan Tadic playing on the right of that three. He’d been the star of the first half of the season but looked isolated when fed on scraps against Swansea — all the decent ball heading Elia’s way. Another thing is that while playing on the right, as opposed to the central attacking position behind Pelle, Tadic always tends to cut back inside onto his left foot and therefore became pretty easy to read and challenge in the Swansea game.

Of course the surprisingly potent weapon of Koeman’s Southampton has been the overlapping full backs. Nathaniel Clyne and Ryan Bertrand have really started to fulfil their long-held potential this season, and with Bertrand and Elia attacking down the same left flank it’s sure to be a problem area for QPR at the weekend.
Last week they played James Ward-Prowse in the central attacking role behind the striker, and while his set piece delivery is of a quality Joey Barton couldn’t even conjure in his wet dreams, he didn’t look particularly comfortable or effective there. Further back, Wanyama is injured which removes a big presence from the holding midfield positions although Steven Davis is having the season of his career and Harrison Reed alongside him looks like another academy graduate about to make it big.

Prior to that we’d sat through Southampton’s 1-0 win at Man Utd where Morgan Schneiderlin and Wanyama had played at the base of the midfield. There they played with more of a diamond set up with Davis pushed on down the right and Elia supporting Pelle from the left. Again the overlapping full backs were a key part of a fine performance — Clyne almost scored in the first minute. There was an urgency, high pressing and quick tempo in this game more closely associated with Mauricio Pochettino’s reign and if it’s replicated this weekend QPR will struggle to live with it.

United marked centre back Jose Fonte with Michael Carrick when defending corners, and he lost his man repeatedly.

Links >>> Official Website >>> Opposition fan interview >>> The Ugly Inside Fans Network site and board >>> Saints Web forum >>> George Weah’s Cousin blog >>> Saints Chat forum

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WokingR added 08:49 - Feb 6 There will be no Bertrand threat this weekend. He is banned for last weeks red card
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TacticalR added 12:48 - Feb 7 Thanks for your oppo report. The Scott Sinclair saga is sad and absurd, no more so than at the end of a contract when Sinclair has to pretend that he wants to play. One factor you didn't mention is the home-grown players rule which means that big clubs must have a quota of English-born (or English-trained) players, which puts the Scott Sinclairs of this world at a premium, even if they never play. Interesting that 4-2-3-1 is in favour at Southampton and Swansea.

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