Speaking at this afternoon's press conference Ronald Koeman has spoken of hs confidence that Southampton Football Club will continue to grow in the coming years.
Ronald Koeman has great optimism that Saints are on the right track and will continue to progress on and off the field, although he realises that the success of last season has led to greater expectations from the supporters.
"When we started this season I knew it would be a tough season because the expectation will be the same as last year,” he told reporters ahead of Saturday’s game against Crystal Palace — another club with a desire for a strong finish in the top half.
"Maybe what we showed last year is a title, the best of the rest.
"That will not happen every season, but if we can grow, and it will take more than one year, we can grow.
"We believe that we can make steps in the future, but all those kind of steps will be controlled, without too much risk, and that’s the way how Southampton works. That’s the way, honestly, what I like.”
Koeman added: "In every sport it’s so easy to tell everybody ‘Ok, we are happy in the position of 11th or 12th’, but we have ambition to grow, to continue what we did last season.
"I believe in our structure in the club, and the qualities of the players, and the organisation in the team and the way how we play football that we can do it much better than the bottom of the Premier League, and we show that. It will happen again this season.”
Good words from the Dutch manager and statements that will give optimism that he may remain at the club for longer than 2018 when his current deal expires.
If he stays to then though he will have lasted longer than the average manager in today's top flight, after the sacking of Garry Monk, Koeman is currently the 8th longest serving Premier League club manager, indeed of the 20 Premier League clubs only 9 have managers that have been in the job for more than a year and if you consider that of those , Eddie Howe has not been a Premier League manager for long, the shelf life of a manager is very short. In fact only Arsene Wenger has more than 3 years at the same club in the top flight.
If Koeman is to outstay his curren contract it will probably depend on what jobs are available nearing the end of his current contract, if the Barcelona or Holland positions were open then it would be very tempting for Koeman.
Whatever happens though it is good to see that Saints are getting together a definite strategy and Koeman's role over the last 18 months should not be underestimated, f he where to leave then he would leave Saints in a far better position than at any time in the past three decades