Ralph Hasenhuttl has spent the lockdown period compiling an online archive of coaching sessions and Rahdi Jaidi believes that this will benefit the club for years to come.
Ralph has been building up the archive in the time he has on his hands during the current crisis and it will be distributed to coaches throughout the club’s academy.
Hasenhuttl’s done this so that youngsters become accustomed to his philosophy and methods which means when they arrive in the first team they’ll be ready to play.
But the i book will continue to grow over the years and now Rahdi Jaidi who coached the U23 side last year before going to the USA on loan to coach has spoken to the Daily Echo about how he things this will be a good thing to have a documented way of doing things going forward.
"Southampton have been doing this all day long, we’ve always had the same philosophy throughout the age groups.
"The only difference now is that Ralph and the club saw this as an opportunity to update it and put Ralph’s touch on it.
"I think this is amazing because Ralph has been really successful at the club and now both parties, the club and Ralph, have started to see a new direction and a new project.
"This will have different details and systems on the pitch and it means players, when they come to Ralph’s sessions, will know what’s required.”
But what if Hasenhuttl leaves the club ? Jaidi doesn't see that as an issue.
"The ultimate benefit is for Southampton,” Jaidi added. "If the first team are successful, as we all saw during that excellent run over the Christmas period, it will only be a good thing.
"That’s why the club started to meet Ralph halfway and give him the support to put his mark on the academy.
"They want to support him more and give his philosophy to the younger players to help them improve.
"We have some very good players in the younger age groups and they need to come comfortably into the first team.”
In essence this is not a new thing, back in the 1960' & 70's Liverpool's famous boot room kept a detailed log of all training sessions and matches and used to refer back to it when they needed to rectify things that had gone wrong.
Of course Ralph's version benefits from the way technology has moved on in the past 50 years and from that perspective this will hopefully be a bigger and better version and one that can be the blueprint for years to come.
Rahdi Jaidi who is currently working at Hartford FC in the States as part of a partnership between Saints and the club, with it not being entirely clear if this is a permanent move for him or merely a loan deal of sorts also spoke to the Echo of his time at the club
The Central defender who on this day in 2011 played his part in a big win at Brighton on the way to promotion from League One said of the club.
"The first thing is that I am very proud to have been part of the Southampton setup since I was a player, from 2009 to 2019, I was there for 10 years in a row,” he reflected.
"I’ve been through so many experiences with the club and have met so many experts that I’ve been able to learn from.
"I met some good managers and I was able to learn from them because they gave me access to everything that helped me improve myself as a coach.
"I am really grateful to the coaches who got the players ready for the Under-23s because that meant I could add my little touch to enable them to reach the first team.
"I always believe that it’s down to the players, though, and the names that have been mentioned have always taken their opportunities and have never given up.
"I’m not saying the other ones didn’t work hard but you have to accept it will only be a small number that makes it.
"But credit to Southampton because they aren’t scared to give opportunities to younger players.
"I saw this when I was a player back in 2009/10 and we had Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to then a year later having Matt Targett, Sam McQueen and James Ward-Prowse.
"I also had the chance to work with Jack Stephens and Sam Gallagher who were both lovely guys but incredibly ambitious.
"Last year, specifically with Yan Valery’s generation, it was successful in all aspects. We didn’t just develop players, we won games and got promoted.
"This is amazing for me as a coach to feel this but it’s the players and staff around me who also deserve a lot of credit for helping me achieve this.”