Saints Marching
Fansided

Southampton: Saints out to avoid 17th place curse in 2018/19

By Marc Walker

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MAY 05: Mark Hughes, Manager of Southampton looks on priort to the Premier League match between Everton and Southampton at Goodison Park on May 5, 2018 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MAY 05: Mark Hughes, Manager of Southampton looks on priort to the Premier League match between Everton and Southampton at Goodison Park on May 5, 2018 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Southampton will be out to avoid the curse of 17th place next season as they look to move away from the bottom of the Premier League table under Mark Hughes.

2017/18 saw Hughes come in to perform a rescue act and save Southampton from relegation following a poor spell under former boss Mauricio Pellegrino.

He will now need to help his Saints team avoid a common occurrence from teams that finish 17th in 20-team seasons in the English top-flight.

10 of the 22 teams to have finished bottom of the Premier League since the 1995/96 season have then gone on to be relegated in the following campaign.

Bradford City, Derby County and Sunderland all did this in consecutive seasons from 1999 to 2002, and West Brom, Hull, West Ham, Wolves, QPR, Aston Villa and Sunderland again have gone on to do the same since.

Next: 5 Premier League transfer flops for Saints

SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND – MARCH 03: Detail view of a corner flag ahead of the Premier League match between Southampton and Stoke City at St Mary’s Stadium on March 3, 2018 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images)
SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND – MARCH 03: Detail view of a corner flag ahead of the Premier League match between Southampton and Stoke City at St Mary’s Stadium on March 3, 2018 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images) /

More from Saints Marching

It’s true that some of these teams had been slipping towards the drop for a while. Both Aston Villa and Sunderland had been in turmoil with problems off the field, whilst others had been in the league for a short space of time.

However, they all seem to have been unprepared after a poor 17th place finish. Saints must take lessons from this to make sure that they put themselves in the best possible position for a more successful campaign.

They certainly seem to be trying to do this. The signings of Stuart Armstrong and Mohamed Elyounoussi have kicked off what is set to be an active summer, and the dead wood of teh squad is being moved out to create more competition.

Following the conclusion of the 2017/18 season, the word complacency was used to describe the state that the club had slipped into and it was certain that some definitive actions had to be taken.

The club had worked themselves into the top-half bracket in the previous four seasons and will be hoping that this summer can help them get back on track.

They kick off the 2018/19 Premier League campaign at home to Burnley on Sunday August 12th.