Southampton: 2019/20 season cancelled for Saints youngsters

The 2019/20 season for all English academy sides has been cancelled, meaning that Southampton’s youngsters will play no competitive football until at least August.

An official statement from the Premier League on Friday confirmed that stakeholders had “unanimously agreed” to end the domestic campaign to “provide clarity for Academy staff and players”.

This news affects Saints’ Under-23s, Under-18s and all the age groups below those levels.

The Under-23s had five games of their season remaining against Brighton, Spurs, Arsenal, Eastleigh in the Hampshire Senior Cup and Chelsea, whilst the Under-18s still had Leicester, Brighton and West Ham to face.

Both sides had experienced inconsistent results in 2019/20, but development of players is seen as the biggest test of all at academy level.

The supply line to the Saints first-team has dried up a little in recent years, but there were signs during 2019/20 that things could get back to how they used to be.

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Will Smallbone and Jake Vokins both emerged to make senior appearances and both scored in the FA Cup Third-Round win over Huddersfield back in January.

The good thing for players hoping to make their mark as a first-team player with Saints is that they have Ralph Hasenhuttl in charge at the moment.

He regularly talks about wanting to boost the production lines from the club’s Staplewood campus to enable players to be produced rather than expensively bought.

The Austrian has also been using his time during the Coronavirus pandemic to create the “SFC playbook”, which is an e-book aimed at introducing academy players to his style of football before they make the step up.

This boosts the chances of top quality talent being nurtured up to their full potential, helps them understand what is expected of players in their position and gives them confidence that their manager is fully focused on their development.

If there is to be a financial effect to come from the Coronavirus outbreak too, using the academy fully reduces the need for new signings.