Will it be relegation heartbreak for Southampton? Our predictions say that will indeed be the case next May.
Where will your side finish in 2012-13? With the season just one week away, our pundits have put our heads together to give you a comprehensive set of predictions.
Opinions and analysis on all 20 Premier League clubs are given here by 12 of our writers and pundits here at HITC Sport. On the basis of the predictions from our ‘daring dozen’ we have calculated how the table will look come next May.
How does it work? All the predictions are totalled together, the team with the lowest score will finish 1st, and the highest will finish 20th. Here are the predictions for your club.
Verdict – Southampton will finish in: 20th
Highest prediction: 13th, Lowest prediction: 20th.
Dan Coombs: 13th; Southampton will be an exciting addition to the Premier League, and expect them to enjoy the same ‘bounce’ which Swansea and Norwich thrived on last season. The Saints have a side full of talented players, and have snapped up some of the best young talent from the Championship in Jay Rodriguez and Nathaniel Clyne. Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert both have big reputations, and expect them to show just why over the months ahead.
Vic Daniels: 20th; Back to reality for Saints, as it looks all over by Christmas
Mathew Nash: 14th; Star Player – Adam Lallana. Top Scorer – Rickie Lambert. After 3 seasons of winning games Saints know no different and that continued confidence will carry them to safety with a good start this season. Rickie Lambert will find the net but the performances of Jack Cork, Kelvin Davis and especially Adam Lallana will be the reason they stay up.
Tomo Taka: 20th; Manager Nigel Adkins has led Southampton to consecutive promotions. The problem for the Saints is that consecutive promotions from League one are often aided by a crest of wave and the momentum of successful seasons. Yet, the ascent up the tiers often means a lack of squad development over an extended period of time and Southampton will find themselves with several League One standard players still at the club. This Premier League campaign could be too soon for Southampton, who were nearly liquidated a few years ago. Star player: New signing Jay Rodriguez, purchased for £7m from Burnley could be their best player next season. Last year at Burnley the striker scored 15 goals and was in the PFA Championship Team of the Year. At 23-years-old, he will only improve year upon year. Southampton’s biggest concern will be their difficult opening start to the season. They start away at Manchester City, before games to Wigan, Manchester United and Arsenal. The Saints may struggle for more than 3 points from the opening fixtures and will not want to start the season in poor form that could continue for the rest of the season.
Jake Lane: 17th; Like Norwich before them, were playing League One football two years ago but will have a harder time of it than the Canaries had last season. Rickie Lambert, Championship Player of the Year for 2011 will need to get amongst the goals if the Saints are to have any chance of staying up. If Lambert, who has won Southampton’s Fans Player of the Season two times in three leaves is tempted away from St. Mary’s then don’t expect to see them in the Premier League next season and if their man carries on from where he left off in the Championship then it is inevitable that offers will come in from him.
Nigel Owen:19th; Nigel Adkins has followed the same route as Brian McDermott at Reading by signing lower division British players. Jay Rodriguez and Nathaniel Clyne both have big reputations, but are unproven in the Premier League, and the lack of top flight experience means they won’t be gaining much beyond this season. Straight back down for the Saints. Rickie Lambert is the one man who may give the fans on the south coast hope. 129 goals in his last 6 seasons shows he knows where the back of the net is, but scoring in the Premier League, when you may only get one chance in a game is a different kettle of fish.
Surya Solanki: 20th; Exciting team but looking the required quality to excel at the biggest stage. Even though, it is a bold prediction to rank Southampton 20th, I feel that they are the weakest team in the league would surely be demoted back to Division 1 in the next ten months.
Paul Moore: 18th; The Premier League may have come a bit to early for this team. Nigel Atkins and his staff deserve a huge pat on the back. If Sharp and Lambert can strike up a partnership then who knows?
John Aggrey: 20th; They should be last even though Southampton over the years has been known to be a centre for nurturing young talent. With players like Bale, Walcott and recently Oxlade among others graduates of this famous academy making inroads in the EPL, expectations will be high and this might prove costly for them. While they scored goals for fun in the Championship last season, the EPL waters might prove murky and who knows, paddling across them might even be far much harder than we think. Their main star should be Rickie Lambert for me any day. Having watched a few matches Southampton played last season, I really don’t think there’s a better striker in this side than Rickie. With quick thinking and a magic head as I might want to refer to it, the lad should for sure light up the EPL. Biggest Challenge; Just like any other promoted side, cementing their place amongst the big boys should be the first thing. Holding on to their best players should be the next and with them recently beating Everton to the signing of Jay Rodriguez, they already have proved a point even before a ball is kicked in the new season.
Naveenan Thanendra: 16th; The Saints have always had the facilities at their disposal to be a premier league side, so it is great to see St Mary’s back as a Premier League stadium. However, it is more than just that which makes Southampton more than worthy of a place in the Premier League. Nigel Adkins has put together a magnificent side which has seen them achieve back-to-back promotion and it is certainly good enough now to see them survive in the Premier League. The addition of Nathaniel Clyne certainly improves their defence, but the back 4 still needs significant improvement as it will be the main reason why they finish this low in the table. Rickie Lambert, the clubs star from seasons gone by should take the league by storm in a similar fashion to Grant Holt did last year, but we should expect to see Jay Rodriguez break through as the year goes on.
Keval Shah: 15th; Rickie Lambert was the top goal scorer in the championship last season, and he will have to carry that sort of form into this season if he is to help Southampton avoid the bottom three. Producing the likes of Bale, Walcott and Oxlade Chamberlain, one thing you can guarantee with Southampton is that Nigel Adkins will have an abundance of young talent to work with.
Khiam Barry: 20th; A similar story to Reading, The Saints just won’t have enough about them to stay up.
Connor Jipps: 19th; Back to back promotions have proven that Southampton aren’t a team to take lightly. They will no doubt be looking for inspiration from Norwich who also achieved back to back promotions from League One before cementing a respectable position in the Premier League. Southampton have a fairly young side including homegrown Adam Lallana and Luke Shaw as well as Jack Cork purchased from Chelsea last summer and the youth will be the key to their season as it is sink and swim for these this talented trio in particular. The additions of Nathaniel Clyne and Jay Rodriguez, both named in the Championship Team of the Year for last season, show that Adkins is building a project with the club and his approach is to buy and develop players into successful Premier League competitors. Rickie Lambert has proven to be a regular goalscorers in the Football leagues and finally will have his chance to prove himself at the very top level. With the strike partners he has available to him in Sharp, Rodriguez and Barnard, Lambert should be relieved of some of the weight sitting on his shoulders but Saints fans will expect at least 15 league goals to keep Southampton clear. The squad is undoubtedly talented, containing players who could go on to be stars but the Premier League return may just have come to early for Southampton. I desperately hope I’m wrong as they are a fantastic side to watch.
Full predicted table: (1) Manchester City, (2) Manchester United, (3) Chelsea, (4) Arsenal, (5) Tottenham, (6) Liverpool, (7) Newcastle, (8) Everton, (9) Fulham, (10) Sunderland, (11) Aston Villa, (12) Stoke, (13) QPR, (14) Swansea, (15) West Ham, (16) West Brom, (17) Norwich, (18) Reading, (19) Wigan, (20) Southampton.
Where do you believe Southampton will finish next season?
image: © ingythewingy
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