Success or Failure [SHORT]

[Panpardus]

'Hello and welcome to our first show in this series of Success or Failure, I'm your host, Jacqui Oatley and over this two part episode we will discuss Southampton under Matt Smith's direction.

Our first question, how do you know when something or someone has failed or succeeded?

Sometimes it's easy, very easy, there is a clear line of definition, its black or white, but what happens when there is some grey, what happens if there is a lot of grey, what if the target moves a centimetre, a kilometre, what then?

By whose standards do you measure, do you measure against the average or do you measure what was expected, if it was what was expected then who expected it and were those expectations realistic.

When we talk goals we always talk SMART goals, what's a smart goal, well its Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results Focused and Time Bound, what were Southampton's goals since 2025?

So first of all lets set the initial question.

Has Matt Smith failed to live up to expectations at Southampton? Has he been a success or has it been a failure, there will be a definitive answer at the end, will you agree?

Our panel of judges will first determine what the realistic goals were for Matt Smith and Southampton and then if he achieved those goals.

So lets go to the ad break and when we come back we will begin.'

[mark wilson27]

Another Panpardus short story, looking forward to this one mate

[EvilDave]

I'm intrigued already Pan, good to see you writing again. Will be following this one closely!

[Panpardus]

Thanks for the comments guys.

I've been playing this save off an on for ages, had written lots of notes, was going to write a story about it ages ago, but then have no time and you just want to play the game, so after awhile I thought, I could do another short. It's been a great save, had a few rivalries on the way, especially with Jose and Pep, for some reason despite playing in different continents I was always drawn against Jose's teams and he just use to trash talk me.

This save I was thinking have I succeeded with Southampton or failed, so thought I would write the story and see how it went. I'll leave you guys to decide!

---

Welcome back, first lets introduce the panel, Matt Le Tissier and Morgan Schneiderlin are our first two, both men are considered Southampton Legends, Matt played over 450 games for the saints scoring over 150 goals, despite major interest from other clubs Matt showed his loyalty and stayed with the club until his retirement in 2002.

Morgan very similar, after his move from Strasbourg in 2008 went on to play over 570 league games for the club, Morgan turned down many chances to move to another club, most famously when he turned down Manchester United in the 2015/16 season. Morgan also played under Matt Smith in 2025/2026 season before retiring.

Carlo Ancelotti joins us, Carlo one of the best ever managers and is in the hall of fame top 10 for his efforts with clubs like Chelsea, Juventus, Milan, PSG and Real Madrid.

Club legends Gary Neville formerly of Manchester United and Jamie Carragher of Liverpool are here.

Gentleman, welcome.

First of all lets set the scene, Southampton 21/9/2025 after mid table obscurity, Besnik Hasi convinced the board to spend big and he would get them European Football, an outlay of 40 million pound, a shocking pre-season and a terrible start seen the manager last just 227 days, most of them was from the previous season.

The pundits had been correct, the big outlay and new faces had seen problems with the team gelling and also had seriously jeopardised their financial security, they were sitting second last in the table, some of the better players had already voiced their concern, they wanted to join a more reputable club.

It was doom and gloom again, Simon Birch the new chairman had the protests from the supporters they didn't want a repeat of the relegation back in the early 2000's that seen them spiral down the leagues and this was just a year after he had taken over, the club had reportably been in a bit of financial trouble then, but was now in major financial trouble.

Simon did his best to allay the fears of the supporters but two weeks went on and there was no new manager, Roy Keane the newly appointed Assistant Manager had said he had no interest in doing the number one job, the fans were getting impatient, but to his credit the chairman fronted the fans, kept them up to date and said that they were looking for someone who could transform the club into a European team and not just trying to get one of the usual faces.

It all fell into place then, a single phone call proved to be the catalyst and within 48 hours they had their man.

Lets cut to the footage off an interview on the Southampton Football Network.

[simon Birch interview: 30/5/2026 – Courtesy of SFCTV]

'Simon, you have said you were happy with the 9th placed finish and were looking forward to next season with Matt Smith in charge for his first full season, but the question remains, how did you manage to get Matt to the club?'

'A long story, but after two weeks of canvassing we had the same old names pop up, the journeyman managers were about and were interested but we needed someone different, someone to think outside the box to help, someone with a proven record and liked to work with the kids, we have an excellent youth academy still so we wanted that used to bring through the younger kids.

Trouble was that all the young upcoming managers all had jobs, we approached a few clubs but was told no, we had exhausted all our options so I called Nicola.'

'Ex – Director of Football Nicola Salerno ?'

'Yes, we were on good terms with Manchester United at the time, we allowed Nicola to leave our club to theirs so we asked him if he knew of anyone that could help out, United had no problem in him helping us, although they were probably a little unhappy with the name he gave.'

'So it was Nicola who got you Matt Smith?'

'Yes to a point, Nicola got in touch with him, in truth we had no idea Matt was still around in England at the time and we didn't think he would be interested so we didn't pursue him.

He gave me a call on the Thursday, we talked a little and he came down on the Friday, we had a tour of the facilities, we talked some more, he seemed interested, but just not that interested.

On the Saturday, we watched the game via link, it was a bad game for us, losing to Derby seen us take bottom spot, we had 2 draws and 5 losses and I was sure he was going to say thanks but no thanks.

After the game though he said, I think I can help, we shook hands, signed papers and it was announced that very night.'

[End of Footage]

[Panpardus]

'Morgan you were at the club at the time, what can you remember?'

'Thanks Jacqui, yeah it was pretty bad start to that season, when they sacked Hasi it was a good thing, everyone was unhappy at the time it just hadn't worked, the new players hadn't gelled and were blaming the older players, the older players were unhappy at not getting time, it wasn't a good place to be in.

Two weeks on and Keano was still taking us and he was getting frustrated as he didn't want the number one job, but he was doing his best, but he isn't a people person so he told a few of the new players to pull their heads in and that didn't go down well.

But then when we left for Derby that Friday morning, we heard that Matt Smith was at the club, nothing official mind you, but the mood picked up, it was like when we managed to get Jose Mourinho back in 2017 except better.

The lads put in a huge effort in that game, but it just didn’t go our way, a few of us were talking after the match, I remember Cauley (Woodrow) saying that he bet that Matt Smith had already left after that result.

By time we were on the bus heading back to Manchester for our flight back, it had been announced that Matt Smith had been appointed and there was a compulsory meeting 9am Sunday'

'First Impressions'?

'They were good, he was pretty relaxed, made some sort of joke about us being in the sh*t and needing a big paddle, but he assured all the players that he believed with a bit of hard work we could push back up the table.

When he was asked how far up the table he was pretty blunt, he said midtable at best, Gaspar (Fournier) and Ezequiel (Munoz) were pretty vocal on that, they said something along the lines that they were promised European Football, that is why they signed, it was a pretty stupid thing to say.

Matt looked at them and told them the manager that promised them that was no longer at the club and if they wanted he could arrange that for them as well.

They quieted down pretty quickly, he talked about tactics and what his expectations were, but apart from that, there was no rousing speeches, he said from Monday double training sessions, but they were mainly tactical sessions to get to grips with how he wanted to play.

'Thanks for that Morgan, Matt as an ambassador of the club, what did you think of the appointment?'

'Well Jacqui, it came out of nowhere for us as well, we never really heard anything until late Friday, when someone said they spotted him walking around the training grounds, but he got past the Airport without getting noticed, maybe because no one expected him there.

'Wait, how does the man who won the previous Champions League and Premier League titles get into or leave an Airport without getting noticed?'

'I wasn't sure either, we had that big rumour that PSV manager Leon Vlemmings had arrived a week earlier, as it turned out it wasn't him at all, so there was people looking, but he just slipped through'

'How did the appointment rate?'

'All the problems of the club stopped when he was appointed, I'm not sure if everyone was in shock or what, but it was a huge appointment for the club, when the club appointed Jose back in 2017 that was huge, but this was bigger.

Within the week, we were already being tipped for a trophy, it was a pretty crazy time, I knew the amount of feedback from supporters at the time went up to unprecedented amounts, the stadium and training ground tours were booked out solid and then we had complaints that people couldn't get in, the buzz around the area was very very positive and everyone wanted in on the action.'

'Okay lets take a short break and come back with Carlo discussing Matt Smith's accomplishments up until his Southampton appointment'

[JamesOSully1]

love this!