Southampton

The club

Southampton were founded in 1885 as St Mary's Young Men's Association and play at St Mary's Stadium, which holds 32,384, having left The Dell in 2001. The club are known as the Saints and play in red and white striped shirts.

Note on sourcing: southamptonfc.com returns only a page title to automated fetches, and the Daily Echo and BBC Sport refused automated requests, so everything below is from Wikipedia. The head-to-head material a club site would normally carry is largely unavailable as a result.

Recent seasons

Southampton finished 15th in the Premier League in both 2020/21 and 2021/22. In 2022/23 they were relegated in 20th with 25 points (6 wins, 7 draws, 25 defeats, 36 goals for, 73 against), ending eleven consecutive seasons in the top flight. They went straight back up: fourth in the Championship in 2023/24 with 87 points from 46 games (26 wins, 9 draws, 11 defeats), then beating Leeds United 1-0 in the play-off final at Wembley on 26 May 2024, Adam Armstrong scoring on 24 minutes in front of 85,862.

The season that followed was the worst in Premier League history by several measures. Southampton finished 20th with 12 points from 38 games: 2 wins, 6 draws, 30 defeats, 26 goals scored and 86 conceded. They were relegated on 6 April 2025 after a 3-1 defeat away to Tottenham Hotspur, with 10 points from 31 matches, the first club in Premier League history to go down with seven fixtures still to play. They also recorded the longest winless run of that season, 14 matches.

2025/26 was strong on the pitch and ended in disgrace off it. Will Still began the season as head coach and was sacked on 2 November 2025 after 16 games and a 25 per cent win ratio. Tonda Eckert took over as interim that day and was made permanent on 5 December 2025 on a contract to 2027. Southampton finished fourth with 80 points from 46 games (22 wins, 14 draws, 10 defeats, 82 goals for, 56 against), reached the FA Cup semi-final and went out of the EFL Cup in the third round. They then beat Middlesbrough in the play-off semi-final but were disqualified from the competition for multiple breaches of EFL regulations relating to the unauthorised filming of other clubs' training. Middlesbrough took their place in the final, which Hull City won 1-0 at Wembley on 23 May 2026. Southampton carry a four-point deduction into 2026/27 for the same offences.

Honours and landmarks

The FA Cup of 1976 is the club's only major trophy, won 1-0 against Manchester United. They were also FA Cup runners-up in 1900, 1902 and 2003. League titles are lower-division: Third Division South in 1921/22 and Third Division in 1959/60, plus six Southern League championships in 1897, 1898, 1899, 1901, 1903 and 1904. The highest league finish is First Division runners-up in 1983/84; seventh in 2014/15 was their best Premier League placing.

Record attendance at St Mary's is 32,363 against Coventry City on 28 April 2012. A published record for The Dell was not established. Terry Paine holds the appearance record with 815 between 1956 and 1974, and Mick Channon is leading scorer with 228 goals across two spells between 1966 and 1982. Record fee received is £75 million for Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool; record fee paid is £22 million for Kamaldeen Sulemana from Rennes.

Notable scorelines

Record win: 11-0, twice, against Northampton Town on 28 December 1901 and against Watford on 13 December 1902, both in the Southern League. Their record win in the Football League or Premier League is 8-0 against Sunderland on 18 October 2014. Record defeat: 0-9, also twice, at home to Leicester City on 25 October 2019 and away to Manchester United on 2 February 2021, both in the Premier League. Those two results are jointly the heaviest defeats in Premier League history and both belong to Southampton.

Head-to-head notes

The only all-time record that could be established for a 2026/27 opponent is Portsmouth. Across 73 first-class meetings the record is Southampton 35 wins, Portsmouth 21, 17 draws. The two clubs shared a division in 2025/26 for the first time since 2011/12 and drew both games: 0-0 at St Mary's on 14 September 2025 and 1-1 at Fratton Park on 25 January 2026. Before that, the 2011/12 meetings had also both been drawn.

From the opening weeks of 2025/26: Southampton beat Wrexham 2-1 at home on 9 August 2025, lost 2-1 at home to Stoke City on 23 August and drew 2-2 at Watford on 30 August. They beat Middlesbrough over the 2026 play-off semi-final before being removed from the competition. Published all-time records against the other 22 Championship clubs, Portsmouth aside, are not established: 11v11.co.uk, which carries them, blocks automated access, and the club site could not be read.

Right now (2026/27)

Tonda Eckert continues as head coach, permanent since 5 December 2025. Southampton start the season on minus four points.

Summer business has been modest and all fees undisclosed. Forward Cyle Larin joined from Mallorca, goalkeeper George Long from Norwich City and goalkeeper Daniel Peretz from Bayern Munich, all on 15 June 2026. Midfielder Issa Tounkara arrived from Etoiles Mandé on 20 June and midfielder Lewis Dobbin from Aston Villa on 15 July. Forward Rento Takaoka left for Patro Eisden Maasmechelen on 30 July. Goalkeeper Ollie Wright went to Gillingham on loan on 3 July and defender Jayden Moore to Worthing on 29 July, both to the end of the season. The released list was substantial: Oriol Romeu joined Avispa Fukuoka, Alex McCarthy went to Leicester City and Charlie Taylor to Derby County, while Joe Aribo, Will Smallbone and Ross Stewart were unattached at the time of writing.

The competitive season has not started. Southampton won 3-1 at Eastleigh on 18 July 2026 and 1-0 at Eintracht Braunschweig on 24 July, then lost 2-1 at SC Paderborn on 29 July, with a match at Preussen Munster scheduled for 1 August. The EFL Cup first round takes them to Colchester United on 8 August 2026, 17:30, on Sky Sports. The first league fixture is away to Watford at Vicarage Road on 16 August 2026 at 13:30, followed by Stoke City at home on 22 August and Millwall at home on 29 August.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.