By Nick Mabey.
It’s been a whirlwind start to the season for Southampton.
Ten games in 38 days and a whole bunch of players arriving and departing. We can now draw breath while an extended international break provides a sizeable pause button. So, with a chance to reflect at last, what do we know about the Saints version 2026?
My first article of the season was titled ‘Entering the Unknown’ and a wise reader pointed out that it feels like that every year. That’s undoubtedly true and yet, perhaps it was just for me, this season felt especially unpredictable.
Now, eight league games in (and already out of the Carabao cup), I’m feeling much more certain about what I’m watching.
First thing to say is that it turned out to be a fantastic transfer window. We started early, nailing Daniel Peretz and Cyle Larin into permanent contracts. A big money signing, Lewis Dobbin, followed. And while it’s still too early to tell how he will do, no one can deny the value of the last-minute arrivals of Keven Schlotterbeck and James Ward-Prowse for a combined total of just over £4 million. Both have made a fantastic start at the club, though in the case of Ward-Prowse of course it’s a restart. Meanwhile, we sold two players for £60 million, meaning a healthy surplus in trading revenue. Add to that the shrewd loan moves for Zach Abbott and Divin Mubama and we can confidently call this a successful window.
As to results on the pitch, at the risk of stating the obvious, we now know that Southampton are a strong team in this division and have picked up where we left of last season in terms of form and results. We have already made up a lot of ground on promotion rivals following our start on minus four points, and can look forward (hopefully and without jinxing things) to a strong season ahead.
We also know that the Championship this season is going to be especially competitive.
West Ham, who battered us in the cup a month ago, look big favourites to bounce back up to the Premier league, and our recently acquired nemesis – Middlesbrough – also look well equipped at another run at promotion. Wolves lead a group of perhaps ten other teams who might also fancy their chances. This, combined with an expanded play-off process, should ensure every match has meaning and consequence.
Back to Southampton and we already know that we can’t defend one-nil leads away from home.
I appreciate it’s a small sample size, but the Birmingham and Lincoln matches showed we are just not very good at sitting back on a slender lead. We are yet to keep a clean sheet in any match which, considering how many we have won, is surely a sign that, for us at least, attack is the best form of defence. It takes me right back to the Chris Nicholl days at the Dell, when we manged to play Le Tissier, Shearer, Rod Walllace and Rideout in the same team. Attack! Attack!
Another thing we know is that St. Mary’s has become something of a fortress. It’s always a mystery to me when a club has an amazing home record and a mediocre away one (another feature of the Nicholl era).
While it’s frustrating, it also means the majority of fans get to see us at our best. And 2026 has so far been pretty much as good as it gets for home fans with sixteen league wins and only one defeat (and that was in January). It makes no sense to me that we can be seemingly unbeatable at home and very ordinary away. Even when we are outplayed at home, eg by Bristol City, we seem to win. And then yesterday we had 90% of the good chances away at Wrexham and still managed to lose. It’s a puzzle.
Finally, we also know that we are not getting much, if any, stick from away fans for the Spygate saga.
It’s been noticeable how little abuse or ill will there has been and the whole thing is disappearing fast from the collective consciousness of the Championship world. Even the media, who for a while seemed obsessed making it a feature of every Saints-related feature, have almost given up. Fair play to the Hollywood owners at Wrexham for at least trying to feature it via their pre-match promo video, but even that was light-hearted and relatively harmless.
So that’s everything we know.
One thing we still don’t know is the outcome of Tonde Eckert’s FA disciplinary case, although the grapevine seems to agree that it will happen during this international break. Saints fans have learned a painful lesson trying to predict what will happen next in this saga.
It doesn’t stop the click bait though and I for one will be happy when we are looking at the whole thing through a rear-view mirror.
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