Southampton Championship Odds: Will Still get Saints up?

After their embarrassing performances in the Premier League last season saw them amass just 12 points, Southampton fans will be looking forward to another season away from the blinding lights of the top flight. 

Will Still has come in through the door and proven he is an actual real-life human, and not a Football Manager avatar as some would have you believe, and his first task will be to inject some confidence back into the players after a bruising campaign. But how will they get on? Below you can find the Southampton Championship Odds along with a season preview. 

Still is incredibly highly-rated and has been touted for a move to England for some time, but Southampton made him theirs this summer after the disastrous appointment of Ivan Juric last season. They made a right mess of things in the Premier League, but as with any year one parachute payments side, are fancied to go well in the second tier. 

The 32-year-old (!) manager has earned his stripes with Lens and Reims in recent years, taking Lens to an eighth-place finish in Ligue 1 last term. He’s got all the attributes to succeed in England, but there’s always some level of doubt when a new manager tries his hand on these shores for the first time. 

The good news is that he walks into a squad packed full of Championship quality, but it still needs a summer refresh to be able to take the second tier by storm. 

Championship Odds

Transfer business

In: Damion Downs (£7m), Joshua Quarshie (£3m).

Out: Kamaldeen Sulemana (£15m), Jan Bednarek (£6m), Samuel Amo-Ameyaw (£6m), Paul Onuachu (£5m), Kyle Walker-Peters, Joe Lumley (both free).

It’s been fairly quiet as you would expect from a recently-relegated team, but the outgoings have allowed them to clear the deck slightly. Kamaldeen Sulemana, Jan Bednarek and Samuel Amo-Ameyaw have raised over £25m in sales, while Kyle Walker-Peters takes the jump up to West Ham in the Premier League on a free. 

Damion Downs is a big striker who scored 10 goals in 29 second tier appearances in Germany last season and adds to an attack already featuring Cameron Archer or Adam Armstrong. They are both proven goalscorers that should shine at this level, but Downs adds a level of physicality up top that differentiates him from the others. 

Joshua Quarshie, a centre-back, is the only other new addition although the likes of Ronnie Edwards and Ben Brereton Diaz return to the club having spent last year out on loan. Edwards in particular could feature heavily given he impressed at QPR. 

There’s plenty of quality in this squad that Still probably wants to see what he has to work with in the first few games before delving further into the market. You have to expect both Tyler Dibling and Mateus Fernandes to leave before the end of the month, which would further boost their transfer budget.  

Speaking of which - as I write this, it appears that they have had a bid rejected for Jack Rudoni - who starred at Coventry last term. That would be one hell of a signing - albeit an expensive one. 

Key Player: Shea Charles

There’s so many names I could have picked out, but I’m going to go for a player who I believe will be a major star for Saints this season - and importantly, stay at the club for the entire year. 

Will Smallbone and Flynn Downes are two impressive midfielders and while Fernandes is the standout, I think he will depart. So I’m backing Shea Charles, who had an impressive loan last season at Sheffield Wednesday, to boss things for a far stronger team. 

Still likes his teams to press high but also retain possession, so Charles will be an integral energetic metronome in that midfield three. Still only 21, he made 41 appearances at this level last term and I think he can cope with the step up quite comfortably. 

Prediction: 2nd

I know everybody has the heebie-jeebies after seeing Luton Town plummet straight from the Premier League to League 1, but they are a baffling anomoloy. In the last five seasons, six relegated teams have been promoted automatically in the first season at this level, four of the last five Championship winners were newly-relegated and the average points total for year one parachute payment teams over that time-span is 77 points, with an average finish of fifth. 

Football Odds

Southampton should be absolutely fine, and all signs point to the fact that Still is a very good manager. His fresh ideas and fresh voice is exactly what this club needs, while the quality littered throughout the squad speaks for itself. You have to assume we will see a couple more go out the exit door, but they’ve raised a lot of money already and could go out and splash that on some proven Championship talent. 

I see them registering around 80 points to make the play-offs, where they will put the memory of 2024/25 far behind them. 

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