Koeman coup would be Saintly

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It’s been a tough few weeks for fans of Southampton since the end of one of our most successful seasons in the club’s history.

The manager, Pochettino, decided to leave the club and focus on spending his time until Christmas 2014 working at Tottenham Hotspur, several of the less-respectable British newspapers have seemingly spent each day systematically linking every player in our squad with a move to another club and one of the greatest players that Saints have ever had, Rickie Lambert, has moved ‘home’ to play for Liverpool.

But finally there seems to be some good news on the horizon. After spending a fair bit of time mulling over who they want at Saints, the board seem set to announce, subject to him accepting, Dutch legend Ronald Koeman as the new manager/head coach early next week.

Koeman is a name that is synonymous with both European and world football success over the last few decades and is definitely someone who has received both the support and enthusiasm of Saints fans far and wide as the man to continue to lead our evolution.

But, whilst Ronald Koeman may be a new name to lots of younger Saints fans, to me he is someone who I’ve shared a close affinity with going back 25 years!

For what Ronald doesn’t know is that when I was growing up at Netley Abbey Junior School (this is aged 8 in 1989!) I used to pretend to be him when I was playing football in the playground with my school mates.

In those days there weren’t mobile phones. There wasn’t Facebook or Twitter. There wasn’t even remote’s for TV’s unless you were really posh! You had to make your own entertainment and that’s just what we did at school.

Each and every break time we’d all run out to the playground. Once the chorus of ‘Carrrrrry onnnnn’ had died down you’d then hear your mates shouting out which player they were going to be during that particular game.

“I’ll be Stoichkov” and “I’ll be Klinsmann” you’d hear. Then of course there was the lad that no-one really ever spoke to but always wanted to join in the game. So of course, to make up the numbers, he’d be allowed to play. But he knew very little about football hence why he didn’t move in the same circles as the rest of us. He’d always be allocated Steve Hodge and then mocked for it every time he got the ball. But me? I was always Ronald Koeman!

I adored watching him on the TV during a period when he was in his prime as a player. He was Captain of the Dutch national team, had just moved to play for Barcelona and was a player that you couldn’t help but aspire to want to be.

I loved the fact that he seemed like the complete player. A versatile individual who was brilliant at sweeping and defending, spraying around 40-50 yard passes, marauding forward with the ball at his feet and, most importantly, someone who was on free-kicks and often penalties as well.

If there was a free-kick given in our games at school then I was quick to jog forward from the back shouting “I’m Koeman. I’m on free-kicks!” before trying to then bend the ball over a 4-ft wall of short-sleeved school mates and in off the far netball post.

I just knew that when I grew up I wanted to be playing for my beloved Southampton but with Koeman on the back of my shirt!

Then as I got older and progressed onto Secondary School, I started to come across new heroes. I was now lucky enough to be watching a certain Matt Le Tissier week in, week out at The Dell and he quickly became a similar icon. Then others came along as well. I’d see glimpses on our TV (now complete with a remote control!) of a certain Paul Gascoigne and started to think maybe I wanted to be more like both him and Le Tiss when I grew up – players who spent most of the game at the other end of the pitch.

But, no. Deep down Ronald was my first true footballing hero and now, 25 years on and with a controversial 1993 shirt-pull on England’s David Platt followed up by ‘that’ successful free-kick in the same game put to one side, it seems so exciting to have come full circle in our lives and to meet again with him set to become manager of Southampton.

However I’m not just excited due to my long-time admiration of him but also, more importantly, for both the management style he has developed over the years along with the ambition and willingness to deliver success that he will hopefully bring to Saints.

When Pochettino decided to leave Saints for his short stint at Spurs, our chairman Ralph Kreuger said it would be imperative that the new Saints manager shared “our values, our principles and our philosophy”. From what I’ve read of Koeman’s managerial skills he will definitely do that!

The two key assets to his management style seem to be giving young players a chance to thrive on the biggest of stages and also to play attacking football. That is very much what Saints players and fans have been used too over the last couple of years as well.

We are lucky enough to have a very talented young group who, to be fair, probably have overachieved a little since the club’s return to the Premier League but who can also definitely push on to even better things under the right guidance.

It would seem that he will also be given funds to improve the squad and in some circumstances, if the less-reputable newspapers are to be believed, required to replace players who seem destined to want to move on and test themselves in the Champions League. That said I’d think someone of Koeman’s stature would have an extensive network of contacts across the globe who can recommend him talented players who can achieve great things with Saints. So that’s definitely more exciting than mercenary players wanting to leave.

Then there is the fact that there is no doubting Ronald Koeman will be joining a club which is in a very healthy position, both on and off the pitch, and which is really chomping at the bit to try and compete at the next level. It proves to be an exciting time at the end of a several nervous weeks.

So assuming he does indeed take up the managerial seat then I very much look forward to welcoming Ronald Koeman to St. Mary’s and, should I ever get the chance to meet him in person, I’ll be quick to make sure he also knows what a long-time hero of mine he is as well!

By Ben Stanfield, Fanzone’s Southampton Blogger. Follow him on Twitter: @benstanners, and don’t forget to follow @FanZone too!