The 1997–98 Southampton F.C. season was the club's 97th season of competitive football, their 28th (and 20th consecutive) in the top flight of English football, and their sixth in the FA Premier League. It was the first season to feature Dave Jones as the club's manager – the first appointed by new chairman Rupert Lowe, who took over from Guy Askham at the end of 1996–97. The campaign was the Saints' best in the league since 1994–95, as the club finished 12th in the table after two seasons in which they avoided relegation by a single point. Outside the league, however, the club fared less positively – they were eliminated from the FA Cup in the third round after just one game, and only made it to the fourth round of the League Cup.
After taking over from Graeme Souness in June, Jones added two players from his former Stockport County squad: goalkeeper Paul Jones and left-back Lee Todd. He would continue to add new players throughout the campaign, including breaking the club's transfer record with the £2 million signing of striker David Hirst, as well as selling numerous players – many from Souness' tenure. After a poor start to the league campaign which saw them drop into the relegation zone almost immediately, Southampton's form began to pick up following Hirst's arrival in October. As a result, they picked up a number of key wins over high-profile opposition and climbed the table, briefly making it into the top half before finishing in 12th place, eight points clear of the drop zone.
Outside the league, Southampton were eliminated from the FA Cup at the first hurdle for the second season in a row, losing their third round tie to FA Premier League rivals Derby County 0–2 at Pride Park Stadium. In the League Cup, the Saints beat Brentford in both legs of their second round tie, progressing 5–1 on aggregate over a side who would be relegated to the Third Division that season. In the third round they won 2–1 against Barnsley, who had just been promoted to the top flight for the first time in their history (but would be relegated again at the end of the year). The club were eliminated in the fourth round after extra time by Chelsea, who would go on to win the competition after beating First Division promotees Middlesbrough in the final.
Southampton used 31 players during the 1997–98 season and had 11 different goalscorers. Matt Le Tissier finished as the club's top goalscorer for a second season in a row (and seventh and last time overall) with 14 goals in all competitions. Kevin Davies and Egil Østenstad finished just behind Le Tissier on 12 and 11 goals, respectively. New goalkeeper Paul Jones made the most appearances for the club during the campaign and won the Southampton F.C. Player of the Season award at the end of the year. The average league attendance at The Dell during 1997–98 was 15,159. The highest attendance was 15,255 against Tottenham Hotspur in the league in October and the lowest was 8,004 against Brentford in the League Cup in September.
Background and transfers Ahead of the 1997–98 season, Southampton changed managers for the fourth time in just three years, when Graeme Souness resigned on 24 May 1997 due to disagreements with the club's new chairman Rupert Lowe related to potential spending in the summer transfer window. On the same day, the club's director of football Lawrie McMenemy also left, claiming that he "shared the frustrations" of Souness, while on-loan midfielder Eyal Berkovic – who was set to sign a permanent deal for the Saints – explained that he did not want to stay at the club without Souness. The next day, the Southampton Independent Supporters Association launched a campaign calling for Souness to be reinstated as manager and the new board, led by Lowe, to resign. A month after Souness' resignation, the club announced that Dave Jones, who had just helped Stockport County achieve promotion to the First Division and reach the semi-finals of the League Cup, would be taking over as Southampton manager.
Jones brought two players with him from Stockport County to sign for Southampton: goalkeeper Paul Jones, who had just played every game in Stockport's promotion-winning season, for £900,000, and left-back Lee Todd, who had also been a prominent part of the same team, for £850,000. His only other signing prior to the season starting was Norwegian striker Stig Johansen, who joined from Bodø/Glimt at the beginning of August for £600,000. The next week, Jones made his first sale as Dutch centre-back Ulrich van Gobbel (who had signed for Souness' side just ten months earlier) was sold for £800,000 to club Feyenoord – a loss of £500,000 on his signing less than a year previously.
Squad changes continued throughout the season. In September and October, respectively, midfielders Jim Magilton and Neil Maddison left the club after making over 350 appearances between them – Magilton rejected a new contract and moved to Sheffield Wednesday for £1.6 million, while Maddison moved to Middlesbrough for £300,000, helping them to achieve promotion back to the FA Premier League. The pair were replaced by two new signings: Kevin Richardson from Coventry City for £150,000 and Carlton Palmer from Leeds United for £1 million. Similarly, up front, David Hirst came to Southampton in a club-record £2 million deal from Sheffield Wednesday, replacing Mickey Evans who moved to West Bromwich Albion for £750,000 after just seven months at the club. Further sales before Christmas saw midfielder Christer Warren sold for £50,000 to Bournemouth, goalkeeper Dave Beasant loaned, then sent for free, to Nottingham Forest, and Maik Taylor and Alan Neilson moving to Fulham for £800,000 and £250,000, respectively.
In the new year, left-back Simon Charlton – having lost his place in the team to new arrival Todd and in-form Francis Benali – was sold to Birmingham City in the First Division after a month-long loan spell, for a fee of £200,000. John Beresford was signed as his replacement from Newcastle United a month later, with Jones paying £1.5 million for him – a new club record fee for a defender. Later in February, another left-back, Matthew Robinson, moved to local rivals Portsmouth for £50,000, having made just 17 appearances over a four-season career in the Southampton first team. On transfer deadline day in March, Australian midfielder Robbie Slater joined Wolverhampton Wanderers for £75,000, and the Saints signed Italian midfielder Cosimo Sarli from Torino, although he failed to make an appearance for the first team and was released the following February.
Players transferred in NameNationalityClubDateFeeRef.Paul Jones Stockport County1 July 1997£900,000Lee Todd Stockport County1 July 1997£850,000Stig Johansen Bodø/Glimt6 August 1997£600,000Kevin Richardson Coventry City9 September 1997£150,000Carlton Palmer Leeds United23 September 1997£1,000,000David Hirst Sheffield Wednesday17 October 1997£2,000,000John Beresford Newcastle United6 February 1998£1,500,000Cosimo Sarli Torino26 March 1998Free
Players transferred out NameNationalityClubDateFeeRef.Ulrich van Gobbel Feyenoord14 August 1997£800,000Jim Magilton Sheffield Wednesday9 September 1997£1,600,000Christer Warren Bournemouth10 October 1997£50,000Mickey Evans West Bromwich Albion24 October 1997£750,000Neil Maddison Middlesbrough28 October 1997£300,000Dave Beasant Nottingham Forest3 November 1997FreeMaik Taylor Fulham14 November 1997£800,000Alan Neilson Fulham26 November 1997£250,000Simon Charlton Birmingham City8 January 1998£200,000Matthew Robinson Portsmouth20 February 1998£50,000Robbie Slater Wolverhampton Wanderers26 March 1998£75,000
Players loaned in NameNationalityClubDate fromDate toRef.Jason Bowen Birmingham City2 September 199729 September 1997
Players loaned out NameNationalityClubDate fromDate toRef.Dave Beasant Nottingham Forest21 August 19972 November 1997Simon Charlton Birmingham City5 December 19975 January 1998Steve Basham Wrexham5 February 199826 March 1998Stig Johansen Bristol City12 February 19986 March 1998
Pre-season friendlies Ahead of the 1997–98 campaign, Southampton played eight pre-season friendlies. They started their pre-season preparations with a short German tour beginning in mid-July, during which they played five games against local opposition. After a 1–3 loss at Carl Zeiss Jena and a 1–1 draw with Ansbach, the Saints picked up two 2–0 wins over Niederauerbach (in which goals were scored by Jason Dodd and Ulrich van Gobbel) and Idar-Oberstein (in which goals were scored by Steve Basham and trialist Dirk Hebel), before losing the final match 2–4 against Kaiserslautern (Kevin Davies and Egil Østenstad scored for the visitors). Back in England, the FA Premier League side lost 0–1 to First Division side Reading, before beating Luton Town of the Second Division 3–0 and Swindon Town of the First Division 1–0, with Østenstad scoring in both games.
FA Premier League
Southampton had a poor opening start to the 1997–98 FA Premier League campaign, losing their first two games against recently promoted Bolton Wanderers and reigning champions Manchester United and failing to score in either game. After another loss, 1–3 at home to title challengers Arsenal, the Saints won their first match of the season when they beat Crystal Palace (another team recently promoted from the First Division) 1–0 at The Dell, with Kevin Davies scoring his first goal for the club. Defeats at Chelsea and Coventry City saw the club drop to the bottom of the league table by mid-September. After securing only their fourth point of the campaign with a 1–1 draw at home to Liverpool, the Saints lost 0–2 at home to Leeds United, before suffering their heaviest defeat of the campaign when Derby County – in their new Pride Park Stadium – thrashed the South Coast side 4–0, scoring all four goals in the last 15 minutes of the tie. By the end of September, the club were still bottom of the table, already four points away from safety.
The Saints picked up one of their season's three 3-goal wins at the beginning of October, beating West Ham United 3–0 at The Dell, with goals from Egil Østenstad, Davies and Jason Dodd coming in a single 15-minute spell early in the second half. Another 0–1 loss at Blackburn Rovers followed, before the side fought back twice from trailing positions to beat Tottenham Hotspur 3–2, with new striker David Hirst scoring twice on only his second appearance since joining the previous week. This started a short winning run of three games, which included a 2–0 away victory over Everton, who were also struggling in the bottom quarter of the table, and a 4–1 home win over Barnsley, who had been recently promoted to the top flight for the first time in their history. Following these three consecutive wins, Southampton had risen from 19th to 14th place in the league table. Three marginal defeats followed, however, as the Saints succumbed 1–2 at Newcastle United, 2–3 to Sheffield Wednesday, and 0–1 at Wimbledon.