Around the mid-2010s there was a running joke in the Premier League that Southampton had become Liverpool’s feeder club.
It may have felt disrespectful for a side that shone under Mauricio Pochettino, Ronald Koeman and Claude Puel between 2013 and 2017, finishing eighth or higher for four consecutive seasons. But there was, at least from a Liverpool perspective, some truth to this narrative.
Because over a period of less than four years, Rickie Lambert, Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana, Nathaniel Clyne, Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk all swapped St Mary’s for Anfield. Chuck in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who joined Liverpool from Southampton via Arsenal, the brief loan stint of Stephen Caulker at both clubs, and the Reds’ reported interest in Ryan Bertrand and almost an entire XI of ex-Southampton men could have started for Liverpool at one stage.
In many ways, it’s a period that provided the platform for where both teams stand now. Liverpool’s purchases of Mane and Van Dijk were instrumental to the great Jurgen Klopp side that won the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League a year later, when the duo were among the best in Europe.
The likes of Lovren, Clyne, Lallana and Oxlade-Chamberlain also played important roles in that period, even if they provided more of a squad option for Klopp. But the influx of arrivals from Hampshire undeniably helped Liverpool reestablish itself as a prominent force in European football once again, even if the transfer policy feels like its from a bygone era.
The Reds’ recruitment is more efficient these days. There are fewer misses in the market; the low-hanging fruit approach of raiding the up-and-coming Premier League club would never be replicated. Liverpool now casts its net far and wide in pursuit of additions to the squad – in fact, Alexis Mac Allister’s arrival from Brighton & Hove Albion is the only first-team-ready signing from a Premier League club in the last four years.
In contrast, major questions must be asked of Southampton’s recent transfer strategy, which have resulted in the amalgamation of a squad lacking talent, identity or leaders. With just nine points on the board so far this season it could go down as one of the worst Premier League sides ever, and Arne Slot’s talk of Saturday’s game at Anfield being the most important in the upcoming eight days is likely to fall on deaf ears.
(Image: 2016 AMA Sports Photo Agency)
Ironically, it was Southampton’s penchant for finding progressive talents in the market that made it so successful a decade ago and resulted in so much interest from the league’s top sides. Plucking Pochettino from Espanyol was inspired, unearthing Mane and Dusan Tadic was excellent, while taking risks on Van Dijk and Victor Wanyama proved a sensible gamble.
Eventually, the cost of allowing its star names to leave caught up with Southampton, who unlike Liverpool, hasn’t been able to effectively update its transfer policy in modern times. It’s one of the biggest reasons why one team has been on a slowly upward trajectory, while the other has flatlined.
It provides an interesting background for Saturday’s clash at Anfield, a game that could be among one of the most unbalanced in the league’s history.
