History of Southampton F.C.

This success spanned some major changes for the Saints, as the club moved to a newly built, £10,000 stadium called The Dell, to the northwest of the city centre in 1898.

Good omens were quick to arrive, however, and before the 19th century closed, the South Coast was given a taste of things to come as it reached the first of their four FA Cup Finals in 1900.

[6] After World War I, when many teams were broken up by the call of National Service, Saints joined the newly formed Football League Division 3 in 1920 which split into South and North sections a year later.

The dream of Division 1 football at the Dell for the first time was finally realised in 1966 when Ted Bates' team was promoted as runners-up, with Martin Chivers scoring 30 of Saints' 85 league goals.

The 1981–82 season was another successful campaign for the Saints, who by December 1981 were looking like serious title contenders and finally went top of the table on 30 January 1982 with a 1–0 away win over struggling Middlesbrough.

[1] Despite finding itself on the receiving end of a 5–2 demolition at Ipswich Town less than three weeks later (in which Alan Brazil scored all five of the Suffolk club's goals), the Saints hung onto its lead of the league before they were finally leapfrogged by Swansea City on 20 March after nearly two months at the top.

They finished fifth the following year, but as a result of the Heysel Disaster all English clubs were banned from European competition – had it not been for this, then Southampton would have qualified for the UEFA Cup once again.

Lawrie McMenemy left at the end of the 1984–85 season to be succeeded by Chris Nicholl, who was sacked after six years in charge despite preserving the club's top-flight status.

Ball secured the Saints' survival for the 1993–94 season and guided them to a respectable tenth-place finish in the Premiership in 1994–95, with inspirational performances from Matthew Le Tissier.

But Ball was lured to Manchester City in the summer of 1995 and Southampton turned to long-serving coach David Merrington to take charge of the team in 1995–96.

Southampton fared little better in 1996–97 despite the arrival of Souness, whose track record included two Scottish league titles with Rangers and an FA Cup victory with Liverpool.

Glenn Hoddle helped keep Southampton well clear of the Premiership drop zone but having received an offer from another club, he moved to Tottenham Hotspur just before the end of the 2000–01 season.

Strachan resigned in March 2004 (to take a break from football) and was replaced by Paul Sturrock, who had been in the process of guiding Plymouth Argyle to their second promotion in three seasons.

Rumours of player dissatisfaction and personal problems, however, dogged Sturrock, and he was replaced just five months later by reserve team coach Steve Wigley.

Lowe and Southampton continued to make headlines after former England Rugby World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward joined the club, eventually being appointed technical director.

Redknapp failed to rejuvenate the Saints, and on 15 May 2005 Southampton were relegated from the Premiership following a 2–1 home defeat to Manchester United, ending 27 successive seasons of top division football.

On 24 November 2005, Portsmouth manager Alain Perrin, the man who himself replaced Harry Redknapp at Southampton's arch-rivals, was sacked by chairman Milan Mandarić.

In the wake of overwhelming calls for him to stand down, Lowe eventually resigned on 30 June 2006, a few days before an extraordinary general meeting that was predicted to see him removed from the club's board.

[11] On 27 April 2007, it was rumoured that Paul Allen, the American entrepreneur who formed Microsoft with Bill Gates, may launch a takeover bid for the club.

The good form which secured Southampton's Championship status in 2005–06 was carried through to the start of the 2006–07 season, and the turn of the year saw the team in fourth place in the table.

The new board of directors had spent a club record £6 million on transfers: Polish strikers Grzegorz Rasiak and Marek Saganowski and 17-year-old left back Gareth Bale all had great runs in form.

With other promotion rivals dropping points and a small run of form in late April, however, Southampton were able to finishing in sixth place, the last play-off position.

Once again, however, Southampton experienced a major loss of form in the spring, not helped by managerial instability caused by the resignation of George Burley followed by caretaker spells by John Gorman and then Nigel Pearson, and were left in serious danger of relegation to League One on the last day of the season.

Fortunately, a win combined with some other favourable results ensured their survival for another year, but the enforced sale of most of their star players combined with the general inexperience of the remaining players and yet more changes in the managerial seat (Pearson was replaced by Jan Poortvliet prior to the start of the season, before Mark Wotte took over midway through the campaign) led to a disastrous 2008–09 season in which the club were never outside the bottom five at any point in the campaign, and never left the relegation zone after Christmas.

Southampton were told on 23 April 2009 that it would be deducted ten points either in the 2008–09 season, should they finish outside the bottom three, or in 2009–10, in the event of them being relegated, due to its parent company going into administration a few weeks earlier.