Jason Taylor: G'day Mate, Im the Man!

I always remember that night, six months ago on my twenty fifth birthday. I had got out of hospital the morning before having got the plaster off the injury that ended my short football career in the Australian leagues two years before. It was time to party, so I invited a few dozen friends and relative to my house for a party, and lets just say...it got messy.

Beer, shots, drugs...all leading to one night of intenseness. Pint after pint gulped down into my liver and to be honest, I may not have regretted in then, but I'm glad I stopped. Number of drunks laying on my back lawn and two guys found inside of the toilet and the pan and a topless couple in the bath (don't even ask).

Yes, there were of course fights, luckily by ligament didn't snap again but I remember waking up the following morning with a black eye, broken index finger and intense hangover. One thing I do remember in great detail, vomitting in the toilet at like 6am. Afterwards I headed out, because a number of thoughts had circled through my head.

I went to the hills in my hometown, just a small village. I looked down, beer on my shirt, sick on my breathe and a hangover like no other that my life needed to be sorted out, and thats what I did. Got my coaching badges and looked for jobs. But my fate arrived in England, on the south coast.

I spoke with the chairman, everything was perfect and within days offered the contract, I signed it and now I'm here. Sat in my car at the training ground knowing this was the beginning of my life. The life of managing, the youngest manager in the world (previously held by Salisbury's Mikey Harris).

Because my name is Jason Taylor, I was born in Adelaide, Australia, and I have a purpose in life, I'm the new manager of Southampton Football Club.

Good luck!

Nice start, good luck. Soton have got a good squad, with some great youth players mixed in!

Thanks guys, appreciate the support!

good luck!

Thanks AAN, hope you enjoy

With it being my first season, of course many chnages needed to happen, players let go, players signing and of course needed to get fitness up and get the side used to my style of football and formation. These are the changes that have happened over this period as well as the results from Pre-Season.


The first game against CSKA Moscow was one that we dominated in possession and seemed to be on top for the majority of the game but we did concede late on which I felt was unlucky but hey-ho. We moved on into the second friendly against Sparta Prauge which we seemed to be ok in, it was very even but on the day, they worked harder and got the two goals.

We moved onto two more easier friendlies away at Westerloo and the FC Bayern Reserves, both games we were by far the best team and deserved to win, and that showed in both stats and results as we claimed 2-1 and 4-0 wins respectively. We finished off pre-season by hosting French side Marseille and we appeared to cope quite well against a team of their standard but it was a flip on a coin and it fell for them.


Chico-After the departures of two centre backs, the position of centre back needed filling and Chico was a good choice as at the time he was affordable and has premier league experience

Rui Patricio-Needed a goalkeeper after the departures of two goalkeepers, and Patricio has international experience and played for one of Portugal's best team (Sporting Lisbon)

Mame Diouf-Lambert is ageing and not really any backups and Diouf has premier league experince under Man Utd and has great goalscoring abilities to give us.

Eder Alvarez Balanta-A very young defender with a lot of potential, and as said before, we lacked people in his position and I beleie Eder will develop into one of the worlds best CB.

Mohamed Diame-Centre Midfield needed improving and with Diame having experince in the premier league and a cheap release clause, he was a fantastic bargain.

Saido Berahino-As with Diouf, we needed more strikers and Saido has a lot of potential and of course is English which does help our club's national team and I hope he can prove his value.


All the players that have left or been released are players I believe are either surplus to requirements or won't fit into my style of play/formation. However, a lot of youngsters are out on loan to develop for the future.

very good transfers mate!

Cheers AAN. Lets just hope they live up to expectations

The start of the season is alway key, this is the starting point on my era as Southampton coach, and we needed to get off to a good start in order to get ourselves positive for the upcoming season. Of course playing two top teams in Manchester United and Arsenal in our first two games, it will be challenging but I had faith that we could cope.


Man Utd (H):
Start of the season, expectations were high, but when you're playing the premier league champions, you know it will be tough. But we started off the game getting a goal very early on from Dejan Lovren and we went into half time very positively.

The second half started again very positively, we put in a strong performance but the game was more equal, and with 18 minutes to go, Man Utd's new signing Fellaini got the equaliser for them to earn them a point. But it was a better point for us than for them.


Arsenal (A):
This game was gonna be hard, away at the Emirates to face Arsenal who have had some very solid finishes in recent years, and things didn't go perfectly there. The first half saw us slightly overtaken by Arsenal dominance on the ball but the second half remained goalless.

The second half however got off to a flyer, for Arsenal that is as 4 minutes in, French striker Olivier Giroud and that was the goal that defined the game and defeated us. I was disappointed having only one shot on target and we need to improve.

Blackburn (A):
To be honest, I wasn't really bothered about this, and I had some important business so my assistant Jesus Perez took charge and he decided to slightly rotate, but that wasn't the problem.

In the first half, Maya Yoshida was sent off in the 13th minute, and this brake in our defence did show on the half hour mark when Gestede scored. Then on the 69th minute, Chico was sent off and like the previous, a crack was shown when we conceded ten minutes later when Evans wrapped up a Blackburn victory.


Crystal Palace (H):
We needed a fresh start heading into September against Palace and that is surely what we got. Only 15 minutes in and Gaston Ramirez gets us the lead and that gave us confidence early on in the game. Wanyama then scored 20 minutes later to double our lead.

Second half started negatively with Ramirez scoring an own goal but then we decided to pick ourselves up and we continued and fought well until the final whistle when we finally managed to achieve our first victory of the season.


Stoke (A):
Well, one of the most boring games in football history. On our point of view, Stoke dominated in shots but failed to find the net. It at half time had that very odd feeling that this was going to be very tight and that the winner would be decided my the flip of a coin.

As it was, when substitute Peter Odemwingie in the second minute of added time scored the goal to give Stoke City the lead and give them the three points and at the end of that game, I felt truly heartbroken.


Aston Villa (A):
This game had a bit more excitement to it, it was a lot more even and it kept the crowd on their toes to find out who would win this very competitive tie. First half showed plenty of action but yet the ball had not hit the back of the net.

However, in the second half, that changed. Belgium international striker Christian Benteke gave Villa the lead on 59 minutes but we intended to keep our heads up. And so we did, scoring with 11 minutes to go through English attacking midfielder Jay Rodriguez.

Swansea (H):
And for the final game of the month, we hosted Welsh side Swansea City, and this game gave us many chances with a total of five shots on target and them only having two and the posession stats remained equal.

The game finally gave with just under 15 minutes to go when recent signing Victor Wanyama scored the first and only goal of the game to secure our second win of the season with another three points on the tally.


The league table shows quite positive signs but you have to remember the season is a marathon not a sprint, and we have time to get going more by getting more points and heading higher up the league table, but we need to put 100% into our games.

Pretty average start to the season, hopefully you'll start picking up some momentum over the course of the season. Good luck mate!

Thanks mate. I hope so too!

Now, we had a mediocre start to the season but during October we had a host of VERY HARD matches against the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea but at the end of the day, these are the challenges you face in the Premier League and you have to make yourself strong and try your utmost best, every time.


Everton (H):
The month of October had a good start after what I can describe a promising performance against Merseyside based side Everton. It started well in the 10th minute when club legend Rickie Lambert scored to give us the lead.

Nothing much happened after this event, Everton may have controlled more possession but based on the stats we showed that we were strong and made the most of our chances, making more of our shots and target then not. And we needed to take this confident into the upcoming games.

Sunderland (A):
This was one of those very odd games, where you expect and easy victory and the opposition surprise you, maybe not but the stats but just how well they played, and credit to Sunderland on how well they performed against us.

It was just after the hour mark that Sunderland's loaned in midfielder Ki Sung-Yeung scored to get Sunderland what would turn out to be the goal that would gain them three points and push them higher up the table, and this for us was a lesson on how we cant get complacent.

Manchester City (A):
One of the worst performances of the season is the only way to describe what happened in this game, from kick off we never looked like even gaining a point and we need to show more resilience against big sides like City.

The result annoyed me so much there is no point writing about it, they just scored goal after goal, Griezmann, with one, and two each coming from Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero. They dominated possession and had ten shots on target compared to us having just one.

Chelsea (H):
Like City, it was a tough result to take but it was against a strong title contender, we changed our formation to test it out from a 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 and it just didn't seem to work for us, so I think in future, we stick with our 4-3-3 possession football.

Willian and John Terry scoring in the first half gave them confidence, but the Brazilian scored yet again in the 71st minute to make it three and that was stressful cause after their second goal, we seemed more involved in the game but when that last goal came along, it was just boring for the last twenty minutes.

Tottenham (H):
Compared to Chelsea, this wasn't a bad result for us, Spurs have surprised the division this year and seemed quite strong and that definitely showed that against us. But, we had the same amount of shots although we had more on target so I felt we were also unlucky.

Goals in each half from Erik Lamela and Sandro gave them goals on both of their on target shots were enough for them to win and to be honest, I congratulate them because they made the most out of the chances that they were given.

Cardiff City (A):
WE ARE BACK! Victories are back after going four games without a goal, we managed to knock four past Cardiff's stand in goalkeeper Joe Lewis (in for injured David Marshall). We scored in the 2nd minute through Mame Diouf before they equalised through Gary Medel.

The second half contained more action, we went 3-1 up after two goals by Adam Lallana before a goal back on the hour mark from Cardiff's Magnus Wolff Eikrem, until one minute later; Gaston Ramirez finished them off to make it 4-2 to the Saints.

Norwich City (H):
The crowd at St Mary's definitely saw some entertainment in this game via a total of seven goals. First half goals started on 13 minutes via Mame Diouf, and was followed up by a penalty from Van Wolfswinkel. We then scored on the half hour mark via Alvarez Balanta and they equalised in added time via Leroy Fer.

More entertainment was in the second half after 3 minutes into the half, Ramirez scored, that was until Chico scored an own goal just a while before being subbed off for Maya Yoshida. But former Hannover and Manchester United striker Mame Diouf got his second goal of the game with just five minutes remaining, to make it two wins in a row.

Again, we are still standing in a strong position in pushing for the top half of the table which for this season is my aim, we just need to be slightly more consistent and then we might push further up the table. If we keep our strong performances up and maybe put them into more difficult games, we might get some better results, and even more points.

Looking nice, maybe you could leave the points, goal difference, etc. in, in the league table

ill try to include them next time Thanks for the comment though