Foundation and Southern League (1885–1920) Southampton were originally founded at
St. Mary's Church, on 21 November 1885 by members of the St. Mary's Church of England Young Men's Association. St. Mary's Y.M.A., as they were usually referred to in the local press, played most of their early games on
The Common where games were frequently interrupted by pedestrians insistent on exercising their right to roam. More important matches, such as cup games, were played either at the
County Cricket Ground in Northlands Road or the
Antelope Cricket Ground in St Mary's Road. The club was originally known as '''St. Mary's Young Men's Association F.C.''' (usually abbreviated to "St. Mary's Y.M.A.") and then became simply '''St. Mary's F.C.
in 1887–88, before adopting the name Southampton St. Mary's''' when the club joined the
Southern League in 1894. For the start of their League career, Saints signed several new players on professional contracts, including
Charles Baker,
Alf Littlehales and
Lachie Thomson from
Stoke and
Fred Hollands from
Millwall. After winning the Southern League title in
1896–97, the club became a limited company and was renamed
Southampton F.C. Southampton won the Southern League championship for three years running between 1897 and 1899 and again in 1901, 1903 and 1904. During this time, they moved to a newly built £10,000 stadium called
The Dell, to the northwest of the city centre in 1898. Although they would spend the next 103 years there, the future was far from certain in those early days and the club had to rent the premises first before they could afford to buy the stadium in the early part of the 20th century. The club reached the first of their four
FA Cup Finals in
1900. On that day, they went down 4–0 to
Bury and two years later they would suffer a similar fate at the hands of
Sheffield United as they were beaten 2–1 in a replay of the
1902 final. Reaching those finals gave Southampton recognition, even internationally: in 1909, an
Athletic Bilbao representative who played for affiliated team
Atlético Madrid purchased 50 Saints shirts during a trip to England, which were shared between the two squads. This early Southampton connection is the reason why the colours of both Spanish clubs became red and white, as they are nowadays.
Joining the Football League (1920–1966) , Germany, 15 May 1964 After
World War I, Southampton joined the newly formed Football League Third Division, which split into
South and
North sections a year later. Southampton finished as runner-up in that season. The
1921–22 season ended in triumph with promotion and marked the beginning of a 31-year stay in the
Second Division. The
1922–23 season was a unique "Even Season" – 14 wins, 14 draws and 14 defeats for 42 points, or one point per game. Goals for and against statistics were also equal and the team finished in mid-table. In 1925 and 1927, they reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, losing 2–0 and 2–1 to Sheffield United and
Arsenal respectively. Southampton were briefly forced to switch home matches to the ground of their local rivals
Portsmouth at
Fratton Park during
World War II when a bomb landed on The Dell pitch in November 1940, leaving an 18-foot crater which damaged an underground culvert and flooded the pitch. a feat repeated the following
season (despite having an eight-point lead with eight games to play) whilst in
1949–50 they narrowly missed out on promotion to second placed Sheffield Wednesday. In the 1948–49 and 1949–50 seasons,
Charlie Wayman scored 56 goals, but relegation in
1953 sent Southampton sliding back into Division 3 (South). It took until
1960 for Southampton to regain Second Division status with
Derek Reeves plundering 39 of the champions' 106 league goals. On 27 April 1963, a crowd of 68,000 at
Villa Park saw them lose 1–0 to
Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final.
Reaching the First Division and cup win (1966–1977) In
1966,
Ted Bates' team were promoted to the First Division as runners-up, with
Martin Chivers scoring 30 of Saints' 85 league goals. For the following campaign
Ron Davies arrived to score 43 goals in his first season. Saints stayed among the elite for eight years, with the highest finishing position being seventh place in 1968–69 and again in 1970–71. These finishes were high enough for them to qualify for the
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in
1969–70 (going out in Round 3 to
Newcastle United) and its successor, the
UEFA Cup in
1971–72, when they went out in the first round to Athletic Bilbao. In December 1973, Bates stood down to be replaced by his assistant
Lawrie McMenemy. The Saints were one of the first victims of the new three-down relegation system in
1974. Under McMenemy's management, Saints started to rebuild in the Second Division, capturing players such as
Peter Osgood,
Jim McCalliog,
Jim Steele and
Peter Rodrigues (captain) and in 1976, Southampton reached the
FA Cup final, playing Manchester United at
Wembley, and beat much-fancied United 1–0 with a goal from
Bobby Stokes. The following season, they played in Europe again in the
Cup Winners' Cup, reaching Round 3 where they lost 2–3 on aggregate to
Anderlecht.
Return to First Division (1977–1992) In
1977–78, captained by
Alan Ball, Saints finished runners-up in the Second Division (behind
Bolton Wanderers) and returned to the First Division. They finished comfortably in 14th place in their first season back in the top flight. The following season they returned to Wembley in the final of the
League Cup where they acquitted themselves well, losing 3–2 to
Nottingham Forest. In 1980, McMenemy made his biggest signing, capturing the
European Footballer of the Year Kevin Keegan. Although Keegan's Southampton career only lasted two years, Saints fielded an attractive side also containing Alan Ball, prolific goal-scorer Ted MacDougall, (who still holds the record for the largest number of goals in an FA Cup game – nine – for Bournemouth against Margate in an 11–0 win), MacDougall's strike partner at Bournemouth and
Norwich City,
Phil Boyer, club stalwart
Mick Channon and
Charlie George and in
1980–81 they scored 76 goals, finishing in sixth place, then their highest league finish. The following season, Kevin Keegan helped lift the club to the top of the First Division. Southampton led the league for over two months, taking top spot on 30 January 1982 and staying there (apart from one week) until 3 April 1982. But in a disappointing end to the season, in which Keegan was hampered by a back injury, Southampton won only two of their last nine games and finished seventh. The winners of a wide-open title race were Keegan's old club
Liverpool, who were crowned champions on the final day of the season. Keegan scored 26 of Southampton's 72 goals that season, but was then sold to Newcastle. Southampton continued to progress under McMenemy's stewardship, and with a team containing
Peter Shilton (the
England goalkeeper),
Nick Holmes,
David Armstrong, striker
Steve Moran and quick winger
Danny Wallace reached their highest ever league finish as runners-up in
1983–84 (three points behind the champions Liverpool) as well as reaching the semi-final of the FA Cup losing 1–0 to
Everton at
Highbury. McMenemy then added experienced midfielder
Jimmy Case to his ranks. 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 again qualified for the
UEFA Cup. 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. He was replaced by
Ian Branfoot, who until the end of the 1990–91 season had been assistant manager to
Steve Coppell at
Crystal Palace. By this stage, a key player in the Southampton line-up was
Guernsey-born attacking midfielder/striker
Matthew Le Tissier, who broke into the first team in the
1986–87 season. He was voted
PFA Young Player of the Year in 1990 and later made eight appearances for the England team – he finally retired in 2002 at the age of 33. Another exciting young player to break into the Southampton team just after Le Tissier was
Alan Shearer, who at the age of 17 scored a hat-trick against Arsenal in a league match in April 1988. Shearer was a first team regular by 1990, and stayed with Southampton until July 1992, when he was sold to
Blackburn Rovers for a national record of more than £3 million. He then became the most expensive footballer in the world when Blackburn sold him to Newcastle for £15 million in 1996. He also scored 30 times for England internationally.
Southampton in the Premier League (1992–2005) Southampton were founding members of the
Premier League in 1992–93, but spent most of the next ten seasons struggling against relegation. In
1995–96, Southampton finished 17th with 38 league points, avoiding relegation on goal difference. Two important wins during the final weeks of the season did much to ensure that Saints and not
Manchester City would achieve Premiership survival. First came a 3–1 home win over eventual double winners
Manchester United, then came a 1–0 away win over relegated Bolton Wanderers. Former Liverpool and
Rangers manager
Graeme Souness, was brought in, signing foreign players such as
Egil Østenstad and
Eyal Berkovic. The highlight of the season was a 6–3 win over Manchester United at The Dell in October, when both his signings scored twice. Souness resigned after just one season in charge, being replaced by
Dave Jones who had won promotion to Division One with
Stockport County as well as reaching the League Cup semi-finals. In
1998–99, they were rooted to the bottom of the table for much of the first half of the season but again avoided relegation on the last day of the season after a late run of good results, helped by the intervention of Latvian
Marian Pahars and old hero Le Tissier (The so-called "Great Escape"). In 1999, Southampton were given the go-ahead to build a new 32,000-seat stadium in the St Mary's area of the city, having been playing in the Dell since 1898. The stadium had been converted to an all-seater format earlier in the decade, but had a capacity of less than 16,000 and was unsuitable for further expansion. During the
1999–2000 season, Dave Jones quit as Southampton manager to concentrate on a court case after he was accused of abusing children at the children's home where he had worked during the 1980s. The accusations were later proved to be groundless, but it was too late to save Jones' career as Southampton manager and he was succeeded by ex-England manager
Glenn Hoddle. Hoddle helped keep Southampton well clear of the Premier League drop zone but having received an offer he moved to
Tottenham Hotspur just before the end of the
2000–01 season. He was replaced by first-team coach
Stuart Gray, who oversaw the relocation to the St Mary's Stadium for the 2001–02 season. At the end of the 2000–01 season, in the last competitive match at The Dell, Matthew Le Tissier came on late to score the last ever league goal at the old stadium with a half volley on the turn in a 3–2 win against Arsenal. Gray was sacked after a poor start to the following season, and he was replaced by ex-
Coventry City manager
Gordon Strachan, who steered Southampton to safety and a secure 11th-place finish. In
2002–03, Southampton finished eighth in the league and finished
runners-up in the FA Cup to Arsenal (after losing 1–0 at the
Millennium Stadium), thanks in no small part to the metamorphosis of
James Beattie, who fired home 24 goals, 23 in the league. Strachan resigned in March 2004 and within eight months, two managers –
Paul Sturrock and
Steve Wigley – had come and gone. Chairman
Rupert Lowe risked the ire of Saints fans when he appointed
Harry Redknapp as manager on 8 December 2004, just after his resignation at
South Coast rivals Portsmouth. He brought in a number of new signings, including his son
Jamie in the attempt to survive relegation. Southampton were relegated from the Premier League on the last day of the season, ending 27 successive seasons of top flight football for the club. Their relegation was confirmed by a 2–1 home defeat to Manchester United. 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 in June 2005.
Outside the top flight (2005–2012) In November 2005, manager Harry Redknapp resigned to rejoin Portsmouth, and was replaced by
George Burley. Rupert Lowe resigned as chairman in June 2006, and Jersey-based businessman
Michael Wilde, who had become the club's major shareholder assumed the post. Following a club record £6 million being spent on transfers, Polish strikers
Grzegorz Rasiak and
Marek Saganowski performed well and the season saw the introduction of 17-year-old
left-back Gareth Bale. Southampton finished in sixth place and lost the play-off semi-final to Derby County on penalties. The board sought new investment in the club, and in February 2007, Wilde stepped down as chairman to be replaced by local businessman
Leon Crouch as "Acting chairman", a role Crouch retained until 21 July 2007. In the
2007–08 season, George Burley said that players such as Bale and
Kenwyne Jones had to be sold to stop the club going into administration and that failing to achieve promotion had put the club in serious financial difficulty. Burley left the club in January 2008 to take over as
Scotland manager and was replaced by
Nigel Pearson who saved the club from relegation on the final day. In July 2008, all the board members except one resigned, allowing Lowe and Wilde to return: Wilde as chairman of Southampton FC and Rupert Lowe as chairman of Southampton Leisure Holdings plc. Although Pearson kept the team up, the board did not renew his contract due to financial constraints, and the relatively unknown Dutchman
Jan Poortvliet was appointed manager. Financial troubles continued to mount, resulting in more players being sold or loaned out and parts of St Mary's were closed off to reduce costs. In January 2009, Poortvliet resigned with the club one place from bottom of the Championship, with
Mark Wotte taking over managerial duties. In April 2009, Southampton's parent company was placed in
administration. A 10-point penalty was imposed, but as the team was already being relegated due to finishing second from bottom of the
Football League Championship this points deduction had to apply to the 2009–10 season. By the end of May, the club was unable to meet its staff wages and asked employees to work unpaid as a gesture of goodwill. The administrator warned that the club faced imminent bankruptcy unless a buyer was found. In June, administrator Mark Fry confirmed negotiations with two groups of investors, followed by confirmation that the club had been sold to an overseas buyer "owned and controlled by
Markus Liebherr". Italian businessman
Nicola Cortese was brought in by Liebherr to look after the club's business interests on his behalf. In July 2009, with the club in the control of the new owner, Wotte was sacked as head coach and
Alan Pardew was appointed as the new first team manager. The Saints made their first big signing under Liebherr, striker
Rickie Lambert, who was purchased on 10 August from League One side
Bristol Rovers. Southampton started the 2009–10 season in League One, in the third tier of English football for the first time in 50 years and with −10 points. In March 2010, Southampton won their first trophy since 1976 when they defeated
Carlisle United 4–1 at
Wembley to claim the
Football League Trophy. Southampton finished the season in seventh place, seven points from the last play-off position. A new home shirt was unveiled on 10 June 2010, in celebration of the club's 125th anniversary. The design was based on the original St. Mary's Y.M.A. kit used in 1885; it featured the new anniversary crest and was without a sponsor's logo. On 11 August, it was announced that Liebherr had died; however, the club's future had been assured and planned for before his death. Pardew was dismissed in August and
Nigel Adkins joined from
Scunthorpe United as his replacement. The club was promoted to the Championship in May 2011 as runners-up to Brighton & Hove Albion. Returning to the Championship for the 2011–12 season, Southampton made their best start to a season for 75 years with a winning run at St. Mary's of 13 league games, setting a new club record and going top of the league. In April 2012, Southampton achieved promotion to the Premier League as runners-up to
Reading. The final game of the season set a record attendance at St Mary's Stadium of 32,363. Lambert finished the season as the Championship's top goalscorer with 27 league goals, his third "Golden Boot" in four seasons. He also won the
Championship Player of the Year award. As a result, they became the second team within a year to achieve back-to-back promotions, a feat that
Norwich City had achieved one year before.
Return to the Premier League and relegation (2012–2023) Southampton returned to the Premier League for season 2012–13 initially under Nigel Adkins. Substantial sums were spent to strengthen the playing squad, but early in the season, Adkins was replaced by Argentine coach
Mauricio Pochettino. Southampton finished the season in 14th place, and
next season in eighth. (front left) as manager At the end of the
2013–14 season, Pochettino departed the club for Tottenham. The club subsequently appointed
Ronald Koeman as his replacement on a three-year contract, and made several high-profile sales over the summer. In the final game of the
2014–15 season, a 6–1 victory against
Aston Villa,
Sadio Mané scored three goals in the space of 176 seconds, the fastest hat-trick in the history of the Premier League. The club finished seventh, then their highest ever Premier League rank, therefore qualifying for the
2015–16 UEFA Europa League. After defeating
Vitesse, the Saints were eliminated in the play-off by
Midtjylland. The following season, Southampton once again set new records for the club at the end of the season, finishing in sixth place. They once again qualified for the Europa League, although this time immediately entered the group stages, as opposed to the play-off rounds. In June 2016, Koeman left Southampton to join Everton and
Claude Puel replaced him on a three-year contract. The club were eliminated in the group stage of the Europa League by away goals to
Hapoel Be'er Sheva F.C., despite having a superior goal difference. However, they were more successful in the
EFL Cup, where they lost 3–2 in the
final to Manchester United, where
Manolo Gabbiadini was denied a hat-trick, courtesy of an incorrect offside decision. The club ended the 2016–17 season in eighth. During the summer, Puel was replaced as manager by Argentine coach
Mauricio Pellegrino, previously of
Alavés. Southampton became involved in the
United Kingdom football sexual abuse scandal in December 2016 when several former Southampton teenage trainees told the BBC about inappropriate incidents in the 1980s involving a former football coach who was later revealed to be Bob Higgins. Higgins was dismissed by Southampton in 1989 after the allegations were made against him, and was investigated as part of a 1997 Channel 4
Dispatches investigation. and sentenced to 24 years in prison. In mid-season, the club sold Dutch defender
Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool for an estimated £75 million, Southampton's record sale and a world record for his position. Pellegrino was sacked in March 2018 with the team one point above the relegation zone, and his replacement, former player,
Mark Hughes, guided the club to a 17th-place finish, avoiding relegation on the last day of the season. Hughes signed a new contract at the end of the season but a poor start to the following season led to him being sacked in December with the team in 18th place. He was replaced with former
RB Leipzig boss
Ralph Hasenhüttl, who steered the club away from relegation to finish 16th. In August 2017, Southampton Football Club confirmed that the Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng had completed a multimillion-pound takeover of the club, acquiring an 80% stake for around £210m after successfully passing the relevant checks, including the Premier League's owners and directors test. The deal followed more than 12 months of talks between the Gao family and the south coast club. The investment was made personally by Gao and his daughter Nelly as opposed to being sanctioned through Lander Sports, as originally mooted. Hangzhou-based Lander is the family's business arm, which develops, constructs and manages sports sites. Southampton suffered their worst ever defeat on 25 October 2019, losing
9–0 to
Leicester City at home, this would later be replicated on
2 February 2021 against Manchester United at Old Trafford in the following campaign, albeit under different circumstances. It is tied with
Ipswich Town's defeat by
Manchester United in 1995 as the biggest defeat since the Premier League's inception. Following universal backlash toward the team's performance, the players and coaching staff refused their wages from the match and instead donated them to the Saints Foundation. On 9 April 2020, Southampton became the first Premier League club to defer players' salaries, during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a poor start that saw them in the relegation zone as late as November, Southampton improved greatly as the season went on, ending the year with a seven-game unbeaten streak to finish 11th in the league. Their final tally of 52 points was the team's highest total since 2015–16. The club's good run continued in the 2020–21 season with the Saints sitting in third after 13 games. The team also had a successful run in the FA Cup where they reached the semi-finals, losing to eventual winners Leicester City. In November, Southampton briefly led the Premier League table. However, despite the outstanding start to the season, a mid-season loss of form and an accumulation of injuries which decimated the senior squad ranks, due in part to the unavailability of much of the club's training facilities resulting from the restrictions imposed during the second
lockdown in England. As a consequence of this, Hasenhüttl was forced to field many of the club's youth players in an attempt to fill in the gaps in his senior squad. After an impressive run during the first half of the season, Southampton would eventually finish in 15th place. In January 2022, Gao sold his 80% stake to
Sport Republic, a group financed by Serbian
Dragan Šolak for £100m. Despite most pundits predicting them to be relegated at the start of the season, Southampton finished the 2021–22 season in 15th place for the second consecutive year. In November 2022, it was announced Southampton had parted company with manager Ralph Hasenhüttl after four years, to be replaced by
Nathan Jones. On 12 February 2023, Jones was sacked following a disappointing run of results during which the Saints lost seven out of eight league matches, leaving them bottom of the Premier League table. After having served as caretaker manager in a 1–0 victory over
Chelsea,
Rubén Sellés, who had joined Southampton as first-team lead coach in June 2022, was announced as Jones's replacement on 24 February on a contract until the end of the
2022–23 season. Sellés was unable to save the Saints' season, and the team were effectively relegated on 13 May, following a 2–0 home loss to
Fulham. On 24 May 2023, Southampton confirmed that they would not renew the contract of Sellés when it expired at the end of the season.
Subsequent promotion and relegation (2023–present) On 21 June 2023, the club appointed
Russell Martin as manager on a three-year contract. After losing four of their first eight games back in the Championship, the Saints went on a club-record 25-game unbeaten run in all competitions. Following an eventual fourth place finish, Southampton returned to the Premier League at the first attempt via the play-offs, defeating
Leeds United 1–0 in the
final at Wembley. On 15 December 2024, Martin was dismissed after a 5–0 defeat at home to Tottenham Hotspur, as Southampton sat 20th in the Premier League table with only five points after 16 games. Six days later,
Ivan Jurić was appointed as manager on an 18-month deal. The club were relegated from the Premier League on 6 April 2025 with seven games remaining, becoming the earliest team to suffer relegation in Premier League history. Jurić left Southampton by mutual consent the following day, with under-21s manager
Simon Rusk appointed as his replacement on an interim basis for the remainder of the season. In May 2025,
Will Still was announced as the incoming manager for the upcoming season on a three-year contract. Still was dismissed on 2 November 2025, with Southampton 21st in the Championship and having won just twice in their first 13 league games. Having been appointed as interim head coach of the club since Still's sacking, under-21s manager
Tonda Eckert was announced as Southampton's full time head coach on 5 December 2025, signing a contract until 2027. ==Club identity==