From Mane to Long in Southampton… an 11-year journey before relegation

Southampton club bid farewell to the English Premier League football championship, after 11 years that the team spent among the adults, after losing 2-0 to Fulham, today, Saturday, in the thirty-sixth week of Premier League competitions.

Southampton will return to the Championship competitions for the first time, since it qualified for the English Premier League in the 2011-2012 season, as a result of the great confusion in the management’s decisions, which dismissed its coaches, and did not give them the opportunity to return the team to the winning streak.

Many stars have appeared with Southampton over the past years, led by Senegalese Sadio Mane, who stole the spotlight with the team and achieved a number of records, most notably the fastest “hat-trick” in the club’s history.

Mane played 67 matches with Southampton in all local tournaments, and the Senegalese managed to score 21 goals, which made him leave in the summer of 2016 to Liverpool, who managed to lead him to achieving the Premier League title and the Champions League.

In turn, Shane Long is considered one of the legends of Southampton club, after he played 198 matches with the team, scoring 28 goals, but in the summer of 2022 he left for Reading, after he owned one of the records in the history of the Premier League.

The Irishman was able to score the fastest goal in the history of Southampton in the English Premier League, in the 2018/2019 season, and last season he succeeded in keeping the team in Premier League competitions, but the problem of not renewing his contract prompted him to leave.

Southampton fans will never forget that the team presented one of the best defenders in the world over the past years, Dutch giant Virgil van Dyck, who played in 67 matches in all local tournaments, scoring 4 goals, before leaving for Liverpool in the winter transfer market in 2017. .

As for the Welsh star Gareth Bale, he is considered the most famous player in the history of Southampton, after he began his professional career with them in 1999, before he decided to leave for Tottenham in the summer of 2007 for 10 million pounds sterling.

Southampton’s relegation to the Championship comes after it finished last in the English Premier League standings this season, after collecting 24 points, as a result of losing 24 matches, drawing in 6 confrontations, while winning only 6 occasions.