Southampton told to follow club who broke Premier League promotion curse

Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier tells the Saints to follow English club’s example who broke the Premier League promotion curse.

Every year 3 Championship clubs get promoted to the Premier League. Around 1-2 of them manage to stay in the Premier League beyond the first full top-flight season, while the rest immediately drop down to the Championship after a year.

Talking about Southampton, the Saints twice got promoted to the Premier League in the 21st century. First in the 2011/12 season where former boss Nigel Adkins led Southampton to a second place automatic promotion from the Championship.

The Saints then went on to survive in the Premier League in the following season. And not only that, the club consolidated itself as a consistent top 10 Premier League club over the years under the management of legendary bosses like Mauricio Pochettino, Ronald Koeman and Ralph Hassenhuttl.

Ultimately, Southampton stayed for 11 consecutive Premier League seasons before getting relegated at the end of the 2022/23 campaign. The other Premier League promotion came with Russell Martin during the 2023/24 campaign but Southampton could only manage one year of Premier League football afterwards.

Tonda Eckert’s Southampton eyes Premier League promotion

With Tonda Eckert at the helm, Southampton are again eyeing a Premier League promotion. The Saints have their feet comfortably inside playoffs while also fighting tooth and nail for an automatic promotion at the moment.

The Saints are 18 games unbeaten across all competitions, frequently keep scoring 2-3 goals within the first half itself and have shown they can beat Premier League giants like Arsenal as well.

These exploits are enough to tell that Southampton will put a better Premier League survival fight with Eckert next year than they did with Martin and Ivan Juric on the previous occasion.

Despite that optimism, Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier has urged the Saints to follow the example of a club who broke the Premier League promotion curse this season.

Sunderland broke Premier League promotion curse after 2 years

Throughout the years, it has been a rare sight to spot a Premier League season where all 3 promoted clubs went down after their first season back. Then, in 2023/24 all Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton Town dropped out of the Premier League merely 12 months after going up.

The same happened again in 2024/25 where Southampton, Leicester City and Ipswich Town were immediately demoted to the Championship. As expected, a significant section of Premier League fans started calling it a Premier League promotion curse after two years of no promoted club retaining their top-flight status.

This season, Burnley are all set to go down to the Championship again. Leeds United are in the mix to stay up but anything can happen in the Premier League relegation race with Leeds only 6 points above the drop zone with 6 matchdays to spare.

Southampton told to follow Sunderland’s Premier League example

However, Sunderland appears to have secured their Premier League future for the upcoming seasons too. The Black Cats sit inside the top 10 with 46 points to their name, 16 above the relegation zone with 6 games in hand.

They will definitely be a role model for many aspiring Championship clubs. Matt Le Tissier believes Southampton should also look to imitate Sunderland’s brave Premier League act provided all goes well with the current promotion push.

In his own words, Le Tissier spoke on talkSPORT: “What Sunderland did with recruitment was something that would need to happen at Southampton. When you come up from the Championship, the gulf to the Premier League is so big. You need to invest. That’s what Sunderland have done well.”

Le Tissier is spot on with the investment point. Plus, Southampton should aim to do shrewd signings on top of it. Back in 2024 summer, the Saints gave a new look to the attack with Cameron Archer and Ben Brereton Diaz’s signings alongside retaining an injury-prone Ross Stewart and Paul Onuachu.

That backfired badly for Southampton. None of them could manage 5 Premier League goals all year and Saints were doomed to a premature relegation.

Hopefully, Tonda Eckert leads Southampton to the Premier League in May. And Johannes Spors and co tweak the squad with more quality additions without losing too many key players like Leo Scienza, Finn Azaz and Shea Charles.