Planet Swans ArchivesNigel Adkins has spoken about the strength of his relationship with the Southampton executive chairman Nicola Cortese and their shared determined to keep the club in the Premier League, despite the manager’s job being in the balance after a worrying start to the season.
Adkins met Cortese on Tuesday, in the wake of the 2-0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion on Monday night which kept Southampton at the bottom of the table; they have taken four points from their opening 10 matches. Adkins admitted at The Hawthorns that he had to be the favourite to be the Premier League’s first managerial casualty of the season and he might have feared the worst ahead of the talks with Cortese.
The Italian, though, granted him a stay of execution and the pair are looking forward to Saturday’s crucial home game against Swansea City, which has the air of a must-win. Adkins has been keen to highlight how the fixture computer has been unkind to Southampton, upon their promotion from the Championship – they have already played eight of the current table’s top nine clubs.
He recognises, though, that results have to pick up if he is to keep his job and they must do so quickly. Four of his team’s next six matches are at home and all of them are against teams below the top nine.
“Let’s not hide away from the fact that in football, at some stage, there is always a parting of the ways between a manager and a football club,” Adkins said. “I am determined to be a success here at Southampton football club, the chairman is determined to be a success here at Southampton football club and so we both share the same ambition. What we do is we get on. There doesn’t need to be any talk about it. We will be a success here. “I would imagine there would be loads of speculation about different things, but the relationship between me and the chairman is strong, it is very good. We talk regularly, as we have always done, and we’re determined to make this a success.”
Adkins was asked if his dialogue with Cortese on Tuesday had been specifically about his position. “There is no need to speak about my position,” he replied. “It is a football club determined to be successful. We obviously spoke in the summer about our strategies and we’re working very hard. We’ve now had 10 games of the season and obviously only picked four points up. We sit at the bottom. That’s fact, that’s reality.
“As we always do at the football club, we assess situations. We have to accept where we are but then we look forward and move on. We’re obviously looking at the next run of games. We take one game at a time in respect to the next one, which is at the weekend against Swansea. We are focused on winning that.”
