The All-Saints : A Home-Grown Southampton Challenge

Hi all, I've decided to embark on a different challenge than my normal build a team up from the bottom. I've decided to take the helm at Southampton, but with a twist. I am going to attempt to win the Premier League & Champions League with an all home grown British squad. Now that's the ultimate aim and although I haven't set a time limit on that (before 10 seasons for sure) I need to set some ground rules from the first season to get me going:

1. I am not allowed to field a non-British player at any time, unless they are club home grown (e.g. Morgan Schneiderlin).
2. I am not allowed to sign any player that will not be eligible to become HG at the club, i.e. I can only sign U19s.
3. I cannot ever sign a player that is not eligible for one of the home nations.
4. I may re-sign any player that has HG at club status - for the purpose of this I am counting Bale & Walcott as I will aim to sign them in the future.
5. I cannot offer a new contract to a player that is not HG at club, i.e. Nathaniel Clyne, Jay Rodriguez.
6. I am using LFCMarshall's Summer Update Databe up to 8th June 2013 - purely for my own interest to see how things pan out differently.

With these rules in mind I set out to scour the country for the best young talent, as well as bringing in British staff and offloading foreigners where possible. It is a shame I have to sell Gaston Ramirez! Here's how my transfers went:

As you can see, plenty of money was spent! I started with a 23mil budget, however adjusted up to 30mil through lowering wages. You may see the transfer fees as particularly pricey but none of the fees are fully up front as I negotiated lots of installments and clauses. Here's a look at the youngsters I have brought in. I have included Luke Shaw and James Ward-Prowse in there both of whom start at the club.


I am very happy with the talent I have been able to bring in. The majority have 4.5* Potential and Chalobah has 5* as well as already being good enough to be a key player. I will be looking to use 4/5 of these youngsters starting each match, I don't expect instant results but they can only get better. I will be looking for the likes of Lallana and Schneiderlin, the current HG players, to act as leading stars in the coming campaign. We had a good pre-season going unbeaten and picking up a win against Atletico Madrid so I was feeling confident going ahead, until I saw we had Chelsea and Man City as our opening fixtures.


I was expecting a 2 or 3-0 drubbing at Stamford Bridge but we were able to grab a draw. Young Will Hughes equalised in the 2nd half to make it 1-1, whilst Nathaniel Chalobah pick up the MOTM award against his former club. I fielded five teenagers, so I'm very happy with the result. Next up Man City at St Mary's!

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