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Jay Rodriguez: Southampton can cope with talent drain and will march on without Jose Fonte
It was while Jay Rodriguez was discussing everything from the potential significance of Southampton reaching a first League Cup final in almost four decades to his own comeback from a ruptured knee ligament, that the news emerged.
In the adjacent room, manager Claude Puel had just confirmed that club captain Jose Fonte would be excluded from Southampton’s biggest game of the season. Fonte had made a transfer request and the Sky Sports News yellow ticker was soon in operation. As Rodriguez glanced up at the screen, he could have been forgiven for feeling a sense of deja-vu.
Since being signed by Southampton from Burnley in 2012, two distinct patterns have unfolded. The first is that roll-call of leading first-team departures: Luke Shaw, Rickie Lambert, Calum Chambers, Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana, Morgan Schneiderlin, Nathanial Clyne, Sadio Mane, Graziano Pelle, Victor Wanyama and perhaps now Fonte.
Yet the second, equally striking characteristic is how staff really have practically implemented the ‘We March On’ marketing slogan and still delivered annual improvement. Not since 1979 have Southampton reached a major Wembley Cup final and, while the Fonte situation clearly represents a major moment in the season, recent history suggests that the players are unlikely to be distracted.
“The lads, every single one of us, are honest,” says Rodriguez. “Things change very quickly. The lads aren’t naïve to think it doesn’t. You have to stay focused and realise what you need to do to move forward. Every situation has been different as to why players have left. The main thing was everyone had to stick to the philosophy of, ‘We need to improve on last year’.
“It’s about what we do on the training ground. We didn’t look back. We lost players but we have also gained players. It’s been an opportunity for some. Look at the players the club has brought through. It comes from individuals but also collectively.”
But can Southampton beat Liverpool without a defender who was part of Portugal’s Euro 2016-winning team and has been so influential in the club’s rise from the bottom of League One?
“Yes, of course,” says Rodriguez. “The squad we have is very strong; we have great strength in depth. Just look at the lads we have brought in. Football players come and go and move on but, as long as you stick to the philosophy of the club, I don't think you can go wrong. The club is going forward each year.”
Consecutive Premier League positions of 14th, eighth, seventh and sixth back this up but Rodriguez believes that actually now winning a major competition would surpass that league consistency. He also agrees that reaching Wembley would show that players do not need to leave to realise their ambitions.
“To win things is what you get into the game for,” says Rodriguez. “It’s a short career and you want to look back and say: ‘I’ve achieved this’. It’s massive where the club has been and where is it with all the hard work and vision. Now we want to start winning things. It will be an extra kick on.”
For Rodriguez personally, there is particular perspective. It is almost three years since he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in a match against Manchester City. He was in the England squad at the time but it would be 16 months before he next played competitively. Last season was understandably mixed but he is now again playing regularly and, after a brace against Bournemouth that left him unable to sleep amid all the adrenalin, he now seems close to his best.
“Having been out for that long you do look at every opportunity you can and feel how lucky you are,” says Rodriguez. “To have had a little taste of England, you just want more and more of it. I learnt so much in a few weeks. I remember thinking, ‘I’m training against Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney, this is a massive standard’. The way they worked was world class.”
Mauricio Pochettino was among the first to get in touch after the Bournemouth game. “Mauricio is the best coach, best manager and best person I’ve ever worked with,” says Rodriguez. “He knows how much I appreciate what he has done and what he still does for me. He constantly speaks to me. It is nice to hear that he is still supporting me and his staff are the same. He just wanted to improve you as a player and a person. He was always seeing things in a game that you were weak at but he also gave you that belief that you are a good player. He was an unbelievable manager and a person.”
He says there are similarities with Puel who, despite an understated and quiet media demeanour, is apparently rather different on the training ground. “You hear him shouting if he is angry - he can lose it sometimes,” says Rodriguez. “I have had different managers in my career and you just try to learn as much as you can from each of them; it’s different formations, different philosophies and rotations. We are getting to grips with it. It’s all new stuff. You adapt and improve. It’s good.”
As well as Pochettino, Rodriguez also still speaks regularly with Adam Lallana, who is one of three players who will return to Southampton with Liverpool on Wednesday. He hopes that they will all get a good welcome.
“The lads that have left are great people, honest people and they helped us,” he says. “They have never done anything bad against the club. Lallana is on fire; he’s probably the best player I have played with. The stuff in training and in games he pulls off is amazing.”
Rodriguez also recalls the daily difficultly of facing Lovren, although he now describes team-mate Virgil Van Dijk as a “different class” to just about any defender he has seen.
“He can almost do anything; he is so talented, athletic and strong,” says Rodriguez. Yet without their captain against Liverpool and on a winless run that now stretches four matches, what would be the message to those fans who are growing anxious?
“Teams go through highs and lows in a season,” says Rodriguez. “Keep the faith. We have got enough in the squad talent wise. It’s a massive thing we are in the semi-final. We want to get to the final and win it.”