With Southampton doomed at the foot of the Premier League, it is hard to know what a good 2025 looks like or even if it could ever be described as ‘good’ with relegation almost already guaranteed.
Ultimately, the easy answer to a good 2025 is staying up. But, given that nobody has ever stayed up from the Saints’ current position, the real question is what does a good 2025 look like with relegation?
The answer to that is damage limitation.
If Saints are able to gauge whether Ivan Juric is the man to get them back up to the Premier League by the summer, if they can limit the financial damage of going straight back down and if they can limit the damage of squad depletion, then maybe 2025 can be as good as it can be given the circumstances.
Keeping as much young playing talent as possible after relegation will be the most important factor, particularly Mateus Fernandes and Tyler Dibling.
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