Ronald Koeman sends heartfelt message to Southampton fans ahead of new Championship season

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The 2025/26 Championship is set to begin for Southampton, with the Saints hosting Wrexham in their season opener.

Will Still has been appointed as manager of Southampton for the upcoming season and there is excitement around the club to see how the much talked about manager fares in his first job in English football.

There has been a need to refresh the squad with players coming in and others departing St. Mary’s Stadium this summer to revitalise the squad and put behind them their disastrous campaign in the Premier League which saw them relegated.

Still will be looking to emulate the past successes of some Southampton managers and create the feeling around the club they once managed.

The youthful manager will look to the atmosphere created around the club under Nigel Adkins, Mauricio Pochettino, and Ronald Koeman.

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Ronald Koeman had a message for the upcoming season

Ronald Koeman was manager of Southampton for two seasons after joining the club in June 2014, before he departed to take over as manager of Everton in June 2016.

The Dutch manager has fond memories of his time at Southampton, as he mentioned in a message he gave to the fans of the club as he received a lifetime achievement award for his work in the Netherlands as a player and coach.

He said: “Hi Saints fans, thank you very much. I had a great period as manager of a Southampton team, who was really successful.

“Still looking forward to Southampton, and I hope they will come back to the Premier League very soon, but good luck for that, and once again, thank you so much.”

Koeman is hoping for a swift return to the Premier League for Southampton, with that being the goal for Will Still this season.

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Southampton under Koeman

The Dutch manager had an excellent time while in charge of Southampton, with no manager able to replicate his success since then.

While he only spent two seasons in charge, they are arguably the best couple of seasons for the club since the turn of the century, as he led them to a seventh-place finish in his first season before guiding them to sixth in his second campaign.

This qualified the club for the group stages of the Europa League for the following season; however, Koeman had departed by this stage, with the club under the management of Claude Puel for their European adventure.