Southampton's cursed season no surprise, they play on top of a Saxon burial ground

Telegraph

06-04-2025

There are lots of theories about where it all went wrong for Southampton this season.
Was it persisting with Russell Martin or misidentifying his replacement in Ivan Jurić? Was the recruitment poor or have they never recovered from an early season run of bad luck? Most plausibly, are they just the latest victims of the gap between the Championship and Premier League which has become less of a step up, more of a 10-storey escalator?
All of this and more has combined to relegate Southampton after their 3-1 defeat to Spurs on Sunday. That makes them the first team ever to go down with seven matches still to play, an ignominy which even the historically awful Derby County side of 2007-08 did not suffer. Southampton are still one draw away from matching Derby's record low points total of 11, stuck on just 10 for the season.
Perhaps there is one under-explored explanation for this sorry state, and it is straight out of an episode of Scooby-Doo. St Mary's was built over the site of a Saxon burial ground. The stadium lies on the north-east side of what was Hamwic, a busy manufacturing and trading town from the late 7th to mid-9th century.
The site was excavated by Wessex Archaeology before construction began and there were discoveries of small-scale craft and industries plus weapons but also complete bodies and cremated remains. Not ideal for a club seeking a fresh start, nor this summary of the area from the archaeological study:
'Overall the picture of Hamwic is of a rather dirty, polluted, and unhealthy settlement, pockmarked with rubbish and cesspits, where disease and parasitic infection were daily hazards.' Hardly the optimal conditions for Jason Dodd to work his magic. Taking no chances, then-chairman Rupert Lowe said 'the stadium was blessed by all the denominations at the first game'.
That was in August 2001 in the Premier League but Southampton did not win in their new home until that November. There was much talk then of the curse of St Mary's, and the long (six-game) wait for a first home victory. That all seems rather quaint given their abject current season, with just two wins to date with only one at home, 1-0 over Everton in November.
Yet this must be put into proper historical context. It was not so long ago that Southampton were relegated to the third tier. They began a two-year spell in League One in 2009 on minus 10 points for entering administration, with fears for the future of the club. Nevertheless, club historian Duncan Holley is in no doubt about how this campaign will be remembered. 'This is definitely our worst season of all time.
'To be relegated really by Christmas is quite a shocking thing to contemplate. A lot of us thought we'd struggle this season with the way modern football is, but the depressing thing is we've not even put up a fight.
'In the 1990s we were perennially fighting relegation, but we always had a couple of good players, most notably Matt Le Tissier, who always managed to produce something that got us out of bother, usually on the last day. Life was fairly enjoyable. It was a stressful way to play football, but we kept getting away with it. There was definitely something about the Dell, we were small but fervent. It was intimidating.'
When St Mary's opened there was coverage of the Saxon site but also plenty of interest in a rumour that mischievous Portsmouth-supporting builders had planted their team's shirt underneath the pitch. Holley does not put too much stock in either of these supposed hexes.
'As soon as you start off on the wrong foot people start blaming Saxon curses. You'd be hard-pushed to build anything in downtown Southampton without infringing an old Saxon site. The stadium's 50 yards from the waterfront, you're building on old land.'
Does the club feel cursed? 'I don't think so. You always expect to get beaten in the big matches, but then I think a lot of clubs have that anyway.'