RALPH Hasenhuttl is very clear in his insistence that everyone involved in the academy should take equal measures of credit and pride for the talented under-18 team Saints currently boast.
Ralph Hasenhuttl said: “The whole academy and all the people working there get the credit. It seems all the changes we have made in the past are now coming slowly but surely to shine in the light. This is good for the guys, we invested a lot and I don’t want to speak about the things we have done to help them, in the end they do the job, they work with the players, scouting, managers, coaches – everybody.”
Like the B team, the under-18s operate with the playbook administered by Hasenhuttl upon his arrival at St Mary’s. But the changes and investment now bearing fruits are much wider than that. England under-16 international, Dibling, is just the next schoolboy who everybody involved with Saints knows – or should know. Incredibly, he made a Premier League 2 debut at just 15-years-old back in January.
Ralph Hasenhuttl added: “Yes, age is not the issue I think. When you look today on the debut from top Premier League players, how early they have done their Premier League debuts in their ages, some not older than 16 or 17, I think it is getting younger and younger for the really good ones. It is not key that you need to bring 10 or 11 players from the under-16 team to the Premier League, you only need to bring one or two there. This chance is always there.”
The youngster scored three carbon copy goals as he helped fire Saints B to a 4-2 win on Tyneside, in their penultimate game of the season. Coach Dave Horseman had insinuated he would be using the final matches of the campaign to look ahead to what the B team group could look like in August, and no doubt found one he will be very keen on.
Ralph Hasenhuttl said: “(They were) very similar goals. We know his qualities and we are not jumping on this, we try to keep it calm. He is one of the shining players in our youth, we know that, meanwhile, it is always very difficult to keep them in our club. The good thing is that we see how good he is, the bad thing is other clubs are seeing it, but you can be sure we will try to push him and to support him. I think he represents one of the good ones. It is always good to see such a young player shows this talent. We don’t want to hang it too high, when you score three goals for the B team, but we know this is not normal. We know this player and we have a high opinion, he can definitely be a player for the future for Southampton. I am sure he can score other goals too.”
