Southampton didn’t manage to hold on for victory and all three points at the weekend as we made the trip to Turf Moor to face Burnley in our latest Premier League clash, and whilst there was some disappointment with their late leveller, manager Ralph Hasenhuttl was certainly taking the positives from the game.
With the draw on the day probably being the fair result as our Austrian gaffer admitted post-game, one young man who caught the gaffer’s attentions was Callum Slattery.
The 19-year-old midfielder now boasts two senior starts to his name with three showings from the bench for the first team and including his Under 21 outings in the EFL Trophy competition, that’s seven competitive appearances for the season so far.
Speaking to the Daily Echo as he gave further thoughts on the game on Sunday, Hasenhuttl picked out the youngster for effectively becoming a ‘new signing’ to his options ahead of games with his development and attitude, and that was reflected in the decision to hand him his first Premier League start.
“I know there were some voices that said ‘we don’t sign players in the transfer period’ but we played with a lot of young players and Callum Slattery had his first game in the Premier League. We have a lot of new players signed from our own youth team and Slat is another one of the good young guys in our club. Maybe we didn’t sign a new player but we have four or five young players who have made their first steps in professional football; players like Valery, Ramsay and Slattery. They can be our future. Although we didn’t sign a new player, for me we have a different team now.”
It’s certainly refreshing again given how our success in former years was based on producing our own and whilst it won’t come together overnight, at least we appear to be back on the right track now.
