Southampton's Transformation Under Tonda Eckert

At St Mary’s these days, the noise tells its own story.

A year ago, Southampton were drifting, 21st in the Championship, their season already sagging under the weight of frustration and fatigue. The stands felt flat, the bond between pitch and terraces frayed. Into that atmosphere walked a 33-year-old academy coach, promoted in crisis and handed a club in pieces.

Tonda Eckert has spent the months since stitching it back together.

The German, elevated from Saints’ U21s after Will Still was sacked in November 2025, has turned St Mary’s into the most formidable home ground in the division. Since his appointment, Southampton have collected 47 points on their own turf – the best home record in the Championship over that period – and they’ve opened the new campaign with three straight home wins.

For Eckert, the numbers matter. But the feeling matters more.

“You know the condition the club was in when I came in and you know the condition our supporters were in the moment I came in,” he told BBC Radio Solent, reflecting on the shift. Back then, the mood was sour, the patience thin. “It’s not easy to play home games if you don't have that connection. And rightly so, there was not that connection at that very moment for a variety of things going on.”

He did not inherit a clean slate. He inherited a wound.

Southampton’s push under Eckert last season ended in the play-offs, only for the club to be thrown out in the wake of the Spygate scandal. The fallout was raw. Anger poured out from the stands and across the city. Trust, already damaged by relegation and instability, took another heavy hit.

Yet the supporters did not walk away.

Attendances have held around the 30,000 mark heading into this season, keeping Saints among the top 20 best-supported clubs in the country. For a side dealing with scandal, upheaval and a rookie head coach, that loyalty has been a lifeline.

Eckert knows he has had to earn it.

“Then you need to earn that right to connect again to the supporters, to the city, because it means so much more, the football, to the city of Southampton,” he said. This has not been about one grand gesture or a single turning point. It has been about repetition, detail, and respect.

“It’s not one thing that you change. There are so many small steps that you need to take to earn the trust and build on a connection and build a relationship back up.”

Those small steps have added up. The way his team presses. The way they celebrate tackles as fiercely as goals. The way players now linger to applaud every corner of the ground. The way the stadium responds.

“St Mary’s just feels completely different than it did a year ago and that is just many, many things coming together,” Eckert said. The place that once sighed now snarls. Opponents feel it. So do the home players, who suddenly look taller in their own colours.

For Eckert, the equation is simple.

“I do believe that to ‘win’ a season, you must play a successful season at home.”

It is an old truth, but he has dragged it back to the centre of Southampton’s identity. Make St Mary’s a fortress, and everything else – promotion pushes, reputations rebuilt, scars slowly fading – can follow.

The next test of that home strength comes on Saturday, when Bristol City arrive on the south coast. They will not have to deal with one of Eckert’s key midfield options just yet.

Caspar Jander, the 23-year-old midfielder, is still waiting to kick a ball this season after a quad injury picked up early in the first pre-season game against National League side Eastleigh. The club had hoped to have him back sooner, but his head coach has drawn a firm line.

Eckert confirmed the Bristol City fixture has come “too early” for Jander, though there is a target on the horizon.

“We’re going to push, so hopefully it's going to be some minutes against Wrexham (on 19 September). We had to delay a little bit, but I think he's on a good way now.”

Southampton move into that Wrexham date and the weeks beyond with their home ground restored as a weapon. The anger has not been erased, the scars have not vanished, but something more powerful has taken root in its place: a sense that, at St Mary’s, this team and this city are pulling in the same direction again.