In our exclusive interview, the former England and Southampton striker shares his thoughts on the upcoming EFL season, Birmingham’s chances and Saints’ chances of keeping their star man.
Former England and Southampton front-man James Beattie has expressed the importance of keeping sought-after midfielder Mateus Fernandes, but has backed his former club to have a successful Championship campaign.
Fernandes won the club’s Player of the Year award last season and has been attracting interest from Premier League clubs like West Ham, Aston Villa and Leeds.
In our exclusive interview, Beattie also discusses Everton’s transition to a new stadium, Birmingham’s chances in the upcoming season and what to expect from Ipswich and Southampton as favourites in the Championship promotion betting.
Ipswich, Southampton, Sheffield and Birmingham are the four biggest contenders for the title going into the Championship season. Who are you predicting to finish in the top two?
I think all four of them will be there or thereabouts. It’ll just be which one has the strongest season. With Birmingham, they walked League One last year and they’ve signed a lot of players. Demarai Gray, Kyogo as well. I think they’ve been really good in the transfer market. Signing Tommy Doyle from Wolves, James Beadle and Eiran Cashin as well.
They’ll be strong and obviously off the pitch, they’re transitioning through with new ownership, and I think a lot has been done on improving infrastructure – especially with plans for the new stadium going into the sports quarter in Birmingham. So that looks tremendous and they’re on the rise.
I think Ipswich are in a good position to challenge, although the loss of Liam Delap will be a big one. However, you know that they’d be looking to improve as well.
For my beloved Southampton, I think that’s a really exciting one. The appointment of Will Still is positive. They have been relatively quiet in the transfer window, but we’ve got Damion Downs who has come in from FC Koln. He looks like a really good player and has already scored a good goal in pre-season. He’s got the attributes to help the team in the Championship and then hopefully if things go on, he’s got things that he can build on and improve on to maybe transition into the Premier League.
Joshua Quarshie is another good signing. I recently went into training and he’s some size, but looks really quick and strong. So that’ll be something that that Southampton will reap the benefits of in the Championship.
Do you think there are any dark horse teams that might surprise fans?
I think West Brom will be quite strong this year, but the Championship is such a great league. I worked in it for eight or nine years and the schedule and everything – I love it. Some people complain about the schedule but getting the lads prepared mentally and physically for the games is fun. It’s a really good, entertaining league and it’s gaining traction all the time.
How do you rate Southampton’s transfer window so far, and how do you think the squad is going to shape up this year?
They’ve been relatively quiet with new signings. With the big influx of loans from last year and players that have come back, I feel there will be a little bit more business done by Saints.
But I think a lot of it depends on the outgoings. If some of the players that were in the squad last year move away, then they’ll have to replace them – so holding on to someone like Mateus Fernandes would almost be like a new signing because he’s tremendous.
He got player of the year last year and showed the right attitude in every single game that a few of the others could have done with.
But when you’re losing games, it’s hard. It’s hard to try and continue that confidence. I don’t think that the principles of attitude and effort should ever change and that is what was lacking last year.
Is a better attitude going to be key to Southampton gaining automatic promotion again?
Confidence comes from winning games, but you also get confidence from your processes – how you train every day and how fit you are. I don’t think there should be any point where you should throw in the towel and concede.
There were games last year where it was mathematically still possible for Southampton to stay up and I think that was one of the biggest gripes of the fans. They might have felt that the players weren’t showing the effort levels needed in any team. When you put a shirt on for a football club, the minimum requirement should be effort and attitude because that’s something you can control.
What are your overall thoughts on Will Still’s appointment?
It’s an exciting one. I went to meet him, and he was very open and honest – which is refreshing for a new manager that’s just come in. He has his own ways of playing and at one point in the training session he was shouting at the boys about what he wanted and what things he believed were unacceptable.
I initially thought he came across as a quiet and reserved person, but I also feel like you need that as a manager. But he thought at that point in training it needed a bit more of a raised voice and that impressed me, so I’m excited by his appointment.
I suppose every appointment of a manager is a risk, but I think the lads have received him very well and they seem to be getting on so hopefully he can get his methods across and get the team playing the way that he wants them to. I know he wants them to face forward and receive the ball properly so they can try and play forward as much as possible.
From what I know it’s how Southampton fans, and I guess any team, want their team to play.
Do you think if there is a particularly slow start, do you think that may put a little bit more pressure on Still?
There’s pressure on every manager. It’s about how the relationship is with the people above, but there’s always pressure. It’s also how you interpret that pressure and how you deal with it. But I think that every single manager in any league in the world will be wanting to get off to a good start but it’s not the be all and end all if you don’t.
Pressure is always there for managers. There’s the saying that as a manager you’re only ever four games away from being sacked. It can be going really well and then you lose four games, then depending on the ownership and what sort of relationship is there, it can be a very cutthroat business.
Do you think Southampton need to recruit any more players and if so, in what areas?
They’ve got a very good squad for the Championship, but I think a lot of it will depend on outgoings and whether the club want to keep certain players that are targets for other clubs.
If somebody goes then they’ll need to bring somebody in and strengthen. But targets will be identified already and it’ll just be a case of whether players leave. But overall, I think the squad’s looking good and if Mateus Fernandes stays that would be massive.
What are the main challenges Southampton face for automatic promotion?
Well, it’s a long, exciting season. I don’t think anybody’s got a right to be up there. So, it will take a lot of effort from the staff, the club, the fans and from the lads in the team.
They need to train hard and with a new manager in their club, they will have to try and slip into the way that he wants to play.
The teams that have come down will be strong, especially the likes of Ipswich. I think Birmingham will give it a good go with the signings they’ve made, Sheffield United will be there or thereabouts as well.
But I’m just looking forward to another great season in the Championship and I’m sure I’ll go to a few games. Hopefully Southampton can be up there.
The league is a great spectacle. I do like watching the Championship games – the standard is growing all the time, and the level of manager is improving.
I think because the fans want to see their team win, I know the consensus of Southampton fans, or the majority of them will probably say: “We don’t mind if we don’t go up because the last two seasons in the Premier League haven’t been that enjoyable because the team hasn’t been winning”.
There’s a lot of infrastructure changes at Southampton that will then allow us, when we do get promoted again, to handle the situation better and be more financially powerful in the transfer market.
What was it like being at Birmingham under the previous ownership of Trillion Trophy Asia?
I fully enjoyed my time at Birmingham. I went in with Gary Monk at a time when the club and fans were a little bit fractured and we managed to bring them back together. It was a great atmosphere at times and when Gary left I was surplus to requirements, but that can happen.
Maybe I didn’t agree with it, but sometimes you have to go with it and do as you’re told, I guess. But I look back on my time there fondly and it’s always about the fans. The fans were so passionate about the club.
We wanted the club to do well, and I think it’s a good thing for Birmingham City fans that they’ve got new ownership now – they’re starting to do things in the right way and show improvement. The American ownership has brought entertainment and the documentaries, so I think it’s an exciting time for Birmingham and hopefully that can last a long time.
Do you think Birmingham could gain automatic promotion?
It’s a big jump from League One. We tried to outline that at Wigan when we won League One – we needed a little bit of help in the transfer market so we could try and get maybe four of the starters from League One onto the bench and then get four to five seasoned Championship players.
But it’s a big transition. They obviously became champions last year with a record points total and had a lot of momentum, so with the new players they’ve signed, the ownership and the good manager they’ve got. they will want that momentum to continue.
It’s an exciting time for Birmingham City fans, but they’ve got to try and remain realistic.
The ‘Built in Birmingham: Brady & the Blues’ documentary has come out recently – What are your thoughts on these types of documentaries and do you think they could be a distraction to the players?
As a player, it wouldn’t have really bothered me because you were concentrating on playing or training and making sure you were fit to ensure you’ve done everything to prepare for the games – which is the most important thing.
I think it’s a new style that has started in recent years with the likes of the ‘All or Nothing’ series. But as a player you should be professional enough to block it out and ignore it as much as you can.
I suppose if it’s happening every day then it becomes part of the routine. You would put that into your process and then it becomes less of a distraction.
A clip has recently gone viral from the documentary of Tom Brady questioning Wayne Rooney’s work ethic – what are your thoughts about owners getting involved in the day-to-day running of the football side, especially as something similar happening with Dong Ren during your time at Birmingham?
I think owners have a right to say whatever they want because they own the club. But I think how you control that would be on how strong you can make that relationship and how much trust there is there.
We saw that on the pitch last year with Nuno and the owner of Nottingham Forest. Now that outwardly doesn’t look great, and I don’t think the job that Nuno had done warranted that in any way. However, the owner can say and do what they want.
It’s just up to the outlook, as well as the standards and morals that the owner has. If an owner is bringing a manager in – then the manager is the expert on football. Whereas the majority of owners, if not all of them, are experts in their field – hence their wealth outside of football.
But football is an emotional sport and sometimes the emotion gets the better of people. That’s based on how well you can control your emotions. Emotional control is a massive skill for some managers.
Owners and directors have a right to their opinion. It’s just how that opinion comes across and where that opinion is voiced. Some choose to do it publicly and some choose to do it behind closed doors.
Teams like Birmingham and Wrexham are quite highly publicised because of their ownership. Do you think there’s more pressure to perform when playing against them?
To an extent I would say yes, but there are a lot of different conversations that happen in the dressing room or with the technical staff and players.
I think what’s said in the dressing rooms is slightly different to what’s projected outwardly and if you are open to documentaries and letting people see what actually goes on in the inner circle, then there is some sort of external pressure from that.
But it’s how you deal with it. That’s how you deal with it as a manager, as technical staff or as a player individually and collectively.
Players put enough pressure on themselves to perform, but it’s all down to personality. Whether that affects you or it doesn’t, because it’ll affect different players in different ways.
But pressure is good. I think a certain amount of pressure is always good because if you’re not under pressure at any point, sometimes you can question is it worth doing? That’s how I see it anyway.
You came into Everton as someone who was going to lead the line as a striker, and they’ve just signed Thierno Barry to fill that role. What sort of advice would you give someone that’s coming into that Everton team?
Any football fan would want to want to see a player come in and give maximum effort. I think that’s a minimum requirement.
Barry will get to know pretty quickly what the Everton fans demand and that will translate that into the noise they make. That was previously at Goodison Park but hopefully they can transfer that to the new stadium.
But he’s showed glimpses of what he can do at Villarreal. He’s big, he’s quick, he’s strong, his movement is very good. He makes sacrificial runs to create space for others – which is impressive. But it’s important for him to play his normal game because that’s why David’s signed him.
Moyes has seen what he can do at Villarreal. So if he just concentrates on being himself then I’m sure that the attributes he does have will endear him to the Everton fans in no time. And of course, an early goal would help him massively.
Do you think they have enough with Beto or do they need more attacking options?
Knowing David, he would want maybe three or four strikers. I think they’ll probably make a move for somebody else as well having lost Calvert-Lewin this summer.
With Everton moving grounds, something similar happened during your time at Southampton. Do you think the stadium has an impact on a player and is it hard to adjust?
With my own experience, we moved to St Mary’s and I don’t think we won for about two months. It’s a change of environment. I think there’ll be training sessions on the new pitch and there’ll be pre-season games.
But it’ll be about how quickly the players can adapt to it being full. If the Everton fans, which I’m sure they will do, translate the atmosphere that they created at Goodison then it’s going to be some noise.
There was a little story about when we moved to St Mary’s that a lot of the construction workers were from Portsmouth, and they buried a Portsmouth shirt underneath the centre circle.
That rumour was going around and I think it was Glenn Hoddle who brought a witch doctor in to cast some sort of spell – after that we started winning. I don’t know if it was anything to do with that, but we started winning and we had some great nights. So hopefully the same can happen for Everton.
Do you think there’s potential that David Moyes might suffer a second season curse?
I don’t think so. David’s had a great career and I think Everton is sort of home from home for him.
With his experience and his backroom staff, I know Alan Irvine – who was my youth team coach at Blackburn all those years ago. The experience they’ve got and the environment they create for the players is great. David’s got the experience and the people around him now to make sure they have a good season.
It’s going to be about the transition. It was a sad farewell to Goodison. I went to the last game against Southampton, funnily enough. But it’s so exciting for the team to be able to go to a stadium like that.
You know, even though Goodison is great and I love traditional stadiums, they’ll get more fans in now and they’ll definitely fill it – but it’s part of that progression and trying to improve commercially. I think that everything is geared up for them – David’s in position and they’ve got a new stadium. So hopefully that they’ll have a good season.
But I don’t think that there’ll be any sort of second season curse.
Everton have just secured the signing of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Chelsea. What do you think of him as a player and what he might add to the team?
I think he’s a typical Everton player. Loads of energy, a young box-to-box player who wears his heart on his sleeve.
There are all sorts of things you look at when recruiting players. He’s good on the ball, has a good range of passing but he gives everything and hopefully he’ll be a great addition to the team.
How do you how do you look back on your time at Everton?
I don’t have any regrets. I feel very privileged that I played for Everton. I’ve still got a lot of friends who work in and around the club and hopefully they’ll be moving to the new stadium.
It’s a club that’s full of really good people, with fans that are very passionate. It was a privilege to play for Everton for two and a half years.
Out of your former clubs, who do you think will have the best campaign?
Southampton.
Who is the best player you’ve played alongside?
The best player I’ve played alongside is Paul Scholes. But there’s been loads of others. Mikel Arteta – I played with him at Everton. Marians Pahars at Southampton.
When I look at my debut and playing for England, then we had Beckham in that team and that time.
But in terms of the toughest defender I came up against, that was Sol Campbell. He was actually playing when I made my debut and in a couple of the England games he played in the same team as me.
Who is one player that you wish you played alongside?
I mentioned him before as I saw him play a lot last year, he really impressed me – Mateus Fernandes from Southampton. He’s a good player with the ball and he has a great attitude.
When he was getting the Player of the Year award and when he first joined the club, he didn’t really speak that much English, but he came across so humble, saying it was a privilege to play for the club.
That’s the attitude he shows in every game. He puts his heart and soul into it, and he is just great. I loved watching him last year.
What has the transition from player to coach and now director of football at Totten been like?
It’s been OK. I didn’t envisage myself finishing playing when I did, but the opportunity to manage Accrington was too good an opportunity to turn down.
I had to process that in my mind and it took a little bit of while. When I finished playing, I spoke to some people who told me about potentially going down the player manager route. So, I spoke to a few managers that had tried to do it and they said that if they had their time again, they wouldn’t do it because it was too difficult.
So, I made the decision to stop playing and become manager. But pre-season was crazy busy. I was working the budgets and trying to get some players in while also moving players on.
We played our first game at Newport and when we got to the stadium the lads went out and looked at the pitch. Then they came back in, got changed and they went out to warm up. I said my final words to them, but for 20 or more years it was me walking out the dressing room as a player.
When everybody left the dressing room and it was only me – that’s when it hit me a little bit that I’d finished playing. I welled up and was crying but I had to compose myself because the game was going to kick off, so that was a big moment for me when I knew that the change was real.
But it was during my time at Accrington that I realised I wanted to be a better coach. So that’s when I went to work with Gary [Monk].
We worked in the Premier League with Swansea. I was also at Leeds, then Birmingham and Middlesbrough, at Sheffield United and Wigan as an assistant manager. So I’ve done years of coaching now, which has been great and I really enjoyed it.
There’s been ups and downs and things don’t always go as planned but I feel that I’ve improved as a coach.
But now in that time I’ve become the director of football at Totton. I’d always been working closely with Gary when looking at the budgets and working closely with board members and owners – so I was quite well versed in that. I felt I could deal with the executive side of it.
With the role at Totton, it hasn’t really given me a definitive answer in which role I like the most. I do like both roles, but I love coaching. I haven’t fully decided what I want to do yet.
