League One to Man Utd: The meteoric rise of Morgan Schneiderlin

Kevin Palmer 22:32 02/08/2015
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  • Schneiderling has gone from League One (top l) to Manchester United (bottom l) and a World Cup (c).

    “I’m not having this French kid”, declared a prominent member of the Southampton’s coaching staff back in 2009, as a swift judgment was passed on frail teenage midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin.

    The coach in question was not alone in having doubts about a player who had much to prove at Southampton following his Dhs6.9 million (£1.2m) arrival from Strasbourg the previous summer. Quietly spoken, gentle in his demeanour and seemingly unequipped for the rigours of life in the lower leagues of English football, the novice was an improbable candidate to emerge as one of the Premier League’s most wanted men.

    — Squawka Football (@Squawka) July 13, 2015

    The crisis afflicting his employer on and off the pitch would not have helped his cause at the time. These were the days when Southampton were mixing it with the likes of Yeovil, Colchester and Hartlepool in the third tier of English football, with the leggy Schneiderlin hardly appearing to be the type of combative warrior required to stand up to the challenges of League One football.

    Southampton’s on-field woes were being directly affected by their financial meltdown off it, with liquidation and extinction a genuine threat for the club after Scheiderlin’s first season wearing their red and white stripes.

    The club’s players and employees didn’t know whether they would get paid in the summer of 2009, with the concerns mounting by the day until Swiss-based billionaire Markus Liebherr took control of Saints, sparking a stunning and sustained revival.

    Overnight, Southampton’s status as celebrity paupers was substituted for a much glossier guise as the financial heavyweights of League One. Liebherr’s money brought stability off the pitch and renewed ambition on it. At that point, Schneiderlin started to emerge as a key figure in their captivating revival.

    For Kelvin Davis, his club captain at Southampton, the rise has been incredible to watch.

    Davis played with Schneiderlin during his entire stay on the South Coast.

    “The football Gods have shone on Morgan,” Davis, who was present for Schneiderlin’s first and final training sessions with Southampton, tells Sport360.

    “From the moment he arrived at our club, things began to slot into place for him. Our relegation to League One after his first season was perfectly timed as it meant he could grow as a player in a league where he could make mistakes. We knew he always had talent – his passing ability was evident from the start – but he needed more!”

    “Morgan was a quiet kid and there were some people at Southampton who were not sure whether he could stand up to the pace and the physical demands of playing in League One.

    “As that first campaign in League One progressed, he appreciated the need to get stuck in and stand up to the guys he was competing against or the game would pass him by. He had to grow up and learn quickly and he was shrewd enough to do that.

    “By the time we got into the Championship and then the Premier League, Morgan had grown physically and had the confidence under his belt to feel as if he belonged at that level and even then, football Gods continued to shine on him.”

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    In many ways, the continual rise of Southampton from lower league strugglers to a team that qualified for the Europa League after a record seventh-place finish in last season’s Premier League has mirrored the leaps up the ladder made by Schneiderlin. The Frenchman’s jump to the game’s top table was confirmed as he secured a Dhs143 million (£25m) move to Manchester United this summer.

    Former Saints manager Alan Pardew can take some plaudits for giving the raw midfielder a chance, with his successor Nigel Adkins helping to convince Schneiderlin that he belonged among the game’s giants. 

    That was before Mauricio Pochettino then fine-tuned his talents and tried to take the midfielder to Tottenham with him last summer. When the new Premier League season gets underway, Schneiderlin will find himself following in the footsteps of football icons like Bryan Robson and Roy Keane as United’s new midfield general.

    “Tottenham tried to sign him last summer, but Southampton wouldn’t sell and now he finds himself at one of the biggest clubs in the world. I bet he is glad the Spurs deal didn’t happen in the end, even if he was upset about it at the time,” explained Davis.

    “The great thing for me is that he left Southampton with the best wishes of everyone. That isn’t always the case when a player moves on and it hasn’t been the case with us at times in the last year or so, but you can’t help but wish Morgan all the best. Good luck to him.”

    They are glowing words of respect from a team-mate who appeared to feel a sense of pride that he had been there to witness the blooming of a bud that has exploded in glorious fashion and he has done it all while retaining a delightfully humble nature.

    Okay, there was some discontent when Schneiderlin posted an inflammatory twitter message criticising the club when denied the move to Spurs, but that was quickly forgotten when he took to the field once again.

    While some players sulk when their hopes of a big money move are dashed, Schneiderlin quickly overcame his disappointment, got back to work and helped guide Southampton into this season’s Europa League.

    In return for a final year of service to the club, Saints gave him a guarantee that they would not stand in his way if a Champions League team came calling this summer.

    In the opinion of one of his former managers, United’s latest recruit has all the qualities required to quickly become a hero of the Old Trafford faithful.

    “It has been great to see the development of Morgan over the last few years,” Crystal Palace manager Pardew told Sport360 about the former protégé he tried to sign during his time as Newcastle manager in January 2014.

    “I remember the player I found when I went to Southampton and there was a lot of work to be done. His tackling needed improving big-time, he needed to be so much stronger.

    “He has done so well since then. When I have watched Southampton over the last couple of years, the player who stands out for me every time has been Schneiderlin.

    “He has proved himself in the Premier League now and that is what United are signing. A player who has added so much to his game and now he has the challenge to take it to the next level, which I’m sure he can do.”

    Seven years of hard work and dedication have gone into the making of Manchester United’s new midfield general and unlike many who make big money moves at a formative stage of their careers, Schneiderlin has earned his crack at the big time.

    MORGAN SCHNEIDERLIN – fact file
    Born: November 8th 1989 in Zellwiller, France

    * Southampton spent £1.2m to sign Schneiderlin form Strasbourg in June 2008, which was a hefty some of money for a club crippled by debts at the time.
    * He made his Saints debut in August 2008 and didn’t score his first goal until the penultimate game of his second season at the club, 78 games in his career in English football.
    * France under-21 coach Eric Mombaerts told Schneiderlin to leave Southampton in August 2009 as he suggested his talent was being wasted in League One, much to the annoyance of Southampton boss Alan Pardew.
    * While not always a first choice starter at Southampton in the 2011/12 season, he was hailed as a hero of their promotion to the Premier League alongside Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert.

    Lallana jumps on the back of Schneiderlin.

    * Schneiderlin quickly became a Premier League star, with the extra time he had on the ball against better quality opposition allowing him to express himself and display his range of passing to a worldwide audience.
    * Statistics confirmed that he had the most tackles and interceptions in the 2012/13 Premier League season, as speculation began to mount that he could be a target for Arsenal and Tottenham.
    * Spurs made their move to sign Schneiderlin last summer, but Southampton blocked the deal despite the player making it clear he wanted to leave.
    * Southampton agreed to sell their French international to Manchester United in a £25m deal on July 13th.

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