Southampton's Strong Home Form Under Tonda Eckert

Southampton boss Tonda Eckert says the bond between his team and the St Mary’s crowd sits at the heart of their formidable home form in 2026.

The 33-year-old German stepped up from coaching the club’s U21s to replace the sacked Will Still in November 2025, inheriting a side marooned in 21st place and a fanbase worn down by months of drift and frustration. Since then, St Mary’s has turned into one of the Championship’s most hostile venues for visiting teams.

Saints have collected 47 points at home under Eckert, the best record in the division over that spell, and have opened the new campaign with three straight wins on their own turf.

“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,” Eckert told BBC Radio Solent, reflecting on the mood when he arrived. The atmosphere then was flat, trust frayed, 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.

“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.”

The turnaround has come against a turbulent backdrop. Eckert guided Saints into the Championship play-offs last season, only for the club to be thrown out in the wake of the Spygate scandal. Anger flared, questions rained down on the hierarchy, and the risk of a deeper rupture with supporters was real.

Yet the stands never emptied. Despite the fury and the fallout, crowds have held at around the 30,000 mark going into the new season, keeping Southampton among the top 20 attendances in the country. The numbers alone tell a story of a fanbase that refused to walk away.

For Eckert, the repair job has been gradual, deliberate.

“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,” he said.

“St Mary’s just feels completely different than it did a year ago and that is just many, many things coming together.

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

That belief has shaped his work. The intensity at St Mary’s has risen, the noise has followed, and the team’s record has started to match the ambition of a club still trying to shake off the scars of recent seasons.

In the short term, though, Eckert must continue without one of his midfield options. He confirmed that Saturday’s game against Bristol City will come “too early” for 23-year-old Caspar Jander, who has yet to feature this season after suffering a quad injury early in their first pre-season outing against National League side Eastleigh.

“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,” Eckert said.

The coach has his eyes on the long game. Keep the home fortress intact, keep the connection alive, and Southampton’s season may yet be defined by what happens inside a very different St Mary’s to the one he walked into less than a year ago.