Southampton Technical Director Defends Jack Stephens Contract Friday, 8th Aug 2025 09:33 Saints Director of Football Johannes Spors has responded to criticism from Southampton supporters about the decision to give Jack Stephens a new contract, but I think he has really missed the point that the fans are making. The biggest surprise of the summer so far has been the fact that Jack Stephens was given a new 3 year contract. Most had assumed that he was out of contract and that he would probably leave the club as it cleared the decks after relegation or perhaps he would be handed a new one year deal. But as The Daily Echo has revealed it seems that he already had that one year under his belt to start with, I assume as I have mentioned before that his existing contract had an option in it that if he was to meet certain criteria, ie games played, then he would be entitled to that extra year. But the bug bear for the fans is the 3 year deal, at 31 he is in the veteran category and if we were to be promoted then a player turning 33 halfway through the season is not ideal unless he is truly top drawer.
This is what Spors had to say to defend the decision. When asked if the new deal was a reward for failure, Spors said: "I think it was absolutely the right thing to do. "It was my responsibility and my decision to do this. I 100 per cent think it was the right one. He's a great leader for the team. "Not all you know off the pitch, as you say, but also on the pitch and in every training session and also outside the training session. "This is very important when I speak about development. This is the most important thing for this football club. We need people to help young lads develop. "He is really one of them. I know and Jack knows that not everything was perfect. Absolutely. Nobody tries to hide from that. He knows he can do better. "I'm really positive that he can. What I see from him in the pre-season is very good. I'm very positive that he can bring good performance on the pitch." I can see what Spors is saying, and I can see the points he is making, but the hard facts are that at a time when we are cutting costs and indeed if we are not promoted this season, may need to be slashing them in 10 months time, the last thing we need is a player who is tied to the club on good money until he is 34. The truth is and I do not say this as an insult, Jack may be influential off the pitch and a good man on the training pitch and the dressing room, but he is not a leader of men on it. Your leader, your Captain needs to be not only a leader, but a good players, someone who is a nailed on first choice when the manager picks the side and he needs to be that on merit, not because he is the managers pet.
Jack has never been that in 14 years at the club, after joining at the age of 17 and making his debut in January 2012 aged 18 in the FA Cup, a 3 minute fleeting sub appearance at Coventry, he swum around either in the U21 side or out on loan. By January 2017 and about to turn 23 he had added just one appearance to his Southampton CV a EFL Cup appearance a few months earlier, before finally making his League debut for Saints at Everton. In the 8 1/2 years since that League debut he had started just 143 games in the League plus 21 as sub, taking out a year on loan at Bournemouth, that is an average of less than 20 games a season, indeed only once in that time did he play more than 24 League games.
I feel sorry for Jack, up until Russell Martin's arrival and promotion of him as a great leader, he was a very good club servant and a decent squad player, a man who could be called upon at certain times in a season to step in, fill a hole and do a job. Yet suddenly from being a player respected by the Southampton fans including myself, he has become a target for those looking to berate either the owners or the manager and that is not fair on Jack. At times my comments on Jack Stephens on this site have attracted criticism, in truth they have never changed, I have always respected him for the job he has done, but I have always thought if he is first choice in the centre of defence, that is saying something about our team. Over the years I was criticised by some for criticising a player many saw, perhaps not as a great player, but a good squad member, now most seemed to have done a complete U turn and he is the subject of at best criticism at worst abuse on social media and I now find myself defending him.
I am sure that Jack would have rather seen out his time at St Mary's quietly as he has always done over most of the past 14 years, now having been put on a pedestal by Russell Martin and now Johannes Spors feels the need to defend his decision, means that he can't do that. The issue now for most Saints fans is not Jack Stephens, it is that they see his being trumpeted as something that he isn't, on the pitch he is not a leader of men, that is something we have been lacking for half a dozen years, so for a succession of people in the club to tell us he is, when we are crying out to actually sign a true leader is counter productive, it just gets the fans backs up, rather than getting them behind the club as it needs them to do. The second issue is the length of the contract, a years extension, absolutely, but a 3 year contract for a 31 year old who even Russell Martin could not always justify picking in the starting line up, raises a lot of questions. If Saints had quietly given him a years contract then no one would really have argued, they could see Spors latest comments and agree, but no one can see the point of a 3 year deal, whatever way it is dressed up. Far better hear to just get on with things other than try and justify the decision and stir things up. All Photos Via Reuters Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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