Southampton's Tonda Eckert on Strengthening Team Support and Home Form

Southampton boss Tonda Eckert believes the bond between his team and the supporters has turned St Mary’s into one of the Championship’s most intimidating arenas.

The 33-year-old German, promoted from the club’s U21s to replace the sacked Will Still in November 2025, walked into a club sitting 21st in the table and a fanbase drained by frustration. Since then, home has become a fortress. Saints have collected 47 points at St Mary’s under his watch – the best home record in the division – and have opened the new campaign with three straight wins on their own patch.

“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. The mood back then was brittle. “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 never pretended a few wins would fix it. For Eckert, the rebuild has always been about something deeper than tactics or formations.

“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.”

From Spygate to a reset

Eckert dragged Saints into the Championship play-offs last season, only for the club to be thrown out in the wake of the Spygate scandal. The fallout was raw. Anger spilled out in the stands and online. Trust, already fragile, took another hit.

Yet the turnstiles kept clicking.

Despite the controversy and the sense of injustice that followed, crowds have held firm at around the 30,000 mark going into the new season, keeping Southampton among the top 20 attendances in the country. The numbers tell their own story: the fans might have been furious, but they did not walk away.

“It’s not one thing that you change,” Eckert said. “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.”

That slow, deliberate work is starting to show on matchdays.

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

The noise is back. The edge is back. And Eckert is clear about what it must all lead to.

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

Jander waits as Bristol City comes too soon

On the pitch, the next test of that home strength comes against Bristol City on Saturday. Saints will have to go into it without Caspar Jander.

Eckert confirmed the fixture has come “too early” for the 23-year-old midfielder, who is yet to feature this season after suffering a quad injury early in their first pre-season outing against National League side Eastleigh.

The medical staff have been careful. So has Eckert.

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

If the home form holds and the connection with the stands keeps tightening, Jander could be returning to a stadium that no longer feels burdened by last season – but driven by what this one might still become.