Crocker reveals regrets over exit as Southampton Director of Football

During that period, homegrown players James Ward-Prowse, Luke Shaw, Callum Chambers and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had all come through to star for the first team. Crocker said he regarded himself as a ‘Southampton lad,’ having lived in the city for 19 years and brought up his two sons there.

Although his second stint at the club had yielded proud moments, such as Ward-Prowse becoming captain, there were also regrets and that he had departed with a “heavy heart.”

“When I reflect back at my time at Southampton, I’m hugely proud in some ways, but it was a really challenging period for the club,” Crocker admitted. “I took over in the January (2020), and by March we were into COVID.

“When you’re a club like Southampton, it’s difficult to compete financially in the Premier League anyway. Then you have the challenges of COVID financially – that had a huge impact on the club. It had a huge impact on change of ownership.”

Southampton were acquired by Sport Republic in January 2022 – and relegated from the Premier League after 11 consecutive seasons in the top flight a year later. Although Crocker had already departed, he accepted his part in their downfall.

“There were a lot of challenges behind the scenes but I take a part, I was the Sporting Director,” he said. “When you’ve worked somewhere for 10 years, you know the people and you understand the impact that relegation has on the staff – people lose their jobs and Southampton have some unbelievable lifers, people who had done a phenomenal job way, way beyond what they get paid.

“I left that role with a heavy heart in many ways, because it’s a club that I hold dear to my heart, a club that I would call one of my clubs.

“You never want to leave a place in a worse place than you found it. I remember one of the sayings from the All Blacks, about leaving the shirt in a better place than where you found it.”

Crocker had rejoined Southampton in 2020 after six years with the Football Association, where he was Head of Coaching and Development and then Head of Teams. The England teams had enjoyed unprecedented success during that period, with the U17s and U20s winning World Cups and the U19s winning consecutive Euros.

The FA was also very innovative during this period, introducing the England DNA, specialist coaching and in and out-of-possession coaches. Crocker said “I’m a project type of guy” and that he had planned to introduce innovations and implement a strategy at Southampton. 

“There were things I’d been fortunate enough to see and experience in an international environment that I thought could give us a competitive edge (at Southampton) – around player development, which Southampton is renowned for,” he said.

“If I’m truly honest, I never felt like as if I had the true opportunity to do the Sporting Director’s role in the way I wanted it to be done at the club.

“There’s some regrets there, for sure, about how it all ended, with the club being relegated from the Premier League. I never really truly felt as if I had the opportunity to really make the changes and to make the decisions as a Sporting Director there because of the difficult time the club was going through.

“The club had a takeover and when these things happen, there’s a new direction, a new vision and all of that takes time to put into place. 

“We were going through a cycle where we weren’t getting many players into the team, so, you know, what needs to change internally for that to start to kick on and forward?”

Crocker informed the club he wanted to leave in December 2022 – and officially exited in April 2023, when he was officially announced as Sporting Director of US Soccer.

“I’d made the decision to resign in the December (2022),” he revealed. “I had conversations with the club and my intention was to work through to the May, to allow them to get a good handover to the person that the new owners wanted to bring in, which proved to be Jason Wilcox.

“I received a call in the March, to see if I would be interested in having some discussions over the US job, the Sporting Director’s job. Originally I went home and told my wife, and she said, ‘Well, how would that work? It’s 3,000 miles away!’

“But I convinced her to let me go to the interview process, because I felt like it would be good for me personally to go through a process, I hadn’t gone through one for a long time. It was a really detailed, thorough process.

“I got through the first part and then they invited us over to Denver, Colorado. I remember it was the 1st of April, 8am interview. April Fool’s Day, I thought I was going to turn up and someone was going to prank me, but that was the final interview, where there was a number of tasks that I had to prepare for.

“Again, never thinking that I was going to get the job, because it was a huge job and there were so many people out there that have done great things in this position.

“But after that interview, I felt the chemistry, the dynamic was good. I felt as if I could be a good cultural fit, and was fortunate enough for them to offer me the job.”

Crocker admitted that when he left Southampton, his confidence was at “rock bottom.”

“When I left Southampton my confidence was rock bottom. Rock, rock bottom,” he said. “And it takes you a while to start to believe in yourself and believe in your leadership again.

“We changed managers a few times in that period and you get a sense of where you fit within an organisation and sometimes where you don’t fit. That can be difficult to accept when you’ve been at a place for a long time and you care so deeply about it and it can have an impact on your confidence.

“I was sad and disappointed it ended in the way that it did, with relegation and me never really truly feeling like I had the opportunity to lead in the way that I wanted to.

“I’m thankful for US Soccer to give me that opportunity and also for that support I had. I believe I’ve improved as a leader exponentially over the last three years.”

Crocker said Southampton would always retain a special place in his heart though.

“There’s some great staff there and it’s a great club, that’s for sure. It’s a great, great club in many, many ways.

“At some stage, I would love to be able to go back and do my coaching, and to be able to volunteer back at Southampton, to be their U12s coach, or whatever.”