Southampton staff profiles
Pen pics of Southampton's coaching, science, medicine and analytics staff. To see staff profiles for other clubs, click here.
FOOTBALL EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL
Jason Wilcox
Nationality: English
A Premier League winner with Blackburn Rovers who is now forging a career in football leadership. Joined Southampton at the end of the 2022/23 season, replacing Matt Crocker. Had worked for Manchester City Academy for the previous decade, latterly as Academy Director.
COACHING
MANAGER
Russell Martin
Nationality: Scottish
Played more than 500 senior games and won 29 caps for Scotland. Has since marked himself out as one of the brightest prospects in management following two seasons with MK Dons and two with Swansea City. Outlined his beliefs on and off the pitch on Episode #28 of the TGG Podcast.
ASSISTANT
Matt Gill
Nationality: English
Enjoyed a 17-year playing career spanning more than 500 appearances, including at Norwich, where he and Martin were team-mates. Extensive experience in coaching, first at Norwich and Ipswich, then with Martin at MK Dons, Swansea and now Southampton.
FIRST-TEAM COACH
Carl Martin
Nationality: English
Played in the lower leagues before starting his coaching journey at Watford's Academy. Joined Southampton in January 2019 as U18s coach and promoted to first-team duties in summer of 2022. Retained by Martin when he arrived in June 2023.
FIRST-TEAM COACH
Colin Calderwood
Nationality: Scottish
Joined in October 2023 after two-and-a-half years as Assistant at Northampton Town. Massively experienced, having been Manager at Northampton, Nottingham Forest, Hibernian and Cambridge United, as well as Assistant at clubs including Newcastle United, Norwich City, Brighton and Aston Villa. Knows Martin from their time together at Norwich (when Calderwood was Assistant and Martin was a player).
GOALKEEPING COACH
Dean Thornton
Nationality: English
Has known Martin since they were teenagers at Wycombe Wanderers. Has worked with the manager at both of his previous clubs, MK Dons and Swansea. Spent nine years as Head of Academy Goalkeeping at QPR before that.
SET PIECE COACH
Andreas Georgson
Nationality: Swede
Worked for Malmo for 14 years in a variety of coaching, analysis and scouting roles, at both youth and senior level, before joining Brentford as set piece coach. Performed the same role at Arsenal, before returning to Malmo in September 2021 as Sport Director and then Technical Director. Returned to England - and the set piece specialism - in August 2023.
PERFORMANCE
DIRECTOR OF PERFORMANCE
Mark Bitcon
Nationality: English
Joined Saints in June 2023, reuniting him with Wilcox. The duo had previously worked together at Manchester City Academy. Bitcon has also worked for Wigan Warriors and, most recently, England Rugby, as Head of Athletic Performance and Innovation.
HEAD OF SPORT SCIENCE
Tom Barnden
Nationality: English
Appointed in September 2023 and hugely experienced, having worked for Coventry City, Tottenham, Brighton, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Swansea City. Longest stint was with Brighton, for seven years, where he became Physical Performance Manager.
SPORT SCIENTIST
Rhys Owen
Nationality: Welsh
Was Head of Rehab under Martin at Swansea City.
STRENGTH & CONDITIONING
Matthew Banks
Nationality: Welsh
Joined the club's Academy in February 2019, having previously worked in rugby union. Promoted to first team in July 2019.
SPORT SCIENTIST
Bill Styles
Nationality: English
Experienced practitioner. Assistant to Kenny McMillan at Celtic before moving to Southampton.
PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGIST
Malcolm Frame
Nationality: English
Has been working as a consultant at the club for two decades. Key in setting up the club's Learning Lab.
MEDICAL
DOCTOR
Inigo Sarriegui
Nationality: Spanish
Replaced Thamindu Wedatilake as first team doctor in July 2019. Had previously worked with the Academy since 2015 and with Team Sky.
HEAD OF PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL SERVICES
Steve Wright
Nationality: English
Moved to St Mary's in 2014 from West Brom as Senior Physio. Job title changed to Head of Medical Services for the Professional Phase in 2018.
LEAD PERFORMANCE PHYSIO
Neil Simms
Nationality: English
Head Physio at Nottingham Forest from 2017 to 2022 before joining Southampton. Has also worked at West Brom and Bristol City.
PHYSIO
Luke Thomas
Nationality: English
Joined from Birmingham City in March 2018 and promoted to the first team in October 2021.
SOFT TISSUE THERAPIST
Gianni Fenu
Nationality: Italian
Joined from Huddersfield in 2016. Has extensive experience in rugby league, having worked for Bradford Bull and Leeds Rhinos.
THERAPIST
Chris Lovegrove
Nationality: English
Long-standing member of staff. Explains in this video how the department has changed during his time at the club.
SPORTS THERAPIST
Jack Curson
Nationality: English
Joined club in 2017 after five years with Reading.
DATA & ANALYSIS
HEAD OF FIRST-TEAM PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
Scott Waters
Nationality: English
Joined in August 2011. Responsible for all pre, live and post-match analysis for the first team.
TACTICS & INSIGHTS ANALYST
Ben Parker
Nationality: English
Started off in a coaching role with MK City Ladies and went on to hold strength and conditioning roles with the Academies at Leicester Tigers and Warwickshire Cricket. Became Academy Performance intern at MK Dons in August of 2017 and promoted to assistant first-team performance analyst in July 2018, before moving to the lead role a year later. Moved with Martin to Swansea and now Southampton.
ANALYSIS OPERATIONS LEAD
Adam Ridgewell
Nationality: English
Joined in September 2018 from Doncaster, where he had been Head of Performance Analysis for four years. Promoted to current role in July 2021.
DATA SCIENCE
Head of Data & Research
Joe Ferrelly
Nationality: English
Employed by owners Sport Republic, working for both Southampton and Goztepe in Turkey. Focuses on recruitment but also responsible for "building and developing advanced proprietary data models to support decision-making across all departments”, including coaching, player development, sport science and medical. Joined in June 2023 after four years as Data Analyst at Everton.
Player Insights Data Scientist
Peter Thompson
Nationality: English
Physics graduate who joined the club in January 2021.
Player Insights (Recruitment) Analyst
Jonathan Kaye
Nationality: English
Arrived from Cambridge United, where he was first-team performance analyst, in May 2021.
