Bale, Shearer, Le Tissier: 12 top players to emerge from Southampton's academy

Glenn Hoddle might only have been Southampton manager for just over a year, but in that time, he still got a front-row seat for one of the best academies in the English game.

It’s no secret that the Saints have a knack for bringing top-class talent through their youth ranks, often collecting eye-watering transfer fees further down the line when the ‘big six’ clubs comes knocking.

But if you think that the time of Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott and Luke Shaw was merely a golden era for the conveyor belt of talent on the south coast, then you’re very much mistaken, because it’s been going on for decades.

So when Hoddle commanded the technical area at The Dell in 2000 and 2001 between his spells with England and Tottenham Hotspur, he saw more than a few top talents climbing up the club’s rungs.

And during a brilliant appearance on the High Performance Podcast earlier this year, Hoddle gave fascinating insight on one example in particular: Wayne Bridge.

A future Chelsea and Manchester City star who would go on to amass 36 caps for England, Bridge cut his teeth as a young Southampton player where Hoddle and his trusty sports psychologist, John Syer, contributed to his development.

Hoddle explained to Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes how the work that him and his team conducted with the Saints helped to make young players like Bridge believe in themselves more and really grow in confidence.

“I took John with me to Southampton when I was a manager and there was a lot of great work we did there,” Hoddle reflected. “And the players took to it eventually. And I saw players blossom.

“Like it happened in the ’80s with Tottenham, I saw it happen to particularly Southampton. The players took to it. I saw a young Wayne Bridge who was 17