Southampton’s Championship return last season ended in embarrassment, as they were eliminated from the play-off final after being found guilty of spying on Middlesbrough’s training sessions ahead of their semi-final match.

The Borough incident was the Saints’ third admission of spying, having previously spied on Oxford United and Ipswich Town ahead of league encounters under Tonda Eckert.

Southampton has been deducted four points to begin the new season, and the club’s management hopes it will be the extent of their penalty, leaving them to focus only on achieving promotion the proper way in 2026/27.

The Saints have been on a rollercoaster ride under Sport Republic and Dragan Solak since the Serbian purchased the club in January 2022, and the hope is that another successful season is on the way.

What Solak cannot be faulted for is the investment he has made in the club over the previous three and a half years, both in terms of player acquisition and the implementation of techniques to assist prepare the team for games where spying on their opponents is worthless.

Dragan Solak explains how Southampton is employing AI in their analytics.

Southampton owner Dragan Solak wants to operate an ambitious football club, but he understands that even if he takes over in 2022, when the Saints are an established Premier League side, they will need to outperform their budget to compete with the best.

Southampton Football Club has invested in AI tactics to evaluate data quickly and gain a comprehensive understanding of their opponents.We spent a lot of money developing an artificial intelligence suite that could provide our analysts with an incredible amount of information in just a few minutes.

So I’m not sure why we needed to go and watch over the fence. Solak remarked, “I’ll figure it out in the next few months,” according to the Southern Daily Echo.Our pre-game preparations are impressive in terms of available knowledge and achievable goals.

Tonda [Eckert] is an excellent coach for implementing all of this because he is systematic and pays attention to every detail. All of the small details of each game. Our scientific and medical department has advanced AI with over 215 million data points.Our AI agent sometimes takes four minutes to give us a comprehensive report on one player since there is so much data, but this is where I want to grow our club.”

Throughout last season at Southampton, the medical data appeared to be working flawlessly. Tonda Eckert had a totally fit squad for the majority of the season, with the exception of Mads Roerslev, who has been out since November due to an Achilles injury. Ross Stewart played 33 of his 50 games at St Mary’s during his three-year stint last season.

Solak feels that having AI in place can assist Tonda Eckert’s side stay healthy and provide knowledge into the opposition, allowing them to compete with larger clubs.”We don’t have the funds that Man United has,” he continued.To compete with major clubs in the Premier League,

we need to be more agile and smart, while maintaining the same level of ambition.We cannot live with less ambition than Manchester United. Our teammates must have the desire to improve in a new situation. With all due respect to the hardworking members of this club, we are a football club.

“Everything must end up in the team.”The marketing gurus have nothing to market if you don’t win games. Who is going to recognise what we do well in IT if we are constantly losing games? “As long as we play good football, everything else will work.”

Southampton demonstrated their desire in parts last season.

When you look at Southampton’s run to the FA Cup semi-finals last season, where they beat Fulham and Arsenal before taking the lead against Manchester City, it’s clear that the ambition that Solak mentions was on display.

Those three teams, particularly Arsenal and Manchester City, the Premier League’s top two in 2025/26, had plenty of resources and a significant playing budget, but Tonda Eckert’s side was able to match and, in the case of the Gunners, outperform them over 90 minutes.

Being able to sustain player fitness throughout the final few months of the campaign, when the FA Cup required them to play Saturday/Tuesday every week from the final international break to the season’s completion, demonstrates that the AI model also played a role.

The Serbian businessman may be on to something when it comes to investing in AI to help the team prepare for games, and only time will tell next season whether that, or other, more unlawful ways, helped Southampton go on a 19-game unbeaten streak to finish the league season.