Southampton owner Dragan Solak suggests VAR cost Russell Martin his job as manager, saying it took “eight points” off the team.
Solak, in his first major interview since acquiring the club in 2022 via Sport Republic, expressed unwavering commitment to the club despite two relegations, one promotion, and five permanent managers during his tenure.
He denied rumours of selling the club, saying a 10-year plan to develop Southampton commercially and financially, potentially inviting investment partners if promoted to the Premier League.
Solak highlighted the damaging impact of VAR decisions, claiming they cost former manager Russell Martin “eight points,” which he believes could have kept Martin in charge.
🚨 DRAGAN ŠOLAK EXCLUSIVE
▪ #SaintsFC are NOT up for sale
▪ Appointment of Will Still
▪ FFP/PSR navigation and other long-term projects
▪ Loyalty of the fansListen to @AdamBlackmore‘s full interview with the club’s chairman ⬇https://t.co/gujrEUsjTs pic.twitter.com/oMgUfPTeWL
— BBC Radio Solent Sport (@solentsport) June 19, 2025
Martin, sacked in December 2024 after a poor Premier League run, was described as “unlucky”, with Solak also noting the loss of director of football Jason Wilcox to Manchester United being a costly setback.
He acknowledged the growing gap between the Premier League and Championship, advocating for wealth redistribution to enhance competition.
New manager Will Still, the club’s fifth manager of Solak’s tenure after Ralph Hasenhuttl, Nathan Jones, Russell Martin and Ivan Juric, has been praised, described by the chairman as a smart and ambitious choice for the Championship challenge.
“We have had some really great highs and enjoyable moments but we have also had devastating and sad periods – but I guess that’s the sport,” Solak told BBC Radio Solent.
“But the good thing is that my love, respect and loyalty for Southampton is just growing through all of this.”
On director of football Jason Wilcox leaving for Manchester United, just six months into the role, and even before they won promotion: “I really liked working with Jason during his time here but I understand it, if you get the call from Manchester United, you go.
“We suddenly lost a man who [had] started building something, we didn’t replace him fast enough so we went into the challenge of the Premier League without a leading figure in our football department and that was very, very costly.”
Big interview as Saints chairman and owner Dragan Solak speaks to us on:
🇸🇦 Rejecting proposal of club sale talks.
✈️ Roles of Kraft and Ankersen in SR.
🏡 New management team at St Mary’s.
🔜 Two positions Saints will sign now.
🦺 Working with City Council on plans.#SaintsFC— Alfie House (@AlfieHouseEcho) June 19, 2025
On speculation Solak was looking to sell Southampton: “I have never had any plans of selling the club.
“We have quite a few very exciting projects.
“I might invite some partners to join me if and when we are promoted to the Premier League, because I think we’ll need maybe more [investment].
“But selling was never on my mind, I was thinking much more about this 10-year project of how to develop the club commercially and financially so it is more robust and less dependent on TV rights deals.”
Former head coach Russell Martin, who guided the club to the top flight but was sacked after just one win and 13 defeats, but has since been appointed by Rangers.
“I really believe he was absolutely, fundamentally behind his idea of football and that is not easy in an environment like the Premier League that is so competitive,” Solak said.
“But to give him credit we were quite unlucky, I don’t even know how to characterise some of the VAR decisions that we had – but in my opinion VAR took eight points off Russell’s team.
“If he had those eight points more in December I think he would probably manage the team through the whole season.
“I’m not saying we would stay in the league but we would have [had] a much more competitive run and Russell would definitely still be leading the team.”
On the gap, with all the promoted sides being relegated back to the second tier: “The truth is that the difference is too big that’s for sure,.
“The gap has to be narrowed somehow or it will create problems for both the Championship and for the Premier League in the future.
“I think they should redistribute wealth and I don’t think the quality of football would go down, this would allow the Championship to catch up and it will be much more meaningful competition between the teams.”
On Will Still: “I spent some time with him and I have to say he’s definitely a very smart guy.
“He went from a first-tier team in France to come to the Championship, he thinks it’s a right move for him because I think he believes his place is in British football.
“For him to be willing to basically take the challenge and to try to prove that it is his place, I think it’s great so I’m very positive.”
This is how fans reacted as the Southampton owner suggests VAR cost Russell Martin his job as manager…
@bfgfox: I completely agree with him. I also think Martin was unlucky in that the best form from Ugochukwu and Downs came later in the season. He did however manage to get the best from Lallana, Dibling and with Fernandes we looked dangerous at times #saintsfc
@Scotty_Ash78: So he was sacked based on VAR decisions? Nah.
@PSmith1994: Probably right tbf
@jamie_guce: spot on. fairs. #saintsfc
@liamtribb: It’s more than 8
@HCfootball01: So you essentially sacked him because of VAR incompetence? Well that’s not very nice
@oc_chaudhary: so if you believed he was worth 8 points higher than they had, why did you sack him lmao
@saintsleom: because every game in december he was getting constantly abused by the fans, dragan had no choice
@JoeCWard: He’s 1000% correct by the way. Potentially even more than eight.
@AJPfx_: People saying no but don’t even know what decisions he’s talking about 😂 Russell was unlucky with VAR but we would’ve still been relegated with him in charge
@Sam__SFC: Ultimately suicidal football cost him his job but we should have had way more points than we did
@HanksMartin: Well it didn’t help poor fitness levels meant they couldn’t play to standard required to play Russell’s style of football in the Premier league and led to the individual mistakes which cost a lot of points and ultimately led to relegation because of it
@Charlie_Robb96: No. The fact that complete and utter moron of a bloke continued to play out from the back with players not good enough to do so and not learning from it when they kept conceding from unforced errors cost him his job. Celtic must be laughing their heads off.
@nathanj3001: Well it’s a good thing he’s now managing a team in a league that doesn’t have odd var decisions go against them often 😅
@khughsey111: Bang on tbf we were shafted more than anyone by VAR last year, everytime it would of gave us a platform to build we got fucked over #SaintsFC
