Burley leads Saints' charge for promotion

Southampton seem to have left their best forhm for the last phase of the season. If they can maintain this trend they could well make it to the promotion play-offs.

At present, the Saints are eighth in the standings with 66 points from 42 matches and trail sixth-placed Preston by just two points.

This is Southampton's second season out of the top flight, having been demoted from the Premiership in 2004-05. Last year, they finished a disappointing 12th but they could go better this time.

After the signing of Grzegorz Rasiak, from Tottenham, following a loan period at St Mary's, they have captured another Polish striker in Marek Saganowski.

He proved his potential when hitting a hat-trick in the 6-0 trimming of Wolves at Molineux.

Saganowski is on a loan spell at Southampton and has pleaded with the club to sign him permanently even if the Saints were to remain in the Championship.

Yet, the club's hottest property is Gareth Bale, an England U-21 international defender who is being courted by several top clubs.

Southampton are managed by George Burley. Last season, the Scot was at the helm of Hearts and had the fans on their feet at Tynecastle after he succeed in lifting the team from the ashes to hold their own against Old Firm rivals Celtic and Rangers.

But Hearts chairman Vladimir Romanov expected too much from Burley who had no other option but to leave when he deemed he had lost total control.

Hearts's loss became Southampton's gain as he took over from Harry Redknapp (now at Ports-mouth) in December 2005.

Burley was born on June 3, 1956 in Commack, Ayrshire. He was one of the finest defenders in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

He formed part of the Ipswich side managed by Bobby Robson that did extremely well both at home and on the continent.

Burley joined the Town as an apprentice and made his debut in the top flight against Manchester United at Old Trafford in 1973.

His first major honour came in 1978 when Ipswich beat Arsenal 1-0 (Osborne) in the FA Cup final at Wembley.

They finished runners-up twice in Division One in 1980-81 and 1981-82 and lifted the UEFA Cup in 1981 after beating AZ Alkmaar 5-4 on aggregate. Unfortunately, injury robbed Burley of UEFA Cup success.

He made more than 500 appearances for Ipswich and earned 11 Scotland caps. He was not finished yet and went on to play for Sunderland, Gillingham and Motherwell.

In 1990 he was appointed player-manager of Ayr United. He remained in Scotland where he also managed Falkirk before returning to Motherwell as player-coach.

He crossed the Hadrian Wall for the umpteenth time to play and manage Colchester United in 1994. But, the lure of returning to Ipswich saw him ending his tenure after only six months when he took over at Portman Road.

At Ipswich, he succeeded in building an entertaining young squad and came close to promotion to the top flight. In fact, the Town reached the play-offs on four successive years.

In the first three they fell in the semi-finals to Sheffield United, Charlton and Bolton respectively.

The Suffolk side finally made it at the fourth time of asking, gaining promotion via the deciders in May 2000 by beating Barnsley.

Surprise package

In their first season in the Premiership, Ipswich became the surprise package of Premier League as they finished fifth and qualified for the UEFA Cup.

It was indeed a feather in the cap for Burley - their first European appearance in 20 years - but the following year they were relegated. Still they attained a UEFA Cup place in that particular year after winning the Fair Play League.

The Town found the going tough and the board had to sack Burley as the team fell to 19th place.

After declining to take over at Stoke City, Burley was appointed Derby County's interim manager during the suspension of John Gregory.

The Rams were in dire trouble of relegation but Burley steered the side to safe waters with only seven matches to the finish. In June 2003, Burley took over at Derby on a permanent basis.

After he failed again in the play-offs, Burley was at loggerheads with the Derby board following the transfer of Tom Huddlestone to Tottenham. He resigned from his job in 2004-05.

Hearts saw his potential and handed him the job. But not for long as his internal battles with Lithuanian owner Romanov ended Burley's links with the Scottish club... Southampton were waiting on the wings.