'We're in this together' - Saints captain Stephens
Jack Stephens has been at Southampton since 2011
- Published
Southampton captain Jack Stephens says everyone at the club is "together" heading into the new season after an unprecedented ending to the last campaign with the Spygate scandal.
The defender has been at Saints since joining their academy in 2011 and has gone on to make 232 appearances for the first team.
The 32-year-old played 32 times last season under both Will Still and Tonda Eckert, and is hoping the players can take a positive mindset into the new Championship campaign.
Saints were kicked out of the Championship play-offs in May after admitting they spied on three clubs during the campaign.
Eckert was also charged with misconduct by the FA for authorising the observation of rival training sessions.
"To go through the end of last season was a very difficult situation for everyone," Stephens told BBC Radio Solent.
"I've been through everything with this football club and then last season happened so it turned out that I hadn't.
"We're now through the back of what was a really difficult period and we want to make sure there's a much better feeling going into this season.
"We stuck together as a group of players, staff and the fanbase and we're all in it together, you suffer through the tough times together and then you enjoy the good times."
Saints have won all of their pre-season games , beating Eastleigh before travelling to Germany for a training camp where they won against Preussen Munster and Eintracht Braunschweig.
Attention now turns to Saturday when they travel to League Two side Colchester United in the EFL Cup before visiting Watford for their first league game on the season the following weekend.
Stephens believes that despite how last season ended, the club can draw from the high points of a campaign which saw them finish fourth in the table and take that momentum into the opening matches and beyond.
"We put in all the work to get to where we wanted to be at and that was taken away from us," he added.
"But that doesn't mean that the whole thing was a waste of time, we came together as a football club and the connection between the fans and players grew to something I've never seen since I've been at the club.
"We have to take all the positives from last season and there were a lot of positives and it's important to not forget what we did and take it into this season."
