Parahrase this article” “Before I came here, I didn’t realise our job was to entertain. When I saw what football means to the people, how could I betray them?”
“Before I came here, I didn’t realise our job was to entertain. When I saw what football means to the people, how could I betray them?”
Those are the words of returning Saints hero Marian Pahars, speaking exclusively to the Daily Echo on his first visit to the city since departing in 2006.
Pahars, 47, was nicknamed ‘The Latvian Michael Owen’ for good reason. He was super quick, and some of his goals were among the club’s most important.
From a flying header securing safety and eliciting the Dell’s eruption to nutmegging Jaap Stam at Old Trafford, Pahars has relived it all.
“It feels amazing, I cannot lie. I came back home,” he tells us. “I came with the family for the first time altogether.
Fantastic evening tonight with the class of ‘99. My first experience of St Mary’s hospitality. 👏
Also great to meet Marian Pahars, back in SO for the first time tonight.
“One of my kids was born here in Southampton and it’s the first time he has been here since we left.
“It’s something that is really close, something that stays inside me but, at the same time, something that I lost.
“Seeing the stadium, it’s a little bit different. When I saw the pitch, I told the groundsmen what a fantastic job they had done.
“That is what I miss, I want to be on the pitch. You can never come back and I have to accept that, even though you try to do everything to be involved in football.”
The circumstances of Pahars’ arrival need little further documentation. He scored a hattrick in a trial game for the reserves against Oxford United to earn a contract in February 1999.
He had been highlighted to Dave Jones by Latvia boss Gary Johnson, who watched Pahars in Moscow after seeing VHS tapes of his performances against Barcelona and Inter Milan.
Pahars then scored three of his 45 Saints goals as the club pulled off a ‘great escape’, including a brace against Everton on the final day of the season to seal survival.
He was giving up guaranteed silverware to come and join a team just about surviving – Skonto Riga had won every title since the league’s formation following 1991 independence.
“I don’t remember Everton so much but from day one when I played at the Dell until the end of my career, saying goodbye at St Mary’s, the fans were amazing,” Pahars recalled.
“I came from a small country and I appreciated the fans’ support more than anyone. Playing the Champions League in my country, it’s only one or two games a year.
“To be able to compete against Man United, Arsenal, Leeds or Newcastle every single weekend. That is something different and it is the best league in the world.
“In Latvia, it is only a couple of thousand fans who turn up so who are you entertaining? Nobody? Your parents and your family, maybe.”
It did not always look like it was going to work out for the young Pahars, who barely spoke a word of English, here in a strange new country.
Former apprentice Franny Benali, the roommate of Pahars during his time at Saints, welcomed the newcomer into his home and tried to introduce him to social circles.
However, kicked to the verge of tears after replacing James Beattie for his Saints debut away at Coventry City, in a 1-0 defeat, Pahars exited with his tail between his legs.
He rang his mother, still back in Latvia, and expressed fears that he would never make it in the Premier League.
It took Pahars seven more minutes to find the net, rescuing a 3-3 draw against Blackburn Rovers, in a game in which current football director Jason Wilcox also scored.
During this week in 1999, Marian Pahars scored a late leveller as Southampton drew 3-3 with Blackburn.
It was the Latvian’s home debut and the point he won proved crucial come the end of the season.
Pahars said: “Before the next appearance, I missed two games and I didn’t even make the bench. I thought the manager would never play me again.
“What I did, I tried hard in training. I was telling myself that I had to show the coach. I was running, I was making the tackles and the other players were saying ‘Are you crazy?’.
“I didn’t care. I said sorry and then I’d run and jump into a tackle again, and I’d say sorry again and again and again.”
He was the first Latvian to play in the Premier League but more followed – including Imants Bleidelis to Saints, who suffered from the managerial switch of Jones to Glenn Hoddle.
Saints continued to survive in the Premier League, integral to the finances of the club with the impending move to St Mary’s, with his season-best goals total standing at 14 in 2002.
Awarded a medal for scoring the first goal at St Mary’s in a 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa in September 2001, Pahars last week donated the accolade back to the club for public exhibition.
Injuries were ruinous from 2002 onwards and Pahars made only 31 further league appearances in four seasons before a 2006 departure.
He sat out the entirety of the 2004-05 relegation campaign despite declaring himself available for the run-in.
“I was ready to play the last five games but Harry Redknapp, he didn’t use me,” Pahars said, with a hint of regret etched on his face.
“There were a lot of changes in the team and new players came – I felt, at the time, that I wasn’t part of it.
“It was a little bit strange for me. I won’t say it was wrong or right but it was something I could not affect.
“I was ready and travelling with the team but didn’t get used. I don’t know what would have happened if I had played those games, maybe I would have scored a necessary goal.”
Pahars’ St Mary’s return coincides with the club’s return to the division in which he made his last eight Saints appearances.
He was greeted as a hero by supporters as the star of a hospitality event last week, reuniting with former teammates such as Matt Le Tissier, Beattie and Benali.
“My wife looked at me with different eyes after the event, thinking ‘Who is he?’ She was in shock,” he joked.
Now the assistant manager of the Latvian national team, having stepped back from his role as technical director in September, he met with current club bosses.
Manager Russell Martin and Pahars reminisced over stories of Gordon Strachan, a former boss of the pair, as well as discussing past visits to Latvia’s capital – Riga.
Then there was another small matter. Much is different now, including Staplewood, which did not exist 20 years ago, but Pahars insisted: “Football talks don’t change.
“I want to say a big thank you to the club for allowing me to come here and talk to the leadership, everyone has been so friendly and open.
“I had an amazing chat with (CEO) Phil Parsons and Jason, and then they took me inside and shared all of the information – you love that kind of attitude.
“I told them I would like to play in this kind of football, where you possess the ball – I would fit in that game well.
“This time is going so quickly, the years fly by. It was like yesterday. My message to all the players? Don’t lose time, every second is important.”
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