Keith Southern has landed a new role - with the Blackpool legend departing Everton earlier this summer.
Blackpool legend Keith Southern has landed a new job just down the road from Bloomfield Road.
The former Seasiders midfielder left Everton after nine-and-a-half years with the Toffees earlier this summer following an academy restructure, but hasn’t been out of work for long.
Earlier this week, League Two outfit Fleetwood Town announced the 45-year-old had made the move to Highbury as U21 lead coach, over a decade on from a short playing stint with the Cod Army.
Southern is of course best known for his time Tangerine, as well as Huddersfield Town and Shrewsbury Town on his CV.
After first joining Blackpool in 2002 under the management of Steve McMahon, he would later be involved in two play-off successes with the Fylde Coast outfit.
In 2007, Simon Grayson guided the club to League One promotion, while in 2010 Ian Holloway inspired his side to the top flight.
Keith Southernplaceholder image
Keith Southern
Back in May, Southern reflected on the latter, as he emphasised the impact the 3-2 victory over Cardiff City at Wembley had on the wider footballing world.
“I still can’t believe it to this day,” Southern said.
“It still gets shown on Sky Sports - there’s many play-off finals with huge drama, but that one seems to get shown more than most for some reason, which is quite nice because it keeps the memory of it alive.
“It was just an incredible season. To obviously play there (at Wembley) and come from behind on a couple of occasions to get over the line, it was emotional, it was chaotic, it was frantic, but it meant everything to the players and the fans.
“We had a brilliant connection. I don’t think we were going to be denied; it was just meant to be on that particular day.
“We often fell behind in games throughout the season, it was a common theme. It wasn’t planned that way. When you do it once or twice, and it becomes a habit, the belief grows because we had goalscorers in the team and on the bench.
“When you’ve got that, you’re always in the game; you’re never dead, so we always felt we had a real opportunity with the firepower we had.
“We had a great party after in the hotel in Covent Garden. It went on late into the evening, it was a memorable evening. You didn’t want it to come to an end, because you’re waking up the next morning and it’s gradually moving away from you - and now we’re 16 years on.”