The Belgian spurned the chance to join the Saints as a player, when he spent one season in the Premier League with Coventry City, and revealed on Tuesday he also had a soft spot for Matt Le Tissier.
Clement plotted a 2-1 home win early in his Carrow Road tenure, which only has limited value for the Belgian ahead of the rematch on the south-coast.
“There are similarities, but they changed the way of playing also. They changed the formation. They changed also personnel and new players came in, like (Cyle) Larin, scoring important goals,” he said. “So there are changes from that game, for sure, also in the way that they build, in the way that they create chances.
“They have several players who played Premier League only one year ago, or less than a year ago and they still have the parachute payments so a big budget there, and the ambition is to go up directly again for all the teams who go down. For them it's a need to be in these play-offs with the squad that they have. That's clear.
“That game for us was a big step because we were still at the start of building things, and it was the first team that we came up against that was that good on the ball. They have a lot of technical qualities, a lot of really good players from the back to create chances out of that, and to push you back.
"And in that game it was the first time that we had to play against that kind of team, and we defended really well, also at the end of the game when they had to push to win or to get a draw we managed to keep them away from our goal and they could not create chances. That was one of the first steps of really believing in the team, for sure.”
Clement’s injury-hit squad have won five out of their six away league games in 2026.
“We are both the teams who took most points in 2026 so it's going to be a big, big challenge. The better the quality, the less mistakes you can make,” he said. “And the game will be decided on small margins, on details. It's like when you played in the past with your teams in Europe you know, okay, the quality is that high. These teams can make the difference when you make a small mistake.
“It doesn't mean that we need to fear to make mistakes, because it's part of football also, but we need high concentration, a good organization, but I want to see us play like we can play. We're not going to totally adapt our style of play towards Southampton.
"And it's interesting to see again with several of my players how they cope with this kind of opponents, also with the changes that you can make during the game, how everybody acts against this level.
“It's a club with really a big tradition, with a great history. A long, long time ago, I even talked with them and in the end I went to Coventry. So I know this club already a long time. They have a few really important players from the past, like I always love to see Matt Le Tissier play, it was amazing to see him.”
Clement appeared keen to keep his rival Tonda Eckert guessing at Colney on the fitness of both Ben Chrisene (hamstring) and Ruairi McConville (knee) as he wrestles with selection dilemmas for a fourth game in 11 days.
McConville is yet to rejoin team training after a knee issue ruled him out of the past two City games, but the central defender is in the Northern Ireland squad for an upcoming World Cup play-off qualifier against Italy.
“Ben is a bit better, so we'll make an assessment on the day. it's not a long term injury that he has, but of course, we have two games in the very short term,” said Clement. “Ruairi’s recovery has been good, and it's now making a good assessment around when is the right moment to come back with him.
"For sure, we are aware of the schedule. Not just for the starting line up but also the changes that you make. I think the positive is we have one day more, and we start to think now like that, one day more in between games feels like ages to the last game, because it was a lot of times we only had two days. That one extra day gives a lot in recovery.
"To be honest, in some positions we have more choices than others. It's about the guys who are available. It's about the here and now. It's about Southampton. Like I said from the beginning I'm not going to be busy with all those things we are missing. We need to be busy with the things we have, and to take the best out of everybody, the best out of the team, and to take the most amount of points possible in the situation that we are. but this is not a normal situation.
"So clearly, as a club, we're really busy to solve that for the future, that we never come in this situation again with injuries.”