‘I can achieve all my ambitions at special club Southampton’
Ward-prowse will lead team out at Wembley convinced they can reach FA Cup final and help him fulfil England dreams
‘As a young player it was always instilled in me to work hard and enjoy it’
The one-club man is a famously endangered species but, at Southampton, it is not just free-kick prowess that James Ward-prowse shares with Matthew Le Tissier.
The captain has been at the club since the age of eight and, even allowing for the team’s nosedive in form since the turn of the year, the grass at home clearly is still a very alluring green.
Ward-prowse has the chance tomorrow to lead Southampton into what would be only their third FA Cup final since 1902, but it is when he talks about England – and the traditionally thorny subject of whether players from outside the “Big Six” can command a regular place – that you get the clearest sense that he could easily finish exactly where he started.
“I don’t share [the view] that you need to be at these big clubs to influence your England career,” says Ward-prowse. “Ultimately, if you perform and do all you can for your club, whether you play for the top four or five or whatever, the England manager has definitely shown that you don’t have to be at those clubs. This is a great place to be and definitely one where you can break into the England squad as well.
“The season will have dips. You will have injuries and difficult times, but in times of adversity that family feel comes to the forefront and pulls you through. It struck me here as a young boy.
“It’s a nice and special feeling but I don’t like to look too far ahead. A player’s career is so short and these moments in seasons are so rare. I just want to be focused on enjoying where we are and being in the position where we have the chance to reach an FA Cup final.”
Ward-prowse signed a new five year contract last summer shortly after replacing Pierre-emile Hojbjerg as the club captain and has so far embodied that cliche of a player who leads by example. He has not missed a match in almost two years – now spanning 81 games – and has always made a point of telling manager Ralph Hasenhuttl that, regardless of the competition, he wants no part of any rotation policy.
Hasenhuttl calls Ward-prowse “a machine” and, as well as being in range of David Beckham’s all-time Premier League free-kick record, is the club’s undisputed “beep test” king.
“Growing up as a young player and person it was always simply instilled in me to work hard and enjoy it,” he says. “That was always the message from my mum and dad before a training session or a match and that’s stuck with me.”
The wider context for such resilience, however, is not entirely what you might expect. After also training with the Portsmouth school of excellence, Ward-prowse chose Southampton before making the secret decision – aged 13 – to also train with the men at nearby Havant & Waterlooville in the Blue Square South.
It was his father, a barrister from Portsmouth who was a Fratton Park season-ticket holder, who first made the suggestion. “Growing up, I knew I wasn’t the biggest, strongest or quickest and admittedly not the toughest,” says Ward-prowse. “I didn’t do these sorts of things. So I went training with them and I’d go and watch them on the weekend. Just to be in and around that men’s environment, to hear the swearing, to hear the banter that goes on, toughens you up.
“Then, when I was training with the Southampton first team at 15, I could use those experiences to adjust more easily than I would have. Now I’m on the other side, I recognise when younger players need some encouragement and interaction to fit into the group.”
Captaincy, says Wardprowse, was also always a dream. “Even as a young player, I captained various age groups,” he says.
“It was something I always felt I was destined to be. I wanted to have that opportunity and responsibility. It’s something I crave. I love trying to lead a group, to be that figure in the team who everyone looks to in moments.”
A further perspective, says Wardprowse, arrived with the birth of his son, Oscar, in 2018. The golf swing goal celebration is a nod to their games together in the garden.
“Before he came into my life, football was the be all and end all,” he says. “If I had a bad training session, if we lost a game, if things weren’t going great, I definitely beat myself up.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself, and having him has alleviated all of
that. I know that I can go out and play, enjoy it and work as hard as I can. If we have a great game then happy days. If we don’t, and we lose, then I’ve still won because I’ve got him waiting for me to play in the garden.”
And, ahead of Southampton’s first Wembley FA Cup appearance since their victory in 1976, how does he think he will feel when he leads out the team? “Immensely proud,” says
Ward-prowse. “It’s an incredible moment that I will look back on and cherish.
“We don’t want the opportunity to go by without giving it everything. We want to create history by being in the FA Cup final and hopefully winning.
“We are on the cusp of some really special memories and moments here and want to take that next step.”