Nathan Redmond: Living through Turkey earthquake and looking back on relegated Southampton

“It happened in the early hours of the morning, so I was asleep in Istanbul,” says Nathan Redmond, recounting the events of February 6. “We just woke up in the morning and my missus was looking at her phone and said, ‘There’s been an earthquake’.”

Redmond could not quite apprehend the scale of the tragedy unfolding.

“We woke up to a lot of messages from family asking if we were OK and what was going on. We were oblivious to everything, so we put on the news and had a look at what was happening. It was a scary time for everyone. I came into training and didn’t really realise the effect of it until I saw the Turkish players. You could see in their demeanour this was really serious.

“Everybody knew somebody. There was no escaping it. We could have been in the city, and you never know about the earthquake aftershock. It’s one of those things that puts football and life into perspective.”

The confirmed death toll from February’s Turkey-Syria earthquake stands at over 50,000 people, making it the deadliest natural disaster in the region’s modern history.

It was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in Turkey — there were two seismic events, one measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale at 4am and another of 7.7 in magnitude at 1pm later that day — striking south-eastern parts of the country and the north west of neighbouring Syria. The feeling of grief is inescapable across both nations.

“There are some things in life you just can’t avoid,” says Redmond.

The 29-year-old English forward orders a coffee, in Turkish, as he sits down with The Athletic near Istanbul, where he has been living for the past 10 months. Redmond’s one-year deal with Besiktas is coming to an end, but playing in the Super Lig, contrary to popular belief, has not meant he’s been out of sight or out of mind. The challenges of the earthquake’s aftermath, living away from home and regaining fitness after a disrupted pre-season have taught Redmond lessons about himself.

“My missus was on holiday with the kids and her mum in Dubai when I agreed to fly over here and sign. She had to adjust to leaving for a different country… while being on holiday! So that was tough. But everyone is taking it in their stride. The kids love the school they are going to here. I’ve got no bad words to say about my time.”

Redmond appears relaxed and at ease. Happier and more settled than when The Athletic last spoke to him in November, where he admitted to not having been happy in football “for a long time”. Coming to Turkey, moving outside his domestic bubble, has helped ease pressures that had been par for the course in the Premier League. Redmond spent the previous six years in a Southampton side largely consumed by the threat of relegation from the top flight.

“I needed the break from playing in the Premier League for so long, and in English football,” he admits. “Istanbul is unique and has two sides to it. We live on the Asian side of Istanbul and going over to the European side, crossing the bridge, you can just see the amazing views. There are moments where I have little pieces of gratitude like the view from my house or when I’m playing home games at Vodafone Park, where the fans are up with the best in the world.”

Remarkably, despite an ongoing 14-game unbeaten run including 12 wins, Besiktas are third in the league with a game to go. That’s not wholly satisfactory, but their form means they will emerge from the season with optimism. In some ways, Redmond’s own improvement has mirrored that of his team.

“The first part of the season was about adapting,” says Redmond, who didn’t join until Besiktas had played five matches. “I had a slow start. I didn’t start a lot of the games because I hadn’t trained in the last 10 days at Southampton. I was training alone, with Jack Stephens, because our futures were set (Stephens soon left to spend the rest of the season on loan at Bournemouth). We hadn’t trained properly, we hadn’t had any real game time and didn’t train with the squad.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the latter part of the season because I’ve felt a lot more comfortable and fitter after the World Cup. My performances have started to raise, get a few more goals and chipped in with assists.”

Redmond scored four and had three assists over five appearances during March and April, including, most notably, a standout individual display away to Besiktas’ greatest rivals, Fenerbahce. Coming on as a half-time substitute, he created three goals and scored the other, a stunning solo effort, in a 4-2 win where a red card meant Besiktas were down to 10 men for the final 40 minutes.

“It was just about getting back to enjoying football again,” Redmond explains. “It’s not to say that my time at Southampton I didn’t enjoy, because I enjoyed every single minute, good and bad. And it’s not to say that the pressure was too much, but coming here was a breath of fresh air. We are one of the best teams in the league, being able to have a lot of the ball.”

It is fair to say that having the ball was not always a luxury afforded to him at Southampton. An approach predicated on high-pressing and outlasting teams through greater intensity was wearing thin by the time Redmond left.

Southampton did try to reshape and add fresh impetus to a clearly ailing environment last summer. The squad would undergo major surgery, with Redmond the final one of 12 players out the door. Those efforts would ultimately prove fruitless as a season of tumult ensued, ending with last-place relegation.

“There wasn’t a sense of I thought it (relegation) was coming,” he says of last summer. “But Prowsey (James Ward-Prowse) recently said that he knew in pre-season that it was going to be difficult. On that, I agree. The only reason I say what Prowsey said was interesting is that, over the years I was there, we always had a very good core of players that knew what it meant, not only to play in the Premier League, but to play for Southampton.”

Recruitment was underpinned by a heavy emphasis on youth. Just two of the 10 players signed in that window were over the age of 25 and only one — Ainsley Maitland-Niles of Arsenal — had played in the Premier League before.

“I’ve never been shy of young players coming in,” says Redmond. “I was once a younger player, so I know what’s going to happen. I said it on my Instagram post, when I said my farewell to the fans, that I hoped the young players understand what it means to be a Saint and to perform in the Premier League. It’s not about the 19 home games. It’s not about the 19 away games and the odd cup game —  every single day, from Monday to Friday, that’s what it’s about.

“Gamedays are almost like you’re working to do a presentation on a Saturday and you’ve been told off the previous Sunday. You’ve got from Sunday to Friday to prepare something that you can present. But those younger players need senior players to help nurture them on the day-to-day stuff and harness their ability in the tactical and mental side of the game. I feel like they’ve just lacked that a little bit.”

Redmond’s continuing affection for Southampton is unmistakable and he says he remains “ingrained in the club”. For four minutes, uninterrupted, he talks eloquently and without any hint of remorse about the club he joined from Norwich City in 2016 and represented 232 times.

“If you look back on the years,” he says, “all the younger players would tell you how great I was with them in giving them a bit of stick when they needed it and getting onto them in training if they weren’t necessarily good enough; that’s not to say I was the best player or was Mr Consistent. That was what Prowsey, or Oriol (Romeu) would do. Those two players were leaders in performance. If things weren’t going well, they would roll their sleeves up and get the standard going again. But then you need players that rein you in — that was me, Ryan Bertrand and Stephens.

“I’ll never tell any lies. I wouldn’t say I called it (relegation), but I just knew it was going to be a difficult season if the right people weren’t brought in. It’s fine letting me, Stephens, Oriol, Longy (Shane Long) and Fraser Forster go, but then if you look back at that know-how in some games where it might be a little bit difficult, have they missed that player in Oriol making a late, crunching tackle? Or if a team’s on the break in the 20th minute and he makes a cynical foul?”

Redmond is unsure of what happens next for him.

He has enjoyed his season in Turkey and is happy to stay overseas. But where he goes will be decided by two primary factors. Firstly, considering what suits his young family and, secondly, what suits his career. He already has two offers from Premier League clubs but Besiktas are also keen for him to stay. If coming to Turkey was a risk that brought about a revival in confidence, performance and enjoyment, then the next decision, having turned 29 in March, needs to follow a similar trajectory.

“I still feel like I’ve got a lot to give, whether it is here or at another club,” Redmond concludes. “But the good thing for me is that, at the end of the season, I have time to sit and think about what’s going to happen. I’ll be a free agent and can relax a little and assess what options are coming. I’m in a much better mindset going into this summer rather than last summer.”

(Top photos: Getty Images & The Athletic)