Bree excited by "unbelievable coach and unbelievable players"

Bree returned from a loan spell at Charlton just in time for Saints’ first league derby at Fratton Park in 14 years, a highly-charged 1-1 draw, and stayed in the team for the rest of the campaign.

Starting 19 games during Saints’ 21-match unbeaten run, the rejuvenated right-back has still not suffered a league defeat since his January recall.

“People say ‘roller coaster’ but it was, with so much going on,” he said of last season. “When you get on that roll of playing football, and you’re in the mode of it, it sometimes becomes automatic and you’re in that zone. I felt like I was playing some really good football.”

Fresh from signing a new three-year contract at St Mary’s, Bree paid tribute to head coach Tonda Eckert for reviving his Saints career.

“Tonda was so good with me, just giving me so much information and let me play my football,” he said.

“He coached me really, really well and just had that belief in me from the start. It’s such a strange situation because we were unbeaten in the league – I was unbeaten in the league the whole time since I was back – so it’s a strange feeling that we went on that run and there was nothing to come from it.

“We know that we’ve got a really good team and when we play our football we’re a really strong team, especially in this division, so we’ll go into the season really confident and full of motivation to go and do it all again.”

Bree was on the receiving end of an early statement of intent from Eckert’s side back in November, as Saints ran riot to win 5-1 at The Valley with all of the goals coming in the first half.

“I’d been in training that morning so I was up in the stands watching,” he said, having been ineligible to feature for Charlton that day. “I remember thinking it was the best 20 minutes of football I’d ever seen!

“Obviously I was on the other side of it, so it was a bit disappointing for the boys seeing them go for it, but from a Southampton point of view I thought, ‘wow, they’ve really got something here’.

“I think that’s what I said to the boys when I first came back after the first couple of games. We’d got some good results and it was almost like, ‘I can’t see how we’ve not been rolling teams over’ because we were playing such good football and everyone was so confident and together.

“It all just clicked at the right time and we went on that run that we did, so I think it’s obvious that Tonda’s an unbelievable coach and he’s got unbelievable players underneath him who will do what he says, so it’s not a bad concoction.”