SambaMaverick

For anyone who wants to read: Ralph Hasenhuttl’s time at Southampton is coming to a close as the club consider the timing of the Austrian coach’s departure. Hasenhuttl, 55, has survived several setbacks since his appointment by the former Chinese-backed regime in December 2018 and has performed above expectations at times to keep Southampton in the Premier League. Nevertheless, a change of coach has been on the cards for some time at the club now under the management of Sport Republic, backed by the Serb telecommunications billionaire Dragan Solak. Southampton face champions Manchester City at the Etihad this weekend, an away fixture in which they secured a well-deserved draw last season. This time the pressure is much more acute with three successive defeats for Southampton and, with another likely, Hasenhuttl’s departure is drawing closer. Hasenhuttl has proved himself on many occasions to be an adept tactician and capable of pulling off occasional eye-catching victories over much stronger, wealthier opposition. There is a feeling that the club now needs change and requires a coach who can help develop a model of younger, developing talents. There is still no outright first choice to replace him, although alternatives have been discussed internally. Southampton have struggled at the start of the season, with just seven points from their first eight games, and while the objective, as ever, is survival there have been some concerning results – including Saturday’s home defeat to Everton. Their poor end to last season has also been taken into account, after 10 defeats in the final 13 matches. Hasenhuttl survived a summer review of the club's football operations, with the majority of his backroom staff leaving instead. Southampton are now run on the football side by the Sport Republic chief executive Rasmus Ankersen, formerly of Brentford, and Henrik Kraft, the chair of the same investment company. Ankersen was responsible for the negotiation of deals over the summer transfer window and Sport Republic recruited Joe Shields from Manchester City’s academy as head of their senior team recruitment programme. At the end of last season, the Sport Republic ownership sacked all three of Hasenhuttl’s key assistant coaches – Craig Fleming, Kelvin Davis and Dave Watson – and installed their own coaching team to work with the manager. There is an acceptance that Hasenhuttl has not always had the support around him that might have been expected for a Premier League manager because of the change at the club. He was appointed and supported by former sporting director Ross Wilson who later left for Rangers. He was then given the full backing of the chief executive Martin Semmens while the club was in the process of being sold by former Chinese owner Gao Jisheng. As a result of the changes Southampton have been through, many of those who backed Hasenhuttl originally are no longer in the key decision-making positions. Hasenhuttl has occasionally struggled to connect with players away from the training pitch, and that has been an issue – especially for those who have not been part of his plans. The club would also accept that he has had to contend with limited scope for recruitment. Managing relationships within the club with players and key staff will be vital for the new manager, who will have to work within the Southampton development system. The signing of young players, with scope to improve, such as Romeo Lavia, Gavin Bazunu, Armel Bella-Kotchap and Joe Aribo has thus far been vindicated by individual performances, if not the results of the team. Southampton are unable to compete with wealthier rivals in the league.

IMO, yes. Watkins is all fart and no shit.

He didn't play against them in either game.

Danny Ings, six-month loan, pay his wages, bosh, done. Providing Gerrard hasn't been sacked by then and his replacement doesn't wise up to the fact that he's a much better player than Watkins. Any other striker and we'd be paying through the nose and risking a Carrillo-lite situation.

It's frustating to watch, but I think Southgate is a pretty good tournament manager. No goals conceded from open play in the Euros, which is less than can be said about Ralph. I'm willing to go into the WC with an open mind.

Wank. I'd rather stand in that Queen queue with the other mongs than watch him play another game for us.

Moi, AA9, Diallo - useless, wouldn't get into any other side in the Premier League. Fact. JWP chasing shadows out there - has he really got it in him to be the fucker that Romeu was? AMN thrown under the bus - just the latest to suffer that fate. Bazunu performances are troubling. At least we looked semi-solid? ABK is such an upgrade on Bednarek it isn't true. As above, Everton feels like a big game. I think he'll be gone during the WC break.

He had his hands on his hips within half an hour, worrying

How useless was Perraud against Wolves btw? Tub of lard looked out of puff inside about 20 minutes, let's hope he's been working on that during this break. I'd start Djenepo.

His penalties used to drive me up the wall. I'd kill to have a player like him now though - just hope he'd let JWP take the pens 😅

They're contracted to play football - and I'm not convinced many of that demographic feel quite that strongly

But what does that mean? Because someone has died we can't have the weather forecast?

What is important about sitting at home, twiddling thumbs and watching the same shit on repeat for 10 days - rather than celebrating her life in a group setting?

This is more your speed. I mean, what the fuck is that all about?

Where are they fitting one (probably two) gameweeks into this? Rubbish decision

Anyone who was due to come in from outside the area via train can claim a e-voucher for the cost of the ticket with the link in that Tweet. Might be worth saving that link in case the Villa game goes down the pan too.

Absolute rubbish. Even North Korea is laughing at us.

The Great North run cancelled. No bearing on the footy, but still - what the fuck? Mourning > charity?

Surely you can see the difference between one or two games being cancelled as opposed to every game across the pyramid?

Trains / tickets / accomodation booked, small businesses will have done their orders, workers will be banking on the hours - can't stress enough what a poor and out of touch decision it would be to cancel games. And that's before we get into the whole mourning debate.

It's almost like you can choose whether you watch something... if you don't want to watch it, you don't have to.

So we'll mourn just enough to cancel everything remotely fun - but you've still got to work the whole time. Sounds about right for the way this country is going.

Ridiculous

Blimey