Recognition of Ralph Hasenhuttl's contributions to the club (positive vibes please)

[Hamilton Saint]

The immediate reaction to the sacking of a manager is inevitably clouded by the negative--and often vituperative--comments that dominated discussion during his final weeks in charge of the club. We know about the long run of poor form, the controversial team selections, etc., etc.

After the dust has settled, however, and supporters of the club have a chance to reflect on the contributions that the manager has made, a more balanced view will start to emerge of his achievements while in charge.

The full picture will include a sense of the man's character, and an assessment of both his strengths and weaknesses as a tactician, a man-manager, and a key figure in the organization.

But how about for now we dedicate this thread to positive thoughts and opinions about Ralph Hasenhuttl--in recognition of his long service to the club? What aspects of Ralph, the man, will you remember most? What are the best things he did while here at Southampton Football Club?

[Master Bates]

He was Austrian. My mum was born in Austria. British Military Barracks in Klagenfurt to be precise, so it was good to play them pre season.

 

But seriously, it was fun to begin with, highs and lows, but unfortunately not everything lasts.

Cheers for the positives Ralph.

[JamiSaint]

Great shout @Hamilton Saint. I really, really liked the guy. Probably the manager I could identify with most since Nigel. And the longest serving in my Saints supporting lifetime (since 1995) if my maths are right. Let’s face it, he could have chosen a much bigger club given his success with Leipzig (2^nd in the Bundesliga in his first season!!). I loved the fact that he relished a project, a smaller club with whom he could really build something, rather than pining after somewhere bigger. And that sense of loyalty pervaded everything he did – you could really feel his commitment to the club. That’s quite rare, right? Especially in an industry which is so financially-oriented – he felt a values-driven guy, and that’s why, for a while, he felt such a good fit. The sadness is that he lost his way – he moved away from his principles, probably because of the paucity of talent at his disposal and a lack of backing in the transfer market. A defensive spine of McCarthy, Stephens and Bednarek makes you wonder how we stayed in the league, let alone take us to the occasional heights (post pandemic, culminating in being top of the league). That, for me, is his greatest achievement, keeping us up. I echo those supporters who feel that, if he’d joined us now, he might have been able to do something magical. But after a load of false starts he looked and felt jaded, his beloved 4-2-2-2 and pressing game becoming not fit for purpose. And that’s when I felt he had to go – there’s no clear vision, no direction, players and supporters confused as to what he’s trying to achieve. Which is very sad – I think we’ve broken a very talented manager. We were at our best when he was at his bravest, such as post the Leicester defeat. I hope that he goes on to one final job and brings them glory. He will always be welcome at St Mary’s, and I hope he knows that he leaves with a lot of goodwill from many Saints fans. Thanks Ralph.

[Saint Matty 76]

I'm glad to see there's been a lot of positivity now the inevitable has happened. 

He's done a good job for us overall. It's a shame we were that bad for 6~ months at the end but realistically he kept us up for 3 years with little threat of relegation.

Pretty confident we beat all of the big 6, and gave them all very good games on other occasions as well. Shame we couldn't get him a proper forward this Summer, and a shame we couldn't convince Ings to stay at the time which we may have under the new ownership.

I said all along I'm worried if it'll be "be careful what you wish for" when we got rid, and how good is this squad we actually have? We had to find out one way or the other, though.

Good luck if he takes another role, or enjoy retirement if he goes through with it. 

[FarehamSaintJames]

There’s a brilliant account on Twitter called Saints Analysis and they’ve today posted a thread of Ralph’s best moments. It definitely brought a smile. 😊

https://twitter.com/saints_analysis/status/1589574058735448066?s=46&t=-AvrfT9Jd1-UYGoAleXOSA

 

[Winnersaint]

Shame really, came across as one of the good guys. I think the 9-0s scarred him and probably made him question his approach in what is an unforgiving league.There were high points after, but tactically we seemed to retreat into our shells too often more recently. We became less effective as a result, and there was almost an inevitability about today. As I said, a shame.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

I feel sorry for Ralph. Clearly a decent bloke who cared deeply for us. I really wanted him to be successful here. Loved his passion when things were going well. I think SR have made several mistakes since they arrived. The first was to keep Semmens and Steele on. Second was obviously not getting a striker in. If these two things had happened, maybe we would have seen a different outcome. Wish him nothing but good luck in his next venture.

[washsaint]

Agreed @Winnersaint - seemed like a really good guy and loyal to boot.  At times we were a joy to watch but, unfortunately, in more recent times less of that and tactics represented more a "sense of fear".  You could argue that was understandable due to our terrible striker options and players who could not hit a barn door.

I was shocked looking at Ralph when he joined and how he appears now - looking much, much older and very jaded.  Hopefully he will recharge and find a good job (if that's what he wants) and he did work (overall) well with the terrible squads we have had under his tenure.

Some of his team selections and tactics were baffling towards the end of his tenure.

[Saint Garrett]

Absolute top bloke, who rekindled a club that was in a right mess when he joined. We had nothing at all and we’re only heading one way. Got those wins against Arsenal and Huddersfield and created a real togetherness in the club, and galvanised a fan base. 

Had some brilliant moments playing some superb football and improved so many players.

Beating all of the big boys apart from Man Utd, (think that’s correct?) was superb. And a bloke who never really had us in danger of relegation until the last few weeks. 

I will miss him that’s for sure. 

[madge]

Both Ralph And Richard both seemed genuinely good guys. Met Richard on a good few occasions and he was always polite and friendly. Both I believe gave everything for the club. I think everyone wanted it to work out for them.. and I believe they’ll do well given a decent budget.

[HarvSFC]

Plenty of positives. I mentioned the Portsmouth result and top of the league in the other thread, but when he took over, we were a broken club, much as we appear to be now following the mismanagement of Pellegrino, Hughes, Reed and Wilson. He cleared the egos of Cedric and Hoedt immediately, while Austin, Boufal and Lemina got a bit more time, but weren't team players and not up to the Premier League and needed to go the next summer. He immediately got the team working harder and employing a high press, which brought plenty of positive results, wins against Arsenal, Leicester, Everton and Tottenham in his first few months here, while also getting a draw against Chelsea. We stayed up comfortably despite only winning 1 league game in 16 when he joined.

Other positives would be unlocking Danny Ings and getting 22 league goals out of him in a single season. We had a genuine top quality striker in the Premier League. We were the best team to come out of lockdown, I don't know how much was down to him, if we had a really good sports science department, or if our players were just really good son-in-laws, but that was a great period to support the club during very dark times when there was little to get excited about. He was the man stood on the touchline, who you could hear for the whole 90 minutes, talking the players through and motivating them, so we'll give him the credit. Then you have the drinks break fiasco. For some reason it correlated with a good period for us, it was something different, within the laws and it appeared on the outside to work. Shame we dropped it after people started cottoning on. Also, Vestergaard was a very poor defender, but he was actually worth having in the team due to his diagonal balls. Another skill and tactic discovered, that got us good results and good money for a player who can't do the basics required of their position.

I won't miss the throw-ins that worked once in four years and I hope the new manager takes JWP off corners after Redmond proved more effective taking them over a handful of games last season, but there is plenty to miss from the years gone by.

Here he is celebrating on his own after the players have gone, taking all the limelight, as The Athletic states.

[Daft Kerplunk]

Loved his enthusiasm at first and he galvanised the fans after Hughes’ disinterested reign. 

[STEVEADAMS]

Loved the guy, clearly cared for the club so much. sad it had to happen as he wanted to leave us in a great position. Been let down by lack of strikers.

[davefizzy14]

Loved Ralph, he gave us so many great moments. Galvanised us completely when he joined and worked miracles with a very tight budget under the previous ownership. Wish him all the best

[SotonianWill]

Good memories

cardiff away lost 1-0 he came up to the away end and said he’d turn it around.

Beating Spurs at home 3-2 jwp freekick. Also from that season we went to Old Trafford and we’re unlucky to lose 3-2 but you could see what we were building. 

Turnt jwp into a top premier league player when he could so easily have been flogged to watford in return for Andre Gray 

Beating Pompey 0-4 in their own backyard 

most of my best memories are around december period 2019 when we were shit at home, top 4 standard away. thinking Chelsea away when Ings was left out the team everyone was calling ralph a twat then trampoline touch obafemi twats it top corner, palace away, villa away. Danny ings being “king of the scummers” in part thanks to Ralph’s system. 

[Deanovski]

Was the last manager my grandad got to see, so him going is a sad end of an era to me. Will never forget the excitement  when we first got ralph in.

Edited 7 November, 2022 by Deanovski

[LGTL]

Beating Pompey at Fratton. Legend in my eyes for that - same as Ings. 
 

Biggest compliment I can pay him is that I’ve never wanted a manager to work as much as him. In the end though, he went a little bit too late. 

[Saint Troy]

He was great when he arrived. Breath of fresh air we needed with great energy and a style i could get behind. Its a shame he didnt have the right squad when he arrived as hes just become a bit jaded by life at saints... and who can blame him (well him completely!) 

All i can say is that truly Id love for him to be taking over fresh right now and SR bringing in a striker and winger 

[skintsaint]

Just glad he kept his win ratio at Saints just above the likes of Dave Jones and Stuart Wigley.

[Noodles34]

9 hours ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

There’s a brilliant account on Twitter called Saints Analysis and they’ve today posted a thread of Ralph’s best moments. It definitely brought a smile. 😊

https://twitter.com/saints_analysis/status/1589574058735448066?s=46&t=-AvrfT9Jd1-UYGoAleXOSA

 

Basically the highlights of the Arsenal game 😂 That was the highlight. 

Edited 8 November, 2022 by Noodles34

[eurosaint]

Good luck Ralph, I'm sure we'll see you back in Germany with a big club and being successful 😘

[FarehamSaintJames]

1 hour ago, Noodles34 said:

Basically the highlights of the Arsenal game 😂 That was the highlight. 

Spurs away? City at home? Liverpool at home? It’s a nice little watch

[SNSUN]

I quite liked the big man, often had a smile on his face, stayed loyal to the club despite his hands being tied in the transfer market, and got occasionally got some positive results out of a reducing quality set of players over the years. Perhaps if Lavia and ABK hadn't got injured this season we'd have had a few more points from all those 1-0 losses and he'd still be here but that's the way the cards were dealt. At the end his formations and team selections were all over the place but perhaps that's a result of being here too long, and I definitely felt he should have gone in the summer on better terms. It'd be a shame for football if he retired though, he's not old enough yet and I reckon he has another job in him. 

 

Good Luck for the future Ralph.

[Bad Wolf]

A genuinely lovely man who cared about the club and fans. Some of the comments toward him were utterly appalling. Wanting him out is one thing but football fans do tend to take things too far.

Beaten all of the Big 6 bar United and a 4-0 win at Fratton Park which I'll treasure for the rest of my life!

[Pamplemousse]

The first manager since Adkins who truly cared about the club, the fans, and the wider importance.

Are we in a better place than 4 years ago? Yes, and I enjoyed the ride.

Portsmouth win and Spurs away in February are the obvious two highlights.

[Miltonaggro]

My view of Ralph right from the start was that he is a good man, a thinker, he clearly cared and wanted to be successful at Saints. It’s these attributes that led to him being given leeway by the fan base when the wheels came off, more so than any other manager since McMenemy perhaps, but on balance he deserved it. Polarising results, ups and downs, baffling team selections / tactics but on occasions some great spells for this incarnation of SFC.  Modern football is a fucking horrible place to be honest, and I hope Ralph gets his contract paid up in full and finds a less onerous post, a side based in the Alps perhaps. 

[rooney]

A decent man who gave us some good moments on the pitch and enjoyable press conferences. We have a good future with the young players we have and it is a shame that the lack of quality from our strikers caused his downfall. Good luck for the future Ralph and hope you get a job somewhere where all the press and media can pronounce your name correctly. 

[david in sweden]

Many were quick to say "sack the manager"  but having done that it's never easy to find a suitable / better replacement.

Ralph's departure may be a relief for those who have been pressing for his dismissal, but few of his critics can come forward with 

a list of suitable names for the job.   Having signed a bagful of young talents in the summer, we have (predictably) seen that it takes time

to adjust to " the best league in the World " and as we saw last season, "young bodies" (Livramento and Broja) take a lot more stress than

they did in Prem. League 2 , and injuries come easier.  We now have one of the youngest (and least experienced) squads in the Prem.

and perhaps a younger manager who has a track record with youth players maybe the answer, but we are unlikely to recruit another Koeman. 

 

Ralph's biggest achievement was to keep us up in the Prem. for 3 seasons, whilst being denied any sort of budget to buy players whilst

the club was still burdened with the debts incurred in buying the mismatched squad bought in to replace the successful "Koeman Squad".

 

In truth, but for the two seasons with Danny Ings, we might well have been relegated a couple of years ago, and we can be thankful for that. 

 "Saving the Saints" was a thankless task from Day 1, but Ralph accepted that despite all the other problems.  IMHO he deserved a break from 

the pressure of the job that has befallen far more experienced managers in bigger clubs with far better resources than Saints have ever had. 

 

" Sack the manager ", blame his tactics and use of substitutions, or the "wrong" selection of players, but the statistics alone show that the

real problem has been a squad of "shot-shy" footballers who can't find the net from 3 yards out, and just can't cut it in this league. 

Ralph gave us his enthusiasm, dedication and sometimes even his emotional response to games. He gave us his best, but never quite made it.

He deserves a reprieve from the stress he's endured in the last 3 years, and chance to return to Austria and quietly contemplate his mountain.  

 The fans may perhaps rightly blame him for some misjudgements, but a few of the players also need to take a long look in the mirror and ask

themselves a few questions about their own performances and their future careers. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[derry]

I welcomed him, respected him, even liked him, a very decent man. In short supply in football. However in football terms we had now lost our way and sadly his time had come. I would have liked to see a role for him in the club to allow him to recharge but it was not to be. Maybe a Ted Bates / Lawrie McMenemy role. I wish him all the best and hopefully another job that allows him the success he wished for but only intermittently achieved here. Best wishes and best of luck Ralph.

[sydney_saint]

36 minutes ago, derry said:

I welcomed him, respected him, even liked him, a very decent man. In short supply in football. However in football terms we had now lost our way and sadly his time had come. I would have liked to see a role for him in the club to allow him to recharge but it was not to be. Maybe a Ted Bates / Lawrie McMenemy role. I wish him all the best and hopefully another job that allows him the success he wished for but only intermittently achieved here. Best wishes and best of luck Ralph.

I do sometimes wonder if there are more inventive ways to give a manager space and time to recharge. Manager's pretty much get no off season, and the intensity of the job is probably higher than even the players (at least in the premier league). We often hear about the short tenures of managers in the premier league as a problem, but I wonder how long most of them can realistically go without burning out, unless you have unlimited resources like Pep. 

Is it possible or realistic to give a manager say 6 months gardening leave, to give them time to regrow and recharge? Because I feel that's something would do Ralph a huge amount of favours. I also look at Klopp. All these years of getting Liverpool competing at City's level and he now looks a shadow of the man. Something like 6 months off would probably do him and Liverpool alot of good. Instead he has to push push and push his way out of the slump. Might work. But might burn him out even more. Same goes for Ranieri the season after Leicester one the title. He was totally burnt out, but did he need to be sacked? Or just time away from the game?

I know the concept has alot of issues, like who do you appoint as interim, what happens if interim does well, what happens if interim does badly, what if the manager chooses not to come back. I just think that maybe there are other ways of retaining managers who are good managers, but are just a bit burnt out. 

[100%Red&White]

Really good when it was going well, but very poor and frustrating when not. But decent fella, shame it ended the way it did but only wish him well.

[Saint Fan CaM]

For me the biggest positive was the stability and consistency he provided during his tenure. Until his untimely comments about his retirement, I never felt he had any other focus than his role at SFC which was so refreshing after so many managerial appointment cock-ups. He clearly tried to forge a strong relationship with the fans and was generally honest in his assessment of performances, however that started to fall apart towards the end.

It’s a terrible shame that the club once again failed to back their manager in terms of maintaining squad quality and this has played a huge part in Ralph’s demise, however I have to say that Ralph did himself no favours at times in team selection and tactics. When looking back I will have no bad feelings towards Ralph - he’s kept us in the EPL and delivered some occasional great results - just like Puel, but for longer I guess.

[JustinR]

Loved him- one of my favourite ever saints managers (until this season).

Brave. Aggressive. Showed no fear. Exciting football and genuinely cared (I expect he will always want to see us do well). 

[AlexLaw76]

He had good Jazz Hands?

[Convict Colony]

There can't be too many mangers whose striking options got progressively worse each season.

Nice bloke, exactly what we needed when he arrived, perrenially underfunded and kept us in the league and did his best.

That's all I can ask, enjoy Austria, enjoy your life and thanks.

 

[JRM]

Seemed a good guy, loved his enthusiasm 

Kept us up 

Won 4-0 at Fratton 

Took us to Wembley 

[Eric The Red]

Loved his attitude, particularly up to that fateful day at Aston Villa in March. Real shame as I was really loving the team's efforts at the time, Spurs and Man U away, WHU in the cup etc etc. Definitely felt he really cared and generally had a very good relationship with the fans. I'll certainly miss him and give him a good cheer if/when he comes back for a visit. I'll be delighted if I have such a generally positive view of the next manager.