Who do we want next as Saints manager?

[Holmes_and_Watson]

2 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Saints have spent £260m+ on fees over the last two Premier League seasons. They did not spend it well, but it is hardly a small budget to work with under Sport Republic!

It has to go a long way for us to get a PL ready side. Replacing the whole spine of the team with PL capable players would cost a significant amount. So, like last summer, SR will be limited in what they can spend on individuals. As I said, something Dyche is used to.

Not to mention SR want to maximise their profit, and that also limits potential individual outlay. Again (I won't say for the second time, as you can't count that high) as I said, that's something Dyche will be used to.

Then there are the PSR rules which will impose limits, and a second relegation. Both of which will reduce available funds. 

As I said, Dyche is used to working with little budget. So, he'd be fine with what SR will have available.

Back under your bridge, troll.

[Convict Colony]

1 hour ago, manji said:

who do I notice and pay attention to Fitzhugh Fella, Whitey Grandad, ( not because I always agree with them but they back what they say) Fabrice ( eccentric proper fan), Matthew le god, Convict Colony ummm that’s it. 

 

Should of just started and ended with this amigo😁

Edited Wednesday at 18:13 by Convict Colony

[Convict Colony]

4 hours ago, Chez said:

Him not bringing his number 2 etc. is a concern as he/they might be the actual talent/brains.

Bro dont stress you forget Rohl was Ralphs brains so we have brains covered

[Badger]

6 hours ago, Rohl With It said:

All the above is correct re Danny Rohl.  What I would add for a bit a background for you guys on the South Coast is regarding his backroom team which is very experienced. 

There is Henrik Pederson, ex Red Bull guy and then subsequently Manager in his own right who left being a Manager in Denmark to join Rohl, along with Chris Powell who is vastly experienced.   Rumours in Sheffield are that neither want to leave and could quite possibly be Wednesdays new Management team.  Pederson is rumoured to be the tactics guy and Powell is just a breath of fresh air. 

Not bringing these two with him may dilute Danny's talents. 

There is also Sascha Lense who is team Psychologist who I believe DR has worked with previously.  He is also Timo Werners Father in Law.

Interesting comment re his backroom team, if he were to end up coming here (and personally i don't think he will) then I'd hope he brings those he wants with him.

I don't know the set up at Sheff Weds, and anything more about Pedersen than you've told us. Burt whilst he probably has developed a bond with the club and area, I suspect guarantees of being paid, and on time, might also feature in his priorities and whether he accepts Chansiri (?) promises to that end.

On the topics of assistants not wanting to move incidentally, we heard that Pochetino's staff didn't want to move on, or Koeman's. Difference may be that none of them were in the running for the top job at the time. Perhaps we should have tried keeping Erwin.

[Badger]

6 hours ago, Rohl With It said:

 

There is also Sascha Lense who is team Psychologist who I believe DR has worked with previously.  He is also Timo Werners Father in Law.

If Lense comes here perhaps with all the German connections we can try to get Timo Werner on loan.

With him and Harwood-Bellis (if he stays) in the team we'll have at least two known 'son-in'-laws' for people to moan about.

 

[Gloucester Saint]

19 minutes ago, Badger said:

If Lense comes here perhaps with all the German connections we can try to get Timo Werner on loan.

With him and Harwood-Bellis (if he stays) in the team we'll have at least two known 'son-in'-laws' for people to moan about.

 

Lense should at least help bring a greater level of focus.

[Saint Fan CaM]

All the talk so far has been about this Manager or that. Fact is, in some respects it doesn’t matter if SR / Spors don’t sort the squad out and oust a good number of poorly suited/unskilled/unfit players. IF (and it’s a massive IF) they do that successfully and replace them with better players, then whoever comes in to manage the club will have a good chance of success. Fail and the club will continue to decline even further under the appalling stewardship SR have provided.

[Tommy Mulgrew]

5 hours ago, gurru991 said:

Replacing a poor manager with an even worse one tells you all you need to know about Leicester  !!

That’s nothing;  SR has achieved that arguably four times with Southampton.  I cannot wait for the next one.
 

 

4 hours ago, skintsaint said:

No to mention he had to bed together about 22 new players in that squad...

Ooo er missus; titter ye not.

[UpweySaint]

33 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

All the talk so far has been about this Manager or that. Fact is, in some respects it doesn’t matter if SR / Spors don’t sort the squad out and oust a good number of poorly suited/unskilled/unfit players. IF (and it’s a massive IF) they do that successfully and replace them with better players, then whoever comes in to manage the club will have a good chance of success. Fail and the club will continue to decline even further under the appalling stewardship SR have provided.

In fairness this thread is literally about who we want as a new manager. I think we can all agree the squad is in a poor state and needs work ahead of next season - I expect there is some variance on how much change is needed but I anticipate it would be hard going to find a Saints fan who is content with the squad.

[Saint Fan CaM]

1 minute ago, UpweySaint said:

In fairness this thread is literally about who we want as a new manager. I think we can all agree the squad is in a poor state and needs work ahead of next season - I expect there is some variance on how much change is needed but I anticipate it would be hard going to find a Saints fan who is content with the squad.

I get it, however the importance of sorting out the squad cannot be understated. Otherwise why make a managerial change atall?  For me, if there was a choice required, I’d rather keep Rusk/Lallana and improve the squad than get some ‘preferred’ manager who then needs to turn around this same failed group of players. Hopefully we’ll see a significant clear out of the worst of the team whilst retaining some of the best.

[UpweySaint]

7 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

I get it, however the importance of sorting out the squad cannot be understated. Otherwise why make a managerial change atall?  For me, if there was a choice required, I’d rather keep Rusk/Lallana and improve the squad than get some ‘preferred’ manager who then needs to turn around this same failed group of players. Hopefully we’ll see a significant clear out of the worst of the team whilst retaining some of the best.

Fair. It’s all a bit chicken and egg. A good manager/coach should be able to improve individuals and make them better than the sum of their parts through tactical instruction. However, starting from an unbalanced squad that lacks quality would handicap even the best manager. While a squad full of individual quality and leadership negates the necessity for a better manager.

It sounds like the new manager and recruitment will ultimately come under Spors remit so he has a lot on his plate and is arguably now the most important member of staff at the club. 

 

[Saint Fan CaM]

4 minutes ago, UpweySaint said:

Fair. It’s all a bit chicken and egg. A good manager/coach should be able to improve individuals and make them better than the sum of their parts through tactical instruction. However, starting from an unbalanced squad that lacks quality would handicap even the best manager. While a squad full of individual quality and leadership negates the necessity for a better manager.

It sounds like the new manager and recruitment will ultimately come under Spors remit so he has a lot on his plate and is arguably now the most important member of staff at the club. 

 

Can’t disagree RE Spors - it’s going to be a massive job. And we’ve previously seen how a manager can be hamstrung by a deterioration in squad quality - Ralph could have improved the clubs standing with better progressive backing but we know how that went. And it’s taken 3-4 managers trying and failing to make good with this (relatively expensive) squad to get Dragan to realise something more had to change with another relegation staring him in the face.

[Nogginsfc]

I really wish we all stopped pretending we are some sort of football purists and the "style of football" the new manager plays is what we care about. Because it's all bollocks and we just want to win.

Look at it under Martin last season. Win first game against Sheff Wed and we think we are Barca, a few weeks later when lost 3 or 4 on spin and beaten 5-0 at Sunderland, it was the style of play letting us down. Go on 26 match unbeaten run, and it's back to the Barca days.Wobble before the playoffs and it's back to "GET IT FORWARDS". Win at Wembley and all is well.

The common theme is the results. Let's not pretend it's anything different. No manager is going to come in and play some route 1 bollocks, it will all be much of muchness whoever it is, and the gimps can still pretend to spout a load of nonsense about xG, cooking and redemption curves.

[Mr X]

Listening to the interview with spors he comes across quite confident that he can get the club back on track and lead the way with recruitment.... Reading between the lines I can't see that anyone other than Rohl will be brought in... With his connections and praise of him 

[Oisin]

2 minutes ago, Mr X said:

Listening to the interview with spors he comes across quite confident that he can get the club back on track and lead the way with recruitment.... Reading between the lines I can't see that anyone other than Rohl will be brought in... With his connections and praise of him 

Yeah, I get the feeling that this thread is a bit futile in the sense that the next manager is a done deal. I guess because of his situation at Wednesday and the financial implications of that on us we just have to be patient.
But while there’s no news it does create space for a lot of noise so the speculation is to be expected.

If it is Rohl as I suspect, that hopefully means Spurs can spend his time focusing on the squad overhaul. Beyond Shea Charles and Ronnie Edwards I can’t begin to guess who our starting 11 in August will be. Probably a good thing right now as I want rid of most, but it does mean there’s a lot to do.

[tdmickey3]

16 hours ago, gurru991 said:

Just awful !!!!

Not too sure what our ownership were thinking .. Cooper had a chance of keeping us up but Van Nistelrooy quickly proved that he didn't have a clue.

Replacing a poor manager with an even worse one tells you all you need to know about Leicester  !!

We are good at that too

[Rohl With It]

9 hours ago, UpweySaint said:

Fair. It’s all a bit chicken and egg. A good manager/coach should be able to improve individuals and make them better than the sum of their parts through tactical instruction. However, starting from an unbalanced squad that lacks quality would handicap even the best manager. While a squad full of individual quality and leadership negates the necessity for a better manager.

It sounds like the new manager and recruitment will ultimately come under Spors remit so he has a lot on his plate and is arguably now the most important member of staff at the club. 

 

I would suggest that Danny Rohl has done this with Wednesday.  A fair few of the Squad are part of the League One team and have definitely punched above their weight since DR arriving in October 23.

What we have not really seen is what he is like with a decent amount of money to spend.  The bulk of what has been spent though has been wasted on Ugbo.

[VectisSaint]

I read yesterday that Rohl is being lined up by Liepzig, can't see him coming here in preference to them.

[Mr X]

1 hour ago, Oisin said:

Yeah, I get the feeling that this thread is a bit futile in the sense that the next manager is a done deal. I guess because of his situation at Wednesday and the financial implications of that on us we just have to be patient.
But while there’s no news it does create space for a lot of noise so the speculation is to be expected.

If it is Rohl as I suspect, that hopefully means Spurs can spend his time focusing on the squad overhaul. Beyond Shea Charles and Ronnie Edwards I can’t begin to guess who our starting 11 in August will be. Probably a good thing right now as I want rid of most, but it does mean there’s a lot to do.

I would like to see a complete squad overhaul with only the players that truely want to be here staying... It's obvious that we will loose dibling and Kyle walker peters, I am preying we can convince fernandes to give us one season in the championship as he's been one of the few glimmers of hope in a disastrous season but that looks unlikely as clubs are already circling! 

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

1 hour ago, Mr X said:

I would like to see a complete squad overhaul with only the players that truely want to be here staying... It's obvious that we will loose dibling and Kyle walker peters, I am preying we can convince fernandes to give us one season in the championship as he's been one of the few glimmers of hope in a disastrous season but that looks unlikely as clubs are already circling! 

The problem is we won't be able to find enough mugs to offload all our goons onto

[BERMUDASAINT]

2 hours ago, VectisSaint said:

I read yesterday that Rohl is being lined up by Liepzig, can't see him coming here in preference to them.

https://www.getfootballnewsgermany.com/2025/danny-rohl-rb-leipzig/#:~:text=RB Leipzig have identified Sheffield,averaging 1.39 points per game.

[Chez]

20 hours ago, gurru991 said:

Gaining promotion is meaningless if you don't have a team or a style to keep you up. We've seen it this season with all three promoted clubs getting relegated. 

all three teams have very different styles. You'd of thought one would have worked.

I guess despite crushing most championship teams, all three teams showed obvious frailties last season. Ipswich struggled to keep the ball and dominate opponents, Leicester relied heavily on the fast counter and we relied totally on dominating possession. 

[Chez]

4 hours ago, Rohl With It said:

I would suggest that Danny Rohl has done this with Wednesday.  A fair few of the Squad are part of the League One team and have definitely punched above their weight since DR arriving in October 23.

What we have not really seen is what he is like with a decent amount of money to spend.  The bulk of what has been spent though has been wasted on Ugbo.

These days, the manager is usually just one of several people that form a recruitment team, so it's hard to know if any manager has done well/badly with the transfer budget available.

If he comes here, how much say will he have on players coming in? It's obvious the recent managers have got their way on some players, but not all. I am guessing there is probably still a `recruitment group' that present options to the manager perhaps based on his requirements or perhaps just based on the fact the scouts rate them. I',m guessing the manager has final say, but even then you still have to get the player and you might have to accept option b or c.  If you get option d and he doesn't pan out, is the manager to blame?

[Fabrice29]

3 hours ago, VectisSaint said:

I read yesterday that Rohl is being lined up by Liepzig, can't see him coming here in preference to them.

There’s an arguement that if he wanted to go down the German football route he’d had found himself a job there instead of Wednesday. Don’t think you pick up a job at the bottom of the English Championship unless you see it as your best route to impress teams in the English PL personally. Might have changed his ambitions or preferences though or I might be way off the mark (I’ve tee’d up the obvious response for you..)

Edited Thursday at 12:17 by Fabrice29

[revolution saint]

4 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

There’s an arguement that if he wanted to go down the German football route he’d had found himself a job there instead of Wednesday. Don’t think you pick up a job at the bottom of the English Championship unless you see it as your best route to impress teams in the English PL personally. Might have changed his ambitions or preferences though or I might be way off the mark (I’ve tee’d up the obvious response for you..)

Think it’s more a case of whether Liepzig are interested or not rather than if Rohl is more concerned with English football. If he was offered a choice then no way is he choosing us.

[Midfield_General]

Sounds like Glasner is Leipzig's first choice, with Rohl as one of the fallbacks if Glasner doesn't fancy it or Palace won't play ball. 

Also feels like he would be quite a risky appointment for them. They're fifth in the Bundesliga and are currently one point off the Champions League qualification places. You'd think a guy coming from his first managerial job and currently 13th in the English second tier would be a slightly divisive appointment, at best. That's a very big step up. 

Edited Thursday at 12:35 by Midfield_General

[Chez]

1 hour ago, Golac's Cunning Stunts said:

The problem is we won't be able to find enough mugs to offload all our goons onto

looking back to summer 2023, we were able to offload Salisu, Djenepo, Diallo and Orsic, but relied on loans to shift Bella-Kotchap, Caleta-Car, Onuachu,  Perraud, Lyanco. It's noticeable that they all are non-English, which might have helped? Not many in that list that really did much at Prem level. The current crop have more than replicated that feat. 

It's hard to say who will leave this summer. Whoever the new manager is, they may have to work with largely what is here, with obvious exceptions.   

 

[Mr X]

3 hours ago, Golac's Cunning Stunts said:

The problem is we won't be able to find enough mugs to offload all our goons onto

This is true and worrying 

[Tommy]

Watching Bodo Glimt v Lazio. 
really do think someone if not us should be looking at Kjetil Knutsen. Without the ball they are well structured and with the ball they play good attacking football. 

[sadoldgit]

Will Still being mentioned now.

[Wade Garrett]

15 minutes ago, sadoldgit said:

Will Still being mentioned now.

No thanks.  That would be another clever-bollocks appointment.

[Dr. Kucho]

1 hour ago, sadoldgit said:

Will Still being mentioned now.

Has done well in France and Belgium. Don’t know how he likes to set up his teams and if it would work in the Championship. 

[Turkish]

This is surely MLGs wet dream

https://talksport.com/football/3107140/will-still-southampton-manager/

 

[Turkish]

3 hours ago, Tommy said:

Watching Bodo Glimt v Lazio. 
really do think someone if not us should be looking at Kjetil Knutsen. Without the ball they are well structured and with the ball they play good attacking football. 

This years Paco Jimenez

[Forester]

Liam Manning

[LeG]

21 minutes ago, Forester said:

Liam Manning

He's only just worked his way into our team. If anyone is going to be player manager, its Adz. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

57 minutes ago, Turkish said:

This is surely MLGs wet dream

https://talksport.com/football/3107140/will-still-southampton-manager/

 

With RDF Tactics as assistant.

MLG would then surely get invited in, despite not being able to count past two.

"Put a cone out, MLG," says Still. "Great! Now put another cone there! Well done!"

[BarberSaint]

Will Still. Not a bad shout, actually.

[Turkish]

52 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

With RDF Tactics as assistant.

MLG would then surely get invited in, despite not being able to count past two.

"Put a cone out, MLG," says Still. "Great! Now put another cone there! Well done!"

Given he recently failed to get an entry level video analysis role do you think it’s realistic? Ask him To put a cone out surely he’d spend the next 4 hours arguing if you meant the convex cone, the eliptic cone or the polyhedral cone 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

5 hours ago, Turkish said:

Given he recently failed to get an entry level video analysis role do you think it’s realistic? Ask him To put a cone out surely he’d spend the next 4 hours arguing if you meant the convex cone, the eliptic cone or the polyhedral cone 

This is true. I was fooled by him appearing as "one to watch" on the FM staff guide. It turns out those guides just can't be trusted.

[Sir Ralph]

Will Still is thriving at Lens even though they keep selling players | Ligue 1 | The Guardian

Lens president wants Will Still to remain at the club - Get French Football News

I read quite a bit about him before this season and there were a lot of positives being said. Seems though he has continued it this season in difficult circumstances. Not sure what the objection would be based on his track record so far, other than he hasnt managed in England (neither had Poch or Koeman).

It needs something a bit more radical to shake the stale feeling of the club. I would like Rohl too. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

10 hours ago, Turkish said:

This is surely MLGs wet dream

https://talksport.com/football/3107140/will-still-southampton-manager/

 

This is Alex Crooks scoop.

I think we can safely rule that one out. 😂

[Danbert]

What happens if our form improves between now and the end of the season. Do we then keep faith with our temporary management team? I thought there were positives in the Fulham performance.

[Turkish]

58 minutes ago, Sir Ralph said:

Will Still is thriving at Lens even though they keep selling players | Ligue 1 | The Guardian

Lens president wants Will Still to remain at the club - Get French Football News

I read quite a bit about him before this season and there were a lot of positives being said. Seems though he has continued it this season in difficult circumstances. Not sure what the objection would be based on his track record so far, other than he hasnt managed in England (neither had Poch or Koeman).

It needs something a bit more radical to shake the stale feeling of the club. I would like Rohl too. 

Despite the comments he’s a very interesting and clever guy and the football manager thing is over hyped. He grew up in Belgium playing youth football but realised he wasn’t going to make it as a player so switched to coaching at 17. He then became a video performance analyst which was one of the first of time in that role and then ended up managing a club in Belgium who were akint and did pretty well. He’s worked his way up usually managing clubs with problems and been relatively successful. He’s got the tag of the football manager guy as he once said he played it but he’s actually a very good coach by the sounds of it we could certainly do a lot worse. Have a listen to this he come across very well

 

Edited Friday at 08:44 by Turkish

[Dr. Kucho]

His communication is clear and not cringey like Jones. 

[skintsaint]

6 minutes ago, Dr. Kucho said:

 

The video highlight of him being able to speak French and English being unreal, as being born to English parents and raised in Belgium this isn't as unreal as mentioned 😅

Heard good things of him as manager, as Kucho says he seems like he can get a message across. Lens finishing 9th is actually their lowest finish in Ligue 1 since coming up from Ligue 2 in 2020, but as also mentioned he has had a few top players sold this season.

[ErwinK1961]

I can’t find Will Still on the betting odds?

[swannymere]

From Talksport so probably bull, Will Still from Lens is among the contenders.

[Midfield_General]

1 hour ago, ErwinK1961 said:

I can’t find Will Still on the betting odds?

7/2 second favourite at William Hill and 3/1 second favourite at Bet365 - not at many other places yet though

https://www.bettingodds.com/thesackrace/teams/southampton

https://www.bet365.com/#/AC/B1/C172/D1/E112515524/F2/

Rohl still overwhelming favourite everywhere. 

Cooper is way out - said it before, but I really don't think he's in the mix. There's a lot of chat about him from fans but he's not amongst the favourites anywhere, he's just another random name in the pack out at 16/1 or more, along with people like Dyche, Lampard and Chris Davies. 

Edited Friday at 10:17 by Midfield_General

[saintoaks]

Thought i read somewhere we will be in for a manager who has experience of the Championship or promotion from the Championship ?