Who do we want next as Saints manager?

[Badger]

1 hour ago, Harry_SFC said:

Maybe a bit worrying but it's fallen off a cliff since he was originally linked with us in January and he had that falling out with their chairman. Since then the players and staff aren't even sure they are going to get paid. Probably best to judge him on his time there overall, not just the last few months. 

Exactly. I’ve previously made the comparison with how our form nosedived after it was strongly rumoured that Ralph would be going. 
 

And if you want another example of how such things affect a club,team, and morale think back to Strachan to Leeds rumours. Perhaps pure coincidence but our form didn’t really recover. 
 

And this is without the financial shenanigans of players not being paid on time. 

[Badger]

23 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Would be nice to see Ralph at Saints with money to spend.

 

 

I liked Ralph, and bear no grudge against him for how things turned out, but don’t really see him coming back or being our saviour  this time round.

A concern might be whether Wolfsburg see Rohl as a replacement. 

[Forester]

5 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Fuck all at Wednesday

How to tell me you don’t follow anything outside of the premier league, without actually telling me!

Agree that “fuck all” is far from fair.  He did an outstanding job taking them to safety last season, after appearing dead and buried.

 

However, it must surely be a concern to you, and all of us, that since January his team is literally BOTTOM of the championship form guide.  There is not a single team producing worse results in the division that we are playing in next season than his side over the last three months.

 

As has been documented, he has been operating in tough circumstances and delays in player wages.  But the collapse in form, since being linked with us, is a worry.

[Saint Fan CaM]

27 minutes ago, Forester said:

Agree that “fuck all” is far from fair.  He did an outstanding job taking them to safety last season, after appearing dead and buried.

 

However, it must surely be a concern to you, and all of us, that since January his team is literally BOTTOM of the championship form guide.  There is not a single team producing worse results in the division that we are playing in next season than his side over the last three months.

 

As has been documented, he has been operating in tough circumstances and delays in player wages.  But the collapse in form, since being linked with us, is a worry.

I really don’t think the situation he’s been faced with at Wednesday really has any bearing on his ability to manage Saints. The collapse there has been expected for some time bearing in mind they’ve been over performing based on the squad etc. That’s not to say he’s the panacea that will mend this club. A fine balance between getting the right manager, coupled with a significant change in the quality of the squad, will shape the outlook for Saints for quite sometime.

[SaintNewForest]

On 19/04/2025 at 18:36, Matthew Le God said:

Would be nice to see Ralph at Saints with money to spend.

 

 

Did you miss the last window he had with us, spent quite a bit of money and was backed financially like no other saints manager had been for years (striker aside) ... 

[Saint Fan CaM]

32 minutes ago, SaintNewForest said:

Did you miss the last window he had with us, spent quite a bit of money and was backed financially like no other saints manager had been for years (striker aside) ... 

If you were given a jigsaw puzzle with two essential missing pieces, would even bother to waste your time putting it together? And even then, if you did, do you think the sense of fulfilment would be the same? No, me neither.

[saints-til-i-die]

Maybe, just maybe we should give Spors a chance? Maybe he has an idea who he wants. Maybe, just maybe he might know a bit more than the clowns who have been running the club so far.

[pimpin4rizeal]

Gotta say if rusk keeps up his close to point a game ratio he deserves the job imo.. why risk  anyone else if he’s getting that ratio  out apparently worst premier league side ever ..it’s a small sample size but he’s putting the likes of Martin who got promoted and juric to shame 

[Lighthouse]

5 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Gotta say if rusk keeps up his close to point a game ratio he deserves the job imo.. why risk  anyone else if he’s getting that ratio  out apparently worst premier league side ever ..it’s a small sample size but he’s putting the likes of Martin who got promoted and juric to shame 

He's basically come in and tried to play for a 0-0 in every game. Not the worst idea in the world, when you're trying not to get embarassed with this squad but there's absolutely nothing about him that makes me think he should be in charge next season.

[pimpin4rizeal]

7 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

He's basically come in and tried to play for a 0-0 in every game. Not the worst idea in the world, when you're trying not to get embarassed with this squad but there's absolutely nothing about him that makes me think he should be in charge next season.

Get your point but we made enough chances to win that game yesterday .so playing for 0-0 a bit harsh ..he puts defense first which is a good thing   I’d rather have a pragmatic sensible coach then go back to the stupid philosophy managers and shipping goals cos they are too stubborn 

[Matthew Le God]

10 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Get your point but we made enough chances to win that game yesterday .so playing for 0-0 a bit harsh ..he puts defense first which is a good thing   I’d rather have a pragmatic sensible coach then go back to the stupid philosophy managers and shipping goals cos they are too stubborn 

I'd rather we had someone with a larger sample of evidence in club football he is what we need. Rusk will only have had a handful of Premier League games plus his brief time managing in non league. Would be a huge risk to appoint him off the back of only 8 league games. 

Edited Sunday at 21:25 by Matthew Le God

[Saint Fan CaM]

4 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

I'd rather we had someone with a larger sample of evidence in club football he is what we need. Rusk will only have had a handful of Premier League games plus his brief time managing in non league. Would be a huge risk to appoint him off the back of only 8 league games. 

I’m not necessarily advocating Rusk/Lallana, but to be fair the risk would only be proportionate to the contract he was awarded. If it read that he was in place until say three consecutive Championship defeats (or similar) then would the risk be any greater than bringing in a ‘name’ who costs £millions to dispose of?

[Matthew Le God]

2 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

I’m not necessarily advocating Rusk/Lallana, but to be fair the risk would only be proportionate to the contract he was awarded. If it read that he was in place until say three consecutive Championship defeats (or similar) then would the risk be any greater than bringing in a ‘name’ who costs £millions to dispose of?

Another issue with Rusk is that the fanbase would find it very underwhelming and lacking ambition. As might the players and potential transfer targets. It might make going into the new season tricky if there are a few poor results early on, as the fanbase is already understandably frustrated. Not always a good idea but a fanbase pleasing managerial appointment is what we may need after some dreadful ones that didn't have the majority of the fans on board from day one.

[Saint Fan CaM]

1 minute ago, Matthew Le God said:

Another issue with Rusk is that the fanbase would find it very underwhelming and lacking ambition. As might the players and potential transfer targets. It might make going into the new season tricky if there are a few poor results early on, as the fanbase is already understandably frustrated. Not always a good idea but a fanbase pleasing managerial appointment is what we may need after some dreadful ones that didn't have the majority of the fans on board from day one.

Maybe if we were still in the Prem, but do you think that would extend to the Championship? I’m playing devils advocate of course - Rohl seems to be on everyone’s lips when it comes to likely candidates - although I do think it’s at least 80% about the player quality available and much less about the quality of potentially available Managers. To put it another way, if we were winning 90% of our games and Ali Dia was Manager, the vast majority of fans would be ecstatic.

[Lighthouse]

24 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Get your point but we made enough chances to win that game yesterday .so playing for 0-0 a bit harsh ..he puts defense first which is a good thing   I’d rather have a pragmatic sensible coach then go back to the stupid philosophy managers and shipping goals cos they are too stubborn 

This kind of reactive thinking will get us absolutely nowhere in the long run. Hating 'philosophy managers' seems to have become a mantra on here, mainly because of Martin, but we need to have a clear understanding of the way we want to play, the players we need to bring in and who the best manager is for that job. There has to be some semblence of a style of football and how we're going to get results, you can't just 'be pragmatic'.

With Rohl we almost need to disregard the current situation at Wednesday and decide whether he does or doesn't play the way we have in mind for next season. Judging a downturn in results at that basket case of a club is of little relevance to the situation we'll be in next season.

[Matthew Le God]

9 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Maybe if we were still in the Prem, but do you think that would extend to the Championship? I’m playing devils advocate of course - Rohl seems to be on everyone’s lips when it comes to likely candidates - although I do think it’s at least 80% about the player quality available and much less about the quality of potentially available Managers. To put it another way, if we were winning 90% of our games and Ali Dia was Manager, the vast majority of fans would be ecstatic.

Any manager that gets us promoted is likely to still be the manager at the start of the subsequent Premier League season. So the club need to be confident the next appointment is also what we need to try and stay up after a promotion. As @Lighthouse said earlier, Rusk is largey setting up to avoid embarrassment, we'd need someone to do more than that next time in the PL. 

Edited Sunday at 21:56 by Matthew Le God

[skintsaint]

10 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

Adkins 'did fk all' at Scunthorpe, would you not have appointed him either?

Got them promoted on two separate occasions from League One and kept them up in the Championship before we nabbed him. Not exactly fk all for a team of that size.

[ErwinK1961]

29 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

I’m not necessarily advocating Rusk/Lallana, but to be fair the risk would only be proportionate to the contract he was awarded. If it read that he was in place until say three consecutive Championship defeats (or similar) then would the risk be any greater than bringing in a ‘name’ who costs £millions to dispose of?

So waste pre-season and another transfer window on the basis they’re low risk financially? Then have to bring someone else in (which will cost us additional money anyway). Seems a great plan.

 

Edited Sunday at 22:02 by ErwinK1961

[ErwinK1961]

1 hour ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Gotta say if rusk keeps up his close to point a game ratio he deserves the job imo.. why risk  anyone else if he’s getting that ratio  out apparently worst premier league side ever ..it’s a small sample size but he’s putting the likes of Martin who got promoted and juric to shame 

No thanks Dragan, please don’t fuck this up again.

[trousers]

3 hours ago, SaintNewForest said:

Did you miss the last window he had with us, spent quite a bit of money and was backed financially like no other saints manager had been for years (striker aside) ... 

A bit like being allowed to splash out on a Porsche with no steering wheel... 

(There's every chance I might get good at this analogy malarkey one of these days... )

Edited Sunday at 22:07 by trousers

[CB Fry]

10 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

Adkins 'did fk all' at Scunthorpe, would you not have appointed him either?

Er, he didn't do fuck all, did he?

Literally got promoted twice in three seasons from the division that we then recruited him to get us out of, Including winning the league title.

[Lighthouse]

20 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Got them promoted on two separate occasions from League One and kept them up in the Championship before we nabbed him. Not exactly fk all for a team of that size.

 

3 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Er, he didn't do fuck all, did he?

Literally got promoted twice in three seasons from the division that we then recruited him to get us out of, Including winning the league title.

That was my point. Adkins got them promoted and was around 15th in the Championship when we appointed him, Rohl kept Wednesday up and is currently around 15th in the Championship. Neither has ‘done fk all’ as ally originally claimed.

[skintsaint]

3 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

 

That was my point. Adkins got them promoted and was around 15th in the Championship when we appointed him, Rohl kept Wednesday up and is currently around 15th in the Championship. Neither has ‘done fk all’ as ally originally claimed.

But we were after a manager who had got twice promoted from the league we were in at the time?

[Lee On Solent Saint]

1 minute ago, skintsaint said:

But we were after a manager who had got twice promoted from the league we were in at the time?

Danny Rohl would not even be in this discussion had he not been with us before. 

[CB Fry]

4 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

 

That was my point. Adkins got them promoted and was around 15th in the Championship when we appointed him, Rohl kept Wednesday up and is currently around 15th in the Championship. Neither has ‘done fk all’ as ally originally claimed.

We were a League One club when we appointed a man who had literally won League One and been promoted twice from League One.

How that compares with us taking a punt on Rohl i'll never know.

[Lighthouse]

16 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

But we were after a manager who had got twice promoted from the league we were in at the time?

We were after a man to take us to the Premier League. The plan was obviously not to sack him when we got to the Championship. The point is that neither manager has ‘done fk all’ in the Championship just because they both finished 15th (ish). The merits of what they did are relative to the resources they had available.

[Convict Colony]

From everyones favourite podcasters

 

[CB Fry]

7 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

We were after a man to take us to the Premier League. The plan was obviously not to sack him when we got to the Championship. The point is that neither manager has ‘done fk all’ in the Championship just because they both finished 15th (ish). The merits of what they did are relative to the resources they had available.

Anytime you want to admit you're wrong and say that Adkins had clearly not "achieved fuck all" feel free.

[CB Fry]

I think the closest match to Saints appointing Adkins this summer would be appointing someone who had achieved promotion from that division and then did well to keep his club stable in the division above. Someone like, I don't know, just give me a minute, let's say Steve Cooper.

[ally_uk]

Exactly stop trying to overcomplicste or waste time, get Cooper in now... 

[LGTL]

There’s not even a link to Cooper is there? Which I find very bizarre. 

[Matthew Le God]

4 minutes ago, ally_uk said:

Exactly stop trying to overcomplicste or waste time, get Cooper in now... 

I don't think Cooper plays the style of football Spors appears to want. Would be daft getting a sporting director to oversee recruitment  and then hiring a manager that doesn't use the style of play the sporting director favours. 

[AlexLaw76]

Nutters, after a decent draw against a crap side, now suggest Rusk

 

got to love football fans at times

[Gloucester Saint]

35 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

I don't think Cooper plays the style of football Spors appears to want. Would be daft getting a sporting director to oversee recruitment  and then hiring a manager that doesn't use the style of play the sporting director favours. 

A style of play that wins matches would be a good idea. Because SR haven’t done a lot of that. 

[Zorba]

…

Edited Monday at 10:41 by Zorba
🎣

[trousers]

2 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

I don't think Cooper plays the style of football Spors appears to want. Would be daft getting a sporting director to oversee recruitment  and then hiring a manager that doesn't use the style of play the sporting director favours. 

Indeed. Spors is on record as wanting "high intensity" gegenpress style football which, one would've thought, rules Cooper out. 

Edited Monday at 09:56 by trousers

[Saint86]

If Ralph is available and interested, he is the best name mentioned so far. Sadly I think there is no chance of him coming back to work under sports republic.

Would like to see him with a competent DoF behind him. He had us competitive in the prem with an absolutely horrendous squad and nearly kept us up, I'd have no concerns over him getting us promoted out of the 2nd tier with one of the strongest squads in it, and similarly - he knows exactly what he needs to stay in the prem when building his side.

Edited Monday at 10:57 by Saint86

[Maggie May]

17 hours ago, Saint86 said:

If Ralph is available and interested, he is the best name mentioned so far. Sadly I think there is no chance of him coming back to work under sports republic.

Would like to see him with a competent DoF behind him. He had us competitive in the prem with an absolutely horrendous squad and nearly kept us up, I'd have no concerns over him getting us promoted out of the 2nd tier with one of the strongest squads in it, and similarly - he knows exactly what he needs to stay in the prem when building his side.

Ralph was a broken man and discarded poorly. He’s not coming back.

Edited Tuesday at 04:17 by Maggie May

[Badger]

33 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

If Ralph is available and interested, he is the best name mentioned so far. Sadly I think there is no chance of him coming back to work under sports republic.

Would like to see him with a competent DoF behind him. He had us competitive in the prem with an absolutely horrendous squad and nearly kept us up, I'd have no concerns over him getting us promoted out of the 2nd tier with one of the strongest squads in it, and similarly - he knows exactly what he needs to stay in the prem when building his side.

Didn’t Ralph say he wanted to retire at the end of his last contract with us ? Which might be the end of this (or last) season. From that I’m not sure he’d have the appetite for another two years with us. 

[SaintBobby]

In the Saints bar at the Villa match, Alan Curbishley was a guest and he suggested Sean Dyche. Is Dyche still on the open market?

[Badger]

4 minutes ago, SaintBobby said:

In the Saints bar at the Villa match, Alan Curbishley was a guest and he suggested Sean Dyche. Is Dyche still on the open market?

Yes, but he doesn’t seem like a manager who’d fit the Spors job description. 

[SaintBobby]

3 minutes ago, Badger said:

Yes, but he doesn’t seem like a manager who’d fit the Spors job description. 

I'd hope the job spec is an ability to escape the division and have a fair chance of surviving in the top flight. Dyche has a great record there.

[Midfield_General]

4 hours ago, LGTL said:

There’s not even a link to Cooper is there? Which I find very bizarre. 

Nope. Not a link, not a rumour, not a suggestion either party is remotely interested, and he's miles out in the betting among the complete randoms, where he has been since the start. 

We 100% aren't getting Cooper. Because that would be way too sensible. 

Edited Monday at 11:57 by Midfield_General

[Matthew Le God]

Tongue twister...

Will Will Still still be interested in the Saints job if Carragher asks him about it tonight?

Guest managers on MNF are often looking for a new job and want to be in the spotlight, normally unemployed managers, so it is rare for an employed manager of a non English club to be on it.

 

Edited Monday at 13:48 by Matthew Le God

[CB Fry]

Will Still = maybe Leicester but more likely Fulham / Bournemouth depending on who Tottenham poach in the summer.

[Forester]

In terms of credible targets I would be very happy with any of Dyche, Cooper or (if not promoted) Manning.  Manning never gets mentioned, has done an outstanding job at both Oxford and Brizzle Shitty

[bugenhagen]

6 hours ago, Gloucester Saint said:

A style of play that wins matches would be a good idea. Because SR haven’t done a lot of that. 

😉

[Fabrice29]

Not convinced Cooper takes a job in the Championship considering he'd be not far away from getting any jobs at the bottom of the PL next season, especially if a promoted team starts badly but who knows. 

As a side note, I don't really get the "he's done it before so why wouldn't we be interested?" criteria some seem to have. Up until this season, over the last 10 years I think the winners of the Championship has been won by a manager new to the league except for Farke with Norwich. Cooper himself has two play off defeats to his name and then the promotion being referenced with Forest. The idea you need to know it to get out of it isn't true and certainly the idea that people who have got out of it would be in some way an obvious appointment isn't true.

Much rather we get someone who has joined up thinking with the decision makers at the club, has a proven track record of galvanising squads of players they've worked with and will actually be motivated to grow with the club on a journey (however short or long) rather than dropping down to do us a favour in some way. 

[SaintsLoyal]

Anyone who doesn’t come on the pitch after wins and does the wanky three ole’s

[Toussaint]

1 hour ago, SaintsLoyal said:

Anyone who doesn’t come on the pitch after wins and does the wanky three ole’s

Mary Berry it is then.