Dusic

Can't believe people still mention Onuachu.

Interestingly Verl matched us with a 5-1 away win yesterday masterminded by Tobias Strobl. That has put them up to third. Of course its Eckert's to lose now you would think but highly likely Strobl spoken to this week. In fact, some info from a chat with @trevor.journalist suggests there was a Saints representative at Sportspark Höhenberg yesterday to see it in person. Strobl only finished playing for Augsberg in 2023 but has taken to management extremely well. This one rumbles on...

IMO now it makes complete sense - on paper and on the pitch. We have seen that he knows how to setup the team to play in a fluid way that creates lots of good chances from open play by getting the best out of the creative players we spent a lot of money on. Today he adapted nicely to specifically take down Charlton with a clear gameplan - showing the flexibility people crave. We have seen that clearly the players like playing under him and thst he isnt afraid to make bold decisions when needed. He had worked in the Championship for over a year before so knows what is needed at this level and isnt totally naive to it like people initially suggested. Seemingly the only thing not going for him is that he hasn't managed at first team level until now and isnt famous. Personally having seen how he has done turning round a team that looked on its last legs then I am willing to overlook that because neither of those things guarentee anything anyway. Usually you can tell a proper manager in a few games and we have had the luxury of testing that without needing to commit - a portion of the risk has been mitigated by seeing him in action. At this point with most agreeing its a the best we have played for a number of years it would be bizarre not to appoint him - he has earned a crack at IMO, regardless of Leicester result.

Could still bring Frandsen in as an assistant?

According to @Ya Barrrrrrr'd its only a bit of fun, which is clear to 99% of people here I am sure 😀 Although will be interesting to see if Strobl is on the touchline for the Verl game today...

Just had an interesting chat with @ubiquitousdave - lets just say it might be worth reading up on Tobias Strobl a little more 👀 Only been at Verl since May but from the sounds of it is very much in the frame.

Actually just had clarification via @Edward Tattsyrup that Bergsson would be brought in to a kind of general manager role (unclear how would differ from Bitcon and Spors tbh) with Frandsen as Head Coach. Seems like a different model rather than traditional manager setup.

Seems Rasmus doing as Rasmus does. First called by @shurlock - understand Gudni Bergsson has been approached in addition to Per Frandsen and talks are fairly advanced. Odds on a Scandinavian gaffer dropping by the minute.

Lot of cash coming in for McClaren - definitely the main rival to Tonda now from what I am hearing from @Jeff Le Taxi

Per @MB : O'Leary situation hasn't progressed afrer initial contact. Steve McClaren has big support in the boadroom and keen on the role so one to watch now for sure. Per Frandsen also been spoken to this week.

Not overly convinced that players instantly don't respect managers who haven't played - there are plenty who have done very well with limited or non existant playing careers. Heard Lampard say recently he was shocked when speaking to Luke Shaw when away with England and Shaw didn't know who Tony Adams was - I don't think its a big deal to have someone who players would see as a being experienced. Far more likely is players just get a sense of whether the training is good, whether they feel like they are learning something new and whether they like the way the manager wants them to play. That stuff they work out pretty quickly which is why a lot of managers just never get going and most of the good ones get off to a decent start from the beginning. Almoat certain none of our players had heard of Pochettino when he joined and he has no management record to speak of but they loved him straight away and pretty instantly did exactly what he asked - presumably because they enjoyed it and believed in it.

Clever ploy to wait for Intls to be concluded...new name to the fore and increasingly seen as front runner. Will need to upgrade the club-issued umbrellas.

@davefizzy14 any update on DO'L?

Come on! If a new manager who most on here liked the name of had got those results people would have said it was an excellent start bearing in mind we had won 2 of 13 league games before that! Personally not a huge fan of him being given the role but even as a caretaker he couldn't really have done more than two wins - one where we showed some actual fight when clearly very low on confidence to get over the line away from home and another with our best in possession performance of the season and the most comfortable home win for about 18 months! What did you expect from those two games?!

Would love to because I know quite a bit about this one but ita not my info to share out of respect for Fizz. Pretty sure Crook will start bleating about it today though.

From what I've heard I wouldn't discount David O'Leary being involved in the new setup. Had a couple of interesting PMs from @davefizzy14 on it.

They barely had a chance over two legs and I believe Martin's record vs Corberan is that he hasn't lost any of their 6 meetings. In the playoffs they were extremely passive, especially at St Mary's when it was still all to play for. We would have been livid to not show up in such a big game even if the opponent had a better squad. Just don't see what is special about him at all.

Russell Martin schooled Corberan in the playoffs and he hasn't done well at Valencia. Not really sure what the attraction is myself. Another name to throw into the ring is Jeremie Aliadiere. Would command instant respect, is 6ft tall and has the vital ingredient of Championship experience. If enough of us mention him and ask for a Sky Bet price then his odds will come tumbling down.

Suprised nobody has mentioned Brian Little, so I will: Brian Little

The handover from Liebherr to Gao was the catalyst for where we are now IMO. No PL club can survive these days without an owner adding cash. People say that SR took a stable PL club and sent us downwards butbwe were extremely lucky to survive the season Swansea imploded and were clearly on a general downwards trend when they took charge. The best things going for him were not positives but more that he didnt do overly negative stuff e.g take money out, stall on selling, get overly involved etc.

Completely can see the difference and not sure Eckert would be a good idea. Point more that none of the current names mentioned particularly inspire and a lot of the narrative on here craving experience of the division etc often goes against what has worked well for us in the past. If SR were to appoint Eckert its far from the easy option because they know they will face huge scrutiny so if they do go for him then could only assume they have huge faith in him and would have seen how the squad has taken to him over a 5 or 6 game spell which isnt always an available option and might mitigate the risk slightly.

Apols for a long post. Interesting thinking back over our most recent successful managers. None of Hasenhuttl, Koeman or Pochettino had played or managed in English football. One of them couldn't speak English. One joined after being very successful, one after being bottom of La Liga with two wins from 12 games. One was a big name, the other two were not. One was in some ways flexible, the other two were not. All got off to pretty decent starts. IMO the one thing they all had in common was a complete confidence in what they were doing. They didn't say they couldn't play a certain system until they had signed more players, or say it would take ages to get the team playing how they wanted, they pretty much said this what I am going to do and they did it. Pochettino had two sessions in zero degrees with an interpretor relaying every word and the team looked totally different. We have had managers who were experienced names at the level, who joined after being successful elsewhere, old, young, whatever. Many haven't worked. The ones who did were able to show very early that they had it covered. Something Will Still didn't. Reason for saying this is in part because personally I don't think that Championship experience is particularly relevant. I don't think age is particularly relevant and I don't think being a 'name' is particularly relevant. What is, IMO, is calmness, clarity in what you do and being able to very quickly get a team playing how you say they will. Where Pochettino, Hasenhuttl (and Martin) did, Jones, Still, Pellegrino etc didn't. Even Hughes, a very experienced manager was unable to show any kind of consistent approach aside from an initial flurry, which combined with a Swansea implosion, kept us up. I think players work out very quickly if they rate a manager or not which is why our best ones make an impact quickly and the poor ones never do. Can't recall a recent Saints manager who had an iffy start and then turned out great. Anyway, the club obviously rates Tonda. And in a way are fortunate to get a very clear view on whether the players are having him or not, which will become clear over the next 3 games. Thats a bit of a luxury so can see why they will use that opportunity. If its not him then I don't care if its someone old, young, inexperienced, a veteran, from England or elsewhere - just that it is someone has confidence in themselves and clarity on how they want to play and is able to get players to actually do it - like all our best managers have. That is what fans will see and rally behind rather than just a 'name', which to be honest for SR would be the easiest thing to hire.

Was going to do an analysis piece exploring how the decline of SWF and in particular the lack of reliable ITKs has coincided with a period of huge uncertainty in the corridors of Staplewood and St Marys but instead thought would go best and worst ITKs: The Good: @K,Billy's supersound - the ultimate @Guan 2.0 - top operator in his heyday @THEVMAN - didn't end well but accuracy not up for debate during AL's prime Saints years The Bad: @Pilchards - has he ever been right about anything? The Ugly: @MB - we have interviewed a German and an "ex PL player". Jog on pal.

Blackmore stated similar on Solent plus this just now: Been clear to me for a while that we aren't going to appoint someone in the Intl break, Tonda will take at least Charlton and right now has a good a chance as anyone.

Apart from quite a few good sources saying Eckert is a very realistic contender. Might not be the kind of update you want but its there and stated from the likes of Ornstein, Blackmore, Alfie House...