Written version here, if useful
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You've been here for two or three weeks now, how are you finding it?
Well, thank you first of all. I am here for three weeks now, as you said. I am still observing a lot and trying to speak to everybody as much as I can. I'm having a lot of one-on-one conversations and of course I watch the training sessions and follow the games. The picture is getting clearer. I would not say I know everything and everybody but the picture is getting clearer and I find myself very well here, I would say.
You have come to the club at quite a traumatic time. A lot of churn, a lot of change. You've come here with quite an impressive CV so what made you think that Sport Republic was a good move for you?
I had some very exciting last years working in many different countries, but in the last three years I was very lucky to work in parallel for many clubs in a multi-club structure. That was very successful and we had three promotions in less than two years and the player trading worked well too. At one point, I thought about what is next and obviously the Premier League is very attractive. So in the combination of also having a multi-club structure on the side of Southampton, that's what really attracts me. It's Premier League now, and then obviously, we have to work on getting more Premier League games again hopefully soon.
That leads me onto wanting to know what your priorities are. What are your top priorities for this initial time with the club?
First of all, I think there is a great idea and vision behind the football club but now I think it's important that I am here to execute. I have to make sure that we have a good structure and communication from one department to the other. That we have a clear structure of who is doing what in my team and in the other teams too. That's the priority for the beginning, to make sure we have a set up that has a punch for the future.
So I have my own view on your role because I think maybe I understand a bit about what it is. In my head, the important bit of your role is to be the lead person with recruitment and structure on the footballing side. So how do you see your role? Where do you come in the hierarchy of the club?
I am here to help with every decision in the football side. Ultimately, they are my responsibility. Scouting and recruitment, of course, is extremely relevant and is one of my very first priorities here. That's not to forget the academy. In times like these, sometimes an academy is not getting the attention it needs. By the way, they've had great results and are doing a great job, but then obviously the first team. That's my main focus. I am here to take responsibility, no question.
I ask you that with regards to the future, going forward about transfers. The summer is set to be a very difficult and long one, with the turnover of players that we all expect after a relegation. Do you work by committee or do you, as the man that Dragan has put in charge of football, do you make the decision on recruitment?
I am here to take responsibility and to take decisions. The way I work, the way I lead is very integrating and not excluding. I have been fortunate to work in many different cultures and every culture has a little bit of a different way to come to a decision. My experience is that we need a clear responsibility. Under my umbrella, I make sure that every internal stakeholder is close to me and is heard and can have their opinion. That includes, of course, the manager, the scouting and recruitment, our CEO, the ownership. Sometimes I laugh a little bit when I hear these statements because surely that is the most natural thing in the world, that I include everybody who has a say in this football club. But then, again, ultimately it is my responsibility.
You can work democratically before making a decision...
100%. Things need to get signed off, yes there are budgets and all of these considerations to take. That's the interesting part of the job. It's not just find one player and sign him, it's the complete picture of a puzzle that needs to fit together with internal and external factors influencing. I am very experienced with this, I did this in many different countries and cultures and it was successful most of the time. I am very confident that we will have the same results here.
One of the things I have been saying recently is that with Dragan taking control of the top of the club as chairman and bringing you in, there is hope amidst a disaster of a season. Do you see that linear messaging from Dragan, to you, to the manager starting to fall in line with the backbone you want from the club?
I think it is always very important to have a close connection with the owner and to understand, in both ways, what we need and what we want. To anticipate the other side of the same table, is how I would say. I worked with very different ownerships in the past. I worked in Germany in the Red Bull environment, also with Russian ownership and with Americans. One thing that is always in common is that it's about communication. It's about transparency and to communicate about the strategy that I have. I have had a very good start with Dragan and with the ownership in general.
What about the manager situation. How hard is it for you to walk into this situation and for Ivan to be in this situation. You obviously have a connection with Ralph Hasenhüttl from the past and Danny Röhl. There have been reports saying that Ivan is not staying beyond this season, so how do you navigate through that with a manager who might not be here after the summer?
Having relationships to managers in general is part of my job. I need to know the market, I need to know who is doing a job here and there in different countries and at different levels. That also means I know Ivan for a very long time, we didn't work together but we have both been working in Serie A in Italy. He did an impressive job there, especially with finding the right balance defensively with teams in different environments. That's something that has been very impressive. Unfortunately, it's not at that level here right now. He is the first person to say this, since you interview him I guess.
I think it hurts him that he's conceded so many goals...
Exactly. He is the first person that is extremely driven, emotional even, to make this as successful as it can be in the last 10 match days of the season. That's a very positive fact.
Are you open-minded about that with regard to his future? Is that still something to be talked about?
He came here in a very difficult moment. I arrived here later. I am still trying to evaluate everything. Again, I can say that he is extremely driven and motivated and hard-working to make this successful. And that's a very positive part.
He's also very humble and he takes responsibility. I admire him for that...
Yes, absolutely. As a manager of this size of football club, that's very important.
That takes me onto the players. I said to you about a churn in the summer, when you get relegated you need to raise income. The obvious way is to sell your best assets. I'm fascinated with your knowledge of the market. We always worry about an English phrase 'a fire sale' of all the best players. But that can work if you have your finger on the pulse of the transfer market and you can change it. It doesn't have to be the same players. How do you view it with a group of players who get it, who understand the club - or is that irrelevant in the modern market?
It is relevant. To build a squad is really a little bit like a piece of art, where you have to consider many different angles. There are so many different considerations that I have to take now to really make that picture a nice one and complete it. It's about leadership, it's about talent, it's about above-average quality for the competition that you are in.
And contracts and the rest of it...
Of course, contracts and then also the willingness to be here and to really fight for it. We need people in general that really want to be here in the next season and fight for our goal. On the player trading side, if all the players are coming back including those that are on loan and those that are here already it's quite a big squad, right? It's around 40 players or even a little bit more. So of course, there will be changes. That's the most natural thing that happens in a long window. I see this as an opportunity for this club. Some changes will be made, 100% and it's good that we have this possibility in the summer and I'm really looking forward to it.
Some players have, to the frustrations of many people, been allowed to see out their contracts. More than probably the club should have let see out their contracts and walk away in recent times. Tyler Dibling is the young talent that so many people are focusing on. Can you get him to sign a new contract maybe? Even if you need to sell him for the benefit of the club. It's obviously better for the club for you to be in a position of strength if you have to negotiate for him...
At the moment, I see Tyler Dibling as a great success story for this club. It's the great result of a combination of academy work and then first team work to put him in the right moment. I think it's exciting to see him on the pitch, he is still very young and has a lot of potential still and a lot of areas where he can and will be better. It's a good situation for us to have a situation like him in our club and everything else in the future will show, honestly.
I asked you because when I spoke to him, I get the feeling he doesn't want to be worrying about it because he's only 19 years of age. So I guess his family and people around him are important and your relationship with them then becomes important?
Yeah. At the end, we all have the same goal. It is about development. Development in general, I think, is a headline for this football club. Because this is an environment where development is possible and needed. He is a good example, like a role model even for other young players to join. When you want to answer the question, when you want to work on development, relationship is important. Relationship to the player, relationship to his agents and maybe his family. Of course, it's a factor, yes.
The last manager to survive more than 18 months here was Ralph Hasenhüttl, who you of course worked with at RB Leipzig. Of the success story that is the RB story, what are the traits of that, the qualities or the successes of that which you want to try and replicate here after what you've learnt on your journey?
So, I worked very closely with Ralph Hasenhüttl in that time and also Ralf Rangnick was in the same period. They were together like Sporting Director and Head Coach. What I have mostly learned is especially to drive every single department to its best version of itself. To innovate every single department and achieve the best version this department can be, from every season to the other, because that creates an energy. Again, what I said about development, development cannot just be player development. It's also staff development. I want the analysts and the scouts to be the same kind of person, someone who wants to make the next step because we need this kind of energy. It creates power to develop player, to develop coaches and this is the environment I want to see here. This is where Red Bull and Ralph Hasenhüttl in that time was very successful. That makes a difference to other environments where you don't see that.
And the player sales that Red Bull have made in the last five, six, seven years and then just carried on being successful at a good level. That's the skill, isn't it? To develop talent and turnover whilst maintaining your standards. That's possibly the hardest thing in football?
Yes and that's always a togetherness. If you speak about development, then you need a couple of layers that are young, that really have the future in front of them and are working on it. But then you also need the whole environment to be able to allow them to grow. The coach, the assistants, everybody around them... that's very important.
I have got to ask you about Danny Röhl. You might not be able to say anything about Danny but he is a young man you know and he has done a very good job at Sheffield Wednesday. In fact, they had a remarkable win from 2-0 down last night. Is he someone that you can say anything about, whether he fits your profile of the sort of manager you want for the future?
I've known Danny for a long time, because as you mentioned, the Ralph Hasenhüttl time was the same time that Danny was assistant coach and on the analytics. So he has been in a very different role to the one he is in now and I have been in different roles to the role I am in now. When you know each other and you both make a career, then you follow each other. I was really happy for him when I saw that he took the job in the Championship and when he had the success of staying in the competition. I said it earlier, it's one of the important parts of my job, to know coaches and managers, whatever you want to call them, all around the globe and in different countries. It is important to follow talent in general, because I want to bring talent to this football club. On the pitch and off the pitch. That's why I am always following talented people.
I won't ask you if you're going to speak to Danny in the summer because that wouldn't be fair on Ivan or Danny, both of whom are in jobs at the moment. Just finally, what do you do to help you cope with the stresses of the top level of this sport which we all love. How do you escape? I like speaking to Ivan about his love of heavy rock music and Ralph of course liked his music too. What's Johannes Spors, are you on the golf course or the tennis court? What are you doing to switch off when you can? Do you ever?
When I worked in Italy, my house was directly next to the golf course so I tried my luck. I loved it but I am horribly bad, so it doesn't really relax me. It's my family honestly, it's my wife and my three kids. That's what calms me down. Not always calms me down to be honest! That's my number one.
