Many Southampton supporters have reacted in jubilant fashion to the news of Mark Hughes’ sacking, however they were instantly left appalled at some of the early contenders for the Premier League vacancy after the likes of David Moyes, Craig Shakespeare, and Nigel Pearson made it clear they were keen to hold talks with the struggling Saints.
Firefighter Sam Allardyce is also hovering in the mix in the next Southampton manager market, as are Quique Sanchez Flores, Paulo Sousa, and even the former Saint Garry Monk.
However, if reports are to be believed then Southampton are lining up Ralph Hasenhuttl as Hughes’ replacement at St Mary’s, and he’s now the odds-on favourite in the betting.
‘Who?’ you may be inclined to ask.
Fans of German and Austrian football will know the name well, while Arsenal supporters will remember that Hasenhuttl was linked with the club following the departure of Arsene Wenger.
The Austrian began his managerial career in Germany with Unterhaching in 2007, before going on to take charge of Aalen, then Ingolstadt – winning promotion with both – before bagging the RB Leipzig job in the summer of 2016.
It was at Leipzig where he really made a name for himself, leading the club to 2nd place behind Bayern Munich in 2016/17 on their Bundesliga debut, and qualification into the Champions League.
He held onto the post until May of this year, meaning he’s currently out-of-work, and ready to boost his profile in England.
The Telegraph reports that Hasenhuttl tops Southampton’s managerial wish list, and could even be in charge for the weekend’s crunch clash against relegation rivals Cardiff, with Kelvin Davis overseeing Wednesday’s game at Tottenham.
The Telegraph also states:
“Crucially, he (Hasenhuttl) has an outstanding track-record for developing young players and he also worked with Paul Mitchell at Leipzig, who was Southampton’s former head of recruitment.
“Mitchell, who helped bring Pochettino to Southampton and then worked with him at Tottenham, is a contender to replace Les Reed in a technical director position at Southampton. Reed left Southampton last months.”
Meanwhile, he’s known as “Alpen Kloppen” (Klopp from the Alps) as the two managers employ a similar style of football, with their teams bristling with energy, and quick-passing, while he has a record of bringing through young players, which would go down well at Southampton.