According to one report, the majority of Southampton fans believed that Danny Rohl would be the new manager. Johannes Spors was also tasked with choosing the manager, so what caused him to change his mind?
There is only one man who can explain why Will Still, rather than Danny Rohl, is currently in the St. Mary’s hot seat, but attackingfootball.com has a hunch.
According to reports, Technical Director Spors has two primary standards for Southampton FC’s future manager.
The first was that he should have had experience managing a Championship club, and the second was that his style of football should be about playing fast-paced football, much as Jurgen Klopp did.
In addition to fulfilling both of Spor’s desires, Rohl had the extra benefit of having served as the club’s assistant manager under Ralph Hasenhuttl, in addition to coaching at Bayern Munich and the German national team.
So why Johannes Spors’ U tun?
According to attackingfootball.com, Rohl was reluctant to take charge of a team in the same division as Sheffield Wednesday, where he currently holds his position, and he had previously indicated in articles that he would like to manage in the Premier League or Bundesliga. This may have alarmed Spors, who wanted to schedule a meeting as soon as possible.
He so concluded that, even though Rohl remained his interest, he also needed to explore elsewhere.
Following an interview with Tom Cleverley, Spors reportedly learned that Will Still wanted to leave Lens to spend more time with his partner, Sky Sports reporter Emma Saunders, who was receiving treatment in England for encephalitis.
However, Spors was still pursuing Still for other reasons besides the fact that he wanted to see England.
When he took a closer look at his record, he was impressed by Still’s versatility and ability to position his teams to neutralize the threat posed by the opponent both in starting lineups and during games.
Even though Still didn’t meet Spors’ second condition of having managed in the Championship, Spors was persuaded by his football philosophy and versatility that Still was the right man for Saints.
Russell Martin’s complete refusal to alter his possession football style, even when it was obvious that other teams had figured out the style and were just waiting to press and force mistakes, was the primary cause of the Saints’ initial predicament.
This most likely resonated with Spors, who in Still witnessed a man who has openly declared that he is more interested in winning games than pursuing his own goals and is not concerned with adhering to a certain style.
Continue by saying this regarding Still.
“As seen occasionally with Stade de Reims and Lens, he could still employ a high-tempo style with ease, but in the Championship, he will put more emphasis on possession control.
In Ligue 1, his Lens 2024–25 team averaged 54.1% possession, demonstrating that their advantage in game management is crucial to their success. In contrast to Martin’s tactics, Lens had the fourth-most possessions in Ligue 1 in the final third but the fourth-fewest in their own defensive third.
The increase in directness that Spors desired would result from this. Still can pull this out of the Saints team, even though he isn’t quite the Röhl who would revive the methods of Southampton cult hero Ralph Hasenhüttl.
Although hiring Still is undoubtedly risky, football has evolved over time, and managers who have been successful at one club are not necessarily successful at another. Nevertheless, journeymen managers who help teams succeed or stay competitive are becoming more and more common.
Southampton FC has been hiring managers who are more up-and-coming than established for 70 years, so Saints supporters should be pleased that Spors hasn’t invented the wheel in this regard.
According to neutral observers, Southampton, a team currently in the second division of English football, hired a manager from the top division of French football, and he has guided the team to a top half finish that is just a few points away from a European qualifying spot.
They may argue that we have overreached ourselves in this appointment.
Sport Republic has undoubtedly made mistakes since coming to St Mary’s. They first allowed the previous board to run the club, which led to relegation two years ago. They then hired Jason Wilcox, who managed a successful promotion campaign but resigned before it was finished.
After that, we continued to play football without a director, but at a great cost—we lost our direction once more.
St. Mary’s has been more stable since Johannes Spors took over, and Will Still’s selection demonstrates the consideration that went into the process rather than the hasty dismissal of Ralph Hasenhuttl, Nathan Jones, and Selles.
It’s not the lack of a leader that gave Russell Martin the freedom to pursue his own goals, followed by Ivan Juric’s perplexing appearance.
Sport Republic has made mistakes, but hopefully they have learnt from them and we have resolved the problems so that we can go on once more. This is a reset of how the club is run.
The more I learn about our new manager and the reasoning behind his appointment, the more certain I am that this team can contend next season, even though on Saturday morning I wasn’t sure if it was wise to choose Will Still over Danny Rohl.
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