da esport bet： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
da pinup bet： According to The Daily Echo, Southampton’s Director of Football Ross Wilson is ‘expected’ to leave St Mary’s to join Rangers.
Adam Leitch writes that the potential exit will see the south coast side begin the hunt for a new football chief, although there is arguably a more interesting nugget of information embedded in the piece.
“The Daily Echo understands that Wilson’s potential departure is being seen as an opportunity to properly start afresh at St Mary’s.”
Starting afresh is exactly what the Saints need.
Over the last few years since the departure of Ronald Koeman to Everton – a man who led Southampton into the Europa League after a 6th-place finish in 2015/16 – things have gone downhill at St Mary’s.
Signings have been poor, to say the least.
£70.1m was spent on the likes of £19m Guido Carrillo – who could be deemed as one of the club’s worst ever purchases – £18.1m Mario Lemina, £15m Wesley Hoedt and £18m Jannik Vestergaard.
A more recent £15m capture in Che Adams has also failed to find the net in eight appearances for the Saints since signing from Birmingham – £15m Moussa Djenepo has been more of a hit, but such a success story in the market has been too few and far between.
Managerial appointments have also been questionable.
Following Koeman’s exit, Claude Puel was appointed. The Frenchman guided Southampton into 8th-place and led them to a Carabao Cup final, although he was dismissed for a terrible end to the season as well as some dismal results at St Mary’s.
Puel could only get his side to score 17 goals in 19 home games – the Saints didn’t score in six of their last seven home games in 2016/17 – and lost 16 matches in total.
His successors weren’t much better.
A long summer of consideration saw the Saints plunge their faith in Mauricio Pellegrino, a man who was sacked before the campaign was up having secured the equivalent of 0.93 points per game, which was then the third-worst tally of any Southampton manager in the Premier League.
Mark Hughes replaced Pellegrino and kept Southampton up by the skin of their teeth, but he lasted no longer than eight months at the helm.
Overall, decisions by the Southampton board have been extremely questionable and they have been made to pay for their ill-judged moves.
As a result, ripping up the old and heading back to the drawing board would certainly be a good thing for the club.
It can’t go much worse in all honesty, and the potential change from Wilson to a new DOF will hand the Saints the perfect opportunity to switch things up.