Roger Schmidt was on the brink of a move to St Mary's but rejected Saints in favour of a lucrative move to China, Arron takes a look at the situation.

Former Bayer Leverkusen manager and ex Saints managerial target Roger Schmidt, was reportedly close to agreeing a deal with Southampton.

According to Sky Sports, Schmidt was on the brink of securing a contract with Southampton before a lucrative move to Bejing to earn far more money than he would in England became apparent.

The lure of Chinese mega bucks was too much for the German boss to turn down, leaving Southampton to mull over other targets.

The report claims that Southampton have narrowed their shortlist down to four names, with Schmidt and compatriot Thomas Tuchel both being scratched off in the last week.

Southampton are looking to bring in a motivating manager who can bring some life back into the south coast club.

With supporters becoming disillusioned with ex boss Claude Puel's style of play, leading to the Frenchman's dismissal.

Schmidt was reportedly identified as that man but has chosen to sign for Beijing Sinobo Guoan on a two-and-a-half year deal instead.

Frank De Boer and Maurico Pellegrino are thought to be two of the leading names on the list of four that have the potential to be appointed, the other two are unknown as of this time.

Many fans will now be eager to know the identity of the as yet 2 unnamed targets.

Photo: Action Images

A1079 added 23:08 - Jun 19 It is starting to feel that on the basis of diminishing options, that our next manager will almost be chosen for us. What bewilders me, and I admit, I do not know what has or is going on behind the scenes, that presumably when the season ended they knew they would not retain Puel, otherwise they would surely have stated that at the beginning. Given that, and the weeks that have passed and with the clock ticking is it not reasonable to expect that they would or should have had their man lined not still exploring so called options, options which now seem few. I hope this is not a case of the board trying to get someone on the cheap! We seem to take so long in the close season to resolve our off field issues.

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SonicBoom added 10:27 - Jun 20 Nick how do you know we are looking for a motivating manager to bring life back to the club? Are De Boer and Pellegrino that type of manager. From the things I've read I'd say not, they are more in the Puel mode. It's a shame that there has barely been one British manager in the frame. Are we really that bad at management in this country ?
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