Reports from Italy today have claimed that Saints were turned down by their first choice to replace Ralph Hasenhuttl and that only they went for Nathan Jones afterwards.
The man who is being named as Saints preferred option is Ivan Juric currently at Serie A side Torino.
The 47 year old Croatian enjoyed a long career as a player and earned 5 caps for the Croatian International side, after retiring he has been involved in coaching over the past decade or so.
He had three years as manager of Genoa, bizarrely being sacked twice and reinstated between 2016 and 2019 before spending two years at hellas Verona and joined Torino in the summer of 2021.
In most respects he fits the profile that Sports Republic look for in a manager and Italian media outlet La Stampa have run a story that Southampton had tried to bring Ivan Juric from Torino. It’s said that happened at the start of November.
The story claims Juric was actually open to the possibility, as he ‘listened, took note, reflected’ about Southampton’s offer, but ‘in the end, he said no’.
After being knocked back by Juric, Saints went straight to their second choice Nathan Jones.