Almost a year after Jason Wilcox left St Mary's to join Manchester United, Saints have finally appointed his replacement, many Southampton supporters would say that this is perhaps the main reason why we are now certain to be relegated.
Johannes Spors was supposed to have been in situ the best part of a month ago and then came the news that his work permit had been turned down, it all went deathly quiet and most assumed that this would be yet another disastrous turn of events for Sport Republic, but now suddenly out of the blue comes this announcement from Southampton Football Club
"Southampton Football Club is delighted to announce the appointment of Johannes Spors as Group Technical Director.
"Spors has a wealth of experience in European football, having held key roles at RB Leipzig, Vitesse Arnhem and Genoa, from where he was promoted to Global Sporting Director of the 777 Group. The 42-year-old will use that experience to support owners Sport Republic on football matters across the group.
"Reporting to the club’s CEO, Phil Parsons, Spors will start his role on 15th February and be based at Staplewood Campus alongside Director of Football Operations Mark Bitcon, ensuring a cohesive approach to football strategy, player development, and performance.
"His expertise in talent identification, recruitment strategy, and long-term squad development will be instrumental as the club looks to strengthen its football operations."
Johannes Spors said:
"I’m excited to finally start work at Southampton. Saints are a club with a great history and commitment to developing players, not only in the Academy, but also at First Team level.
"I look forward to working with the team at Staplewood to build a strategy that helps bring success on the pitch.”
But even this has a a twist, apparently Mark Bitcon is Director Of Football Operations, that is news to many people, Bitcon joined the club in May 2024 as Director of Performance, yet his linkedin profile says he has been Director Of Football Operations since March 2024, although back in November the Daily Echo made brief mention that he was Director of Football Operations.
So who is now effectively the Director of Football, is it new man Spors who is Group Technical Director or is it Bitcon, who if so and who has been in the job for 11 months has made a pigs ear of our recruitment in that time as well as failing to deal with the Russell Martin situation when it became clear early in this season, that he was running his own agenda and not one that best suited Southampton FC and their relegation battle.
I hope this works out, but as it stands there is not a clear demarcation of roles, at least not publicly, just which one of our new dynamic duo are running the show, usually when you have two men of equal stature in any company, there is a clash of not only opinions but egos.