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Rumoured Departure Hints At Coaching Shake Up At Saints

As the Saints board battens down the hatches and looks to sort out the issues that have crept up over the past couple of years, it is rumoured that the first head has already rolled on the coaching staff.

The rumour mill is suggesting that Radhi Jaidi has been removed from his position as Head Coach of the U23 side with a caretaker taking the reigns on a temporary basis, although it is unclear who is running the side at present.

Jaidi is still shown on the Club website as of 6th November but is said to have left his position, there is no mention of his name in the match report of the U23's defeat to Coventry in the EFL last night and he appears to have gone before this fixture took place.

The decision has not yet been announced as it seems that although the club have removed him from the head coaching position, they do not want to sack him completely but are looking for another role within the club for him.

Results haven't looked great this season and in the PL2 table Saints U23 sit second bottom with only 7 points from 10 games, their season mirrors that of the first team and they have lost 4 of their last 5 League matches and have the worst defence in the division with 31 goals conceded.

So the sacking of Jaidi if it has happened, should not come as much of a surprise when you add three straight defeats in the EFL Cup.

What should be more of a surprise is how he got the job in the first place, he played for the club from 2009 to 2012 and made 68 appearances for the club in 3 seasons although all of them would be in his first two seasons as he struggled with injury in his third season as we gained promotion to the Championship.

He retired from playing in 2012 as at 37 he was not going to be good enough to play in the Premier League and then at some stage was employed by the club in a variety of roles moving up the ladder in the junior teams to be head coach of the U23 in 2017 having been the assistant.

But results haven't been as good as expected although in his defence a policy of loaning out the best younger players has affected who he has to select from.

But his appointment two years ago seemed strange, he did not seem to have the experience required to run what is after all the feeder side to the first team.

That is now being mirrored in the fact that our first team coaches have little experience, indeed Jaidi seemed better qualified to be a first team coach than Kelvin Davis, Dave Watson and Craig Fleming who had been junior to him as his assistant last season.

So it seems that the hierarchy of the club are looking at the coaching set up throughout the club and that could also stretch to the First team where clearly there is not enough experience and know how in order to help Ralph Hasenhuttl do his job.

There has always been a little bit of jobs for the boys at Saints and that in itself is good, if and it is a big IF, you are appointing people because of their ability to do the job and not just because they are loyal club servants.

The problem is at the moment with the departure of Ross Wilson there is no one in the board and running side of things at the club that has the experience to know what a good coach or player looks like, we need a director of football and we need one fast.

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