There has been no shortage of potential candidates to take over the management seat at St Mary's after the sacking of Nathan Jones and it seems likely Saints will move quickly to appoint his successor.
The sacking of Nathan Jones came swiftly at the end of his short tenure at Southampton FC and it seems likely the club will move just as quickly to appoint his successor, indeed when Ralph Hasenhuttl was sacked on 6th November just days before the World Cup break, Jones was announced as Saints manager just four days later.
That might sound like an appointment made in haste, but the club monitor potential managers just as they monitor potential players, so they can make quick appointments.
However they got it badly wrong with Jones, some blame those in charge at St Mary's be in Martin Semmens and the board or the owners led by Rasmus Ankersen, whilst they do have to bear the responsibility it is easy to see why they saw Jones as the right man for the job, as he himself is quick to point out, he played in a certain way and got results, he probably came across well in interviews etc and that led the board to think he would be their man.
However it became clear early on that Jones lacked a certain strength of character needed to manage in the Premier League and the more it progressed I actually started to feel sorry for him as a man, he was unravelling in the glare of the media with car crash post match interviews and his team selections became more erratic.
But that is now all history, this is not the first mistake in appointing a manager made by a board at Southampton Football Club and it probably won't be the last, we just hope that with the next appointment they get it right.
So who will that next appointment be ?
By yesterday evening there had been around 10 potential candidates in the fore that had some credence.
Jesse Marsch, Steven Gerrard, Sam Allardyce, Marcella Gallardo, Steve Bruce, Ralph Hasenhuttl, Nino Espirito Santo,, Ivan Juric, Jess Thorup & Marcelo Bielsa have all been touted as potential replacements and these are just the top of the tree.
Judging from responses on social media, it seems there is no clear favourite amongst the fans, all of the 10 mentioned have their plus points and all have their minus points, the early voting in our online poll has seen all but one of the candidates getting a vote, the only exception being ex boss Ralph Hasenhuttl.
Each hour seems to bring a new contender, Steve Bruce seemed to be the favourite in some parts of the media, several such as Sam Allardyce and Steven Gerrard got mentions, probably more because they are out of work and the same could be said for Marcelo Bielsa.
There are some names being touted that come from the left field, Jess Thorup will not be name familiar with Saints supporters although it should be in that he was in charge of the Midtjylland side that knocked Saints out of the Europa League in 2015/16.
It was there that his connection to Rasmus Ankersen came and after leaving there he has won the Danish title with FC Copenhagen and also managed in Belgium.
Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper is also being touted, but it is hard to believe that he would swap Forest's relatively lofty position to join Saints at present.
Torino manager Ivan Juric has emerged as another strong contender to take over at St. Mary’s, with reports saying that Saints are looking to move on quickly from the disastrous Jones era.
But the favourite emerging this morning is with Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch, perhaps the choice for the club because of his experience in the Premier League over the last year.
His is now 1/4 odds on favourite to be given the job and certainly media outlets like Sky Sports feel that he is going to be the man with reports saying that he could be appointed today.
I am not sure that his appointment would be universally popular in the fan base, the general view would be that he is an excitable American version of Nathan Jones, certainly some of his interviews have been bizarre, but he has the credentials that the club's owners will be looking for.
He has had a good grounding in the MLS in his home country with 7 years experience before moving between the Red Bull clubs, firstly from New York to become assistant at RB Leipzig, then becoming head coach at RB Salzburg in June 2019, two straight Bundesliga titles followed before he returned to Leipzig this time as Head coach in the summer of 2021.
His tenure there was short and they parted ways in December 2021 by mutual consent.
He was not out of work long before Leeds United came knocking and he succeeded in keeping them up.
I can see why Saints may want Marsch, from a supporters perspective he is a little bit of a cartoon character and the TV series character Ted Lasso is often quoted as being a similar match.
However that is a little unfair, a deeper look at his career shows that he has worked hard and earned a good reputation over a 12 year period and across 4 different Leagues, the MLS, Austria, Germany and more importantly from what Saints are looking for in the Premier League.
So it looks like Marsch could well be our man, he won't be the most popular choice, some of the fans will want a so called big name such as Sam Allardyce, that would not be my choice, in essence I don't think we have the players to play the Allardyce way, or perhaps one of the foreign options in Juric or Gallardo, but they would be gambles having had no Premier League experience.
Who would you prefer to take over, would you be happy with Marsch or would you prefer someone else, give your opinion in the comments section and vote in our online poll using the link below.
https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/forum/294686/who-would-you-wa