According to a report in the German media, Ralph Hasenhuttl intends to get out of the stresses of managing football teams at the end of his Southampton contract in 2024 and he has told this to the club already.
German football media outlet have interviewed Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl and he gave them an exclusive, revealing he intends to get out of football in 2024 when his contract at St Mary's comes to an end.
Speaking to Kicker in an interview conducted in German so having some variances in translation Ralph had this to say:
"I always wanted to prove to myself that I could very well work for a club for a longer period of time. Hopefully, it will be five and a half years here, that's a damn long time in modern football, and then that's probably it,"
"Five and a half years in the Premier League, that's a lot of energy, regardless of job satisfaction. I can't imagine that I want to do anything else in the coaching job after that.
"And saying no to everything else is also a yes to yourself, and I want that," he added.
"That's the solid plan and I hope I have the strength to pull it off. [I want to] put Southampton on a very healthy footing by 2024, but then that was it.
"Then I'll be 57 years old," he said. "I'd like to experience other things and not sit on the bench like Roy Hodgson at 74. Definitely not."
This news is a double edged sword for Saints supporters, on one hand it seems the club will have stability for the next two years, especially when Hasenhuttl has been linked with other Premier League posts over the past year or so and on the other in two years and a bit we will be waving farewell.
The hope is though that under Sport Republic he finds himself immersed in the project and wants to stay on.
As he alluded to when he leaves he will be approaching 57 in August of 2024, but that is no age for a manager, he still has a lot of time left to achieve things and hopefully that will be at St Mary's.
He is already the longest serving manager at Saints since Chris Nicholl was sacked in the summer of 1991, the ex Saints player had six years in the role and Hasenhuttl will fall a little short of that if he does go in 2024.
The fact that Ralph has managed 3 years at the club is something no manager has managed since Nicholl 31 years ago and it shows the lack of managerial stability we have had in that in between Nicholl & Hasenhuttll there have been 22 permanent managers at the club.
When the Austrian arrived in December 2018 you felt for the first time since Nicholl left we actually had a manager who saw himself here for the long term and not just a stepping stone to bigger things or like some just a short stop over whilst they waited for what they saw as their dream job.
Although results have not always gone Ralph's way, there were mitigating circumstances for that and he has done a lot of work behind the scenes to change the club in all areas of the playing side of things.
It is things like this that most fans don't notice in what has become a game that for many is purely results based without a care for how you get those results or more importantly how you continue to get them and improve them in the long term.
We have managed to end the managerial merry go round with Ralph and although some will never forgive him for presiding over two heavy defeats against Leicester and Manchester United, it should be remembered that both Ted Bates and Lawrie McMenemy had similar mishaps during their tenures, it is about long term improvement not just the odd poor result.
Hasenhuttl's record at time of writing is played 140 games, won 50, drew 35 & lost 55, a win ratio of 35.71%.
Now that doesn't sound great but it does compare quite favourably with most of our managers in the past.
The two iconic Saints bosses Ted Bates & Lawrie McMenemy had win ratios of 39.18% & 41.74% but it should be noted that a chunk of both their time as Saints manager was in the second tier of English football and in the case of Bates also in the 3rd division.
Of all the managers who completed at least a full season in charge only Alan Pardew with 53.13% although it should be noted that this was in League One (It should be noted that this also included Johnstones Paint Trophy games) Nigel Adkins with 54.03 %, Mauricio Pochettino with 38.33% & Ronald Koeman with 48.35% have better win ratios.
It is also interesting to read that Claude Puel with 37.74% and an 8th place finish and a League Cup final to his name could perhaps be considered the most successful manager of the last 31 years vying with Gordon Strachan 35.45% for that honour.
That tells us that in the top flight Ralph is right up there with all of those who have managed Saints at the highest level.
He arrived at the club as the Premier league was becoming even more polarised than ever before, he has steered us through some difficult times, he took over a club in disarray, both on the field after the disastrous reigns of Mauricio Pellegrino & Mark Hughes and off it with the departure of Chairman Ralph Krueger & Director of Football Les Read in the year before his arrival.
Personally I have always been a fan of Ralph, I could see his enthusiasm for the job, the club and the fans, it was always about the bigger picture, I truly hope that he is still manager in the summer of 2024 and i also truly hope that he changes his mind and stays.