Dressing Room Unrest Never Ends Well Friday, 12th Aug 2022 08:46 Some Saints fans greeted the supposedly leaked story that Ralph Hasenhuttl has lost the trust of several of his players with glee, but whether it is Southampton of Manchester United, if you pander to player power then it never ends well. News emerged from the media this week that Ralph Hasenhuttl has lost the trust of several of his players Football players being unhappy with their manager and that there was surprise within the dressing room that he was not sacked over the summer. The Daily Mail had this to say: "Sportsmail understands that some players spoke to members of the club’s hierarchy at the end of last season and expressed concern over Hasenhuttl’s management. "The response was to change the entirety of his coaching staff, with the manager remaining in place, much to the surprise and disappointment of some within the squad. Hasenhuttl’s contract runs until 2024 and club sources insist there is no appetite to change manager at present. "However, there is now said to be increased tension behind the scenes, with some of the newly-formed backroom team even harbouring misgivings over Hasenhuttl and his strategies. "Several sources have spoken to Sportsmail about what they believe is a situation that will only be resolved by a change in the dugout. "Ralph just doesn’t really talk to people any more,’ said one source. ‘He drops players without any real thought and has no relationship with them if they have an issue. "There is a real defensive focus and they’re going into games just trying not to lose. Players are used out of position and there is no consistency – a lot of them are very unhappy. "When they sacked the coaching staff, there was a feeling it should have been Ralph who went. The club say they have full faith in him, but it looks like he knows the game is nearly up."
Interesting the Mail don't elaborate on these sources it could be players, it could even be those coaching staff who lost their job in the summer, who will still be in touch with some of the players in the dressing room. One thing is for sure though, so called player power is never a good thing and never leads to harmony in the club if it is listened to. Some of the things reported don't ring true, saying there is a real defensive focus is not something that sounds familiar to most Saints fans, in fact the complete opposite, Saints lost at Spurs not because they were trying not to lose the game, but because of poor defending end of, likewise defeats at the end of last season, we lost because we kept getting caught out on the break and poor defending, not because we were trying not to lose, but on the other hand tell me a team that goes out there "trying to lose" Someone is making mischief and there are two ways forward, firstly the club will succumb to player power and this is a bad road to take, not just for Ralph Hasenhuttl who would lose his job, but for his successor, how many games would he have before those in the dressing room decide they don't like him either. Rasmus Ankersen and Sport Republic build their football clubs not on individuals but the collective and they are not going to want to see that threatened.
The likelihood is that there will be some players in our squad who don't like the manager or his methods, but that is normal in football clubs indeed in any walk of life, truth is in football it is a professional game, players are paid to do a job, if they are effectively saying they are not giving their all, then I know who I would want to leave and it is not the manager whoever he is. Anyone who has played at any level of football be it Sunday League or professional tends to judge their manager on how the manager judges them, if you are picked week in week out then the manager is a footballing genius who certainly knows a good player when he sees one and his tactics are spot on. But if he doesn't play you or leaves you on the bench, then he is a clueless buffoon whose footballing knowledge could be written on a postage stamp and tactically he couldn't manager a subbuteo team.
Griping in dressing rooms goes on at all levels and perhaps much more the higher up the footballing pyramid you go, indeed some of the greatest managers didn't talk to their players much or have any relationship with them off the training pitch or dressing room. That is not to say that is the right approach, but every manager has a different style. The second thing that can happen here is that the owners see what is happening at the club and know they have to weed out those not committed, some of the fans have been quick to blame the manager for the end of the last two seasons when we have collapsed and finished 15th when in both we could have finished near to the top 10 if not in it. They have been quick to blame Ralph Hasenhuttl, but we have to also ask the question if he could get them playing to a high standard that put the team in and around the top 10 in January/February, why did they then collapse ?
That is a question that we have to ask of the players not the manager, why did we go last season from a 13 game run in the Premier League that has seen us beaten just twice and risen to the edge of the top 10, plus a run in the FA Cup to the quarter finals, to suddenly be beaten by a poor Aston Villa side which started a run of 12 Premier League games where we would win just once and lose nine. Did our tactics change drastically ? Did the manager tell the players to go out there and lose ? where players dropped inexplicably ? Truth is not many players were playing well at this point, the only real issue I could see is why Hasenhuttl stuck with Armando Broja and left Che Adams on the bench so often. Players are quick to take credit for a good run, but although the Ralph haters like to pin the entire blame on him, it also beggars a horrible question and perhaps a more ugly answer, the fact is that some of our players were happy to go through the motions for whatever their own reasons.
The real irony is that those who are allegedly stabbing the manager in the back are more likely to be those who are not getting a game and who the very fans now applauding them have been demanding their very departure. Again who would you want at a football club, someone who would play when they want to and is quite happy to ask for a manager to lose his job because of that, or an honest man in charge and let's be blunt here when Ralph joined if you told any Saints fan that in 3 1/2 years he would still be here, but more to the point we would not be in relegation trouble and would finish 11th & 15th twice in his three full seasons, they would have been delighted. So Rasmus Ankersen has work to do now and to be blunt this outburst will perhaps have stiffened his resolve to back the manager, even if sacking Hasenhuttl was on the boardroom table, they know that if they do it now they will have been seen to have given in to player power and a football club cannot be seen to do that.
The hope is that these rumours are not the widespread opinions within our squad, that in the main the squad is united in it's aims and this is just a small minority, indeed perhaps even one player or even one of the ex coaching staff who are behind this so called "leak". If that is the case then it will be easy for Ralph to turn around, I am not going to point fingers as I haven't clue where these rumours come from, It would be easy to look at those not in Hasenhuttl's starting XI and put two and two together, but that isn't always the case. The only way forward now is for Southampton Football Club to deal with the issue it has and if the media reports are accurate then it is within their own dressing room, ultimately it is the players who determine whether a game is won or lost & in doing so they determine the fate of any manager. This is not an article in praise of Ralph Hasenhuttl or sticking up for him, it is about what makes a football club strong or weak and run in the right way. A manager should rightly lose his job if he is not doing it, but not because certain factions decide he is not the man for them, sack the manager and the cancer remains in the club. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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