Southampton Football Club have announded that they have parted company with manager Ralph Hasenhuttl after 3 years and 11 months in charge at St Mary's, read on for the full statement.
Saints have just released the following statement.
Southampton Football Club can confirm it has parted company with Men’s First Team Manager Ralph Hasenhüttl.
First Team Assistant Coach Richard Kitzbichler has also today left the club.
Hasenhüttl, who was appointed in December 2018, departs having made a significant contribution to the club, overseeing some memorable results and also playing a key role in the development of our club infrastructure, identity and playing squad.
However, we now believe it is an appropriate time to make a change.
Everyone involved with the club would like to express their sincere thanks to Ralph for all of his efforts, as well as the unwavering commitment he has shown throughout his time as manager.
First Team Lead Coach Rubén Sellés will take charge of the side on an interim basis for our game on Wednesday night. The club will be announcing a permanent replacement in due course."
This is of course no surprise and many Saints supporters will be delighted, personally I am a little saddened, Ralph Hasenhuttl was a decent man and as the manager of Southampton FC perhaps the worst thing that you can say about him was that he kept us in a mid table position during his time here.
He is sacked with Saints in almost exactly the same position as they where when he joined in December 2018, in the bottom three, the difference between then and now though is that we have the basis of a young exciting squad and I feel that with or without Ralph we would have pulled clear after the international break.
But sometimes you have to make a change in football and perhaps that time is right, it is hard to gain momentum when there is a lot of negativity surrounding the situation, it needs a clean break and re charging of the batteries for both the players and the fans with a new man at the helm.
As indicated in an article earlier today, perhaps the new man in will be Marcelo Gallardo who is about to leave River Plate.
In the meantime Ruben Selles will take charge, although I think it doubtful that he is ready for the challenge of being the repla cement for Ralph
So farewell to Ralph Hasenhuttl, I for one thank him for the work he has done at Southampton FC, he brought stability and he helped reshape the club, if he had won two more games this season then the Premier League would look much different, sadly he didn't and instead of sitting in and around the top 10 we are in the bottom 3 and he has paid the price.