Ralph Hasenhuttl An Appreciation Tuesday, 8th Nov 2022 09:44 Ralph Hasenhuttl was the longest serving manager since Chris Nicholl left the club in 1991, some do not have much good to say about him, but that is a very blinkered view, in his 3 years & 11 months he achieved much. When Ralph Hasenhuttl arrived at St Mary;s on 5th December 2018 the club was in a far different position than it is now as he leaves. He inherited a squad that was short on quality, but big on players on high wages and not performing, his job was not just to take Saints out of the bottom three were they were languishing after a disastrous spell under Mark Hughes, but to revamp the playing side of the club totally.
His job got harder very soon as with China falling out with the West & the USA in particular suddenly our then owner Jisheng Gao could not put any money into the club and so came a period of austerity with the books needing to be balanced. In his first half season he pulled us out of relegation trouble and took us to safety in 16th. The summer saw a revamp, but we had had to sell to buy, his first full season was interrupted by Covid and also saw our first 9-0 defeat in the October, but Ralph pulled the side back from that and showed that every team has bad results, but the truth is it is not individual games that matter it is what you do over the course of a season, we came back after Covid and aided by a good run ended in 11th place. Hopes were high for season 2020/21, football returned but was still behind closed doors, we cleared the decks of more deadwood costing us a lot of money, but no one had heard of the players we signed such as Kyle Walker Peters, Mohamed Salisu & Ibrahima Diallo, but no one is complaining now.
On 6th November 2020, came a landmark moment, after 8 games gone Saints beat Newcastle 2-0 at St Mary's to go to the top of the Premier League for the first time ever since it's inception in 1992 and indeed topped the league for the first time since September 1988, perhaps tenuous statistic, but one that many managers had tried and failed to do since Chris Nicholl did so 32 years earlier. But the depth in the squad would make this unsustainable and after Xmas we started to drop back, although we did get to the semi finals of the FA Cup, again a rare event for Saints and only the 3rd time we had managed it in 35 years.
15th place was disappointing, but the writing was on the wall, there was no money being spent, ironically although many supporters were quick to vent their feelings towards Gao, demanding that he got out of the club etc, they gave Hasenhuttl very little credit for doing a good job in very difficult circumstances, he was subject to abuse from a small section of fans who had just seemed to take against him. Last season loomed with hope, the fans were finally back in the grounds for good and although we had to balance the books we spent quite well, the season started badly as it always does, but it slowly picked up momentum and by the turn of the year we had pulled ourselves well out of any relegation battle and indeed after a good spell in January & February we were in the top 10 and into an FA Cup quarter final. But again the squad was lacking depth to sustain long runs and the season again petered out, Manchester City awaited in the quarter finals and although we had held them twice in the League they were two much for us a third time, it was another poor ending to the season, but there were mitigating circumstances and with new owners it was about looking forward and not back.
15tth place was slightly disappointing, but the truth that some failed to recognise was that with our resources that was just about a par score for the course, the difference between Ralph at Saints and Graham Potter was the final 5 games after sharing a draw at the Amex Stadium Potter took 10 points and pushed his side up into 9th and we took zero, Potter was headhunted by Chelsea and Ralph is now sacked. There will be some who will give Ralph Hasenhuttl no credit at all for the job he has done, they will cite the two 9-0 defeats and forget the circumstances behind either of them, especially the second one at Old Trafford where we had everything go wrong that could do, two goalkeepers on the bench as we didn't have enough youngsters to fill it and a dodgy refereeing decision afterwards overturned that meant we collapsed from in the final 5 minutes.
But those results aside and every Saints manager has had at least one of those themselves over the years, Ralph brought stability to the club when it was in turmoil, he did a lot of work behind the scenes and helped develop the club at all levels, writing a blueprint that is starting to reap it's rewards. The new owners recognised the work he was doing and they backed him in the transfer market, but the problem was that although they provided the funds to complete the dealings with a striker late in the window, the club failed to land their targets, that was not Ralph Hasenhuttl's fault, it was those responsible for the negotiations, they had the money, didn't need to haggle as in previous seasons, but took their eye off the ball and ended up leaving Ralph short in the striking department. This has come home to roost and the owners still backed Ralph, the hope being that we could get to the World Cup break still out of the relegation zone and then get a striker in January. Again everything was going wrong that could go wrong, just as we were bedding in the new players injury hit and at one stage we had four out of our top five players missing through injury, yet we soldiered on, of course Ralph was not squeaky clean in the blame for the bad run, he seemed to have got to the stage where whatever he tried wasn't working and he kept faith with some players who the fan base thought weren't up to the job and there were some strange decisions right up to the last.
But overall it was hard to see just who would have done a better job in the circumstances, even now I read on social media people saying Sam Allardyce is the man to take over, yes the same Big Sam who was sacked by Burnley with his side in the bottom three and eventually relegated. The campaign against Ralph by some people who even as we went into the top 10 was disgraceful, they could not bring themselves to give the manager any praise and could not put those 9-0 defeats behind them, possibly the same people who took to social media slating Claude Puel for not entertaining them enough despite his 8th place in the league and a major cup final possibly being around the 6th-7th best season in the club's history.
What did for Ralph was not just results, but like Puel the complete negativity tugging away at everything surrounding the club, it made going to games something not to be looked forward to, not because of the crowd who were in the stadiums, but because of the abuse that would appear on social media after every defeat. Ralph Hasenhuttl whose only crime was keeping the club in mid table did not deserve some of the shameful ranting that was going on for getting us to 15th. Now he has gone hopefully the negativity will fade away, I suspect not, the same people that berated Ralph are now berating the club for being linked with Nathan Jones of Luton Town, the same abuse is being hurled at the owners now and there will be another scapegoat soon, there always is for some.
Ralph had to go because although we had not passed the point of no return in terms of results and I contend that dropping into the bottom three given the injuries we have had is a temporary thing and that it should not have affected the bigger picture anymore than if we had beaten both Palace and Newcastle in the last two games and been sat in 10th place it wouldn't have signified that we were about to launch a bid for a Champions league spot. But that we had passed a point where his actual being there was counter productive, those picking away at him for the last two years had finally turned a proportion of the crowd and the atmosphere was toxic, the owners had to do something. Personally I still see no point in sacking him now with just one Premier league game left before the break, but that line had been crossed, we have to be seen to have a new beginning when football returns. Personally I feel that when it does and we have Tino Livramento back as well as Kyle Walker Peters, plus Romeo Lavia back to full fitness, add a striker in January and we have little to fear in the second half of the season.
I would have that feeeling whether it was Ralph Hasenhuttl in charge or not, in fact I think that we are in a far weaker position by making a change now than if we had kept him, better the devil you know so to speak, new managers sometimes upset the applecart more than they put it right. So I for one thank Ralph Hasenhuttl for all he has done for Southampton Football Club, it hasn't worked out as good as it might have done, but he achieved things that some had not seen in their lifetime such as topping the league, we will find out now whether the problem was Ralph Hasenhuttl or the players themselves who have to take some blame. Personally I think it will be solved by getting in a new striker in January. Every manager has a shelf life with supporters these days, Ralph had sadly reached his, now is the time to respect what he did and not keep harping on about what he didn't, the future is still unwritten, we surely all want to be a part of the solution and not part of the problem. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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