Saints have now officially confirmed the ins & outs on the coaching staff after the sacking of Russell Martin and the appointment of Ivan Juric as first team manager, the question is though is the balance right.
Southampton FC have issued a statement confirming the changes on the coaching staff at St Mary's it reads as follows.
"Southampton Football Club is pleased to confirm the appointments of Matteo Paro and Stjepan Ostojić to the coaching staff of Men’s First Team Manager Ivan Jurić.
"Paro, who becomes First Team Assistant Coach, and Ostojić, who takes on the role of First Team Fitness Coach, have both had their work permits approved and have now begun work with the squad at Staplewood Campus.
"Former Juventus midfielder Paro, 41, has worked as Jurić’s assistant for a number of years, with the Italian national having followed him across his spells with Genoa, Hellas Verona, Torino and Roma.
"Croatia-born Ostojić, 49, who was a midfielder in his homeland as a player, has been alongside Jurić throughout his managerial career.
"The club welcomes both of them to Southampton, while it would also like to express its thanks to Matt Gill, Rhys Owen and Colin Calderwood, who have all now departed the coaching staff. We wish each of them well in their future endeavours."
This is of course not an unexpected announcement, in simple terms, the coaches that Russell Martin brought in with him have now departed and Ivan Juric has brought in two of his own men.
But it will be interesting to see if this is the last change or not, Carl Martin is remaining in place as a first team coach, a position he has held since before Russell Martin arrived,
Dean Thornton remains as Goalkeeping coach as does Ben Parker who has the title of First Team Tactics & Insights Analyst, both had been at Swansea with Russell Martin.
But this seems a stripped down coaching staff at present, there seems to be little real experience at the top level, Carl Martin has no playing experience with most of his playing career spent in League Two or the National League and has only been involved with the first team since June 2022, the coaching roster seems to lack real Premier League knowledge.
One of the key factors in Ronald Koeman's success at St Mary's was the fact that the club recognised he and his coaches had no experience in England and so Sammy Lee was appointed as a assistant, to advise him on the Premier League teams and players.
This should be considered again, put in place someone who not only has played in the Premier League but has coaching experience in both the Premier League and Championship.
It is not just on the field that this is crucial, but also off it, with CEO Phil Parsons having only recently come into the football environment after a career in business latterly with Dyson, we have no one with any real contacts or experience in transfer negotiations etc.
We seem to have no Director of football on a full time day to day basis and again that is critical in recruitment etc.
Sport Republic seemed to put emphasis on these areas when they firstly appointed Joe Shields as head of recruitment and then Jason Wilcox, but both were headhunted within months of joining the club.
For some reason we seem to have been put off appointing experienced replacements and that is not a good thing.