The latest media reports suggest that Saints have already decided that Ivan Juric is not their man for next season and they already have the man that they want to replace him lined up, the only question now is the timing of things.

When Ivan Juric arrived at St Mary's it did not seem like he was seen as the long term solution, he only had an 18 month deal and even that had a break clause at the 6 month mark, ie this summer.

That seemed to smell that the Southampton board had almost given up hope of saving the season and that Juric was a short term gamble, perhaps on a big bonus to keep us up and if he didn't it would be a cheap goodbye to him at the end of the season.

The gamble has not paid off, but that is not just down to Juric, although his bizarre tactics and team selections have been far from helping, it could be argued that Saints just didn't have the squad to stay up !

I would say that at the start of the season we had a squad capable of avoiding relegation, but not much more, but we weren't as bad as some would make out.

Under Russell Martin we had a squad well drilled and playing to a system, it was just that system was too draconian, it had no room for manoeuvre, it was pass and keep passing until we either got out of trouble or more usual, we got caught out and conceded a goal.

That cost us points, a lot of points, perhaps 10-11 of them and the table would look far different if we had held on to just half of them, it might not have kept us up, but it would have given us a fighting chance.

Under Juric it has been the polar opposite, we have been a disorganised rabble, we have been more exciting to watch, but gradually the spirit has been knocked out of the team and week to week you can see the team disintegrating in front of you.

But more worryingly you can see the foundations for next season wanting out, our only bright spot this season was that with players like Adam Armstrong, Flynn Downes etc we had Championship proven players.

But Juric has dismantled all that.

It was weird to see him in the ring at the Ryan Garner fight in Bournemouth on Saturday, with Garner winning and also another boxer from the SO postcodes, one wag commented that finally Juric had seen two Southampton wins.

But according to express.co.uk there is light at the end of the tunnel for Saints fans.

They report that Sport Republic owner Dragan Solak and the Southampton board have already decided Juric's fate and that is that he will go in the summer and that even more important, his replacement has already been lined up.

It won't surprise man to learn that the man they have decided on is Danny Rohl who spent time in the St Mary's dug out as the assistant to Ralph Hasenhuttl.

That is not the only connection that Rohl has to Southampton, he has also worked with Southampton's new technical director, Johannes Spors, at German club RB Leipzig.

This news will please many Saints supporters, but they will also ask why is it not done now ?

The answer is money, as it stands at the moment, Sheffield Wednesday would demand around £4 million in compensation and although some would say pay it and be damned, the truth is that is a fair chunk of cash for a club heading to the Championship.

It seems that the Sheffield club have Rohl to a similar deal that Swansea City had with Russell Martin, that the compensation was much higher if he went to a Premier League club, also it might also reduce because Rohl will have less time left on his contract.

There is also no point in Rohl joining now, he might be a good manager, but he isn't going to get the 9 wins that we need to stay up in the final part of the season, so no point in blowing £4 million just to have him oversee relegation.

If Rohl is going to come to Southampton, he will already be talking to the club, he will already be speaking about the squad, whom he wants to stay and whom he wants to bring in, he can't be seen to be active by turning up at the training ground, but it would be naïve for anyone to think that there won't be deep discussions before he takes over the role.

So given that Rohl won't arrive till the summer, the big question is when Juric goes ?

Personally I think it would be better to let him go now, he is not going to save us and indeed, I think his continued presence is counter productive to building a squad for next season, it will demoralise certain players even further and squad morale.

I would put Juric on gardening leave until his break clause date and put Simon Rusk in temporary charge with perhaps Adam Lallana added to the coaching staff to breach the gap with Juric and his men gone.

This would cost us no more than it would to keep Juric and if it did nothing else it would bring back the spirit to the squad and let's be honest, it would see the end to the bizarre team selections and substitutions of Juric.

But more than anything it would show the Southampton supporters that Sport Republic, CEO Phil Parsons & new technical director Johannes Spors, that there are now people at Southampton FC at the helm.

It would show the fans that they see what we see and more to the point they are now leading from the front and doing something about it.

All Photos Via Reuters

Bowlercow added 11:00 - Mar 4 The Rohl link has been made by the Sun who,as we all know,are the most accurate oracle. The bookies,who usually have financial reasons,make Duduc odds on favourite at 5/6 He came in at that price on Sunday So someone in the know has placed a sizeable sum on him He is apparently known personally by Solak To me Rohl looks a safer pair of hands after having had a season in the championship but Dudic does have a good track record Once again Saints fans don't hold your breath waiting But surely SR must get one right soon just on the laws of average in

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SaintNick added 11:26 - Mar 4 The hope is that the one time that we had a Director of Football making the decisions since Sport Republic arrived, Jason Wilcox appointed Russell Martin who got the job done in the Championship.. Now we have Johannes Spors, so lets see if he can be decisive.
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SanMarco added 15:07 - Mar 4 Rohl is not the worst idea. Good ideas are not SR's forte though... I agree with the Juric out now view Nick. What is the point of him? If he is alienating those vital players for next season then it seems obvious that NOW is best. There is not a manager on this or any other planet who could keep us up now - so keeping a negative force is pointless.
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Fumar2 added 17:08 - Mar 4 Might as well have stuck with Martin, we go down but he gets us back and he might even persuade some of the players to stay as whatever we think they liked him. We kept the ball and did have possession but yes got caught out far too often. Although seeming like a broken record by the end, Martin was right, we were so so close on many occasions! That opening game against Newcastle falls differently, a few of those chances get put away, and it changes everything from then on in. But now the players must look at Juric and think their P.E teachers at school had more of an idea. Now we hoof the ball long and it just comes back at us anyway. We had the FA cup break to get rid, as usual timing is shot! SR takes charge, Zuric…. sit down shut up.

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dowater added 14:19 - Mar 5 I think that the club should wake up and Sack Ivan now... get Rohl in now and pay the £4M that they are demanding. i understand the statement of its worth saving the money. but by bringing him in now, he gets a good few games under his belt to look at the squad, try and build some relationships and convince any fringe players to stay should he want them next year. but most importantly, the squad will be that much more used to playing his style of football and training and will be ready to start next year from the first game, unlike the martin appointment, where it took a few games to get used to his tactics. we have to remember that the championship is a tight league and there will always be a surprise team that will do well, plus the other 2 teams getting relegated. now assuming that Leicester and Ipswich keep their managers, then they will be ready for a promotion push from the start and i do not think that we can afford to let them build up any head of steam in the race to promotion, as we know from last time, its a long race and any lead will be hard to catch and keep should we catch them.

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