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Ralph Hasenhuttl On Aston Villa And Norwich Radar But Why Would He Go To Either !

According to the latest media reports Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl is in big demand being on the short list of both Aston Villa & Norwich City for their managerial vacancies, but why would the Austrian want to go to either.

As Ralph Hasenhuttl approaches the 3rd anniversary of his appointment as Saints manager, his stock has never been higher, seemingly both Aston Villa and Norwich City are considering approaching him to be their manager.

I would firstly say that none of these rumours have come directly from the club's themselves, only from "sources close" to them, that is not to say that they aren't interested in Ralph, but it is quite common to use media rumour to deflect from real targets as well as try to make out that the club in question has a lot of applicants.

Newcastle did just this, they allowed Eddie Howe to be named as the front runner for their job, but as everyone looked at Howe they were trying to poach Unai Emery from Villareal, when the Spaniard turned them down, they had to backtrack a little and appoint Howe.

A little over a month ago the usual trolls on social media were demanding the sacking of Ralph Hasenhuttl, not satisfied with the job he had done they vented their fury and asked how could a man who had suffered two big defeats in the past two years still be at the club.

They took little notice of what he had been doing behind the scenes and the fact that he had now assembled a larger squad and one with a little more quality than before escaped their notice, luckily those dissatisfied with Ralph were in the minority and at the actual matches themselves there was no dissent from the crowd against the manager.

But it seems that there were people taking notice of what Hasenhuttl was achieving at St Mary's, firstly the Saints board themselves who were firmly behind their manager, in echoes of the Saints board of the 1970's who backed Ted Bates despite an 8-0 defeat at Everton and the infamous 7-0 at Leeds United both in 1971/72.

Likewise after Lawrie McMenemy took over from Bates in 1973, he endured a torrid time, no social media back then, but the Geordie had to endure the walk along the Dell touchline to the bench and he got a lot of abuse.

But the board held strong on both occasions and saw what was trying to be achieved at the club, if they had listened to the fickle element of the fans then we would not have won the FA Cup in 1976, McMenemy started that season as perhaps the most hated man in Southampton and ended it as a hero.

Now Martin Semmens and his men kept their nerve not only during the second half of last season where they saw that the problem was the lack of depth in the squad that meant we couldn't cope with unprecedented multiple injuries, something that they and the manager worked hard at fixing in the summer.

Sadly for us a lot of other people are taking notice and it seems that two of them are Aston Villa and Norwich City, but why would Ralph want to jump ship from St Mary's ?

Well one reason might be if he reads social media, I wouldn't want to stay somewhere where a sizeable minority online are constantly calling me all the names under the sun and demanding my sacking, managers have to be thick skinned, lets hope Ralph Hasenhuttl is.

But I find it hard to see other than that why he would want to leave Saints for either club, Aston Villa are a poisoned chalice, their record in the past 10 years has been mediocre, in the last 10 years they have spent 3 years in the Championship and in the 7 years in the Premier League, last seasons 11th was the only time they finished above 15th.

In that time Dean Smith was their 8th manager and he had brought them some stability, he had lost his best player and signed one of the top English strikers in the Premier League and he had started the season ok, but 5 defeats in a row was not good enough for the Villa board who have a short term outlook on everything it seems.

They took no notice that Smith had injury and suspension issues himself, that before Saints he had played Spurs who despite a poor season were still in the top 10, a resurgent Wolves and Arsenal and then in his penultimate game the team of the moment West Ham.

The Villa hierarchy went into panic mode and sacked a man who had led them out of the wilderness of the Championship, secured their survival in their first season back in the top flight and then last season achieved their highest league position since 2011.

Our board are far from perfect, but they are working under tight financial restrictions and don't make knee jerk decisions and for that we should be grateful.

So why would Ralph want to go to Aston Villa a club who demand instant success and when they don't get it sack the manager, the list of Villa bosses in the last 10 years makes interesting reading.


Norwich City in for Ralph Hasenhuttl is a shock, in many respects Norwich are like Saints and in the past have enjoyed relative success, they plough a similar path to us in having to wash their own face financially, but although in many respects they are a similar club, with due respect to them they do not have our foundations, stability or resources, indeed they do not have our catchment area or potential to grow, neither us will ever be Manchester United or Liverpool or for that matter Chelsea, but Saints have a better chance of becoming Leicester.

So why would Ralph want to go there ? It would be a backward step and their chances of escaping the drop this season are not great.

So the reason why Ralph would turn down either is different, but ultimately should add up to the same and that is carry on at Saints and slowly but surely build the club up to be a stable Premier League club, let us not have any illusions, each year the clubs at the top get richer, it is now a Big Four, Spurs and Arsenal have been dropped off their tails, but there are over clubs who covet the top six but in reality if you can't match the Big Four then don't talk about the Champions League, but if you are not in that they Big Four will pull away from you even further.

The emergence of potentially Newcastle and West Ham will make a top 10 spot even harder.

What Saints need is the stability and long term building that Ralph Hasenhuttl has brought to the club, we will have good seasons, that ultimately will see top players leave, but we are building in replacements before they go, I would not swap Saints for either Villa or Norwich.

Some will say I'm doing great PR for the club, not at all I just give my opinion about the job Ralph Hasenhuttl has done over the past 3 years and he has taken us from a club who were in the bottom 4 up the League and into a period of stability rarely enjoyed in the top flight since 1989/90, he is the longest serving manager for a reason and that is he is doing the job well.

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