Ralph Hasenhuttl will arive in the country on Wednesday morning to take over from Mark Hughes as Saints manager.

The club are briefing the media that they have agreed terms with Ralph Hasenhuttl and that the Austrian will arrive in the UK on Wednesday morning to formally sign his contract.

However Kelvin Davis will still take charge for the trip to Wembley to face Tottenham Hotspur although Hasenhuttl will watch from the stands and will possibly meet with the players ahead of the game.

He will then take charge of the team from Thursday when he will stage his first training session ahead of the trip to Cardiff City on Saturday and he will follow that with his debut press conference.

But he will have little time to truly put his own stamp on the team with only two days to prepare, the team will not arrive back in Southampton till the early hours of Thursday morning following the match at Spurs, there won't be a normal training session but the squad will be in for a recovery session at Staplewood in the afternoon, where the new manager will address his team.

There will be another pre-match training session on Friday before the players and management travel to Wales to prepare for this weekend’s fixture.

The Austrian will have to rely heavily on Kelvin Davis for the trip to Cardiff for both selection and tactics as he will have had little time to assess the squad and make his own opinions.

But Saints fans will be hopeful that just the change will be good enough to spur the team on, certainly under Hughes this season there have been far too many lacklustre performances and a lack of leadership and tactics, if Hasenhuttl can just bring a little of that to his first game in charge then that will surely be a bonus.

The Daily Echo report that

"Saints have been impressed with Hasenhuttl’s vision for the club during the interview process, led by chairman Ralph Krueger and director of football operations Ross Wilson, and his determination to bring a style of play that suits their philosophy."

"Though it will undoubtedly be difficult to implement during the middle of a season in which Saints are struggling, the club believe they have got the right man for the long term."

"It will also offer Saints some continuity and stability while they work out what they want to do in terms of replacing Les Reed and Martin Hunter and establishing a new footballing structure."

"There has been talk that former recruitment chief Paul Mitchell, now working for RB Leipzig, could return to the club."

"However, the Daily Echo understands that is not an option that is currently being explored."

Photo: Action Images

dirk_doone added 15:18 - Dec 4 That's very good news. Of all the names we've been linked with, he is the best one. Finally getting rid of Reed seems to have been the catalyst for positive change.
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Jesus_02 added 15:27 - Dec 4 I think this is a positive appointment by all accounts. Is the failure due to failure by Hughes/Les. I guess we will be able to make a more accurate judgement soon. Lamina looked good against Man U. Was it because Hughes was off or because it was a shop window moment? We will be able to make a more accurate judgement soon.
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underweststand added 15:34 - Dec 4 This fellow's CV looks good and so hopefully he can come up with a formula to motivate the squad and see us get some wins - at last. He will undoubtedly want to import some of his previous players and once again the name Adebola Lookman has been mentioned as the Everton player had a good spell on loan with Leipzig last year....but none of that can happen until the New Year---meantime he will have to sort out ..." the chaff .....from the chaff. " and we will see who departs from the squad in Janaury.

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davidargyll added 15:49 - Dec 4 This is great news. A bit surprised he’s arriving ahead of the director of football but he is clearly talented so I’d be surprised if the incoming dof won’t be happy. I will be even happier if Ralph’s first target is to get our defence defending properly - the attack can take care of itself for the first few weeks. Having been more optimistic than some about the squad but hugely negative about Hughes because of his lousy historic managerial record I think we really could be on the up, even if it will take time. This may be an unpopular thing to say but well done Krueger and Gao.

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SanMarco added 16:12 - Dec 4 Fingers crossed that this does go through. We will get the new manager bounce for Kelvin tomorrow and for the new guy on Saturday - alright maybe not against Spuds but just Saturday would do fine.
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luke47ni added 17:10 - Dec 4 Apparently Mark Hughes is delighted with the decision to sack him. A giant pay off and an added bonus that he no longer has the difficult task of coaching Long, Austin, Gabbi and Redmond to hit the net and the impossible task of teaching Hoet, Vestergard, Yoshida and Stephens to defend!!!!! Good luck to the new guy, he's been passed the poison chalice filled with piss poor players!

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darkangelv2 added 18:05 - Dec 4 Do we think Paul Mitchell may be in line for a return as well to take Reed's position? Regardless of actual outcome, i have no qualms about the theory of this appointment. Really, really pleased and almost a little bit excited!!
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BoondockSaint added 19:38 - Dec 4 "New manager bounce" is usually players putting in a proper effort to save their jobs. WIth now 4 managers in two years, the players better realise that the board will finally take a critical look at them.
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SaintPaulVW added 19:39 - Dec 4 Looks a solid choice and I hope it works out. Hopefully the squad will react in the right way and we can get a bit of momentum going. Right time to bring him in. He has a chance to assess the players before the January window and hopefully he can do a bit of business to start to make the squad his own.
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LordDZLucan added 20:08 - Dec 4 It begs the question 'Why didn't we go for this guy in the summer?' As I understand it he was available.
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