Johannes Spors Shakes Up Southampton Backroom Team Tuesday, 6th May 2025 08:44 by Redandwhitesupporter Ugly Inside member Redandwhitesupporter has some good news for Saints fans who want change, the effective Director of Football has started changing the club behind the scenes.
Southampton's Group Technical Director Johannes Spors, has been busy beefing up his backroom ahead of a pivotal summer for the club.
The latest recruit is Elliott Stanley, who will take on the position of Assistant Technical Director who reunites with Spors having worked together during their time at 777 Group which owned clubs such as Genoa, Standard Leige and Vasco da Gama.
Stanley's role, involves assisting Spors with recruitment strategy and long-term squad development.
Another former colleague of Spors', Nikola Ladan has also joined Saints as Head of International Scouting. Ladan has joined from Genoa where he was International Football Scout.

Meanwhile Andy Goldie, has received a promotion from Academy Director to Director of Group Talent Strategy where he will now oversee all aspects of talent development, talent management and talent acquisition across the Sports Republic group.
Things are starting to slip into place, ahead of a critical summer on the south coast with reports of a new Head of Recruitment set to arrive in due course as well as the appointment of a new First Team Manager in the post season which will no doubt go a long way to improving the mood of the fan base after a disastrous Premier League campaign.
Here's hoping for a wave of much needed positivity to come our way this summer.
All Photos Via Reuters
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davenbennett added 10:00 - May 6
Great,bringing in staff from 777 group, who have just failed. One of their teams,Sevilla look like being taken over by their main creditors, a Russian. |  | |
kingolaf added 10:31 - May 6
Spors obviously rates them. They can’t be worse than the bunch we’ve had in place. Hopefully, they’ll steer clear of Rasmus’s brother’s transfer cattle market. I fear Rasmus has taken Dragan for a ride to line his own pockets. |  | |
saintmark1976 added 10:58 - May 6
For pity sake, how many supposedly “ Senior Manager Employees types” does it take to run a relatively small business whose last declared total turnover was only £84.8 million ? Wouldn’t it be better to employ fewer people who actually knew what they were doing ? We are Southampton Football Club not Tescos. |  | |
Flamingbankers added 12:15 - May 6
I'd like to find out: how much money SR have extracted from Southampton FC; their wages and what exactly they believe they have given to The Club in entirety? I think the fans should know - it seems as if companies/people like this are a law unto themselves and have very little genuine accountability. At Corporate level it's all about destroying a culture, passing the buck and moving on heavily enriched. |  | |
codge added 14:28 - May 6
Remember back in the day you had one manager ie Ted Bates and maybe one other person to help now you have more on the sidelines than are on the pitch.Aad the results are a lot worse to many people to screw things up. |  | |
dixiefrog added 15:46 - May 6
Big step forward to steady the ship or, more pigs feeding from the trough before the Premier money runs out. Think I know which it is. |  | |
Jesus_02 added 16:00 - May 6
Great so see so much positivity on here! |  | |
underweststand added 16:03 - May 6
Nor sure if "shake-up " is the right phrase (Nick). Seems to me that a few have already left, or had a sideways move. Hopefully Spors is putting together a team from his past and (unlike Trump) selects people who actually have some experience in the areas we need. Both Academy sides have finished their seasons well and so those former Saints who are coaching them at present may well be unchanged, (unless THEY get better offers). The new names might suggest we will see players from various parts of Europe coming in and that Spors will have a big say in the final choice of the new Manager and it's someone who will fit the set-up he has in mind, and not choose a "wild card" like Nathan Jones. The financing of the new Manager and " his team" will be crucial (contracts, etc) at least we are likely to see some people on the Board who actually "know a bit about football". |  | |
Block8 added 16:33 - May 6
Once the season has finished, dependent on who goes and who stays, with new backroom staff and new manager (and his team) we have a reasonably clean canvas to start anew. It's hard to predict anything until we have an idea of what we are working with, both in terms of staff and finances. But hopefully the spine of the new team will be first thing the new boys work on because we haven't had one this season! |  | |
Colburn added 17:02 - May 6
Well we’ve all being crying out for a proper structure for recruitment and people still moan! I might have perhaps preferred the head of recruitment to come in before the others but maybe we have a plan that we can’t realise until the end of the season. I’m not sure why underweststand has to bring Trump into the discussion, what has that got to do with Saints? I wager that you haven’t a clue and just regurgitate the mantra of Jimmy Savile TV. Back to the topic, I hope we do have the head of recruitment lined up already because as you rightly say, this summer is vitally important for our future and we have to get things right. I can’t help feeling that we watch better players at other teams with lower budgets at times so it’s not about affordability when, for example , the likes of Fellowes and Diangana are at a club well below us in league position and wealth yet they are better than what we have. I put much of the blame at the hands of Jason Wilcox with us buying loads of Man City kids who won’t make the grade for them. Too many of them have not given us what we hoped for and the one who was special, Lavis, went in a flash. |  | |
saintmark1976 added 18:23 - May 6
Colburn, reference Trump and underweststand’s mention of him. To be honest, I find it equally a mystery as to why you give Jimmy Saville T V a mention. Personally, if I never heard of either of them ever again it would be too soon. |  | |
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Blogs 31 bloggersKnees-up Mother Brown #19 by wessex_exile February, and the U’s enter the most pivotal month of the season. Six games in just four weeks, with four of them against sides also in the bottom six. By March we should be either well clear of danger, or even deeper in the sh*t. With Danny Cowley’s U’s still unbeaten, and looking stronger game on game, I’m sure it’ll be the former, but first we have to do our bit to consign Steve ‘Sour Grapes’ Cotterill’s FGR back to non-league. After our shambolic 5-0 defeat at New Lawn, nothing would give me greater pleasure, even if it meant losing one of my closest awaydays in the process. What’s the excuse going to be today Steve – shocking pitch, faking head injuries, Mexican banditry or some other bit of sour-grapery bullsh*t? Derby County Polls |