Will Still Appointment Fits The Southampton Way Tuesday, 27th May 2025 09:43 Saints fans who wanted the likes of Sean Dyche as the next manager at St Mary's would do well to look at the history books, Sport Republic did not invent appointing the up & coming manager rather than the experienced at Southampton FC. Starting 70 years ago in 1955 with Ted Bates, Will Still is the 32nd permanent manager of Southampton, if you include the likes of Ruben Selles & Simon Rusk who were appointed interim managers. I wasn't alive in 1955, but when Saints appointed the then reserve team manager Ted Bates to guide the team in our first season back in Division 3 South after relegation the previous term, I can't imagine that this would have been a universally acclaimed appointment amongst the fans.
Likewise when in 1973 Saints announced that Lawrie McMenemy a man with no experience above the 3rd tier of English football was unveiled as the man to replace Bates, this was not greeted with enthusiasm, indeed a year later McMenemy was for a while a hated figure and could not make the walk along the Dell touchline to the dug out without abuse, as we can see with both Lawrie & Ted, they were given time and are considered the best two managers in our history. When Chris Nicholl was announced in 1985 he had only left the Dell as a player two years earlier and had spent those two seasons as assistant manager at Grimsby Town, hardly the qualifications to take over a team that had just finished 5th and qualified for Europe, although he like his two predecessors was successful in relative terms.
If you think not judging a manager before a ball is kicked is a modern invention, then you weren't around in 1991 when Ian Branfoot was appointed, Branfoot had been a youth coach at the Dell and had taken Reading from 4th to 2nd division and back to the 3rd. His CV was not one of taking over a Saints side packed with talent such as Alan Shearer, Matt Le Tissier & Tim Flowers, he was known as a long ball merchant and the fans were soon on his back.
When Alan Ball took over alongside Lawrie McMenemy as part of the so called dream team in January 1984 there was little hostility, but it didn't disguise the fact that Ball had only one top flight season under his belt as a manager and that saw Pompey relegated before the end of the season and in the years since he had overseen Stoke's relegation to the 3rd division and after being sacked from there, he took over at Exeter in the same division, when Southampton came calling, Exeter were on their way to relegation to the 4th tier. After Ball came Dave Merrington, a thoroughly decent man but his managerial experience was with the youth sides. In 1996 came perhaps the first manager in 40 years that the fans were actually excited about in Graeme Souness, but he fared little better than Merrington again staying up on the final day of the season.
Back to the drawing board and in came another coach from the lower leagues Dave Jones. A few years later and in came Gordon Strachan, having got relegated the previous season with Coventry, this was not greeted with joy. I could keep going, in the last 25 years we have stuck mainly to the blueprint, whoever the owner of the board, we have gone for up and coming coaches rather than the tried and tested with a supposed top flight track record. When we have done so it has ended in tears, Glenn Hoddle left in controversial circumstances in 2001, Harry Redknapp needs explanation of his car crash 12 months in charge, George Burley struggled.
The years 2009 -2017 were golden years in terms of managers, Alan Pardew had experience, but was axed by our former CEO for reasons unknown, his replacement Nigel Adkins was another lower league manager, but became a legend, Mauricio Pochettino sparked outcry's of Who ! when he arrived fresh from being sacked by Espanyol in Spain after relegation and had you believe he barely spoke English. Claude Puel was another unknown coach to Saints fans but with a good reputation in France and he took us to a major cup final and 8th in the league, but for the fans that was not good enough and he was sacked and we have embarked on a series of hiring and firing in quick succession appointments in the main since.
Indeed in that 70 year 32 manager period, you could say that when they arrived only 4 have arrived with the fanbase relatively happy, Graeme Souness, Glenn Hoddle, Alan Pardew, Ronald Koeman, of those only Koeman stayed long enough to be successful. The fact is that in the main it has been the outsiders who have been successful, Bates, McMenemy, Nicholl, Strachan, Adkins, Pochettino, Puel, Hasenhuttl and to give him his due for getting promoted, Russell Martin.
When we have gone for the tried and tested with so called top flight proven track records, it has not been great, Souness, Redknapp, Burley, Mark Hughes & Ivan Juric all failed, only Koeman could be said to have stayed long enough to succeed. So Saints fans might not like to hear this, but this latest appointment should not be a shock, Southampton FC have been looking for the up and coming, hopefully hungry managers with something to prove for 70 years, it is not something invented by Sport Republic, it is the Southampton Way, started back in 1955 and carried on by a succession of Chairman, CEO's, Owners, call them what you want ever since. Again not something that many would want to hear, but it is why we have spent most of the last 60 years in the top flight and establishing ourselves as a club that can punch above it's weight and it has done so by competing on our own terms and not by trying to buy our way to the top.
So Will Still is the longest in a line of outsiders, managers who arrive with a reputation to build and not one to lose, it is the way that we have done things for 70 years, exactly half of the time the club has been in existence. We can fantasise all we want, but this football club is what it is, football has a pecking order and in these days you can throw money at a club, but there are not enough trophies or European places to go round, we have to compete on our own terms, it is the Southampton Way ! All Photos Via Reuters Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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