Johannes Spors has been under a fair bit of fire from Saints supporters in recent weeks who have not been happy with his appointment of Will Still and some of the player aquisitions, however it seems that he is held in higher regard in Italy.

A year ago Saints problems when returning to the Premier League were not helped by the fact that after former Director of Football Jason Wilcox was poached by Manchester United in March 2024, just as we headed to the final showdown in the Championship promotion race.

Sport Republic could hardly be blamed for Wilcox leaving, but they could be blamed for the fact that they left it around 9 months before they replaced him.

The role of Sporting Director or Director of Football at a football club these days, is perhaps the most important role in the entire club, he is the man who identifies not only the manager but puts into place the player recruitment.

Spors has been under fire for both so far this season, in fairness I would say that we have acquired some good players, but for some reason the manager chooses not to play them, this in itself raises questions as to how much say that the manager had in these signings.

But according to The Daily Echo Johannes Spors might not be rated by Southampton supporters at present, but he is highly regarded by Italian giants Juventus.

Saints reporter Alfie House has this to say.

"The Italian giants are currently in the midst of a shakeup to their technical structure, sitting seventh in Serie A after seven matches of the new season.

"Sky Sports in Switzerland reports that Juventus are 'pushing' to make Spors their new sporting director, with preliminary contacts made.

"They add that Spors appears as one of the favourites, but that other names may still be circulating with a decision expected in the coming weeks.

"The Bianconero club is said to want to bring in a director with international profile and knowledge of Italian football. Spors was chief at Genoa."

They see a bigger picture with Spors, looking at the work he had done at RB Leipzig in Germany, Vitesse Arnhem in Holland & Genoa in Italy as well as the 777 Sports group.

Being honest this is the last thing Southampton FC need now and in the coming couple of months leading to the opening of the January transfer window.

As I have mentioned the lack of a Director of Football was the major problem last season, we had no one in charge of player acquisition and scouting, we had no one counselling Russell Martin as it became clear he was not adapting to the Premier League and starting to run his own agenda and more importantly we had no one with the overall power to sack him when it became clear that he was not going to change.

The problem is that as we know from the past, once your Director of Football is tapped up, they are not on long term contracts with transfer fees, you either pay them on gardening leave in which case you are effectively paying them to advise their new employers in everything but name, or you bite the bullet and accept what is when compared to players wages and transfer fees a pittance for their new employer to pay off their contract, usually a years notice.

Hopefully Saints have seen this coming and have already drawn up their own shortlists of replacements.

All Photos Via Reuters

Bowlercow added 21:34 - Oct 23 The short list for a new DoF would be the responsability of the current man Our backroom staff appear to have a revolving door policy I have lost count of how many have left in the las 3 years since SR bought the club A good few have come and stayed for a short term and left again Spors is the latest in this line Is Paul Mitchell unattached by any chance?
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Bowlercow added 21:34 - Oct 23 The short list for a new DoF would be the responsability of the current man Our backroom staff appear to have a revolving door policy I have lost count of how many have left in the las 3 years since SR bought the club A good few have come and stayed for a short term and left again Spors is the latest in this line Is Paul Mitchell unattached by any chance?
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dirk_doone added 22:16 - Oct 23 Newcastle were 'said to be interested in him' before he turned up here. Maybe his agent is trying to dupe a Serie B club into taking him now. It's not something Juventus would publicise. We should start a rumour that Man City are said to be interested in Damion Downs.
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underweststand added 08:57 - Oct 24 Obviously a lot of things haven't gone to (whatever) plan the club had and Will Still is the person getting all the flak for our dismal start, so perhaps Spors maybe looking at an exit -before people start to point the finger at him. I have written before that ambition is not a dirty word in football, although some fans still think that players/admin. staff are somehow betraying a club for those who want to leave for greener pastures, and more success. Very few of (Spors) summer signings have shown up so far, although one or two may have got the nod from Will. The role of DoF is more important than many think, and the loss of Jason Wilcox, meant some of that summer's signings failed to solve the short term problem(s) - having been made by club officials unfamiliar with the perils of the transfer world. Football is a short-lived profession for most players and some managers, and many have no qualifications in the "civilian world" and must make the best of their opportunities. If indeed Spors DAJFU remains to be seen, but swapping a struggling Championship side for a top-rated Italian club when the opportunity comes seems like a no-brainer to me.

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Colburn added 16:52 - Oct 24 His recruitment has been inconsistent I would say. Roerslev, Quarshie, Azaz and Downs have not looked the part. Jander, Scienza and Fellows have shown what they can do. If I was Spors, I would be off, clearly the historically corrupt Juve will be more attractive than staying here. I would add that his failure to bring in a good keeper and appropriate centre forward has been a nightmare but the manager has to take much of the blame for how some of the new guys have struggled to settle. The formation and tactics have crested a loss of confidence and direction which has impacted the likes of Downs and Azaz in particular. Playing with 3 attackers is farcical given our so called ambition. Not surprising they’ve lost their confidence up top. Spors for me has not done a good job but then neither did Juric or Martin and they were handed top jobs. I think we need a DoF who understands what is required to play in the physical, aggressive and quick English football, we still lack pace and physicality so are struggling with that as well and this is down to the owners, board and DoF, I wish they would all go!

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