Nigel Adkins on his way out?

He's done well for himself seeing as he used to be the Scunthorpe physio!

very well indeed Biscuit.....good luck to him

The owners deserve relegation

wtf is all this about, utter *****

southamptons decision seems bizarre,they are looking as silly as their near neighbours and friends portsmouth today.

Disposing of the manager with the best win percentage in your club’s history, a man who has overseen consecutive promotions and who has lifted your club 48 places in the football league pyramid in just 26 months is certainly baffling.

Add in the fact that Southampton were on a streak of just two defeats in 12 games and it is perfectly possible to argue that this constitutes the harshest sacking in Premier League history.

The dismissal of Sam Allardyce at Blackburn also springs to mind but factor in the timing, Adkins’ diplomatic internal style as well as him being the choice of chairman Nicola Cortese and it really is difficult to think of a more bizarre decision.

Yet for all that, there will be only limited surprise today from those people who have actually worked with Cortese since he began running Southampton in 2009.

Alan Pardew, who himself was sacked by Cortese in 2010, says that he has never been pushed harder by anyone in football. Staff at St Mary’s also privately attest to his exacting standards.



Cortese’s vision for Southampton, quite simply, is to be a club pushing for European football and with an academy that is the very best in the country. That might all sound fanciful but the progress of the 3½ years is there for all to see.

His five-year plan for Premier League promotion was achieved two years ahead of schedule and a new state-of-the-art training ground is being built. Cortese can argue with some justification that, thus far, his major decisions have eventually all been vindicated.

Yet beneath the progress is an unpredictability and level of expectation that sometimes strays into the outright unrealistic.

Cortese had previously considered Adkins’ position after the defeat against West Bromwich Albion in November but, having resisted from pulling the trigger then, there was a general sense that the situation would not be reviewed again until the end of the season.

Even when reports emanated last night from Spain of talks between Cortese and Mauricio Pochettino, the assumption from well places sources around the club was that he was being sounded out for future reference.

It is all a massive gamble. Not because Pochettino is necessarily a poor coach but because he will inherit a squad in shock and a fan-base in revolt. Rafael Benitez would be the best person to advise Pochettino on the sort of welcome he can expect on Monday when he arrives for his first home game against Everton. Pochettino’s grasp of English - he needed an interpreter for today’s unveiling, also sets off alarm bells at such a delicate stage of the decision.

As for Adkins, sympathy is clearly due but his sacking may, in some senses, also come as a relief. With a contract that did not expire until 2016, he will walk away with a good pay-off and, above all, a reputation that has been hugely enhanced. It is more that can be said today for the club or its chairman.

New manager stitched the owner up straight away:


Pochettino - "i know about the squad, been researching it for weeks"

really want them relegated now

We don't know what happens behind the scenes. Probably internal differences or something.

They did spend quite a bit of money (12 million on Ramierz alone!) and despite Adkins doing a "great" job they are still firmly in a relegation battle.

The owners are obviously ambitious and like to take a risk, I quite admire that.

There have been rumours all season Adkins would get the chop. In the summer they had approached Di Matteo to take the job and had he not had his contracted renewed by Chelsea Adkins would have gone then.

It seems very harsh on Adkins but obviously for whatever reason the owner didn't want him long term. The new guy says he knows the squad because he has been studying them for weeks so he must have been approached a while ago.

Southampton fans may choose to turn on the owner/ board but they should remember where they were a few years ago.

"They did spend quite a bit of money (12 million on Ramierz alone!) and despite Adkins doing a "great" job they are still firmly in a relegation battle"





He took over a side in the league one relegation zone and within 2 and a half years had them 15th in the premier league.

Most people would struggle to do a better job than that on Football Manager.

id bet good money this new bloke doesnt do as well as adkins

incredible

Biscuit, so did Paul Lambert. The difference between League 1 and the bottom half of the Premiership is negligible.

Their cup run was ended by a regional third-division side and that set the template for the horrendous year to follow. When a hapless, hopeless Real Zaragoza beat Espanyol 2-0 in Barcelona, coach Mauricio Pochettino described it as "a little accident" a minor blip. It was not.

Espanyol tumbled down the table to finish 14th and the Argentine was fortunate not to join the twelve top-flight coaches who lost their job last season, his team were crude and he had no idea how to halt their slide. His side were 18th in the fair-play table, with more yellow cards received than any other club.

Espanyol's youthful beauty had been replaced by a snarling beast who did not know how to lose gracefully.

The new season did not bring relief as they picked up just two points from their opening seven matches and sat bottom. By the end of November, they had managed two wins from 13 games and remained 20th.

Crowds in their new, 40,000-seat stadium tumbled from nearly 30,000 a year ago to just 15,500 for one league match. The Blanquiazules have 21,000 season-ticket holders - over 5,000 of them decided that they could not be bothered to attend games they had already paid for, the football was awful.

The beleaguered club once heralded as a role model for a medium-sized operation were falling apart. Just 7,463 watched a November Copa del Rey game against Sevilla. They lost 3-0.

The president departed and Pochettino was finally dismissed in November. Replaced by former Mexico and Atletico Madrid coach Javier Aguirre, fortunes finally began to improve. Espanyol drew his first three matches and held Real Madrid away. Then they beat Deportivo in their last match.
First targets are Ben Thatcher and Julian Dicks

very very strange decision ,thought Adkins , was doing a great job there

Sounds to me like they already have Dicks at the club!

Hamsterdam 18 Jan 13 16:45 
Biscuit, so did Paul Lambert. The difference between League 1 and the bottom half of the Premiership is negligible.



Nonsense

if he was called nigelo akdinio he would probably still be in job

what is it with english managers being written off and jobs given to unproven foreigners

I have had a small investment on Saints to go down on the back of this.

New manager who does not speak English, players will be upset with Atkins going (might well get a couple of transfer requests?), supporters unhappy.

I think they could well be dragged into the bottom 3.

Nige down south
18 Jan 13 17:19
Joined:
08 Mar 05
| Topic/replies: 1,062 | Blogger: Nige down south's blog
I have had a small investment on Saints to go down on the back of this.

New manager who does not speak English, players will be upset with Atkins going (might well get a couple of transfer requests?), supporters unhappy.

I think they could well be dragged into the bottom 3.

Seems a likely outcome now. Monday will give us a few clues.

Jan 18, 2013 -- 5:18PM, STEPTOES YARD wrote:

if he was called nigelo akdinio he would probably still be in jobwhat is it with english managers being written off and jobs given to unproven foreigners

Spot on.  Awful decision.  The timing of the decision is the strangest thing, just as they're picking up results.  I hoped they'd stay up, now I hope they go down.

I tipped Adkins before the season as first manager to be sacked, mainly because of the vanity and ruthlessness of Cortese.  In one respect I'm surprised he's waited this long.  He obviously wanted a trendy, fashionable manager.  Pochettino did great last season but left Espanyol in a right mess.

Thought he was in line for manager of the year.

G1_Jockey_4 - it seems what you know about Spanish football (or indeed any football) could be contained within a postage stamp.

must be the biggest postage stamp in the world then.

when I see this I love to see the club fk up even more - just like chelski - hilarious - I really hate professional football and only stay for the betting - call me a cynic or anything
but love to see them be so wrong

Absolutely fcuking disgusting decision, and bizarre at that !!

Hope the Espanyol chap fails miserably ..(sorry southampton fans but whoever sacked adkins is pathetic)

Adkins must feel sick to his stomach

CJ70
18 Jan 13 12:12
Joined:  26 Nov 11 | Topic/replies: 6,942 | Blogger: CJ70's blog
2.74 for saints to go down. I'll have a bit of that.

Me too! You can't turn you nose up at a chance to make a profit, even if that chance has come via one of the most shockingly bizarre sacking ever in football.

this looks like the work of a fifth columnist, sure the owner isnt a pompey fan ?

Whippin Piccadilly • January 18, 2013 6:03 PM GMT
CJ70
18 Jan 13 12:12
Joined:  26 Nov 11 | Topic/replies: 6,942 | Blogger: CJ70's blog
2.74 for saints to go down. I'll have a bit of that.

Me too! You can't turn you nose up at a chance to make a profit, even if that chance has come via one of the most shockingly bizarre sacking ever in football.

Totally agree, I am still in serious SHCK at this

Blackpool will be very interested I would imagine

I'll be having an interest in them going down as well now.

Really bizarre timing. Not just because of the decent results he got in the last couple of games, but more so because the new man will face Everton then Utd in his opening two matches. Two defeats, and in today's Prem, the pressure will be on already.

Looks like gross mis-management of the club from where I am.

Maybe if the font size was 36 pt though I accept I was being very harsh.

Seriously though G1_Jockey_4, can you not see why Saints fans are so unhappy with a popular and successfull manager being replaced by a nobody? Even fans of other teams are really puzzled by this very strange decision. However, I really hope you are right and I am wrong but I really can't see it............

I bet plenty of Pompey fans will be having a little tickle on this bet too now.

Adkins to Blackpool????? Can't see his ego accepting that gig, shirley thinks he's worth more than Appleton's cast off.

Hamsterdam • January 18, 2013 4:45 PM GMT
Biscuit, so did Paul Lambert. The difference between League 1 and the bottom half of the Premiership is negligible.



Keep em comin son

Is it correct that they have no undersoil heating? if so the new guy might have a bit more time than expected.

dont know for sure but with it being a new stadium i would have thought it would have it

How was he sacked ?

Had them well above where they were expected to be...

Did a great job with the players available , Stupid decision .

Incredibly daft and stupid decision. At least it has been good for Saints in the last three years, the previous ten or so were very very pooor and hard to bear.........I can now see that repeating itself again

its because some owners dont live in the real world.

Shocking and dismal for football when a manager who has his team punching above their weight in the Prmeier League is sacked, and someone like Wenger who, in recent seasons has been a dismal failure and leading Arsenal to football ruin (yet commercial success) is venerated by everyone.

if spurs lose to utd and saints dont lose to everton, saints will have the current 2nd longest unbeaten run in the division.

this is gonna be like that obeone thread

League 2 Bradford beat Arsenal and Villa. But take Villa as an example....made up lot of lots of lower league players....and Norwich last season who finished 12th....there isn't much of a difference so Adkins/Lamberts achievements aren't all that really. They have their limits hence Adkin's sacking. This is what I mean.

Villa fans desperately trying to save face before they are relegated

he didnt just pick up any old players though hamsterdam

they picked the best players from lower leagues, to say league 1 and bottom part of prem almost same standard is daft

Can't Catch Me     18 Jan 13 18:30 
Really bizarre timing. Not just because of the decent results he got in the last couple of games, but more so because the new man will face Everton then Utd in his opening two matches. Two defeats, and in today's Prem, the pressure will be on already.

Looks like gross mis-management of the club from where I am.


My guess is the powers that be got really worried with the draw at Chelsea & thought we cannot sack him if he got results against Everton & Man Utd, I really believe if they had lost at Stamford Bridge they would have sacked him after the Man Utd game.

Wouldn't say the gap between Bottom 6 Premier Lg and League 1 is 'negligible' but agree with Hamsterdam it is smaller than the gap between Bottom 6 and Top 6 in the premier league

Would you rather back Spurs @2.0 away to Southampton/Reading or  Southampton/Reading @2.0 away to Swindon?

I'd go for Spurs

cortese is a power mad nutter,really stupid and risky sacking adkins.i was confident about staying up until i heard the news

@GuillemBalague: Pochettino was not sacked from Espanyol. Left by mutual agreement... Club and manager wanted different things

I assume there is no such thing as a euphemism in Spain.

Balague is an Espanyol supporter and Pochettino's friend so he probably knows what he's talking about.

True, Espanyol endured a terrible start to the season and Pochettino appeared unable to turn his team around, but the majority of fans stayed behind him and there was a great sense of reluctance among the club's hierarchy when they eventually made the decision to part ways.

The consensus among supporters was that Pochettino had been placed in a no-win situation at a club saddled with enormous debts, where he was consistently forced to sell his best players and deal with seemingly endless boardroom strife.

For many fans, the final straw was the summer departure of homegrown Spain Under-21 striker Alvaro Vazquez to Getafe. When Espanyol then kicked off the new season with just one point from their opening six games, fans directed their anger firmly towards the board rather than Pochettino.

Fans preferred to respect Pochettino for the achievements earlier in his reign and during his time as a central defender for the club.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21084201

If they had sacked him he would extracted every last penny they owed him. As it was he waived a years wages.

Espanyol have improved greatly since he left though and are now out of the relegation zone with the new manager operating with the same constraints due to lack of money.

That doesn't change the fact he left by mutual agreement.

No but if Cortese had been the Espanyol chairman i can, almost, guarantee he'd have been out of the door before the season started after the 14th place finish.

You can't guarantee anything.

also doesnt change the fact he is a much better coach than adkins

Said on SSN earlier that the entire backroom staff have gone as well. Going to be a serious job for Pochetino to win over that dressing room.............especially as he'll have to communicate with them via an interpreter.

Matt le Tissier was absolutely fuming about it when they were discussing it on soccer saturday.

We will soon see whether this nobody is a better coach than Adkins, though I would expect us to be relegated and him gone well before May.

"nobody" ffs
get a grip u big softie.

when i say this is a decent manager he fkin is

I had hoped to see Le Tissier's reaction but the Simon/Monfils was too gripping to miss.

The bad blood between Le Tissier and Cortese is well documented so it's not surprising he's fuming.

G1_Jockey_4 19 Jan 13 13:49 
also doesnt change the fact he is a much better coach than adkins




that's your opinion, it's certainly not a fact.

Simon/Monfils *match

pushkin, I expected you to be relegated anyway.

Vile decision and I look forward to them going down.

hippie - yes I know he's an Espanyol fan and pochettino's friend.  Which is why I view his comment as being one designed to protect a friend.  Just asvhe blindly sticks up for his mate Rafa all the time.  Espanyol were on a terrible run since the end of last season and were bottom of the league.  'Mutual consent'?  Don't think so.

whether you think so or not the club statement at the time read:

"This afternoon, the club and the coach agreed to terminate by mutual consent the contract that united them,"

It was then universally reported as "mutual consent". There is no reason to disbelieve what was said at the time.

I don't deny the club said it was mutual consent, it's a regular expression to allow an employee to leave with dignity.

A quick google news search reveals the newspapers almost universally described it as a sacking or dismissal.

You're of the opinion Pochettino was "sacked" after leaving Espanyol in a "right mess". Fair enough.

The Independent says Pochettino was briefly linked to the Real Madrid job besides turning down offers from Valencia and Sampdoria.

[http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/mauricio-pochettino-goes-from-real-madrid-link-to-battling-against-relegation-8458285.html]

insidefutbol.com spoke of him in glowing terms when they linked him to the Southampton job last Friday (11 January)

[http://www.insidefutbol.com/2013/01/11/southampton-mooted-as-possible-destination-for-former-espanyol-coach-mauricio-pochettino/76854/]

I don't have a problem accepting the official "mutual consent" explanation considering the esteem he seems to be held in (by many except a few hacks).

As I have opioned before, I hope I am wrong but what is the sense in sacking a good young English manager and replacing him with a failed spanish league nobody?

FFS this nobody is even unable to communicate with his new players who must still be in a state of shock. Adkins had improved the Saints year on year, and with him in charge there is no doubt we were improving and on the rise with a great chance of avoiding relegation. Given Adkins track record we may even have been pushing for a european place next year. All that pervdes our club now, is doom and gloom which will in all likliehood end in relegation and an early sacking for the nobody.

How uttery pointless, shortsighted and sad

How does Adkins track record equate to a european place?

Your team is in 15th place and have only beaten the teams in 16th, 17th, 18th and 20th (in a 20 team league).

I assume he meant in terms of progressing each season.

League one winners
2nd in the championship
15th premier league

No reason why he couldn't have taken them further, especially as their results were getting better.

League one winners and 2nd in the championship doesn't equate to form good enough to push for a european place and as much as you believe he could have taken them further I believe they were going to be relegated.

Fair enough hippie, everyone has their own opinion. There was nothing in their recent form that suggested they were going to be relegated though.

Time will tell if the new man is up to the job.

If Rodriguez hadn't thrown himself to the ground and conned a penalty against Villa their only win in the last 9 would have been the 1-0 home win against Reading. That, plus the run of games they have until the start of April, suggests (to me) they are relegation candidates.

R0ykeane
19 Jan 13 14:42
Joined:
26 Dec 06
| Topic/replies: 19,406 | Blogger: R0ykeane's blog
Vile decision and I look forward to them going down.

Others have said it with more elegance, but the above cuts the cr@p. Apologies to the fans.

So do you think it was decision hippie?

Sorry, do you think it was a good decision?

Strangely hippie, I actually agree with something you have said - with the NOBODY in charge were are certainly NOW (strong) relegation candidates.

As previously posted, Adkins track record over the last few years has been good and successfull for the Saints.

After an exciting start to this season when we could, perhaps should even, have taken something from the Manchester clubs in 2/3 defeats - we led in both near the end of each game - we have been improving still further. With the fans and players strongly behind Adkins we WOULD have HAD a great chance of staying in the Premier League this year helping to stablise and stregthen the club financially giving us the opportunity of further progress. This would have been no mean achievement for our club given what has happened during the last ten years or so. Under Adkins astute leadership I see no reason why we could then not have perhaps pushed for a europen place next season.

This rather bright future now seems a long way off under the NOBODY.

QED; it would seem that very few on this forum, if any, see the sense in Adkins being replaced by a spanish league NOBODY.

looking at your side a bit closer tonight really think pottechino should try a cheeky loan bid for our centre back coates..

that dutch bloke of yours looks terrible at times.

Gi we have just signed forran,and have fonte when he is back from injury.thought rameriz played well tonight and the 2 central midfielders were both outstanding again

As for Adkins I don't see what all the fuss is about,par dew got sacked after we had won 4-0 .Think this new guy will do well and love the chairmanship ambition

That should read chairman ,bloody ipad lol

nice win for pottechino.

think its fair to say thats not a bad set of results considering the opposition played so far

chairman would be feeling good having made what on paper was a weird decision

Nigel Adkins - who?

No seriously, Adkins was discarded too quickly - he was treated very badly - leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. However it does seem that I was wrong about Pottechino and I hope to continue being proved wrong about this.

Credit to the players for getting behind the new manager and playing so well.

But anyone drawing conclusions after his first win would be premature, not least because Southampton were on an upward curve over the last few months under Adkins.

agreed berto, new boss rightly deserves fans backing as wasnt his fault what happened to adkins

That said its early days to say hes an inspired choice

Bring back Nige

as a red

bring back nige......or rather can we swap managers

Looking a shrewd appointment now
Poor old Nige

Strange what happened to Pochetinno 1st half of season with Espanyol

Were rooted in the relegation zone , but look Top 6 standard since he left

funny old game etc

not strange at all.

every window they kept losing their better players.
and it took its toll within his system.

erm, the players that are beating almost everyone in La Liga since he left were all there in August weren't they?

Impressed with Southampton again.  I still think it was harsh on Adkins and that he would have kept them up, but the appointment looks an excellent one.

it may have seemed harsh but its always a wise move to get in a good manager when he is available otherwise you may not get another chance.

ttt

look at me, i'm so clever

its just for those who said "every dog has its day".... and all those doubters

sorry mate-couldn't resist. the forum is so cr ap these days I got bored.

not a lot happening i suppose except moyes having a rough time

maybe we need another suarez incident to wake everyone up