This post is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which features personal comments from FLW Fan Pundits on breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings, and more.
Southampton are searching for a new manager, and they have high hopes.
Will Still was fired after only five months in charge, with the Saints losing 2-0 at home to Preston North End, leaving the 33-year-old with just two wins in 13 Championship games.
Now all eyes are on who the higher-ups at St Mary’s are going to bring in next. Sport Republic has had bad luck with managers, with Russell Martin responsible for 27 of Southampton’s 32 league wins since the takeover in January 2022. During that time, the Saints had six permanent head coaches.
Southampton are aiming high, with Coventry City manager Frank Lampard at the top of their list of prospective hires.
FLW’s Saints fan pundit, Martin Sanders, admires Lampard’s work and would love to see him in the dugout at St Mary’s.
However, there are clear doubts regarding why he would chose to leave The CBS Arena at this time for a team fighting toward the bottom of the league, despite the fact that they are expected to swiftly climb back up.
Southampton fan commentator responds to Frank Lampard links at St Mary’s
Lampard has revived his management career at Coventry following mediocre experiences at Everton and Chelsea in the Premier League.
The former Blues midfielder transformed the Sky Blues from a relegation battler to a team just minutes away from a second play-off final in three years, and now, in his first full season at the club, he has them top of the Championship, with the goal of going one step further than last year and securing promotion back to the top flight for the first time since 2001.
Sanders admires Lampard, and the Saints fan commentator speaks for all Southampton fans when he says, “If I had to pick anyone, it would be Frank Lampard.
“Look at what he’s doing at Coventry; he’s developing into an excellent manager. He is hugely admired down here, and has been for a long time.
“I am not surprised by what he is doing there. He has a terrific, well-established group of players; he’s been there for a while and has them headed in the right direction; I believe he’ll lead them up.”
Sanders understandably asks the same questions that any Championship fan does; but, why would Lampard chose to leave his current club when he plainly has a good thing going?
“Would he really leave a promotion charge, a team that can get to the Premier League for us?” he argued.
“If you look at us from the outside, you’d be a bit concerned as a manager at the moment with how quickly we go through them.”
Despite this, Sanders believes Lampard might at least have a talk with the former Premier League club. With lots of football to play, the Saints might launch a late promotion challenge, like Coventry did last season under their current manager.
“We jump from manager to manager, and players are being recruited by other managers, so we might not have what he requires,” he told me.
“But will he engage in conversation with them?” “I’m confident he’ll do.”
Southampton would be vastly improved with Frank Lampard, but a transfer may be unlikely.
Frank Lampard is approaching the end of his first year as manager of Coventry City, and with a winning rate of more than 50%, he is proving that he is a Premier League manager.
With Lampard at the helm, the Sky Blues appear set to hit that mark, so it’s easy to wonder why he’d even consider an approach from a Southampton side that appears depressed and in a true rut following a disastrous Premier League campaign last year.
If Lampard were to make the transition, there’s little doubt that he’d be able to galvanise the troops and possibly lead them to another unexpected play-off run, but many would say that it’s too risky.
Southampton fans can choose to be optimistic at this point, and they’ll feel like they’ve hit the jackpot if they can persuade the Coventry manager to make the transfer, but I doubt many are holding their breath on these speculations.
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