He ‘didn’t do well enough’ during his brief tenure at St Mary’s, according to Will Still, who has come out for the first time since Southampton fired him earlier this month.
After a terrible 2024–25 season in which they had three managers, Southampton’s management hired the 33-year-old in the summer to guide them back to the Premier League at the first attempt. However, it didn’t work out.
Before being fired after last weekend’s 2-0 home loss to Preston North End on the south coast, he had only managed two league victories in his 13 games as manager.
‘I Didn’t Do Well Enough’ at Southampton, Will Still
After Saints’ thrilling victory over Wrexham at St. Mary’s on the first day of the season, there were great expectations that they would contend for a spot at the bottom of the table. However, they only managed one win in twelve games, and Still left St. Mary’s with the team in 21st place, one spot above the relegation zone.
One might still blame his team’s poor xG performance and lack of luck, but at the same time, his team’s performances were frequently poor and they frequently broke down when things didn’t go their way.
Joueurs Belges quotes Still as saying that after being sacked for the first time in his career, he just didn’t perform well enough.
I’m handling it nicely. I’ve never been fired before, so this is new to me. I know that in the world of football, you rapidly pay the price for not doing well enough.
Still would have been even more disappointed to see temporary replacement Tonda Eckert lead Southampton to consecutive victories against Sheffield Wednesday and Queens Park Rangers, moving the team up to 17th place and seven points outside of the playoffs. Both games featured two fortunate goals from Jay Robinson and Caspar Jander.
It would be intriguing to see whether another British club takes a chance on Still or if he manages overseas once more after having had good stints with Stade Reims and RC Lens in France before returning to England for family reasons.
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