Hasenhuttl: Southampton job could be my last

Paul Macdonald

• Updated: 20 May 2021 11:26 BST
• 2 min read

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl claims he could retire from football altogether once his contract expires at St Mary’s.

Hasenhuttl, 53, is tied to the Saints until 2024. He arrived at the club in 2018 after Mark Hughes was sacked and has built an impressive reputation for an attacking, high-energy philosophy despite having minimal funds with which to spend.

READ MORE: Tottenham don’t need Champions League to keep Kane, insists Mason

He has been linked with a move away – Tottenham Hotspur being viewed as a potential destination in the future – but he has committed his immediate future to Southampton. After that, he says, he may well walk away from management altogether.

“I don’t see many scenarios in which I would give this three-year contract, which I still have here, for anything else,” the former RB Leipzig boss told Sky.

“At some point I’ll ask myself the question, and I mean it in all seriousness, whether I want to do anything at all afterwards. You do without a lot, and it also costs an incredible amount of energy. 

“I don’t know what will happen after that yet. But it may well be that I might let it be.”

Hasenhuttl hasn’t had it all his own way in the Premier League. His side have lost 9-0 twice in successive seasons, to Leicester City and Manchester United, and a terrible run of form this season saw them slip from top of the league in early November to 15th.

Who could replace Hasenhuttl?

It is difficult to see who Southampton would turn to in three years if Hasenhuttl is as good as his word.
Currently, the favourite for the job should the Austrian depart in the more immediate future is Eddie Howe.

That is a move that would make sense for all parties. Howe is still local to the South Coast having managed Bournemouth over two spells between 2008 and 2020, and he values attractive, free-flowing football like Hasenhuttl. Former Chelsea boss Frank Lampard could also be in the running.