Hasenhüttl wants to stop in 2024 – build Southampton FC according to the RB system

Coach about end of career & plans

Ralph Hasenhüttl plans to end his coaching career when his contract with FC Southampton expires in June 2024. “I always wanted to prove to myself that I could very well work for a club for a longer period of time. Hopefully it will be five and a half years here, that’s a damn long time in modern football, and then that’s probably it,” said the 54-year-old. The Austrian took office at the Premier League club in December 2018 and since then he has scored 1.32 points per game. Hasenhüttl has not stayed longer with any club.

“Five and a half years in the Premier League, that’s a lot of energy, regardless of job satisfaction. I can’t imagine that I want to do anything else in the coaching job after that. And saying no to everything else is also a yes to yourself, and I want that. That’s the solid plan and I hope I have the strength to pull it off.” He informed the new owners that he wanted to “put Southampton FC on a very healthy footing by 2024, but then that was it . Then I’ll be 57 years old and I’d like to experience other things and not sit on the bench like Roy Hodgson at 74. Definitely not.”

The coach revealed what he believes the “Saints” will stand for in the future. Economically it is “hardly” feasible to get closer to the top 6 in the Premier League, in terms of sport “hopefully it is”. Solak himself led the way, saying he wanted to acquire Red Bull-style or Manchester City-style clubs abroad: “It will be the cornerstone of the organization we plan to build” (quoted via “Times“.)

Hasenhüttl says: “But attacking the top 6 isn’t our plan anyway. We aim to be the high-end product and flagship model for a group of clubs in Europe that are yet to be bought. Players should be developed there in such a way that the best of them find their way to us.” The Austrian sees a “certain similarity to the RB system (…) and the knowledge from my two years in Leipzig is of course helpful”.

Hasenhüttl: FC Southampton want to increase the value of young players

At the beginning of the year, an investment group led by Serbian TV mogul Dragan Solak secured a majority stake in the club – 80 percent. Since 2017, Southampton has been majority-owned by Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng. Hasenhüttl now explained: “We should be able to act in advance on the transfer market. So far we have been a self-sustaining company. We always had to sell players before we could get new players. Of course that makes development much more difficult, so hopefully we have more leeway now. But it’s not about seasoned professionals who cost 30 or 40 million euros, but about young players whose values ​​we can increase through appropriate development.”

The coach continues: “For many players in the future we will not be the end of the line, but a way station, which is not a problem for me.” Word has gotten around in the Premier League – with Armando Broja (20) as an example , “that young players can quickly gain match practice here. That’s a huge image gain.” In their history, the “Saints” spent a maximum of 25.1 million euros on a new signing: Danny Ings (29), who had previously been loaned out, came from Liverpool FC in 2019 for the same transfer, but two years later he made a profit (29.4 million euros) resold to Aston Villa. This season, the “Saints” – unlike almost all of the English competition – generated a transfer plus of 17.3 million euros.

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