Who will be next Southampton manager after Russell Martin sack?

The Russell Martin Experiment is over at last for Southampton, with a ridiculous home thrashing off Spurs proving one ridiculous thrashing too many for a board that had in fairness indulged a lot of nonsense for a longer time than most could stomach.

The Saints are currently somewhat adrift at the foot of the Premier League table but not so far that bringing in a manager who doesn’t mind defending couldn’t drag them back into the race for survival.

Big question, then, is who they might be after for this all-important ‘defend less stupidly’ position. According to the best odds currently available on Oddschecker, it’s these lads.

9=) Jesse Marsch
Someone’s heard something because the erstwhile Leeds manager and – gasp – American is fourth favourite in some places. Whether what’s been heard is significant or absolute fipsy does of course remain to be seen.

9=) Kjetil Knutsen
The current manager of Bodø/Glimt seems unlikely to swap European football for a relegation battle.

8) Pedro Martins
Currently manages in Qatar but won three Greek titles with Olympiakos.

7) Simon Rusk
Southampton’s manager hunt appears to be far less advanced than Wolves’, so the potential for Rusk to interim his way to 10 games and a payout from the bookies cannot be ruled out altogether, especially with those games coming thick and fast in the Busy Festive Period.

6) Graham Potter
How many Graham Potters are there? The man is favourite to be both the next Tottenham and West Ham managers. We would humbly contend that with at least one of those more appealing jobs likely to come up before the season is out he is unlikely to jump into bed with Southampton at this time, which may explain his current drift having been among the early frontrunners.

5) David Moyes
The firefighter’s firefighter. Say what you like about Moyes, but his Southampton would not commit 10 errors leading to a goal by trying to pass out from the back.

4) Carlos Corberan
Now required by law to sit within the top five contenders for any bottom-half Premier League job without ever really seeming like he might actually get it.

3) Ivan Juric
He failed at Roma but the Croatian boss had Hellas Verona punching above their weight in Serie A. And his ‘death metal football’ approach sounds interesting at least.

2) Kasper Hjulmand
Available after leaving the Denmark job following a last-16 exit at Euro 2024. Hasn’t coached in a major European league since 2015, which might be a problem.

1) Danny Rohl
It represents something of a punt, but his rescue act at Sheffield Wednesday in last season’s Championship was impressive and the Owls are now in far comfier solid-mid-table-outside-chance-of-the-play-offs-if-they-put-a-run-together territory. Easy to be sniffy about that as an achievement at a club like Wednesday, but it’s a good few years since that’s where they’ve found themselves.