Forget Ivan Juric - Southampton's ideal next manager is staring them in the face
Southampton are rumoured to be interested in Danny Röhl as their next manager - but is he the man for the job?
It’s hard to find anything positive to say about Southampton’s season, all things considered. Certainly, little that’s taken place on the pitch been worthy of praise, although perhaps we can smile about how much cash the club will make from Tyler Dibling, or how rugged Russell Martin looked with that beard. Still, watching the matches has rather begged the question – who would want to manage this team next season?
It's a question that’s become rather more pertinent thanks to a story with originated with The Sun (pinches of salt at the ready, perhaps) which claims that the Saints are preparing to dispense with the services of current coach Ivan Jurić in the summer – and that they want to replace him with Danny Röhl.
Why Danny Röhl – and why not now?
In looking at changing head coach in the summer, rather than now, Southampton are effectively raising the white flag. 13 points short of safety with just 11 matches left, there is no realistic prospect of survival and consecutive 4-0 thrashings at the hands of Brighton and Chelsea have underlined the gulf in quality between the Saints and the rest of the division.
Looking for a summer appointment is deeply defeatist but also perfectly pragmatic. They would likely find themselves with a deeper pool of potential appointees – the cachet of managing in the Premier League wears rather thin when it would only last for two months, after all – and will have more time to stack of candidates, ensuring the best chance of making the right appointment.
In the case of Sheffield Wednesday manager Röhl, there is also a financial element. The 35-year-old German coach would reportedly cost less for Southampton to hire as a Championship side than as a Premier League one, and it would supposedly have set the Saints back £4m had they appointed him in the wake of Martin’s sacking earlier this season, an option which was considered.
As for Röhl himself, he’s done a remarkable job turning Wednesday around in his first job in management. When he took them over in October 2023, they were in desperate trouble and entrenched in the relegation battle – but he hauled them clear and has built on that achievement since. The Owls are currently in mid-table in the second tier, but at seven points behind the play-off places still have an outside shot at the top six.
He has demonstrated the capacity to improve one bloodied and apparently baffled team, so the logic runs that he could do it again with Southampton, who are set to return to the second tier with bruised egos and very few points, but he also has one clear advantage over Jurić – unlike the Serb, he has a clear tactical philosophy.
Say what you will about Martin (and many have), but at least he had a playing style he believed in and stuck with through thick and thin. Under Jurić, it’s been hard to know precisely what the plan is, especially in defence. Watching Southampton’s back line melt like butter under a blowtorch in the loss to Brighton made one wonder precisely what their manager has actually done since taking over.
With Röhl, there would be no such uncertainty. He knows his style, and it’s practically tailor-made for the modern football hipster – a 3-4-3 base, high line, targeted pressing and quick counter-attacks. Throw in his affinity for data and you have a head coach whose resumé contains every keyword.
Which isn’t to imply that his style wants for substance. Considering how bad Sheffield Wednesday were when he took charge and the fact that they spent a relatively parsimonious £4m last summer, the work he has done in the Steel City is genuinely impressive.
Is Röhl the right man for the job – and would he leave Sheffield Wednesday?
The biggest difficulty with evaluating whether Röhl would be right for Southampton is simply that Sheffield Wednesday is the first and only club he has managed. There is no long-term track record to assess, no proven history beyond a quick turnaround of one bad side followed by a steady ship.
Nor is it easy to work out whether Southampton would suit him. It’s likely that a number of players will leave following their relegation, and it’s hard to imagine that Dibling, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Mateus Fernandes and others don’t attract interest no matter how poor the season as a whole has been. By the time Southampton play their first match of the 2025/26 Championship season, the squad could look very different.
But if the core of the team remains intact, then the combination of a combative midfield and a pacy attack could suit Röhl nicely. He wants to condense the pitch and limit space before spring balls down the flanks or over the top, and the sheer speed of strikers like Cameron Archer and Adam Armstrong (on loan at West Brom but surely the first name on the team-sheet in the second tier next year) should suit Röhl down to the ground.
Besides, parachute payments mean that there should be a fair amount of money to spend compared to most of the rest of the second tier, giving Röhl or whoever takes over a little more leeway to shape the squad to their liking than a club like Sheffield Wednesday can offer. If a clear-out is required, then it should be possible, and that extra spending power will likely make it considerably easier to attract a manager like Röhl in the first instance. The gap between the parachute clubs and the rest of the Championship is big enough that most managers will take the easy leg up, no matter how bad the club have been in the Premier League.
All of which means that the only question is whether there’s someone better out there. Given the question marks that the brevity Röhl’s short career create, it’s certainly possible, but Röhl has not only demonstrated tactical acumen but the capacity to change the weather in a dressing room quickly. Wednesday looked hopeless when he arrived, but found steel and self-belief at speed once he got going.
That could be essential. Southampton may have been the worst team in the top flight this season, but they should still be among the best in the Championship next time around – and the only thing that would logically create serious issues is a psychological hangover from the travails of the current campaign. A manager who has proven that they can blow the cobwebs out seems like a sensible place to start, and Röhl has already done that once.