Southampton: New Saints Director of Football set to be announced

Southampton are set to announce who their new Director of Football Operations will be, with many media sources reporting that it will be current FA man Matt Crocker.

The Telegraph, the Daily Echo and website Training Ground Guru all broke the news this morning and say that an announcement is imminent.

However, the Daily Echo says that Crocker will not start work at the club until after the new year.

This capture by Saints can be seen as quite coup after Crocker’s supposed importance in the successful implementation of new strategies within the England national team setup.

The England DNA plan was put in place in his early days at St George’s Park and has led to the rise of the national team back up the world rankings.

Crocker’s background is in academy football having held the role of Academy Manager with Saints and Cardiff City before that.

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His spell on the South Coast saw the production of a number of the most renowned talents to come from the club’s academy system such as Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Luke Shaw.

At the FA, Crocker holds the title of Head of Development team coaching – perhaps showing a substantial knowledge of the coaching side of the game too.

When he joins, he will be the replacement for Ross Wilson who left to join Rangers recently, but the Telegraph states that his role will differ.

Their report says that Crocker will fill the void that has remained since Les Reed left and joined the FA as Technical Director.

The club are also said to be looking to bring in an expert in player recruitment, meaning the Crocker is likely to be brought in to revitalise the Saints academy and the coaches within.

Whilst Saints had a sustained period of success for 3-4 years which peaked with Europa League qualification, the strategy eventually went stale and is in need of a fresh injection of knowledge to support around Ralph Hasenhuttl.