There can be no challenging the quality of Southampton's recruitment this summer and links with German football have been particularly fruitful.
Caspar Jander, Joshua Quarshie, Léo Scienza, and even the interim manager Tonda Eckert are either German themselves or were plying their trade in the German leagues prior to joining the club.
Only Damion Downs of that group has struggled to make an impact since arriving at St Mary's and only time will tell if he can make the step up from 2. Bundesliga.
Saints are in danger of losing this key asset
According to reports in Germany, Southampton are currently in danger of losing the key man behind their brilliant summer transfer activity. Technical Director, Johannes Spors, has been linked to Bundesliga strugglers VfL Wolfsburg.
German football website 'Kicker' reported that “VfL has also approached the 43-year-old, but there have been no concrete talks so far.“
Speculation about a move to Juventus circulated recently but Southampton's technical director stayed put at St Mary's, despite mounting pressure on the board from the fans after a poor start to the season on the pitch.
Spors joined Southampton in February 2025 and it is fair to say that his tangible impact until recently has been negligible. Relegated with 12 points, Spors set about rebuilding the squad and recruiting a promising young manager to work with them in Will Still.
Despite bringing in two players with 24 combined assists between them from the 2024/25 Championship season, Still was unable to get the team scoring enough goals. With the club hovering dangerously close to the relegation zone, fans implored the board to act.
After Still was inevitably sacked, the spotlight turned back on to Johannes Spors for a better solution. That solution arrived in spectacular style from an unlikely source.
One thing Johannes Spors could take to the grave
Whether Tonda Eckert's appointment as interim-manager was purposefully planned or not may well go to the grave with Spors. However, what it does evidence is the technical director's excellent contingency planning and approach to developing staff.
To understand the calibre of Johannes Spors, you need only to look at his record. In 2022-23 as General Manager, he guided the club back to Serie A from Serie B and earned himself a promotion to sporting director of 777 Partners.
To have attracted him to Sport Republic was a major coup on the part of Rasmus Ankerson and Dragan Šolak. It seems now, that may have been the easy part. The hard job could become keeping him at St Mary's.
VfL Wolfsburg's only hope of appointing Spors is if he is feeling homesick. Southampton are unlikely to sanction a move and with Southampton on an upward trajectory, Spors will probably want to see the job through, until the end of this season at least.