Saints fans let Johannes Spors and Sport Republic know exactly how they feel about former Pompey player, Gary O'Neil being considered for the vacant manager's position at St Mary's.
As Southampton cruised to a 3-1 victory over struggling Sheffield Wednesday, fans on the Northam End of the stadium chanted Gary O'Neil's name but with the 'f-bomb' planted loudly in front of it.
The former Wolverhampton manager is not the popular choice among fans and it's not just because of his link to that lot at the end of the M27.
There's only one good reason to recruit O'Neil
O'Neil prefers a 3-4-2-1 formation which is a system not too dissimilar to the one employed by both Will Still and the current interim manager, Tonda Eckert. Saints have a plethora of central defenders and have been deploying them mostly in a 3-4-3 system.
Sport Rebublic might prefer to recruit a manager who plays three at the back, purely on the basis of continuity. But the majority of Saints fans would rather the manager played four at the back, particularly at home. This might be the only good reason to recruit O'Neil.
When Scott Parker left Bournemouth in 2022/23, O'Neil was appointed as interim manager, a role that he kept until the end of the season. The Cherries finished 15th in 2023 with O'Neil laying the foundations for what was to follow under Andoni Iraola.
At Wolves, O'Neil guided his team to a 14th place finish in 2023/24 but the board and the fans ran out of patience with him in December 2024 with the club 19th in the Premier League.
Gary O'Neil's record is actually this bad...
O'Neil has a terrible PPG ratio. At Molineux, he took charge of 63 matches with a PPG average of just 1.13 only marginally better than the luckless Will Still whose PPG average at Southampton was 0.92.
Prior to that, he didn't pull up any trees as Bournemouth manager. After doing okay as the interim manager, O'Neil's PPG average was just 0.92. That's with a team who would go on to finish 12th and 9th in the following two seasons.
Southampton fans want a manager with good Championship experience to draw on. Of the available managers, Michael Carrick would be a much better solution than Gary O'Neil. The names of Frank Lampard and Mark Robins were mentioned earlier in the manager hunt but neither are realistic targets.
It's obvious what Johannes Spors should do next
Johannes Spors is not averse to looking abroad for talent and there are rumours that he may dip into the German Bundesliga or 2. Bundesliga for a suitable replacement. Saints fans aren't particularly happy about that either.
It's time for Sport Republic to employ a manager who can actually do the job. The Southampton faithful have had enough of the board investing in potential talent that never comes to fruition.
If Sport Republic can't attract the right person during the international break, then the board should be content to allow Tonda Eckert to continue in the interim role until they have.