Southampton travel to Charlton Athletic in ten days time for their next Championship match. Who will be the manager by that time is anybody's guess. One person who is in the running is interim manager Tonda Eckert. Having led the team to back-to-back victories, he could have a lot to think about in the coming few days.
Sport Republic have a habit of appointing interim managers. Ruben Selles was appointed on the back of a good away win at Chelsea as interim in February 2023, but things went downhill very quickly. Selles inspired the team to just seven points in fifteen matches after being appointed as manager.
Simon Rusk's interim appointment last season was shambolic. Instead of getting in a long-term manager to oversee the transition from the Premier League to the Championship, Sport Republic were happy to watch Rusk (pictured below) park the bus every week in an effort to scramble to a higher points tally than the worst club ever in the Premier League. We did it. But it was embarrassing.
It's obvious what Southampton fans want
Now, Eckert could be faced with a similar dilemma. Does he put his hat in the ring for the job knowing that most Southampton fans would much prefer to see an established Championship manager at the helm. Doing so could set Eckert up as the unwanted manager who fans don't really want to get behind.
The German will also need to realistically evaluate whether his experience has fully prepared him for the permanent Southampton job. Two periods as assistant manager, first at Barnsley and then at Genoa are good grounding but perhaps not enough for a job this big.
So far, the players have responded to Eckert well and his subtle changes ahead of the Sheffield Wednesday match were effective. This raises two further questions.
Two questions, Eckert must ask himself
To what extent will the players continue to respond well to such an inexperienced manager, particularly if results and performances begin to drop off?
Southampton's confidence is already vulnerable. Eckert will need to think hard about the support that he actually has in the dressing room.
Eckert will need to do some soul searching about his tactical awareness. He will be coming up against some wiley managers who have been around a while and some ambitious younger ones too.
How well he thinks he might do when he comes up against the likes of Phil Parkinson and Chris Wilder, or Frank Lampard and Mark Robins, should really come into the equation.
Sport Republic should do the decent thing and take Tonda Eckert out of the running. They have a great coach for the under-21s with considerable potential. Putting him in the spotlight could ruin another good coach before he has really got going.
Tonda would be well advised to say “thank you,“ but “no thank you“ if the subject comes up. He's gained some more great experience but he's really not the man to take the club forward.