When Ronald Koeman took over as Southampton boss, a lot of people thought it was a mistake. The Saints were in tatters, most of their top layes had been sold and a new foreign manager had arrived to effectively start from scratch. It was tipped to be a disastrous season for the club, the 2014-15.
But Koeman accepted the challenge. It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise because he never hesitated to do that as a player either – the Dutchman always took his opponents on and was one of the most outrageous and arrogant defenders of his time.
This challenge was a little bit different though. It was probably harder. To buy new players, to gel with them and to make them gel with the old guys that were already there at St. Mary’s Stadium, it had to take some time. And, that’s why the experts had written Southampton completely off. Forget being at the 4th position in the league at this stage, many were of the view that they might fall in danger of relegation at some point of time.
But, Southampton has surprised everyone and while a lot of credit for that goes to the players, Koeman deserves a fair bit of praise too. He’s thought that highly of at the moment that he is one of the favourites to take on Wenger’s role as / when it happens, according to the guys at www.irishfreebet.com.
Those who played alongside Koeman during his playing career always knew that he was going to make a successful manager. The way he used to speak in the team meetings, his choice of words, etc. He was actually the front runner to replace Louis Van Gaal as the Netherlands boss in the summer, but surprisingly, the Dutch federation did not opt for him. So, he made that gambling move to Southampton where he is flourishing now.
If Koeman makes Southampton finish in top 5, which is obviously not easy, it would be nothing short of spectacular.