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Krueger’s Southampton vision

Ralph Krueger (l): Optimistic on future

Ralph Krueger (l): Optimistic on future

Southampton chairman Ralph Krueger insists he has a clear vision of what a new manager must bring to the club – and has no shortage of candidates.

Mauricio Pochettino resigned on Tuesday to join Tottenham Hotspur but Krueger says the club will act “very swiftly” to appoint a successor.

“Les Reed (the club’s football director) is inundated at the moment with requests from high quality managers all over Europe trying to come to Southampton,” he told Sky Sports News.

“We are building a long list which should quickly become a short list. Any club that is well-constructed and well-organised is permanently tracking potential managers for a situation such as this.”

Pochettino was put in place by Krueger’s predecessor Nicola Cortese, but Krueger said the same team which had found and appointed Pochettino were tasked with selecting his replacement.

Former FC Basel boss Murat Yakin is the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed Pochettino and Krueger says the club is open to another non-English manager – although he refused to be drawn into any speculation.

“Being Swiss or German or from England is not relevant, we do not have an official list, but are going to move very swiftly,” he added. “It does not matter what language, or what ethic background – we are looking for a manager to fit Southampton FC now.

“We are optimistic and we are certain that the foundation remains intact here. Southampton is in a strong position and we will continue to move forward.”

Pochettino’s departure has been reported to be a pre-cursor to several leading players also leaving but Krueger said there are no deals in place for either Adam Lallana or Luke Shaw.

“Under the circumstances we wanted to wait to clarify the manager’s situation to move forward. There are no deals done,” Krueger said.

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