Nicola Cortese has made a ruthless gamble sacking Nigel Adkins, says sports editor Simon Carter

2:42pm Friday 18th January 2013 in Sport Photograph of the Author By Simon Carter, Sports Editor

Nigel Adkins Nigel Adkins

HEARD the one about the manager who got the boot after his team came from 0-2 down to grab a point at the reigning European champions?

It's not too dissimilar to the one about the manager who got the push just a few hours after a 4-0 away win.

These are not jokes.

They are the fates to have befallen the last two Saints managers, Alan Pardew and now Nigel Adkins, victims of chairman Nicola Cortese's ruthless ambition for the club.

Make no mistake, this is one hell of a gamble Cortese has taken, bringing in a foreign coach who has never worked in England before.

Sacking Pardew was a slight gamble, but Adkins - the man brought in to replace him - had previous with regards to League 1.

Adkins had twice won promotion from the third tier with Scunthorpe.

Cortese was playing safe by appointing him.

Not so now.

This is different.

Totally different.

There was an outcry when Pardew was sacked, but it soon died down when Saints started winning under Adkins.

There is another outcry now, and Cortese needs his new manager to start winning as quickly as Adkins did.

That is easier said than done when the opposition is Everton and Manchester United rather than the likes of Dagenham and Redbridge and Hartlepool.

Saints are seventh in the Premier League table if only results of clubs' last 11 games are taken into consideration.

Given their start, Adkins has overseen a wonderful improvement.

It would have been no shock had Adkins been sacked back in early November after the loss at West Bromwich Albion.

Why he wasn't, only to be dismissed now, is one for Cortese to answer.

Saints fans deserve a good explanation from their chairman.

They deserved one regarding Pardew, but they never got one.

Saints supporters have continually been kept in the dark regarding major decisions taken by the men controlling their club in the past decade.

They have deserved answers to many questions, but never received them.

Chances are, Cortese won't fully explain his reasons - and that would be a disgrace.

The chairman must now hope and pray his new manager keeps Saints in the Premier League, otherwise the backlash won't be nice.

He cannot know for sure if the club will do that, so hoping and praying is all he has.

Comments(19)

JohnItaly says...
2:50pm Fri 18 Jan 13

If this gamble does not pay off big time will lay a small bet Cortese will blame the new manger not his choice of manager.

Report this post »

Beer Monster says...
2:51pm Fri 18 Jan 13

FFS Echo, can you give the man dignity and display a picture that isn't going to attract idiotic comments from WUMs?

Report this post »

City Saint says...
3:05pm Fri 18 Jan 13

This article captures my sentiments exactly.

Cortese owes us an explanation.

Report this post »

George4th says...
3:06pm Fri 18 Jan 13

La Liga is the top league in the world and this guy has had good managerial experience of it. He was also a top footballer!

If you're comparing CVs, this new guy would win easily!

Report this post »

magnette says...
3:11pm Fri 18 Jan 13

Saints are 3 points off relegation, their recent mediocre run of form was due to playing worse teams. Their defence is a joke. Everyone is nearly always out of position and they have let in 40 goals. Adkins has had a fortune to spend and that's what he has achieved. Cortese has to run the club successfully in the PL or he is out. Get behind the new guy at least he knows how to defend.

Gazza
Clyne Fonte Vacant, Shaw
Vacant, Vacant Vacant
Punch, Ramires, Lambert

bench, Boruc, lallana, cork, vacant, vacant etc

Report this post »

AmsterdamSaint says...
3:13pm Fri 18 Jan 13

Cortese, you have brought shame on our club. I don't even care if the new manager does well, the fans were totally behind Atkins. I am getting sick of the way football is run, Nigel Atkins brought joy, passion and class to the club. Is that not enough ? It is enough for most true fans. A sad day.

Report this post »

upwherewebelong says...
3:18pm Fri 18 Jan 13

George4th wrote:
La Liga is the top league in the world and this guy has had good managerial experience of it. He was also a top footballer!

If you're comparing CVs, this new guy would win easily!
oh come off it cv wise playing yes you are right Adkins would come off second best but management I don't see 2 successive promotions on the new guys cv just mid table finishes and then a sack and thats before I even quote win rates to you.

Adkins 54%
Pochettino 34% so whose better "you decide"

Report this post »

JedSaint says...
3:19pm Fri 18 Jan 13

Cortese may be ruthless but also with this decision is making it clear that he and our financial backing won't stick around if we go down. Nigel would have stayed to help us bounce back. This new dude and Cortese will be off as neither want to be at a club in the Championship. Maybe it will be ok. I assume the players have know for a while and Saints played brilliantly on Wednesday. I hope they can do it on Monday but the crowd won't know whether to cheer, boo or sing one Nigel Adkins! What a mess. End of the season for this would have been acceptable. Now is a joke.

Report this post »

George4th says...
3:25pm Fri 18 Jan 13

upwherewebelong wrote:
George4th wrote:
La Liga is the top league in the world and this guy has had good managerial experience of it. He was also a top footballer!

If you're comparing CVs, this new guy would win easily!
oh come off it cv wise playing yes you are right Adkins would come off second best but management I don't see 2 successive promotions on the new guys cv just mid table finishes and then a sack and thats before I even quote win rates to you.

Adkins 54%
Pochettino 34% so whose better "you decide"
Adkins in the prem is 30%!

When comparing CVs you have to discount anything outside the Prem. As I said, the new guy has a far superior CV.

Report this post »

saint_rednwhite says...
4:00pm Fri 18 Jan 13

I get the win ratios... but majority of NIgels were in league games we were expected to win... Now we cant beat arsenal, swansea, norwich after completely outplaying them!! Im happy with decision... we need to get behind the team and cortese... he only wants the best for Southampton... striving to get up the table and get into Europe. He's been right so far... :)

Report this post »

Strasbourg Saint says...
4:05pm Fri 18 Jan 13

Talking of 'comments', maybe the Echo could set up a separate thread on which fans can post comments to Nigel.

From the little I've so far read, it's clear many of us would like to thank him and wish him well for the future.

Report this post »

st.athan saint says...
4:07pm Fri 18 Jan 13

magnette wrote:
Saints are 3 points off relegation, their recent mediocre run of form was due to playing worse teams. Their defence is a joke. Everyone is nearly always out of position and they have let in 40 goals. Adkins has had a fortune to spend and that's what he has achieved. Cortese has to run the club successfully in the PL or he is out. Get behind the new guy at least he knows how to defend.

Gazza
Clyne Fonte Vacant, Shaw
Vacant, Vacant Vacant
Punch, Ramires, Lambert

bench, Boruc, lallana, cork, vacant, vacant etc
errrr if he knew how to defend he probably wouldn't have got the sack from espanyol !!!!

Report this post »

HarrytheHorse33 says...
4:31pm Fri 18 Jan 13

If NC felt a change at the top was needed, surely this would have been done when the team were struggling early season. The timing of this suggests that something behind the scenes has gone very wrong for NA to get the sack on the back of recent results, especially as MP has been out of a job since November. Surely an unproven appointment at this stage of the season is a bigger gamble than sticking with a manager who had clearly started to find his feet at this level and was starting to get the results that could have seen a solid mid table finish. Good luck Nigel and sincere best wishes for the future. Good luck to MP too. Going to have to hit the ground running...

Report this post »

upwherewebelong says...
4:41pm Fri 18 Jan 13

George4th wrote:
upwherewebelong wrote:
George4th wrote:
La Liga is the top league in the world and this guy has had good managerial experience of it. He was also a top footballer!

If you're comparing CVs, this new guy would win easily!
oh come off it cv wise playing yes you are right Adkins would come off second best but management I don't see 2 successive promotions on the new guys cv just mid table finishes and then a sack and thats before I even quote win rates to you.

Adkins 54%
Pochettino 34% so whose better "you decide"
Adkins in the prem is 30%!

When comparing CVs you have to discount anything outside the Prem. As I said, the new guy has a far superior CV.
fair response but surely 2 promotions as a manager with us plus his Scunthorpe record counts for something compared to mediocrity in La Liga and given that the new guy has been unemployed since November doesn't suggest to me that he was an "in demand" manager. As I said if i'm proved wrong I'll come back on this site and say well I was wrong

Report this post »

SaintPC says...
5:21pm Fri 18 Jan 13

I think the key thing here might be the fact that not many of the youth team players have been getting brought through. JWP has hardly played for months and sounded a little annoyed in an interview recently, Luke Shaw has been playing, but didnt sound too surprised or upset on twitter earlier. Maybe the issue here is that NA didnt stick closely enough to the long term plans laid out for him and has paid the price?

The other issue may be that he might have promised NC a points total by a certain stage when Saints werent performing. It might be that he has missed that agreed target and therefore NC has moved to replace him. Perhaps he said he would get 20 points from the next 10 games or something equivalent when we only had 4 from 10.

We just dont know what has gone on behind the scenes.

Thanks Nigel, you have been great, Southampton will live on and I will support the new manager and the team as always.

Report this post »

St Forlife says...
7:09pm Fri 18 Jan 13

Tough start but Nigel had a go at the big boys. If nothing else he put his flag down in the sand and said Saints are going to play football.

So we lost to Man U and Man C early on. Big deal. We didn't sign great defenders and let a few more goals in than we would have liked to - but sorted that out.

We are clearly better than most of the bottom half of this league.

So new boy settles in and life goes on. If he doesn't get more than a point a game he will be out and we will be down. Would I trust Nigel to get the results or El Managerio who doesn't talk English? I'd stick with Nigel.

But no point in banging on. This is my 5th post today I think - unheard of!!

Nice of NC to man it out and attend the press conference. Spineless
I

Report this post »

Redted49 says...
10:48pm Fri 18 Jan 13

Everyone take a deep breath and calm down. We support Southampton FC whoever is in charge.Players and managers come and go but our club is what we believe in. Cortese is rarely wrong and I believe this decision will be proved an astute one come the end of the season.Lets analyze it, take the positives from it and then draw a line under it and move on as a great man once (or twice) said.

Report this post »

jerseysaint says...
10:00am Sat 19 Jan 13

Nigel Adkins is an absolute legend.
However I think this has a lot to do with NA dealings in the transfer windows a couple of months ago when were losing all the time people were saying he should have bought more defenders and premiership experienced players.
The goal keeping suituation is a little crazy as well.
Under the radar yesterday we brought in a very very good defender, Perhaps Nigel Adkins could not attract the type of players required to push onto into the top half of the table.
The timing of this is the issue here i think.

Report this post »

OSPREYSAINT says...
9:51pm Sat 19 Jan 13

Strasbourg Saint wrote:
Talking of 'comments', maybe the Echo could set up a separate thread on which fans can post comments to Nigel.

From the little I've so far read, it's clear many of us would like to thank him and wish him well for the future.
Try www.onenigeladkins.c
om

Report this post »

click2find

Get Adobe Flash player
About cookies

We want you to enjoy your visit to our website. That's why we use cookies to enhance your experience. By staying on our website you agree to our use of cookies. Find out more about the cookies we use.

I agree