According to various media sources, Johannes Spors has made up his mind about who will succeed Will Still at St Mary's and he is set to make that appointment ahead of the clash with Birmingham City on Saturday and he could be the new Nigel Adkins

The rumour mill is about to turn and several media outlets are starting to claim that they have been told an appointment is imminent at St Mary's.

They claim that Saints will be looking for a man who can emulate Nigel Adkins, a man who got Saints promoted to the Premier League and then built the foundations for a mid table finish back in the top flight.

But who is the man for the job, of that they are not so certain, footballfancast.com claim that it could be Michael Carrick, they suggest that with all things adding up, experience, both as a player & manager, Carrick is the man that Saints will turn to, that they will value that higher than the attributes that Tonda Eckert has shown in his short term in charge.

They also say that the club will be looking towards the Premier League and therefore a man to continue the good work should he get Saints promoted and have the experience to keep them up.

But saintsmarching.com claim that the man who will take charge of the team against the Blues on Saturday will be more familiar, that Saints will ignore experience and appoint Tonda Eckert.

They claim:

"The details of his contract may take some time to be clarified but a two-year deal could be the most likely. Eckert could be given the remainder of this season to find his feet and get the team as close to the top six as possible before expectations rise. Either way, he would be expected to guide Southampton back to the Premier League within two years."

This will raise some hackles in the Saints support who have complained that the club has gone down this route far too often under Sport Republic, their first appointment of Nathan Jones was a disaster and then when they put their faith in Ruben Selles things didn't get much better.

The third appointment of Russell Martin initially went quite well as he lead the team to promotion, but he found himself floundering in the Premier League and then the appointment of Ivan Juric who although experienced was a disaster.

Then came Simon Rusk who could not really be blamed for relegation in that we were already down and Will Still who ended his short tenure like a rabbit in the headlights.

So Sport Republic have not got a good track record and Johannes Spors although responsible for only one permanent manager, got that wrong.

So it is all eyes towards St Mary's on Saturday to find out if Thursday or Friday is the day that white smoke appears over St Mary's, this time for the announcement of a new manager and not like two years ago when the warehouse next to the ground burnt down.

All Photos Via Reuters

Centurion added 20:58 - Dec 3 Again, again, again!
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HythePeer added 23:05 - Dec 3 Wasn't Nigel Adkins the worst Saints' Premiership manager of all time, at the time?
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IanRC added 23:19 - Dec 3 HythePeer, no he wasn't. To my mind Cortese's sacking of Nigel Atkins was a mistake, notwithstanding the short term bounce of Pochetino before he deserted to Spurs.
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HythePeer added 23:32 - Dec 3 IanRC , do you have any statistics to support that? The channel owner is statistic king, maybe he could throw some light on the issue?? Premiership managers and their points per game. might be interesting?
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underweststand added 12:08 - Dec 4 It seems difficult for people to react positively to Eckert. He doesn't generate the type of enthusiasm we expect from a manager, but his results so far have proven that he is better than the run-of-the mill type caretaker and his faith in the likes of Bragg and Robinson shows that he isn't afraid to use younger talents. He is clearly an intellectual at heart; and keen on stats. and videos which give him a good insight into opposition sides. Is he our best choice for manager?...with 4 more games to go before Christmas, the results will speak for themselves and give us all a clearer picture. One thing I am sure about ...If he doesn't get the job, there will be a queue of L1 / L2 sides looking to offer him a managerial position after the New Year.

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WestSussexSaint added 12:28 - Dec 4 If the club are about to appoint an experienced manager, Carrick or otherwise, I hope there is a requirement for the new manager to keep Tonda as part of the coaching staff, possibly Assistant Manger. Tonda has proven he has good qualities and is still potentially a manager we may turn to again when the time is right, once he has a bit more experience learning from the new manager.

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Farlow added 12:31 - Dec 4 The sacking of Adkins was particularly harsh as we had just secured a 2-2 draw at Chelsea.
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StRipper added 14:03 - Dec 4 If the rumour is true, and judging by the PR being pushed by the club, it would seem that Eckert will be announced soon as Manager if anyone is. And as is the screwed up way that the club is run, what a weird, confused bit of timing if that happens ahead of the Birmingham game. Whilst most were apparently coming around to the idea of appointing Eckert, the Millwall loss indicated that the reservations that fans might have about his appointment may be valid - e.g. his success has been helped significantly by more player effort and less tinkering, he hasn't had to show significant tactical nous, he hasn't dealt with a loss or bad run. So now is the worst time to think about appointing him. After his first loss. In the next 2 or 3 matches, we are about to find out if the winning run that Saints just had was because of Eckert or mainly because he wasn't Will Still. Imagine if we lose the next couple games against credible opposition. And we get outthought and outplayed, again, just as we did against Millwall. Another long, tawdry period of fan division will be set in play with bickering about our situation, what to do about it and those who run our club will again be shown to be the clowns that everyone thinks that they are. Seems like that's what they want for us?!?

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Bowlercow added 17:08 - Dec 4 I'm sure that if it isn't Tonda someone in the press corps would have a name and a reason for us If it is Carrick a lot of fans are going to be upset because his style is exactly the same as RM Possession based and playing out from the back
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GRIM added 17:12 - Dec 4 I think the decision has already been made & it's Tonda. Spors has already replaced him as u21's coach with Adam Lallana so there's no going back to that role for Tonda.
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BigbadBarry8myboat added 18:52 - Dec 4 It'll be Tonda. An experienced manager would see that SR are using Saints to fund other teams like Goztepe, who we have bought players for and then let them go to them for nothing They'd also request spending in January. Therefore SR will simply keep the carousel going and hope to get by.
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