Southampton made an official summer move for a managerial alternative to Russell Martin, but a journalist has revealed that he rejected the opportunity to move to the St. Mary’s Stadium.
How have Southampton started the season?
In the Championship, Martin’s side have made a mixed start to the new term having secured four wins, one draw and suffered four defeats from their opening nine games, meaning that they have so far taken 13 points out of a possible 27, as per BBC Sport.
Speaking on the ‘What The EFL?!’ podcast, Adrian Clarke, who is a pundit covering all of the football leagues in England, claimed that the south coast boss won’t be able to lead his team to promotion and predicted that he would be sacked before the end of the season.
However, Sport Republic are fully understanding of the current situation and have put their full backing behind the manager, according to the man himself in charge at St. Mary’s, but details have emerged that he wasn’t actually their first-choice target over the summer.
Did Southampton want to appoint Enzo Maresca?
Speaking to GiveMeSport, CBS reporter Ben Jacobs confirmed that Southampton made an approach for Leicester City’s Enzo Maresca, but he turned down the chance to join because he preferred the project on offer at the King Power Stadium. He said:
“I think he was sold on Leicester because their foundations and the strength of their squad going down were just stronger. So I don’t think that Maresca ever seriously entertained, Southampton, but it’s absolutely true that he was approached.
“The appeal of Southampton would have been there’s a few that have obviously moved or had at the time (from Manchester City), because Romeo Lavia has gone now to Chelsea and Gavin Bazunu is another one, though, that is still there who had come from Manchester City, that he would have known very well.”
What is Enzo Maresca’s record at Leicester?
Since taking to the dugout at Leicester back in July, Maresca has overseen 11 games in total, and from that, he’s racked up an outstanding nine victories, losing on just two occasions, with this form meaning that he’s averaging 2.45 points per match in the Midlands, via Transfermarkt.
The Italian, who has a preferred formation of 4-3-3, also already knows what it takes to beat Martin’s side having produced a 4-1 thrashing at St. Mary’s in September, so if he can have this positive impact when leading the opposition, imagine what he’d be capable of if he was in charge of the home outfit.
Furthermore, the 43-year-old shares the same agent, Wasserman, as Ryan Manning, James Bree, Flynn Downes and Ryan Fraser, so his representative will already hold a strong, existing connection to the hierarchy, making it even more of a shame that an agreement couldn’t be reached.
However, if the club don’t start climbing the table as expected, Maresca is certainly a candidate that chiefs should consider targeting once again should they decide to sack Martin in the near future.
