Next Southampton Manager: Odds-on Jones the solid choice but Knutsen could reward

• Jones' tactics fit the squad
  
• Dyche isn't the firefighter then need
  
• Knutsen would be an exciting appointment
  

After four years and 173 matches Ralph Hasenhuttl has been sacked by Southampton, ending a long tenure (by modern standards) that strangely never really seemed to get going. His Saints were perpetually frustrating, a stop-start team who slipped from endlessly stuttering false dawns to a dull plateau over the last 18 months.

In fact, things have got worse year on year. He won 52 points in his first full season, followed by 43 and then 40. A 4-1 defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday left Southampton in the relegation zone with 13 points from 14 games, on course for a lower tally still. The south coast side are 3.02/1 to go down.

In the end, what really did for Hasenhuttl was the club's transfer policy and a failure to unearth new gems as quickly as they sold star players; they spent more than £60 million this summer on potential, despite losing - and failing to replace - Danny Ings, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, and Yannick Vestergaard over the last two summers.

But Hasenhuttl should also take blame for failing to move beyond the tactical template he brought to the club back in December 2018. It took far too long for the Austrian to move beyond his 4-2-2-2, while the transition-based football became easy to read, and counter, years ago.

Here's a look at the candidates to lift Southampton out of the bottom three.

Jones (2/13) is a very good fit for Saints

Luton Town manager Nathan Jones is the hot favourite and rightly so - he is one of the brightest prospects in British football at the moment having taken the club from League One promotion to the Championship play-offs in consecutive seasons. After a tricky start to the season Luton are climbing back towards the play-offs again, yet the lure of Southampton will be hard for Jones to turn down.

He is an excellent fit. Jones's Luton have overachieved by using a hard-pressing style of direct football, in which his team snap into a finely-attuned press in the middle third of the pitch before attacking quickly, in what is both perfect for an under-dog team and in line with the principles of Hasenhuttl.

It would not take long for the Southampton squad, built in Hasenhuttl's image, to absorb these methods, and even better the Saints fans would likely take to the tactical style. Luton are an exciting team to watch because of their direct football, whereas too often Hasenhuttl's team struggled to create meaningful chances. In other words there is a good chance Jones is an upgrade on what came before, while being similar enough to ensure the club's recruitment policy can remain in place.

He will have the right kind of squad to continue his habit of overachieving and get Southampton back pushing towards the top half of the table, although of course his inexperience could act against him.

But going back to appointments prior to Hasenhuttl, Jones fits the club's image as one that finds gems from the lower divisions and invests in younger potential with the aim of playing progressive football.

Dyche (7/2) is the fire-fighter they don't need

Sean Dyche is still looking for the right job after leaving Burnley seven months ago, but with the newly promoted clubs exceeding expectations there just hasn't been the fear factor required for anyone to plump for a fire-fighter. Surely Southampton, a Premier League mainstay since 2012, won't be panicking just yet.

That is slightly unfair on Dyche, who has proven himself to be a very good coach, but the uglier style of football he deployed at Burnley suggests he must accept he is the new Big Sam; his inability to move beyond the defensive 4-4-2 at Turf Moor sets him up for a career saving teams from relegation by going back to basics.

Southampton, who want to play a more expansive game, are highly unlikely to give Dyche a go.

Gallardo (12/1) is available and willing

Although his odds are quite long at the moment, it would make sense if Southampton reach out to Marcelo Gallardo, who will be leaving River Plate when his contract ends in December to pursue a career in Europe.

Over an eight-year tenure in charge of the club Gallardo won two Copa Libertadores titles (the South American Champions League) and was a domestic title winner once, in 2021. He has been widely praised for his high-pressing and expansive attacking football, although that would have to be tempered considerably to work at Southampton.

He is a long shot for now, but highly rated and freely available, must be in with a shot.

Knutsen (20/1) deserves a chance

Although it feels increasingly likely that Kjetil Knutsen's inexperience managing in any major European league is acting against him - and suggests a Championship job might be his only way in to England - Southampton should seriously consider hiring the Bodo/Glimt manager. He doesn't quite have the same gloss as Jones at the moment, and is certainly a rung down from when they convinced RB Leipzig's Hasenhuttl, but it's just possible Knutsen is the next Graham Potter or Mauricio Pochettino.

Knutsen won promotion to the Norwegian top flight with Bodo/Glimt and then immediately won back-to-back league titles, before making a name for himself in the Conference League last season as the team reached the quarter-finals. Their run included an infamous 6-1 victory over Jose Mourinho's AS Roma, who ultimately knocked them out in the last eight following an initial scare - a 2-1 win for the hosts in Norway - for the Italians.

He plays very aggressive attacking football of the sort that could wow Southampton supporters, and Knutsen is definitely in keeping with the club's tendency to hire ambitious tacticians from mainland Europe. However, the Norwegian top tier isn't really a good test - Ole Gunnar Solskjaer won the title with Molde, remember - and the current risk to Southampton's Premier League status probably means they won't gamble on Knutsen at this time.