Matt Crocker, Southampton’s former academy manager, is set to re-join the club as Ross Wilson’s successor as director of football operations.
The Southern Daily Echo report that Crocker, who left the Saints in 2013 to join The FA as their head of development, will take over Wilson’s position at the club after the former director of football operations joined Rangers last month as confirmed by Southampton’s official website.
Crocker spent seven years at Southampton as academy manager, overseeing the development of the likes of Gareth Bale, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and current Saints midfielder James Ward-Prowse, with the report stating that the newly appointed director of football operations’ role will be similar to Les Reed’s responsibilities as head of football development and support.
Are Southampton doing enough behind-the-scenes?Yes, they're making the right stepsNo, more drastic action needs to be done |
Problems off the pitch could seemingly be linked as to why Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side have underperformed massively this season.
As well as Wilson leaving just after the start of the season to join Rangers, the Southampton boss lost his assistant manager, Danny Rohl, to Bayern Munich, a decision that The Daily Mail report has been a massive factor in the club’s worrying form in the Premier League this season.
To add to the problems involving the backroom staff to go on top of their terrible form in the Premier League, Southampton’s transfers in recent transfer windows have been extremely mixed with supporters.
Whilst the likes of Danny Ings and Moussa Djenepo have so far been seen as successes based on their stats this season from Transfermarkt, Che Adams has been a notable point of frustration with the former Birmingham City striker yet to score professionally for Southampton after joining for a reported fee of £15m according to BBC Sport.
Crocker has a massive job on his hands if he is to restore Southampton to their once-promising glory in the Premier League, and his previous past with the club will seemingly be a positive for the south coast side that are in desperate need of help off the pitch.
