Steven Gerrard favourite for Southampton job as Premier League club look to replace sacked Nathan Jones
FORMER Rangers manager Steven Gerrard is the early favourite to be the next Southampton boss.
The Saints, rooted to the bottom of the Premier League, are looking for a third permanent boss of the season after sacking Nathan Jones.
Jones, 49, has been dismissed after just three months and 14 matches in charge at St Mary’s.
He replaced Ralph Hasenhuttl in November but wasn’t able to turn the team’s fortunes around.
SunSport revealed last week that many members of the Southampton squad had lost faith in Jones,
The Saints surrendered a 1-0 lead against 10-man Wolves on Saturday, with Julen Lopetegui’s resurgent side turning things around to win 2-1 and ease pressure on their own relegation worries.
That result proved the final straw for club chiefs who parted with Jones this morning.
First team coach Ruben Selles has been placed in temporary charge of Southampton, a role he also briefly filled after Hasenhuttl’s sacking.
Attention now turns to the next permanent manager and a familiar face is the early front-runner.
Ex-Rangers boss Steven Gerrard is the favourite.
The former Liverpool and England captain has been out of work since he was sacked by Aston Villa in October.
He’s been priced up at 3/1 by SkyBet to take on the job at Southampton.
Other front-runners include Jesse Marsch, who himself was dismissed from his role at Leeds earlier in the week, and the former River Plate boss Marcelo Gallardo.
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou is an outside bet at 16/1 while another former Gers boss, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, has been priced at 50/1.
Gerrard is also one of the contenders for that aforementioned vacancy at Leeds although ex-Ajax gaffer Alfred Schreuder has emerged as the odds-on favourite.
Meanwhile, QPR director of football Les Ferdinand has claimed that current Rangers manager Michael Beale was offered the Ibrox gig BEFORE van Bronckhorst was appointed.
The ex-England striker says that Beale was offered the top job when Gerrard left Ibrox for Aston Villa, but opted to follow him to Villa himself.
Ferdinand told Loft for Words: “I did know he’d had a very good time at Rangers with Steven Gerrard, he really enjoyed it up there.
“I did find out afterwards that Rangers had offered him the job when he left with Steven, he decided to go with Steven because he felt it was the right thing. I found that out afterwards.”
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