Former Southampton chairman Ralph Krueger has insisted he would never have sacked Ralph Hassenhuttl last season, something which may have saved them from relegation.
Journalist Peter Linden covers the Austrian today as he looks to turn around the fortunes of Austrian club Austria Vienna as the Chairman of the Supervisory board.
He joined the club in November last year, returning to football for the first-time since his five-year spell as chairman of Southampton.
He joined the Saints in 2014 and led the club until 2019, when both parties elected to part ways and go a different way.
Krueger’s time in charge saw them largely enjoy success, finishing seventh, sixth and eighth in the first three seasons before 17th and 16th placed finishes in his final two years.
The club became a mid-table team after that under Ralph Hasenhüttl, who was eventually sacked in the first half of last season before the team was relegated with a bottom placed finish.
Hasenhüttl was succeeded by Nathan Jones and Ruben Selles in a disastrous campaign that saw three managers unable to keep the club in the Premier League. Krueger, though, believes sacking Hasenhüttl was a mistake.
“I would never have fired Hasenhüttl,” Linden reports him saying, stating that the relegation ‘hurt’ the Austrian and ‘relegation probably wouldn’t have happened’ if Krueger and Hasenhüttl had been at the helm.
That, though, wasn’t the case, and Krueger’s attention is now firmly on getting Austria Vienna back to the top.
Fortunately for them he ‘has a network’ thanks to his days at Southampton, and when asked whether he could use it to help his current club ‘get an urgently needed financial injection’ he only provided a ‘meaningful smile’.
It seems he already has ideas and plans bubbling away, though, as he looks to make his mark in football once again after his days at Southampton.
