Southampton are accelerating plans to appoint Will Still as their head coach. If Saints make sufficient progress in the coming days, they hope the 32-year-old will be in the stands when they host Arsenal on Sunday. Still, born in Belgium to English parents, left the Ligue 1 side Lens last week citing personal reasons and a desire to be closer to family in England.
He took his steps into coaching at Preston’s academy, during an internship from a college course, but has spent all of his professional career in Belgium and France, also working at Sint-Truiden, Beerschot, Lierse and Reims.
Southampton’s technical director, Johannes Spors, has been leading the search for Ivan Juric’s successor while the first-team coach and former Under-21s coach Simon Rusk has led the team on an interim basis.
Saints host Arsenal in their final game of a miserable season but have avoided the ignominy of failing to beat Derby’s record-low Premier League points tally.
Still is viewed as a potentially exciting appointment and a highly promising coach. Compensation with Lens for his staff remains to be agreed. Among others on Southampton’s list has been the Sheffield Wednesday manager and former Saints assistant, Danny Röhl, whom Spors knows from their time at RB Leipzig, though the pair did not work together directly.
Saints looked into appointing Röhl after sacking Russell Martin last December. The 36-year-old now has strong interest from Bundesliga clubs and is expected to leave Hillsborough after almost two years in the job.
