Premier League strugglers Southampton will no longer be able to replace Nathan Jones with Domenico Tedesco after the former Schalke and RB Leipzig coach was confirmed as the new Belgium national team boss, via The Independent.
Jones has only been in charge at St Mary’s for a couple of months but he already has the feeling of a man trying to go about his business with the sword of Damacles dangling eternally over his head.
The Welshman’s position is not quite untenable yet, but it’s not far off.
Jones comments following Saturday’s demoralising 3-0 defeat at Brentford – Southampton’s sixth in seven league games – serving only to drive a wedge between himself and the Saints supporters, appearing the lay the blame squarely at the door of his players while talking up his own achievements at Luton Town.
According to talkSPORT, Southampton have handed Jones a ‘stay of execution’. But that does not mean his date with the axe has been scrubbed out of the calendar. Barring a remarkable turnaround, Jones’ departure feels less possible and more inevitable.
Is Nathan Jones facing the sack at Southampton?
Domenico Tedesco will not be replacing the one-time Stoke City boss on the banks of the Solent, however. Tedesco, according to the Daily Mail, was one of the leading candidates to succeed Ralph Hasenhuttl in the spring.
But, as of February 8th, the 37-year-old Italian is now in charge of the Belgium; handed the reigns to one of international football’s most expectant and success-deprived sides.
“For me it is a great honour to be the new head coach of Belgium,” Tedesco explains. “I’m really looking forward to the task. I had a very good feeling right from the first conversation.”
Tedesco, who guided Schalke to an impressive second-place Bundesliga finish just three years before they suffered a humiliating relegation, takes over from Roberto Martinez after Belgium crashed out in the group-stages of the Qatar World Cup. Peter Bosz, another early frontrunner, therefore remains on the market.
Southampton, meanwhile, host relegation rivals Wolves on Saturday.
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