Premier League strugglers Southampton are big fans of Ivan Juric and former Serie A director Beppe Ursino believes the Torino manager ‘can coach anywhere’ having proven himself in Italy, speaking to Tuttomercatoweb.
Where the Croatian goes, success usually follows.
Juric, in 2016, guided Crotone into Serie A for the first time in their history. He turned Hellas Verona from relegation candidates into top-half finishers. Juric then took over a Torino side who survived relegation by the skin of their teeth and guided them to 10th.
Now flying high in seventh, I Granata could are in contention for a European spot, despite losing arguably the finest defender in Italian football – Italy international Gleison Bremer – to bitter rivals Juventus.
And Juric’s penchant for improving players beyond all recognition despite operating on a limited budget makes the 47-year-old a potentially inspired appointment for a Southampton side nailed to the bottom of the Premier League and staring down the barrel of the Championship.
Will Southampton approach Ivan Juric to replace Nathan Jones?
“For me, someone who coaches Torino, taking them from the relegation zone and bringing them close to the Europe, can coach anywhere,” says Ursino, who knows Juric from his time at Crotone.
“Juric is an exceptional person who cares about the team, the club and its players. Then, on the field, they have to do what he says. The same thing (Gian Piero) Gasperini.”
Juric worked as an assistant to Gasperini at both Palermo and Inter Milan. He has clearly taken plenty of inspiration from one of the modern era’s most influential tacticians too. Juric’s Torino, like Gasperini’s Atalanta, play a high-pressing, aggressive style capable of elevating a group of players into a team far greater than the sum of it’s parts.
Juric, the Daily Mail say, has some long-time admirers at St Mary’s. Southampton deemed him too expensive in November, turning to Nathan Jones instead. But the club’s dire situation three months on means a new approach should at least be considered.
Juric is expensive, yes. But, for Southampton, Premier League survival is priceless.
Talks with former Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch broke down this week. Ruben Selles will take temporary charge this weekend against Graham Potter’s stuttering Chelsea.
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