After being sacked by English Premier League (EPL) club Leeds United last Monday, Jesse Marsch ’96 is on course to be hired as the new manager of league foe Southampton. Marsch is the third managing hire of the season for the struggling club. Notably, Marsch beat out prominent names like former Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard, former Everton manager Frank Lampard, and former Wolverhampton manager Nuno Santo for the position.
Marsch now faces an uphill battle — Southampton has the most losses in the EPL and has conceded the second-most goals. Eleven different EPL managers have secured at least one point in games at Southampton’s St. Mary’s Stadium this season. Their most recent manager, Nathan Jones, lasted a grand total of 14 games over 3 months as Southampton’s manager.
Relegation from the EPL would be quite a blow for the club, as they have remained in the Premier League since the 2012–2013 season. With 17 games left, the Saints are in last place and four points away from safety, trailing Bournemouth, Everton, and Leeds. Boosted by talented players such as James Ward-Prowse and Mohammed Salisu, Marsch hopes to lead Southampton out of the relegation zone as he did with Leeds last year.
Despite his success with the club last year, Marsch’s Leeds team has performed exceptionally poorly this season. They have won only four EPL matches in 22 games, leaving them at 17th place in the league, just one spot away from relegation. A loss to relegation rival Nottingham Forest on Feb. 5 seemed to have been the final straw for Marsch, as he was fired before Leeds’ next match.
Before being sacked by Leeds, Marsch was a front-runner for the open position of U.S. men’s national soccer team (USMNT) manager. For now, it appears that this hype has stalled. Nonetheless, this remains a possibility in his managerial future — especially given that he coached three prominent USMNT players at Leeds: Brenden Aaronson, Weston McKennie, and current USMNT captain Tyler Adams.
This weekend, Marsch is looking to kick off his tenure with Southampton with an upset as the squad travels to West London to face off with Premier League powerhouse Chelsea. The following match will be against Leeds in a “revenge game” for Marsch on Feb. 25.
Gabriel Ennin is a contributor to the Sports section at the ‘Prince.’ Please direct any corrections requests to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
Correction: A previous version of the headline asserted that Marsch had actually been hired. He was on course to be hired, though talks have now broken down.
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