Southampton boss Tonda Eckert has made a decision on staying at the club beyond this season as he becomes a man in demand.
Southampton remain in the automatic promotion race but their hopes of finishing in the top two were dented as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Bristol City at St Mary’s on Tuesday night.
Saints had been looking for an eighth successive Championship win when Roy Hodgson’s men came to town, but the south coast outfit were second-best to the Robins throughout, for whatever reason.
Perhaps the players had one eye on Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City at Wembley, where Eckert and his men are set to be backed by around 36,000 Southampton fans against Pep Guardiola’s side.
Saints lie in fourth position and three points behind Millwall and Ipswich with two games left to play, one of which is against the Tractor Boys at home on Tuesday.
They now need to win that game, and hope that Ipswich and Millwall both lose another match to have any chance of finishing second, with the playoffs now more likely.
Eckert Gains Admirers From Champions League Hopefuls
According to a report from Bild in Germany, Stuttgart are looking at potential replacements should they lose the highly-rated Sebastian Hoeness, who is on the radar of Real Madrid.
As things stand, the German is set to lead Stuttgart to the Champions League next season, with the club currently lying fourth in the Bundesliga standings.
They hold to keep hold of Hoeness, but are ready to put contingency plans in place in case he does go.
Eckert is one of those on their shortlist, although the report reveals that no contact has been made between the German club and the 33-year-old yet.
Southampton were in 21st position in the Championship table when Eckert took charge at the beginning of November, with 12 points from 13 matches, but they have taken a remarkable 64 points from the 31 league games since to shoot up into automatic promotion contention.
They are now guaranteed a playoff spot, with fifth-place the lowest spot they can finish in.
Eckert Makes Stance Clear
Southampton’s current 20-match unbeaten run in all competitions, which has included beating Arsenal to reach the FA Cup semi-finals, has made everyone sit up and take notice of Eckert.
The good news for worried Saints supporters is that, despite the rumours over his future, the 33-year-old is ‘very comfortable’ at St Mary’s and has no intention of looking for a new club in the summer.
Clearly, Eckert will hope he is a Premier League manager next season by taking the club up in the next month, but it should be music to the ears of fans that he is willing to stay next year if they don’t go up, in order to complete his mission of taking them back to England’s top tier.
What is clear is that many big clubs will be keeping tabs on Eckert’s progress at St Mary’s, given how he has turned around a club that looked destined for a relegation battle six months ago.