‘If you want guarantees, buy a washing machine’
RALPH HASENHUETTL says that only washing machines come with guarantees.
But if one thing seems certain, it is that Southampton’s players will feel like they have been in a spin during their first few weeks of the Austrian’s programme.
There was no shortage of quips and soundbites from new Saints boss Hasenhuettl during his impressive, confident unveiling yesterday.
But behind the smile that regularly lit up his face is a determined taskmaster who is not “frightened” of the tough job ahead and has some “mindblowing” work lined up for his third-bottom underachievers.
Hasenhuettl, who held an introductory 10-minute meeting with squad and staff afterwards, said: “They can expect it will be demanding. After Cardiff, we have a lot of time to work with the tactical basics but also with their minds.
“We will have a lot of video sessions and it will get mind-blowing for the guys.
“I want to bring them to their limits. If they like to go this way with us, they are invited.
“If someone says ‘It is too much running or work for me’, they will fall very quick beside us.”
Hasenhuettl seems like exactly the sort of character Southampton need to breathe life back into the club.
Mark Hughes’ successor said: “You can expect a passionate kind of football with 11 characters on the field who know exactly what they have to show the crowd.
“Even if we don’t win, I am 100 per cent sure they will help us and appreciate what they have seen.
“I know there are no guarantees of winning in football. The only thing we have is to work on chances.
“If you want guarantees, buy a washing machine.”
With his attacking, highintensity, pressing football Hasenhuettl has earned comparisons with Jurgen Klopp and the nickname ‘Alpen Kloppen’ [Klopp from the Alps] but said: “I want to be my own character.”
And he was keen to correct Klopp, with whom he studied his pro licence, after the Liverpool boss claimed that only the first part of his name meant something.
“His English is maybe better than his German now,” said Hasenhuettl with a laugh.
“He knows what Hasen means – rabbit – and Huettl means a small hut, so it is a small hut for the rabbits.”
Hasenhuettl might have arrived in England sooner had trials at Glenn Hoddle’s Chelsea and Bolton turned out differently for the former Austria striker.
“It was soon very clear I was missing a lot for that level,” he said of his two-week Chelsea trial. “I could score but running was not my main goal. Maybe it’s why, as a coach, I force them to run a lot.”
But he is determined to make his mark now he has made it here as a manager.
Hasenhuettl is well thought of in Germany after steering Aalen and Ingolstadt away from relegation danger and on to greater things, a feat that the Saints hope he will repeat. “I want to put my footsteps in the snow here,” he said. “It’s back to the roots for me.”
He then came through two years at RB Leipzig, steering the unpopular Bundesliga club through “extreme” protests to second and sixth-placed finishes plus the Europa League quarter-finals.
Hasenhuettl said managing a team so hated – they once had their bus showered with paint bombs by Bayer Leverkusen fans and windscreen wipers ripped off so the driver could not see – made him mentally tougher.
Now he has become the Premier League’s first Austrian manager and said: “I am proud of it but it is only the beginning.
“It is nice to come here and people are nice about you but it’s better when you leave here and people are talking about you.”