Neil can wreck it for Ralph

RALPH HASENHUTTL admits he is in for a tough start to his Southampton reign against the “special character” that is Neil Warnock.

Hasenhuttl will make his Premier League debut at Cardiff today after being appointed as Mark Hughes’ successor this week.

But while the Austrian is on game No.1 in English football, Bluebirds boss Warnock is at the other end of the spectrum as one of the most experienced managers in the game, with almost 1,500 games under his belt at 15 clubs.

“I know that he has a little bit more experience with games in England than I do,” he said. “I think he’s a special character and what you can see in this team is they have a lot of good automisation and play very physically, and hard work against the ball, so they’re not easy to beat.

“It’s really a tough game for us and for me at the beginning after a short time of training.”

But while he may lack any Premier League experience, the former RB Leipzig boss has plenty when it comes to keeping clubs up.

Danger

Hasenhuttl steered Aalen and Ingolstadt to survival in Germany after taking over when both clubs were deep in relegation danger.

And his first task is doing the same at Southampton, who are third from bottom but level on points with basement side Fulham.

He said: “This experience helps me a lot. It’s a little far away now, it’s about five years ago that I have taken over Ingolstadt.

“We were last after seven matches with four points. We had a little bit more time and more time to train, which was the good thing there.

“I can’t guarantee you how many results we will earn. I hope it is enough to stay in this division.”