Koeman is a nice bloke. He's doing better than I expected though, he's had his failings in the past but looks like he learned from them and has become a better manager with the years. The transfers of Tadic, Pelle and Alderweireld definitely have his name on them. While I expected Tadic to be good, I'm very surprised by Pelle's success. Normally strikers at his age don't translate well from the eredivisie to a top league. Ofcourse Koeman knew him well because he worked with him at Feyenoord, so probably knew he had more in him. And Southampton definitely have a solid academy.
But the Koeman story gets alot of sympathy from me. It was their father's wish, who was also a former player, that his sons would manage a club together. Unfortunately he passed away last December. So it's a bit bitter sweet for them that they're now managing together. Erwin Koeman is actually a pretty solid manager himself, but is very happy to work in his brother's shadow. It's very obvious to me that they're honoured to manage a club together in the Premier League. And it's kind of revenge now for Ronald too, as he wanted the Dutch national team position last year but felt he was done over by the Dutch FA, who chose Hiddink instead. Now Hiddink is doing very badly and Koeman is very happy to be managing Southampton.
From what I gathered their training and pre season especially has differed alot from last season under Pochettino, who focussed more on the physical aspect, while now they're training more with the ball. Which surprised me, as that's the kind of training I'd expect from someone like Pochettino too.
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