Ralph Hasenhuttl gets a round in as Southampton seek home comforts
Saturday 15 December 2018 15:09, UK
Ralph Hasenhuttl hopes Southampton supporters are able to toast a rare home win after supplying them with free beer tokens.
The new Saints boss takes charge of his first game at St Mary's on Sunday with the aim of bringing fans "in our boat to row with us", as they prepare to host Unai Emery's in-form Arsenal, live on Sky Sports.
The struggling side have managed only one Premier League victory on home soil during the past year, and sit second from bottom - a situation the Austrian hopes to rectify by supplying all season ticket holders with drinks vouchers.
"Everyone who knows me knows that I'm a guy who always brings everyone in our boat to row with us," said Hasenhuttl, who replaced the sacked Mark Hughes in December.
"It's very important to have a good relationship. I talked a lot of times about that you can feel every day that Southampton football club is a very, very important part of everybody's life here in this area.
"Everyone wants to keep this club in this division so for us it's a big chance to help them get lucky again and all we want to do is to make it possible that we have fantastic moments again and emotional moments.
"You never know, maybe on Sunday comes the first since a long time in St Mary's Stadium.
"They can celebrate whenever they want [with the free drinks], and if they can celebrate a win on Sunday they should do it and I'm the first to congratulate them."
Hasenhuttl has wasted little time stamping his authority on his squad, cancelling a scheduled day off on Monday in order to implement his methods.
Injured players have not escaped the 51-year-old's meticulous planning, with left-back Ryan Bertrand sent training videos to watch during his recovery from a back operation which will keep him sidelined for around a fortnight.
"It went well and I wrote to him yesterday wishing him all the best," said Hasenhuttl.
"We sent him all the training session videos that we made this week so that he can imagine what will change now in his position or what we are asking from [him] in the future."
