Sky Sports confirms Ligue 1 duo targets former Southampton boss Will Still

Sky Sports confirms Ligue 1 duo Auxerre and Lorient are targeting former Southampton boss Will Still as head coach for next season.

Southampton presented Will Still as the new Saints boss nearly 1 year ago. Johannes Spors and co wasted little time last May to bring in a proven Ligue 1 manager in Will Still, who was destined to become anything but a flop at St. Mary’s.

Despite that, the early positive days faded away quite quickly when the Championship season began in August. On his part, Still did kick-off his Southampton tenure with a 2-1 win over Wrexham but his Saints team never looked like a decent goalscoring threat.

Ronnie Edwards and Joshua Quarshie were backed to the hilt in defence, sometimes at the expense of leaving Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Jack Stephens out. Honestly, that was the lowest phase of Southampton’s 2025/26 season.

Unlike previous Saints boss Russell Martin, Will Still wasn’t stubborn to his tactics but his team selection was always thin on the talent the squad already possessed. No doubt, Tonda Eckert took over from the U21s and made Southampton appear Championship-beaters with more or less the same set of players.

Moreover, Tonda Eckert can even clinch Premier League promotion with Southampton this weekend. On the other hand, Will Still has spent the rest of the 2025/26 season as a free agent following his Southampton sacking. But not any longer.

Sky Sports confirm Ligue 1 duo targets former Saints boss Will Still

Summer transfer window is that time of the year where multiple clubs in England and abroad are on the lookout for new managers to lead their squads for the upcoming season. Will Still did perform below expectations in his Saints tenure, but that won’t erase the reputation he built in Ligue 1 at Reims and Lens.

Infact, Will Still’s previous work in France is said to be initiating a tug-of-war between 2 Ligue 1 clubs. According to Sky Sports journalist Sacha Tavolieri, Auxerre and Lorient are battling it out to hire Will Still as their new head coach.

Auxerre and Lorient’s reasons for pursuing Will Still

Talking about Auxerre and Lorient, both of them have had contrasting fortunes this season. Auxerre were coming on the back of a mid-table 11th placed finish in 2024/25, so were expected to push for a top 10 spot this year. Instead, it went from bad to worse for them with Auxerre currently sitting 15th with 34 points, just 2 places above the relegation zone.

Quite clearly, they don’t want to regress any further next season and risk a Ligue 1 relegation. So far, Will Still has kept all his Ligue 1 clubs well above the relegation battle so that surely provides enough confidence to Auxerre to ramp up efforts to land him.

As for Lorient, they have exceeded expectations by comfortably navigating Ligue 1 safety upon their promotion. Not only that, Lorient is sitting 9th in the table at the moment and will most certainly wish to challenge for a European spot starting from next August.

Will Still has managed 2 UEFA Conference League Qualifying games during his Lens days, but none of them were earned with his efforts from the dugout in the preceding season. Has Still got what it takes to lead a Ligue 1 club to European football qualification remains to be seen.

Well, wherever Will Still ends up in Ligue 1 one thing is for sure. Former Southampton bosses always get attractive offers no matter the mess they created at St. Mary’s during their departure. The same happened with Russell Martin joining Rangers, Ivan Juric signing for Champions League playing Atalanta, and now, possibly Will Still returning to Ligue 1 at a mid-table club.