Ex-Town assistant links up with former Lens boss at Southampton

Former Luton Town assistant manager Paul Trollope is back in work once more after being named as number two to new Southampton boss Will Still.

The 53-year-old made almost 500 appearances in a playing career that included spells with Torquay, Derby County, Fulham and Northampton Town, as well as winning nine caps for Wales between 1997 and 2003. Trollope then moved into management, spending five years at Bristol Rovers, where he won promotion to League One, as he then had first team coach roles at Birmingham City and Norwich City.

He moved to Cardiff as head coach in 2015, also taking on a coaching role with Wales too, part of the backroom staff when his country reached the semi-finals at the 2016 European Championships. Trollope then exited the Bluebirds to join Brighton & Hove Albion as assistant to Chris Hughton in November 2016, leaving in May 2019, as he followed Hughton to Nottingham Forest in October 2020, then moving to Kenilworth Road in November 2022 as joint assistant with Richie Kyle to his former Wales team-mates Rob Edwards.

Once Edwards left the club by mutual consent in January of this year, Trollope took caretaker charge of the 2-0 FA Cup loss to Nottingham Forest before departing the club the week afterwards as Matt Bloomfield was appointed as Edwards’ successor. With Still having moved to the south coast after stints with French teams Reims and Lens, he has quickly reshaped his coaching staff, with Trollope joining goalkeeping Rubén Martínez in heading to St Mary’s.