Dual premiership winner David King has said that he would be "staggered" if former North Melbourne coach Brad Scott wasn't coaching St Kilda in 2020.
Saints' coach Alan Richardson is under fire after his side's disastrous 56-point loss to Brisbane on Saturday evening.
It means the Saints now sit a game outside the eight, as they chase their first finals berth since 2011.
While footy manager Simon Lethlean saying that Richardson would keep his job if St Kilda showed improvement for the year, former North Melbourne defender King told SEN that he would be surprised if the 54-year-old kept his job.
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“I think it’s incredibly difficult for him to keep the faith of the group. As a player, you know when his message has lost total 100 per cent support from the football club and it has, there’s no other way of looking at it,” he said on Monday.
“You can pick apart players, you can pick apart styles and all those sorts of things, but all the talk is about winning a final. It’s an incredibly difficult trigger for the next year of contract.
“I think the trigger really is for Alan to win 12 games or less and for Brad Scott to reach his trigger and come and take control and come and be the coach."
“I think that was likely to happen the moment he walked from North Melbourne. They said they were going down a different path and a different direction to the Kangaroos, that’s the way you walk. There’s no other option but to move the coach on at that point.
“Now there’s Carlton and there’s St Kilda on the radar. I’d be staggered if he wasn’t coaching St Kilda next year."
King went on to say that he believed that the Saints had already made the decision on Richardson's future.
"I think it’s a really difficult position for Alan Richardson to be in. I think it’s an unfair position. I think they’ve made their mind up, it’s just a matter of the weeks ticking by," he said.
“The players would know that. This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
“There is only one action really – and it’s an unfair action at six and seven, but they know Alan Richardson. They’ve had him there for six years.
“I think to place the judgment on the next short term period, whether it be round 17 or 18 you make your decision, the next bad loss, the next bad quarter?
“I mean, they couldn’t wait to talk about that quarter yesterday. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a hierarchy of a club want to come out and openly want to discuss how bad the quarter was and then what the KPIs are from there.
“I think he’s a really terrible position, Alan, going into the club today. Where to from here? I can’t see it getting better.”
