When Eric Ramsay was linked to Welsh club Swansea City in February, the Minnesota United head coach projected it won’t be the last one.

Well, the next connection to a job in the England materialized Sunday with talkSPORT reporting Ramsay has had an interview for the vacant managerial position at Southampton.

When Ramsay was linked to Swansea, it appeared to be primarily tied to online betting services putting out odds for its next coach.

The Southhampton connection reportedly has more legs to it, but talkSPORT said Ramsay was “not expected to get the job.”

Ramsay, 33, has been very successful across his two seasons at Minnesota, taking the Loons to the Western Conference semifinals last season. He joined MNUFC in March 2024 after serving as an assistant coach at Manchester United.

Ramsay responded directly to the Swansea connection while amid preseason camp in California.

“It’s a job I’ve been linked with before, so I just think it’s been the logical conclusion,” Ramsay said Feb. 20. “I started my career there. I’m a Welsh guy. But now taking my first steps as a head coach, I’m sure every time that comes up, it will be one I’m linked with. Maybe say that for other jobs in Wales for sure.

“It’s certainly, at this stage, one that is — there is a bit of smoke without fire there. It’s certainly nothing I’ve had on my radar, nor anything I’ve spoken to anyone about. It’s the nature of being a young head coach in a relatively good start here, so I’m sure it’s the sort of thing that we will see from time to time. At the moment, it’s cliche, but I’m very much focused on what I’m doing here and I’m excited for the season to start.”

MNUFC (4-1-4, 16 points) currently sit in third place in the Western Conference and are riding a club-tying eight-match unbeaten streak going into Sunday’s match against first-place Vancouver Whitecaps.

Southampton have been relegated from the English Premier League and will play in the second-tier Championship in the 2025-26 season.

Like the good adopted Minnesotan that he has become since taking over the Wild coaching reins in November 2023, John Hynes now makes his home on a lake and knows how to sprinkle in a fishing analogy when talking about the ups and downs his team has faced this season.

A few months into the current season, the Wild looked like shoo-ins for the playoffs. But with injuries to key players, the Wild had to scratch and claw to the very end to get that “x” next to their name in the standings, clinched with Joel Eriksson Ek’s goal 21 seconds left in their final regular season game.

Hynes feels those tooth-and-nail battles between October and March can be helpful in April and May.

“Our experience down the stretch probably wasn’t fun going through it; you’d like to be in with seven or eight games left in the season,” he said prior to Game 4 of the current playoff series versus Vegas. “It was right there. It’s like we couldn’t get the fish in the boat fast enough, but we had to stay with it. We couldn’t look ahead. We couldn’t want to get that ‘x’ next to our name without going through the process.”

Roughly 18,000 fans left Xcel Energy Center disappointed early Saturday evening following an entertaining but ultimately losing effort by the Wild, who missed a chance to take a 3-1 series lead in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Vegas Knights. Leading 2-1 after two periods, the Wild gave up a pair of third-period goals and lost for the first time this season when heading into the final period with a lead.

They were the only NHL team with a perfect record (29-0-0) when leading at the start of the third, and had led after two in their two playoff victories over Vegas. Two of the Knights’ goals, including the tying goal early in the third, came on power plays.

Minnesota’s penalty kill, among the NHL’s worst for much of the regular season, has come through at vital moments in this series but still ranks 13th among the 16 playoff teams in negating opponent power plays, allowing four so far. But Hynes still found reason for optimism as his team heads back to Las Vegas with the series tied 2-2.

The tying goal on Saturday came with 8 seconds left in a 4-minute high-sticking minor on defenseman Zeev Buium.

“I think the kill’s in a really good spot,” Hynes said. “… A couple went in, even the (second) one that went in, we had two opportunities to clear it. We just didn’t get some bounces tonight, to be honest, even on the kill in some of those. We got good saves, we had good attention to detail, we killed well.”

To the cynical, that might sound like denial, but it’s also instructive to flash back to September, when there were few who picked Minnesota to make the playoffs. In a preseason scrum with reporters, Wild owner Craig Leipold talked primarily about July 2025, and the team’s freedom from eight figures of dead salary cap space that will allow general manager Bill Guerin to at least have a conversation with some of the top pending free agents.

As recently as a week ago, the numbers-crunching website MoneyPuck.com gave the Wild the smallest percentage chance of a second-round game among the 16 playoff teams. Minnesota hasn’t played in the second round since 2015.

But even after missing out on a chance to take a 3-1 series lead, there was no disappointment in Hynes’ tone Saturday night, and he expressed unshakable confidence in his team and their current circumstances with a road game Tuesday followed by a guaranteed home game.

“You look at the way we played, you could arguably say there were a couple bounces that didn’t go our way,” he said. “But I think when you look at it, the way we play and where we’re at in the series and where we’re going — just stay with it, keep going. We knew it was going to be (tough). The longer the series goes for us, coming into the series we’re like, ‘Keep it going, keep it going, keep it going.’ Here we are. Love it.”

Or, in an analogy most Minnesotans — native or adopted — will understand, even when the walleye aren’t biting right away, there’s no such thing as a bad day fishing.

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Tyler Williams’ stay with the Gophers football team didn’t last a full year.

Williams arrived in Minnesota in June 2024, caught one pass last fall, didn’t crack the top end of the U rotation in spring practices and has decided to enter the NCAA transfer portal, a source confirmed to the Pioneer Press on Sunday.

The 6-foot-3, 210-pound receiver was at Georgia in 2023, where he played in two games and redshirted. He was a four-star prospect coming out of Waverly, Fla.

The Gophers also had Hutchinson linebacker Alex Elliott enter the portal on Friday after two seasons at Minnesota. He redshirted in 2023 and didn’t play in a game in 2024.

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MEDIA

Euan Kerr

Minnesota Public Radio, St. Paul, announced the retirement of reporter and editor Euan Kerr after nearly 40 years at MPR News. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Kerr joined MPR 1985 as a research assistant and later as a reporter, most recently covering arts and culture. His career includes work with the BBC in Scotland.

ADVERTISING/PUBLIC RELATIONS

Level MPLS, a Minneapolis-based branding and marketing agency, announced that President and Chief Client Officer Kim Thelen and Chief Operating Officer Erin Gwiazdon have joined CEO Lois Dirksen as co-owners of the agency.

AIRPORTS

The Metropolitan Airports Commission announced the promotion of Anne Saxton to director of concessions and business development. Saxton has held that role on an interim basis since August 2024, and previously was MAC’s senior manager for strategic partnership development. MAC owns and operates Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and six general aviation airports in the Twin Cities.

CONSTRUCTION

Holcim North America, a Chicago-based construction company, announced that it and the Minnesota Department of Transportation were recognized in the 2024 Slag Cement in Sustainable Concrete Awards by the Slag Cement Association for work on the state’s slag cement study on Interstate 94.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

TopLine Financial Credit Union, Maple Grove, announced the promotion of Alan Sonnenburg to executive vice president and chief revenue officer. Sonnenburg joined TopLine in 2018 as the credit union’s senior vice president of lending and chief lending officer. … The Affinity Plus Foundation, St. Paul, announced the addition of Tim Tacheny, vice president general counsel at Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union, and Jamie Baumann, Winona branch manager at Affinity Plus, to its board of directors. The Affinity Plus Foundation is the charitable arm of Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union.

FOOD

Hormel Foods Corp., an Austin, Minn.-based provider of grocery store prepared food brands, announced that Steve Lykken, group vice president of supply chain, will be leaving the company to pursue another opportunity. Kevin Myers, senior vice president of research & development and quality control, will succeed Lykken on an interim basis.

HEALTH CARE

Hennepin Healthcare announced the appointment of Dr. Thomas Klemond as interim CEO. Klemond joined Hennepin Healthcare in 2017 and most recently served as vice president of Medical Affairs and president of Medical Staff; he succeeds outgoing Chief Executive Officer Jennifer DeCubellis. Hennepin Healthcare operates HCMC in Minneapolis, a Level I Adult Trauma Center, Level I Pediatric Trauma Center and acute care hospital, as well as a Hennepin County-wide clinic system.

HONORS

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced it has named Reichman Cattle Co., Glenwood, as SBA’s 2025 Minnesota Family-Owned Small Business of the Year.

LAW

Faegre Drinker announced that attorney Aaron Van Oort of the firm’s Minneapolis office has been elected to the firm’s board. … Geraghty, O’Loughlin & Kenney, St. Paul, announced that Michelle M. Draewell has joined the firm as a partner, practicing in the area of civil litigation, medical and professional liability.

NONPROFITS

Second Harvest Heartland, a community food bank based in Brooklyn Park, announced that Chief Executive Officer Allison O’Toole will step down in June. Chief Operating Officer Sarah Moberg has been named interim CEO.

OPENINGS

Ziggi’s Coffee, a national chain, announced the opening of its first Minnesota location at 1270 Highway 212 W, Granite Falls. … Sweet Paris Crêperie & Café announced plans for a third location for fall of 2025 in the Galleria at 69th Street and France Avenue, Edina. The chain has locations in Woodbury and at Mall of America. It is part of Tenacity Restaurant Group, led by Dustin Wetzel, Pete Thelen and Dan Vansteenburg.

SERVICES

C.H. Robinson, an Eden Prairie-based global provider of third-party shipping logistics for business, announced the appointment of Dorothy Capers as chief legal officer and secretary, effective May 5. Capers most recently served as senior vice president and general counsel for Xylem Inc., a Fortune 500 water technology company.

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EMAIL ITEMS to businessnews@pioneerpress.com.