Saints finished eighth in the Premier League and reached the EFL Cup final at Wembley, but a lack of goals - they scored only 17 times in 19 home league games - saw the Frenchman fired after a single season at St Mary’s.
Channon, who made over 500 appearances for the club over two spells on the south coast, believes the 55-year-old was harshly treated.
“Well I don’t think he did a bad job,” Channon said.
"I don’t know the politics of it. They never scored goals, they didn’t win games at the end of the year.
"They should have won the League Cup - if they had would they have sacked him?
"It wasn’t his fault Charlie Austin was injured for most of the season.
“Why sack someone if you’ve got no-one better? Personally I think they were wrong to sack him.”
England Under-21 captain James Ward-Prowse has revealed senior boss Gareth Southgate has been offering advice ahead of their key Euro 2017 clash against Slovakia.
The Young Lions face leaders Slovakia in Kielce later today (5pm) knowing anything other than victory could dent their hopes of topping Group A.
Only the three group winners and best runners-up progress to the semi-finals and Slovakia are already two points clear after they beat host nation Poland 2-1 on Friday following England’s 0-0 draw with Sweden.
Southgate arrived in Kielce on Friday and has spent the weekend with the squad ahead of Monday’s crucial outing.
Saints midfielder Ward-Prowse was also captain for the Under-21s under Southgate - who gave the 22-year-old his senior debut in March - and revealed Southgate has been helping to guide the squad.
“He’s been around and spoken to us, pulled us aside individually and seen how we are, and it’s great to have him and Steve (Holland, assistant) around,” he said. "They played a massive part in our qualifying campaign to get us here.
"He wants to show us support and give us that confidence. It was great to see him here, to show us there is a pathway for young English players.
“We have a lot of friends in the seniors now and it is a time for us to show him what we can do individually and as a team.”
While Ward-Prowse has been away, Saints sacked Claude Puel as manager - but the midfielder is refusing to let the St Mary’s uncertainty upset his plans with England.
He said: "It is one of those things and it is a decision from the club that has been made. Claude was very good to me, he gave me lots of opportunities and I got into the England squad while playing under him.
"I have got nothing but thanks for him. But my main focus at the minute is the tournament and making sure I am in the best way mentally and physically to help the team. I haven’t spoken to him.
"The tournament is the main priority, as I said. It seems to happen every summer (that Southampton lose their manager) but that is the way football is sometimes.
“It is up to us as players to deal with it. The club and the players have shown that we can cope with managers and players going.”
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Aidy Boothroyd’s team drew 0-0 with Sweden in their opening fixture last week, as Jordan Pickford’s penalty save preserved a point.
Their attention now turns to this evening’s encounter with Slovakia (5pm BST), who top the group after a 2-1 win over hosts Poland in their first game.
James Ward-Prowse, who is the Under-21s captain, and Nathan Redmond both played the full game against Sweden, while Jack Stephens and Matt Targett were unused substitutes.
Boothroyd, who has no fitness concerns for the game, said: “We’ve got to win and then win the next one after that, but we need to beat the Slovakians first and they’ve had a brilliant start.
“They have a very good team, I’ve been impressed with them and they had a really good game with Poland.
“It’s a tournament where there’s no grace given, you’ve got to hit the ground running and qualify by topping the group so it puts a bit more pressure on you from the start."
Cédric admitted his frustration after his late goal for Portugal was not enough to give them victory over Mexico in their opening Confederations Cup clash.
The Saints defender struck in the closing stages to put Fernando Santos’s team 2-1 ahead, only for Hector Moreno to level the scores in added time.
Cédric felt the result was a harsh one on Portugal, who will face tournament hosts Russia on Wednesday.
"We were the more dangerous team,” he said. "We knew Mexico like to have the ball, that they have quality and that they are a strong team with good players, but we were superior and we created more opportunities.
"We left with a sense of frustration after this game. But this is the first game and the result is not a bad one.”
Ricardo Quaresma had put Portugal in front, in Kazan, only for Javier Hernández to equalise shortly before half-time, ahead of a dramatic conclusion to the game.
Portugal and Mexico share second place in Group A, with Russia topping the standings after their 2-0 win over New Zealand.
England Under-21 captain James Ward-Prowse has revealed senior boss Gareth Southgate has been offering advice ahead of their key Euro 2017 clash against Slovakia.
The Young Lions face leaders Slovakia in Kielce on Monday knowing anything other than victory could dent their hopes of topping Group A.
Only the three group winners and best runners-up progress to the semi-finals and Slovakia are already two points clear after they beat host nation Poland 2-1 on Friday following England’s 0-0 draw with Sweden.
Southgate arrived in Kielce on Friday and has spent the weekend with the squad ahead of Monday’s crucial outing.
Ward-Prowse was also captain for the Under-21s under Southgate - who gave the 22-year-old his senior debut in March - and revealed Southgate has been helping to guide the squad.
“He’s been around and spoken to us, pulled us aside individually and seen how we are, and it’s great to have him and Steve (Holland, assistant) around,” said the Southampton man. "They played a massive part in our qualifying campaign to get us here.
"He wants to show us support and give us that confidence. It was great to see him here, to show us there is a pathway for young English players.
“We have a lot of friends in the seniors now and it is a time for us to show him what we can do individually and as a team.”
While Ward-Prowse has been away Southampton sacked Claude Puel as manager but the midfielder is refusing to let the St Mary’s uncertainty upset his plans with England.
He said: "It is one of those things and it is a decision from the club that has been made. Claude was very good to me, he gave me lots of opportunities and I got into the England squad while playing under him.
"I have got nothing but thanks for him. But my main focus at the minute is the tournament and making sure I am in the best way mentally and physically to help the team. I haven’t spoken to him.
"The tournament is the main priority, as I said. It seems to happen every summer (that Southampton lose their manager) but that is the way football is sometimes.
“It is up to us as players to deal with it. The club and the players have shown that we can cope with managers and players going.”
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The Young Lions, captained by the Saints midfielder, drew 0-0 with Sweden in their opening Group A game.
And with only one side able to progress, their must-win game against Slovakia takes on additional importance, which is further reinforced by the hurt of previous occasions.
“There’s six or seven of us from the last time so we’ve all got those feelings and that hunger to get things right,” Ward-Prowse said.
“We want to make sure that we’re not having those same feelings again… it’s not a nice feeling when you don’t reach the level that you should do.
“The team and the way that we were playing two years ago… we should have gone on further. But that gives us all an incentive.”