When was the last time we won a game against an attacking team, we can’t draw our way to safety or fucking well defend it.
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Well for those looking for omens, my Saints calendar had VvD on the January page, faiysnuff it was only a small picture but he was there. He was soon gone in January.
Febraury has a full head up photo of MoPo, he’ll be gone soon.
Wouldn’t like to be the players on Match’s page.
No it says VD and the clinic location and date.
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So it appears that there are rumours that MP could be off this weekend and that Hughes is lined up as his replacement. Personally I hope this name is not in the hat. I might just turn into a Barry mark 2.
The league table Cob.
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Just random internet gossip Im afraid and I wouldnt put my mortgage on it. It is a worrying possibility though as he is out of work and we only seemed to employ managers out of work.
I heard the same before Hughes was sacked so I wouldn’t put much stock in it.
Woken up to the same rumours. From all over the place.
Be careful what you wish for springs to mind
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Devil’s Advocate time.
I’m not against the return of Leslie Mark Hughes.
Provided it was a contract only until the end of the season with a survival bonus attached.
Why?
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I don’t see the point in removing the Argentinian Branfoot and replacing with another risky appointment.
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Who else is there, who has the necessary experience of the Premier League to grind out some results? Many will suggest Marco Silva, and if we were comfortably away from the bottom three, he would be an obvious choice, but his last ‘come in and save us’ job was Hull, and despite a valiant effort, ultimately they went down.
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Leslie is a no nonsense character, perhaps the perfect antidote to TAB’s too nice demeanor. Some of these players would get the kick up the arse they might need.
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Taking away Stoke’s poor form this season, Hughes has a decent Premier League record, and his style isn’t as turgid as some suggest. It has been at times of course, but he also had Stoke playing some decent stuff the last couple of seasons.
Agree with all of that gwc
Glad I wouldn’ be the one trying to spin it with the whole Southampton Way theme.
IF he goes now is NOT the time for another learning curve for another foreign coach.
It won’ be Koeman so the choice is down to 1 unless Conte gets canned tonight as well 
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For me he is sipping his final Tizer in the Last Chance Saloon.
It all comes down to today - lose and he has to go, he will have proved beyond all reasonable doubt, and some, that he cannot motivate this squad.
It’s a big day for the manager.
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Agree it would be a hard sell, but sometimes you have to be pragmatic and realise that Premier League status is more important than maintaining brand.
Besides, ‘The Southampton Way’ is a load of old cacky nonsense anyway, and even if it did exist this season is barely a shining beacon for it.
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if We appoint Hughes, the only thing that will be rising will be the takings in the bar of the Grand Harbour Hotel
On this of all mornings, I hardly think that YOU of all people are in a position to judge.
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Whilst MP hasn’t covered himself with glory here I think calling him another Branfoot is a bit harsh.
You are right. Branfoot deserves more respect than that. 
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I’m not sure how I feel about appointing Mark Hughes or sacking Pellegrino. I think that might mean I’m moving into the realm of not giving a fuck anymore. I’m happy as long as either saints win or my fantasy team has a good week… and they’re doing well at the moment.
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Tis a difficult journey but liberating - the team and club IS what it is,dodgy owners, wart shit performances and all… and we chose to support or not. Getting fucked in the head by things we can do absolutely diddly fooking squat about seems a waste of energy to me. As Confucius once said '‘Show our support, then get on with real life fuck head’
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Been pondering this question for a while and I’d like to post some balance on this thread. I wanted to write something similar about Puel while his stats were fresh in my mind and I regretted not doing so.
Ultimately, I think I sit with what some have said on here; Pellegrino just shouldn’t have been hired in the first place.
He seems to be defensively driven, which, as anyone who ever expected me to run back towards my own goal on a five-a-side pitch would tell you, is not my style.
I remember reading two articles in particular when he was announced. One described how his Alaves team had taken all three points at the Camp Nou by means of “estacionado el autobús” and it also described how his team had been assembled on a budget and with a high youth content. The other article painted him as some sort of genius man-manager and suggested that players would run through walls for him.
His substitutions can be bizarre at times and yet I wonder if in his mind they are not bizarre but just another example of his “we’re-not-worthy-we-must-defend!” nature.
So here’s a decent coach that came to Southampton - a side that felt it could look down on at least 12 sides in the division, a side that felt it had earned the right in previous campaigns to turn up, put the effort in, play with confidence and expect to beat a large chunk of the Premier League.
I’m not suggesting that Pellegrino has consciously set about removing that confidence, but I imagine being exposed to his cautious “don’t-lose-first-then-think-about-the-win” approach has led, bit by bit, to the point where we are now looking fearfully at a game against Alan Pardew’s West Brom. Public comments from Romeu were perhaps the most worrying as he expressed his frustration at being instructed not to join in attacks in case play broke down and they countered.
I am also concerned that he still doesn’t seem to know his best team or his best formation for that matter. I’ve discussed this with @rust-cohle and I agree with him when he says that it’s just weird that Pellegrino seems to claim that he doesn’t have a preferred formation. That’s weird for a coach and very unsettling for players that have been brought up on the doctrine of 4-3-3 or variants thereof.
But, and here is where I’m likely to be at odds with many here, I can also see some mitigation for the position we find ourselves in.
Fixtures - We had an amazingly 'easy’ set of fixtures for the first 9-10 games, during which time Pellegrino was learning about the league and his squad - badly as it turns out. Then we played Liverpool, City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs in the next 10 games. In that run, we narrowly lost to a 90+ mins City goal in a heroic match, shared a 1-1 game with Arsenal, lost 1-0 to Chelsea and drew 0-0 with Utd. Since that crazy spell, we’ve lost to Palace and drawn 3 including an epic game against Spurs.
Unlucky - Our inability to score under Puel was frustrating enough but under Pellegrino it’s doubly so. Under Puel we seemed to want to pass the ball into the net and just refused to “kick the fucking ball hard towards their bastard goal”. Pellegrino’s sides seem much more able to create chances but we just seem to miss a touch here or hit a post/bar there. I honestly think 3 more pieces of luck across the season might see us sitting 10th right now.
Forster - My downer on Fraser is well documented here (the 'keeper not the man), but let’s assume that Forster was not responsible for conceding a bunch of goals this season (including 1-4 Leicester and Spurs 5-2) and instead let’s look at our record since McCarthy was thrown the gloves. Drawn 4, lost 1 in the league and 2 wins and 2 clean sheets in the 'Cup. It’s much better and it’s turning around.
Injuries - During the busy period from mid-December to mid-January we were unable to call on both Cedric and Bertrand. We had Stephens, Targett and McQueen all filling in at various times. With the best will in the world, the loss of both those player at the same time would have impacted any team. Austin, the only player that seemed to be able to put the ball in the back of the net, picked up multi-month injury and players like Lamina who started so brightly have been in and out of the team with knocks and other issues.
Fans - Our fans got Puel sacked is a claim I’ve heard. I think Claude did some of the work himself, but yet on paper he did an amazing job. Many of us remember some truly shit times but many of us also remember playing some great football and having a perfectly good goal disallowed for Gabiadinni that would have given us a domestic cup. He was cryptic and dour and impenetrably difficult to understand with his comedy accent and yet we’d trade pretty much anything right now for getting us 8th and a cup final. Once the fans turn, debate stops and everything becomes self-fullfulling. If we aren’t careful, a problem that could be turned around with help and support from the stands will become unfixable.
The team plays for him - I can see that the team is low on confidence, and I’ve seen a couple of performances that made me wonder if the players had thrown in the towel with Pellegrino, but I can also see a team that is sent out (albeit with bafflingly negative tactics at times) to do a job and I see players that try to do that job. This tells me he is able to get his ideas across most of the time and that our players are trying to do the job he asks them to do.
Now, none of this excuses some of the truly negative/weird/bizarre/shit things Pellegrino has done whilst in charge, but it tells me that we should not panic*. We should believe that we’re going to be OK, support the team and in the summer have a good look round for a coach more naturally suited to the expectations and raw materials we have here.
* I reserve the right to revisit this advice over the next 10 games.
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