There are many who damned Mauricio Pellegrino five months ago, there are some that where prepared to give him little bit more time, most are agreed now though that his time is up, he has had all his chances.

The defeat at Newcastle looked very familiar, how could a side that had 63% possession lose a game by three goals ?

The fact now seems to be that we have tried everything to arrest the slow decline this season, there is only one more thing to change and it needs to be done.

There are some who will use losing a few football games to decide that everything is rotten within the club, that is far from the truth, however the buck stops with Les Reed.

To be honest Reed has got a lot of unfair press and must feel a little agrieved at how littl credit the fans have given him especially over the last four seasons, yes he is not the most peronable media friendly of people, but that is not what he is here for, he is here to do a job and most of that job he has done well.

He is not the first director of football to get a managerial appointment wrong, to be honest more Premier League clus in a season actually admit that is a season by sacking their manager than those who keep them, but the trick for any DOF is to know when enough is enough and this season Reed does not seem to be able to do that.

I can understand why Reed did not sack Mauricio Pellegrino a month ago, the signs were there that we could pull clear, if we had beaten Stoke & Newcastle we would have been 12th this evening, but here we are and we are not.

The deafeat at St James Park was very familiar as I have said, we have watched it countless times, a side poorly motivated and with predicatable tactics getting the same result.

Even the most fair minded Saints fan has now had enough, to be blunt the side at Newcastle could not have performed with less passion, less organisation or less motivation if they had tried and they were a team that did not look like they were trying too hard.

There seemed to be no managerial input, they are no longer being managed, Pellegrino appears to be little more than a car park attendant, pointing cars in the right direction, there is no other input.

If you has sat 18 players in that dressing room and 2.30pm this afternoon and slid the team sheet under the dressing room door with the starting XI on it and the instruction to get on with it an they would not have performed any worse than they did today.

Sorry Mr Pellegrino but you have had your chance and have not taken it, you have to go, change is needed and sadly it is any change, it needs to be someone different, anyone different, anyone at all.

In the case of Les Reed he is about to blow 8 years of hard work in one fould swoop, in one season he is about to destroy something that he has worked on since 2010, something that he has had little credit for from the supporter base, but are who are about to pin all the blame on him.

Reed now needs to lead from the front, he needs to change the manager and he needs to change him fast, two games ago perhaps Pellegrino could have changed things, such s football he might just have had the best season in the Club's history, but that chance is now too finely balanced to keep gambling on him that he might.

The fans have lost faith, it seems today that so have a fair few of the players, he has lost the dressing room, he needs to go now, Les Reed however still has a chance to make this a great season for the club, but he needs to be decisive, he has gambled on Pellegrino, but like online betting sometimes you have to cash in before you lose all your stake and that is the choice for Les Reed, sometimes you have to hold em and somtimes you have to fold em.

Now is not the time to do nothing, press the panic button Les !

Photo: Action Images

SaintPaulVW added 22:05 - Mar 10 Clearly the guy was appointed with best intentions, is a lovely chap but it hasn't worked. The board need to act now and make a change of we are to stand any chance of staying up. Today was pitiful to watch. Enough is enough.
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Boxingman75 added 22:10 - Mar 10 Bang on , but didn't get the could still be a good season bit ? , this season has been a joke , and even a semi final at Wembley won't change that , let's be serious if we stay up it won't be cause of our own doing , it will be because there were luckily 3 worse teams than us , and as for the fa cup , we can all dream but we will be smashed by Tottenham or man utd or even Leicester if we play like we have all season

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aceofthebase added 22:11 - Mar 10 and the players get off scot-free for their abysmal performance(s)!
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kingolaf added 22:16 - Mar 10 Not pressing the panic button. More managing the situation decisively.
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heroholmes1 added 22:25 - Mar 10 We have absolutely nothing to lose by changing manager. We are going down without a fight, we can’t score a goal, we can’t beat the lowest teams in the division. We keep playing “must win” games and not winning. We have to try something different. Getting to Wembley again would be great but with MP, playing one of the top sides when they need to win will be a horror show. Please try and change this.

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sholingred added 22:25 - Mar 10 We can change now and maybe get the new manager bounce and get to a final and stay up.We are down if he stays in my opinion a manager would get a window to bed in ,no games for a few weeks,i reckon Silva on a short deal anyone is better than this clown cause i cant see a win at the moment .
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mattlegod added 22:29 - Mar 10 Enough really is enough. I'm fed up seeing a team put out to chase a game as opposed to go out and win the game from the get go. And to bring on a striker who can't score for toffee while leaving the only striker who has scored in recent games on the bench!?! Let's promote one of the programme sellers.. we'd have a better chance of prem survival.
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landsdownsaint added 22:44 - Mar 10 What really gets me he’s become a joke with the sky pundits & this has been going on for ages!...I wonder if les reeds aware of it?
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1970 added 22:50 - Mar 10 There are not many managers that would be willing to work in a way saints want them too hence why we still have this joke of a manager, pellegrino and the board have been spineless to all football matters for the whole season and most of last, we'd be better off with no manager, what 's in store for us next? us fans will have the indignity of losing to league 1 wigan in the cup and then being officially relegated by the baby skates from dorset now that for me is the stuff of nightmares

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goalie66 added 23:20 - Mar 10 If only it were that simple. The owner does nothing. The DOF does nothing. The manager does nothing. The Football team does nothing. Until the owner shows his cards we will all be victims of Chinese whispers in the Championship. It is alraedy too late the whole CLUb is gripped in inertia.
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redandwhitedee added 23:27 - Mar 10 Yep. A new manager cannot do any worse than the last results. Attach an knows his way around the club and has the personality to lift individual players. He is sitting doing nothing. Get him back in.
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redandwhitedee added 23:29 - Mar 10 Lousy predictive text. The above should have referred to Strachan (attach an) ..!
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dirk_doone added 00:21 - Mar 11 Nick, you include this in every article now: "To be honest Reed has got a lot of unfair press and must feel a little aggrieved at how little credit the fans have given him." And you are supposed to be the voice of the fans? The fans will soon be asking you how much Les Reed is paying you if you keep on like this. Les Reed is the biggest problem at our club. He should have retired on his 65th birthday last year. Every appointment he makes is worse than the previous one. He has sold all of our best players and frittered away the money on mediocre ones like Carrillo and Hoedt. Things are only going to get worse as long as he stays in power. #LES REED OUT

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obelisk added 00:51 - Mar 11 "To be honest Reed has got a lot of unfair press and must feel a little agrieved at how littl credit the fans have given him especially over the last four seasons, yes he is not the most peronable media friendly of people, but that is not what he is here for, he is here to do a job and most of that job he has done well.". Seriously? How the hell have we ended up here then?

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Colburn added 00:53 - Mar 11 Seriously, what more of a message do the board need when the manager admits the players have lost spirit and in some cases given up!! He is effectively saying he can do nothing more to gather the wins and points needed to survive.. I find the situation absolutely staggering. Why can Les Reed not see that we are finished under this guy who, for some time, has proved he is out of his depth. He has created a culture of fear and lack of belief amongst the players with his tactics. To state his concerns about being hit on the counter against a paceless Stoke attack says it all.. He dropped JWP for the Stoke game after he had recently been our most effective player offensively, and this was a must win game then drops Sims, who has looked the most dangerous threat in the last couple of games, for the next must win at Newcastle.. Then brings on Long instead of Gabbiadini, the man who bagged a brace when we played the Geordies at home. I respect the efforts Reed has made but he has stubbornly allowed this debacle to continue to a point where it is almost too late to recover. No bottle, no leadership and no comment! The problem is, if he sacks Pellegrino now, he will have to accept that he should have done it long ago and that he has got the last 2 appointments wrong. He has had the opportunity to be accountable and to show some responsibility and has ignored it, maybe because he is afraid to admit he is wrong and lose his job too.. Utterly pathetic and pretty sad really. If Pellegrino is still here come Monday evening we have definitely had it, that is clear from today’s performance. No managerial change this week, no more Premier League football for us. Appalling state of affairs, one win in 17 is it..? Madness

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Shano added 04:21 - Mar 11 Totally agree Colburn. No change this weekend and I'm tipping we finish on 30 pts avoiding last by a few points but well and truly gone.. I have no confidence in getting past Wigan either after the spirit they showed against City.. I reckon they would be very content with the Cup draw..
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Billeewithers added 05:11 - Mar 11 What happened to the Southampton Way!? The team selection here was so negative. Not one recognised goal scorer ..... and a midfield with little or no goals and still less penetration beyond the halfway line. At least we had a stronger lookin bench hahaha. Isn’t madness defined by doing the same thing endlessly and expecting a different result. I had us down for a 4-0 loss when I saw the team line up. Not one surprise today.... teammate hasn’t played with any real heart since Yoshida got injured and the little Irishman in midfield got suddenly old.

3

AmericanSaint added 05:15 - Mar 11 What a horrific game. I know that everyone wants MP out and after that display that is very fair. I think that the board will not have the courage to do it and I do not think there are any decent managers out there who will take the job, so I am afraid we are stuck with what we have. I would like to add one thing and that is that everyone one of our players on the field were horrible. There was no fight after giving up a goal in the first 2 minutes. Sorry but Bertrand is not a captain and was walking through the game. A captain would have been yelling at everyone at minute 3 and putting a boot up someone's ass. Also, I think the players don't care because most of them will be off to another team in the PL or another league next season and they will still make their wages. If MP stays, most likely, I would not play Tadic or Redmond for the rest of the season. They are doing nothing and I think that Tadic maybe the worst offender of "mailing in a performance". IF we stay up, it will be because other teams do worse than use. Finally, I can't remember who said it within the last two weeks, but I am starting to agree that the new owners dont care about being regulated and may even wish this as the wage bill will drop dramatically. This unwillingness to change manager maybe be a directive from the top, so nothing will be done. I still hope we stay up but after yesterday's performance, I am not very confident we can do anything more since we can't even score a goal and the attitude is not there to fight for it.

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Billeewithers added 05:49 - Mar 11 He can hardly criticise the performance of his players when he has so clearly failed to produce in his own right. Bertrand is far to withdrawn as a personality to even be considered as captain material. But he is a nice bloke and has been loyal to the club. Unlike his manager he has produced over his time in the club. Everyone is. All being very nice to each other ...awww lovely.

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PezzaSaint added 07:09 - Mar 11 Laughable title to this article, panic button should have been pushed after the defeat at home to Palace. Pellegrino is out of his depth!
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DorsetIan added 08:35 - Mar 11 Redandwhitedee. strachan is a good shout for last 8 games. Would add some passion certainly.
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aceofthebase added 08:45 - Mar 11 Is no-one going to criticise Cedric for his poor dismal, pathetic attempt to prevent the first goal? The goal that really decided the game. Well, I am!
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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 09:04 - Mar 11 If they don't sack Pellegrino then we will go down. There's no doubt about it. I think the only reason he is still there is because since the Gao takeover the message from Reed and Kruger has been that Pellegrino is the right man for the job, the performances have been improving and the points will come. It's got to the point in the last few weeks that for Reed to sack him would put massive doubts over his ability to perform as director of football. Gao would surely be questioning this. It takes a big man to admit to making a big error of judgement and unfortunately Reed has been showing his colours recently. Pellegrino has to go. Reed has to do the right thing and admit to Gao and the fans that he got the appointment wrong and was wrong to stand by him. He needs to focus on getting it right now, getting the right man in asap to keep us up or Reed will get sacked and we'll go down. There's no defending Pellegrino now. It's been obvious to the fans for months that he's way out of his depth.

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Redrum added 09:19 - Mar 11 I remember a few years ago watching Saints getting thrashed 7-1 at Anfield sat in the home crowd.We had 14points at the halfway mark and got 27 points second half to stay up.This is worse.
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Redrum added 09:22 - Mar 11 Watching Hoeljbergs interview its obvious that the players are the only ones who will change it by themselves
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