Rumours have been rife over the past few days regarding the future of Saints manager Ralph Hasenhuttl, read social media and you would think we are a club in crisis, rather than one that in reality sits comfortably in 14th position after 4 solid mid table positions achieved with little investment into the club.

Indeed it was only a little over 3 weeks ago that Saints fans left St Mary's buzzing after defeating Chelsea 2-1, the Blues haven't been having the best of season's but they still sat in the top 6 when they arrived at St Mary's so had made a solid if unspectacular start.

The transfer window a day later brought good news in the window with 4 new signings and a few fringe players off the books, so why are some Saints supporters so quick in turning against Ralph Hasenhuttl only two games after the win against Chelsea, a victory that had pushed us up to 9th place.

Yes the defeat's at Wolves and Aston Villa were disappointing performances, but in mitigation to the manager, he was having to get his side adapting to a new system and had 4 new players in his squad to assimilate.

It should be pointed out here that the last three games have seen us concede only 3 goals, score 2 and gain 3 points, in the corresponding fixtures last season, all played in the last 6 months or so, we conceded 13 goals, scored just one and gained a grand total of zero points.

From this perspective we can see we are making progress, we have stopped the rot at the back and we can now build on things, but it seems that slow steady progress is not enough for most fans, a year ago after 7 games, we had not won a game and had just 4 points, so again we have made a better start than that made a year ago.

You would think that given the new owners and the new signings that all of this would would be cause for optimism, but a very vocal and seemingly growing minority on social media are unwilling to give Ralph Hasenhuttl the chance to show if he can keep us in mid table with no money, then let's see what he can do with investment and no one can deny that Sport Republic have invested.

The rumours emanating out of St Mary's were that the Owners appreciated what Ralph Hasenhuttl had done and his overall input to the club, they were willing to give him a chance to show what he can do and happy to invest into new players, but they were not doing so with blind faith, they wanted to see progress being made, the whisper was that there were trigger points in the season were reviews would be made as to the progress.

The first of those reviews would be the International break in September and let's be blunt in the past 5 years there have been few starts that have bettered this one after 7 games,, the second trigger point will be in November when we hit the six week break for the World Cup, that in reality would be the natural time to not only review the situation, but to make a change if necessary.

Indeed football is a game that can turn around very quickly, if we had performed at Villa and taken all three points then we would sit 8th this morning and yet the Ralph haters would still not be happy, indeed some are at a stage where nothing other than his sacking will placate them, no matter where we are in the league.

But for Rasmus Ankersen and Sport Republic there is a name coming into the frame that may not be there for much longer and that name is ex Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino who is still unemployed after leaving Paris St Germain at the end of last season.

He has been linked with high profile jobs on the Continent, but a major consideration for him seems to be that with a wife and child settled in London, he wants to live a little nearer to him going forward.

That doesn't leave him much option, at least not at present, in London Chelsea, Arsenal & Spurs all have settled recently appointed managers, a little further North both Manchester City and Jurgen Klopp are safe in their positions.

That would leave Newcastle who given their start to the season could well be looking to replace Eddie Howe at some point this season, although that might be a bit far from the capital for Pochettino.

However West Ham United might be looking for a manager soon and that could well appeal, perhaps Aston Villa as well and again that like Saints would be near enough for the Argentinian to commute.

So Saints have a dilemma here, if Pochettino is a genuine contender, do they act now or do they risk one of the other club's sacking their manager first ?

But is Pochettino really the man for the Saints job, in his 1 1/2 seasons at the club he did well, taking us to an 8th position, but then again so did Claude Puel and even a Wembley Cup final couldn't save him.

But the nagging doubt is that Pochettino never bonded with the Southampton way the first time, he refused to speak English to the media, he never seemed to be really happy and more to the point he jumped ship at the first opportunity he got.

If we appointed him a second time, how long would he be staying ? I would suggest he would be a truly short term appointment and to be blunt, this isn't the philosophy that our owners are looking to follow.

Perhaps Ralph is safe for the next six weeks, certainly there is no reason why he should not take us forward in that time, as mentioned he has improved the squad and indeed the side in the past two months, with so many new and in many cases young and experienced players in the squad, it was never going to be an instant success, but the signs are there, we are not sat bottom like Leicester, we are only a win away from being in the top 10 and that could likely happen against Everton.

If it did then would that shut up the Ralph haters' I would say not, as mentioned 8th and a Wembley cup final never shut up those who disliked Claude Puel and helped force him out of the club.

Saints have performed to expectations so far this season, but this doesn’t mean that Sport Republic will necessarily be happy with another relatively low mid table league position.

Yes 15th is about par score for us and several other club's, but we would like to overperform a little rather than stay at par score as we have done, but it should be noted that the Premier League has changed, I have seen some with expectations of a top 5 finish, the odds of that are now very slim given the riches of the Big Six and Newcastle added to that, for the rest of us it is about aiming for the top 10 and that is a reasonable target.

But ultimately a top 10 finish get you little else than £2 million per place above the team below you, from this respect, the Premier League has most sides making up the numbers.

This is a crucial time for the club, but it is not desperate times, it is time for level heads in the boardroom and leadership from the front, if the trigger point was the World Cup break then that should be adhered too, yes of course we are all disappointed that we are not a little better placed in the League table, but most season's since our return to the Premier League have not seen us much better placed at this stage.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 13:45 - Sep 23 In the, I feel unlikely event that MoPo would want to come back the two simple question arising are: 1. Is he a better manager than Ralph? I would answer yes. 2. Would he stay long? I would answer no. He will see himself as far bigger than us and would basically be looking for his next 'super-club' challenge before he had even got his Saints tracksuit on. I am sure the Ralph debate will rumble on but I don't think this is the answer to it.

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ItchenNorth added 13:55 - Sep 23 During Ralph's tenure; we've stayed in the Premier on a budget of naff all. We've just investments in a crop of young players, so we'll continue to have inconsistency of results. If this is the project (now we some some money), why would the club pull the trigger on Ralph barely a 6 weeks in!to this backing I'd be more worried about the new owners if they operate like this, than which manager we have. The click is ticking. No manager lasts for much more than 3 or 4 seasons at our level. If managers to the business, a top club would poach them anyway. A manager has to work in an environment where he has backing or they won't take risks. This is an internet problem. You did not get this in The Pink days (Branfoot except but Ralph is no Ian!).

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underweststand added 09:59 - Sep 25 There are many factors that govern a team's results and not always down to the manager's selection, or a players form. We are in the first year with a new owner, and the history of Mr. Gao was complicated politically for him and financially for us with no funds to buy anyone was a hindrance to Ralph from Day 1. Ralph has done a " so-so job " considering the lack of new faces and the only positive signings in his time probably being Ings and KWP, whilst he was stuck with a group of inherited misfits on long contracts and high salaries. We also entered a generational change with aging players ready to leave whilst the influx of BIG money signings at the top end of the Prem. has left Saints with a top signing still being £20 million, whilst many mid table clubs have spent twice that - and seen no real degree of guaranteed success. Many would agree that most of our young signings have shown a lot of promise, and especially those who have stepped out of someone's B side, and rarely played Prem. football beforehand. Here I agree with " felly 1 " (above) that if we are going to rely on this squad to keep us in the Prem. for another season - it will be an excellent showing, considering the departed misfits did little better in recent seasons. The " failure" of Saints to sign a " top striker" is disappointing, but predictable - especially as some clubs jacked up their selling price with every successive week, and refused to sell their player(s) - even to BIG clubs in anticipation of a better deal next season. Ralph maybe guilty of some errors of selection and tactics, but overall we ought to admit that he has a done a fairly reasonable job - given those restrictions I quoted above. We have also seen that even for "top managers " a probing interview in front of a TV camera can be a pretty lonely place, no matter how long your contract is, or how much you are being paid.

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