Despite the disappointment of Tuesday’s defeat in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup at Newcastle United, Saints fans’ spirits were lifted somewhat later that evening by the confirmation of two more signings.

These were a club record £22 million plus bonuses deal for 20-year-old Ghanaian winger Kamaldeen Sulemana and an £18 million plus add-ons move for Nigerian Paul Onuachu, the top scorer in Belgium this season.

They followed Mislav Orsic, Charly Alcaraz and James Bree through the door at St Mary’s in January to take the number of new recruits to five.

This joy was short-lived, however, with the disastrous 3-0 defeat at Brentford and arguably one of the worst performances of the season coming despite the New Year spending spree.

While the new faces are welcome as Saints look to freshen up in the post-Ralph Hasenhuttl era, it means little if Saints boss Nathan Jones is unable to manage the team effectively.

He currently has no idea of his best starting 11 and his post-match comments show a man out of his depth with no control over what is happening in the dressing room or on the pitch.

"I've let the players down because I came into this club to do a job and do certain things and I don't see my team in there,” Jones told the BBC.

"I've pandered a little bit and maybe got carried away with the fact that these are Premier League players and that you have to give them this and you have to give them that. But no more. Now I have to go back and to be me, because that's not good enough."

What is the man talking about? Ian Wright summed it up perfectly on Match of the Day when he called the comments “strange”.

“The [comments] were strange because it's your job to do the job," said pundit Wright. "What are you talking about that you're pandering to people? Don't pander to people. This is the Premier League. You come in and you're not going to get many opportunities at it, so don't come and start throwing people under the bus and say it's their fault that you didn't do what you did before. Get it done."

I have previously written about how Saints should have taken time to make the right appointment https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/58956/ and that Jones needed to concentrate on football rather than attacking everyone - including fans - for his failings https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/59337/ Both remain relevant.

He doesn’t seem up to the job with six defeats in seven games and no strategy. He is contradictory, defensive, offensive, discourteous and has an average at best record with no Premier League experience. It’s unlikely the club will act and replace him given their desire to recruit him but they should. It was the wrong appointment and it’s time to cut losses.

If he stays then he has to sort out his starting 11 and stick with it. The news of the two arrivals from France and Belgium instilled fresh hope and enthusiasm until they were both placed on the bench despite being declared fit to play. How can £40 million of talent need time - as Jones has also stated is the case with Orsic - yet a right back brought in from Luton Town for £750k can walk straight into the line-up? Bizarre.

If they weren’t fit they wouldn’t have been on the bench. They are professional, top flight, international football players. This is why the manager doesn’t hold the dressing room.

There will be much discussion and analysis from writers, pundits and fans about Jones and the predicament the club is in over the coming days though, so I’ll leave that alone for now.

Instead, to make myself feel somewhat better, I’ll take a look back at happier times and contemplate if, maybe, we could have a new cult hero partnership on our hands.

The signings of Onuachu and Sulemana immediately brought back memories for me of Dušan Tadic and Graziano Pellè arriving back in 2014 under Ronald Koeman. What a time that was.

Pellè swiftly followed Serb Tadic through the door as 28-year-old Onuachu did behind Sulemana, with the Nigerian striker exactly the same age as Italian ace Pellè when he moved to the south coast.

In arriving from the Belgian and French top flights, the duo follow a similar road to that of Tadic and Pellè, who made the journey to England from the Dutch Eredivisie. In fact, while Tadic and Pelle arrived from the same country, Sulemana and Onuachu reversed that by setting out in the same country having both played in Denmark with Nordsjælland and Midtjylland respectively.

At 6ft 7in, Onuachu is three inches taller than Pelle and comes with an excellent record of 164 goals in 328 games compared to Pellè’s respectable 79 goals in 195 games.

As we know, the Tadic and Pelle link-up from 2014 to 2016 proved a resounding success, with both players undoubtedly securing a place in the hearts and minds of Saints fans for life with Tadic the artist behind a significant amount of the Italian’s 30 goals in 81 games.

Tadic ended up remaining with Saints for a further two years and played a total of 162 games, delivering 35 assists and 24 goals. The tantalising partnership provided some of the most exciting times in the club’s recent history - with top half finishes resulting in European qualification over those two years.

While the club currently finds itself in a precarious position and times are very different, there is something about the new pairing - and particularly Onuachu’s scoring record - which gives confidence that these late arrivals may hold the key to something special.

The club is in a better place now a proven European-based striker has been secured - something that should have happened in the summer - and that means the chances of a revival have been boosted. But that won’t happen if he doesn’t play.

Despite the fact these are testing times at the bottom of the league with seemingly no way out, it would be remiss not to take the opportunity to reminisce about the Tadic and Pellè era.

Could it be magic once again with Sulemana and Onuachu? It could be, but under Nathan Jones we may never know.

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 12:01 - Feb 5 Many of us saw these signings as the " new Pelle and Mane " but playing half of a game we had effectively lost is not the ideal time to show it. It maybe hard for anyone to defend NJ, but he has at least given everyone a chance to show up, but few have taken the challenge. Difficult to criticise changes of formation when you consider he is more flexible considering different opposition sides, and not as hard-headed as Hasenhuttl who was committed to 4-2-2-2, and rarely changed his mind. Times are tough, but whatever positives come from the training ground, must now be converted into wins, before the point of no return.

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Peterx added 17:15 - Feb 5 Hindsight is great... Not getting a decent striker before the season and letting Romeu go after Lavia was injured were monumental mess ups that we are paying for now. Mara may be decent striker, but he has hardly been given a chance if he was the signing to replace Broja. Incidently he has shown signs of brilliance (The assist for KWP and the goal v MC). Getting an unproven Manager at this level to replace RH has obviously been a crazy gamble. Part of the criticism of RH was his selections, seems like NJ is going down that road as well, just seems like we are missing decision making and that wiser counsel that the Manager can use as a sounding board, and maybe that's a decent senior respected Director of Football? Whatever the situation the decision making and counsel around the club has been weak.

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JoeEgg added 17:20 - Feb 5 Good post Matt. Perhaps you should mail it to Ronald Koeman?!
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SanMarco added 22:01 - Feb 5 Yes - a good post indeed. This stuff about "minutes" and players not being able to play as soon as they arrive at the club never used to happen. If you sign a better player than the one you had in the old days he was straight in the team. It is a very good point that the lad from Luton was the only one able to go straight in while all the bigger signings need to sit on the bench or play for the reserves. It was obvious to all of us that Ralph's replacement needed to be someone who could 'hit the ground running'. Even when this clown took over we had no time to waste on an inexperienced, totally unproven manager learning the trade. Now, we have no time to keep him a minute longer. If SR don't, this week, recognise their cataclysmic error and bring in a proper replacement then relegation moves from a probability to a near certainty.

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Block8 added 10:05 - Feb 6 Not sticking up for NJ but I wasn't surprised neither new boy started, as half a days training is insufficient to start a game at a new club in a new league. A quick look around the new signings in the PL would show that few new signings from outside the UK started straight away. However to leave Orsic out of the squad for Theo was a strange decision? He knows Bree and obviously trusts him and to be fair to him, after a shaky start at Newcastle, he has played OK. Whether it is right or wrong and many think it's wrong, he is the manager and sees these players in training daily prior to selection. But he is as erratic as Ralph, particularly at the back, which is most concerning. Just when we start to leak less goals, still making bad errors though, he makes wholesale changes and hey ho the net starts bulging again? Hopefully after a weeks training the new boys will slot in and we can start scoring at last but we still need to stop leaking. Just as an aside Romeo & Romeu side by side with JWP as a 10 would have been awesome. COYR

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Springhill_old_boy added 11:34 - Feb 6 " How can £40 million of talent need time - as Jones has also stated is the case with Orsic" That would be the same player that played in the World Cup a few weeks before signing yeah ? So he needs time for what ? To understand Jones "tactics" ??
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Ifonly added 15:33 - Feb 6 "What is the man talking about?" Really Matt? What is so hard for you to understand? Your ability to comprehend seems to rival that of the well known genius Ian Wright who says: ""What are you talking about that you're pandering to people? Don't pander to people... " Umm, yes Ian, that's what NJ is saying. He made the mistake of pandering to people and now he is saying he will no longer do so. He made a mistake in his approach and now he is owning up to it. Is it such a crime for him to be honest? He is saying that he has let the players down by compromising on his approach, not fully implementing the methods that he is confident in. Your inability to understand that is probably down to the fact that you don't like him so you've decided to not to understand (that's my generous interpretation anyway). NJ may turn out to be the wrong appointment but some of the commentary about him, like this article, is simply stupid.

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DorsetIan added 17:47 - Feb 6 My Dad is 87 and not a Saints fan. Even he commented - re Jones‘ post-Match comments - that Jones was ‚talking in riddles‘. Jones is just making excuses. Trying to make out that he‘s not really been in charge so far is pathetic. And the assumption, if that were the case, that he should be allowed more games to eventually do it ‚his way‘ is delusional. He’s the manager. 3 points from 7 PL games under his watch. And the answer is more Nathan Jones? I don’t think so. He has crashed the bus. He needs to crawl away from the wreckage, get himself to a hospital and let the emergency services take over.

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Ifonly added 19:15 - Feb 6 DorsetIan - where does NJ say that "he‘s not really been in charge"? He never says that. He says that he's made the wrong decisions by compromising with the views of others and he will no longer do that. If he hadn't been in charge then he wouldn't have been the one making those decisions, would he? Many people seem keen to attribute words to him that he didn't say, while not listening to what he actually did say. As for the bus that you say he has crashed, remember that by the time he got to the wheel, it had already been hurtling down the side of a mountain for a long time, picking up speed all the way. For me, he now has some more quality and experience available and says "Now, I’ll live and die by my philosophy”, so I'll judge him on that.

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DorsetIan added 23:05 - Feb 6 If only - you can spin it however you want. He was the boss. Why has he not been living and dying by his own philosophy to date?? It’s an excuse. Everything he said was an attempt to shift the responsibility for 3 Pts/21 to someone other than Nathan Jones. When the real Nathan Jones please stands up, sure, let’s see how we do against Wolves. Or are you giving the real Nathan Jones another 7 games to prove himself? Seems only fair - he’s one of the best coaches in Europe, but he’s not a miracle worker.

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Ifonly added 09:52 - Feb 7 Who's spinning it? It's not me putting words in his mouth. I'm just telling you what he actually said. He didn't shift the blame. He said it was his fault and he has to because he can't just say honestly what a limited squad he inherited. JWP has done though. He says: “I’ve been in this position far too many times and now we’re probably at the worst point we have been. The difference is we’ve always had experienced players, a core group that’s no longer together. "It’s a very different squad, a big squad, so it’s a whole new challenge trying to get the young guys to realise the position we’re in and trying to get them to play and step up…it’s a very very big task." That looks right to me. I've been saying since the summer that we would be relegated. You don't win relegation battles with kids. The recent transfers give us a chance but we haven't seen enough of them yet and NJ hasn't had the chance to work with them yet. Will NJ turn things around? I doubt it but he was the choice of the club and should be given a chance.

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stmichael added 10:33 - Feb 7 Hate to be a party pooper but the giants record is less impressive than Adam Armstrongs and the championship is far more difficult than Denmark and Belgium…
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DorsetIan added 11:34 - Feb 7 Ifonly. He said the problem was that he was comprising and pandering to others. That's shifting the blame. His whole point was that he hasn't been doing it 'my way' so far. So if it wasn't his way, it was someone else's.
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darthvader added 13:17 - Feb 8 Funny I have a bit of dejavu . My good friend Rawlo said pretty much the same thing to me when these two signed. I should have told him to copyrite it! Exciting signings, wrong manager.
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fritsch added 03:13 - Jul 2 The signings of Kamaldeen Sulemana and Paul Onuachu bring a fresh wave of excitement and hope for the Saints. With their impressive track records and the potential to form a dynamic partnership, there's a lot to look forward to https://geometry-free.com. Just like the memorable Tadic and Pelle era, this new duo could reignite some magic at St. Mary's. Let's hope they get the chance to shine on the pitch and lead the team to better days!

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