Although the initial fans thoughts on a new manager were not positive towards Mark Hughes, since his appointment the supporters are rallying to the cause.
It is fair to say that many Saints fans were not enamoured with the thought of Mark Hughes as manager of Saints, the perception of him as a manager was not a positive one and the perception was that his sacking at Stoke came from the fact that he had spent most of his time with them fighting relegation.
That perception however is wrong, although this season Stoke like Saints had struggled, the fact was that in his previous four seasons at the club his achievements there were not that far different than Saints themselves.
In hs first three seasons he led them to 9th in each year and last year he finished 13th, but when you consider that Stoke were only 2 points behind Saints in 8th he might well have got a top ten finish four times in a row.
He managed that with far less resources that the managers at St Mary's in that time had to their disposal and he seemed good at taking a squad that should have perhaps been in the lower haplf of the table and moulding it into a good solid unit.
So although Saints supporters were initially not that excited about the thought of Hughes arriving at the club, they are now warming to the idea and realising that although a more glamorous appontment might have been preferred, that in our current predicament, Hughes perhaps fits the bill far better than other candidates in that he knows the division very well, he knows the teams he knows the players and perhaps more importantly he knows our players.
He has the track record in the Premier League, he knows what is needed to be done and how to do it.
Some would have preferred a more glamorous name such as Marco Silva, but he has not had much experience in the Premier League, he failed to eep Hull up last season and this although he initially started well at Watford they petered out and there have been issues surrounding his character after the Everton debacle that ultimately led to Watford sacking him.
Hughes spent just under two seasons with Saints at the tail end of his career as a player, it wasn't his best, but heplayed a key part in what became known as the Great Escape, Saints 3-1 down on the hour mark at home against fellow relegation strugglers Blackburn and on the back foot were brought back in the game with a goal from Hughes that not only sparked a recovery to gain a 3-3 draw in this game, but go on in the final few games to win three and draw one of the last four games and complete what looked like an unlikely save from relegation.
Hopefully this is a good omen for this season and three wins and a draw would certainly be enough to keep Saints up in the final eight games.
So Saints fans see in Mark Hughes a figurehead who they can rally round and feel comfortable with, they feel that although ultimately he has little time to turn things round, here is a man who will put his all into the job and will not be swayed from the task in hand, he was a legend as a player and has had a good solid career as a manager and good and solid is what we need now.