The defeat at West Bromwich Albion was not good to watch, no one is claiming otherwise it was atrocious, but some of the vicious attacks towards Ralph Hasenhuttl that have appeared on social media have been knee jerk and disgraceful and have taken no account of the bigger picture.
Saints fans were understandably upset in the manner in which Saints capitulated against West Bromwich Albion on Monday night and there are some points that I agree with and Ralph Hasenhuttl has to take some of the blame for the defeat, but not all of it, should we get rid of Danny Ings for his dreadful back pass that lead to the second goal ? should we get rid of James Ward Prowse for missing a penalty ? I thin we all know the answer there.
What that goes to show is that sometimes a manager get things wrong, his best players let him down and to be blunt before the game no one argued about the starting line up, most agreed that it was the strongest that the manager could put out.
Some Saints supporters need to get a perspective of what Ralph Hasenhuttl has done for Southampton Football Club over the last 2 years and 4 months, in that time he has taken us from a side in complete disarray in December 2018 who sat in the bottom 3 with only 9 points from 15 games, following a season where we had escaped relegation by the skin of our teeth, not because we had stormed to safety, but because Swansea City had fallen apart in the final run in.
He was not inheriting a happy squad, the club had reinvested the Virgil Van Dijk transfer money, but in the main had not done wisely, Jannik Vestergaard looked a fish out of water and Mohamed Elyounoussi was trying hard but looked out of his depth, add to that he also inherited the likes of Guido Carrillo already out on loan and Sofiane Boufal, not to mention Mario Lemina & Wesley Hoedt, both disgruntled and he did not have a lot to work with.
The fact that he got us out of the bottom three and to 16th and well safe of relegation by the end of the season was a minor miracle.
But the fact that remained was he was now manager of a club that had little money to spend due to the number of recent signings who we could not shift due to their high wages, a situation that is still ongoing although reducing each year and will not be completely finished to the summer of 2022.
Last season he took us to 11th, but those that looked at the performances could see that at times they flattered to deceive, but Hasenhuttl's hands were tied.
This season has had it's high's and lows, the lows have been largely beyond the managers control, his terrible injury list that often saw us down to just 11 fit experienced outfield player and the bench filled with academy players was not great, but there were mitigating circumstances.
But the season is a marathon not a sprint, sometimes it is not about how you get to your destination but getting there, if Ralph Hasenhuttl had got to this point by winning a few games here and there and we now sat in 14th place, 10 points above the bottom 3 and an FA Cup semi final to play, then this would have been from a completely different perspective.
On Sunday we play for a place in an FA Cup Final, a situation we have only gone into 7 times since the 1920's, that in itself is an achievement for a Saints manager, yet some can't look forward to that and enjoy the occasion, they have to demand the sacking of the manager and lets be clear here one that by this time next week could have got the club to an FA Cup Final and one that with a few wins in the final 7 games of the season could end it in 12th place.
Call me old fashioned, but in almost half a century of following this club, this is better than most seasons.
Yes perhaps we will fail against Leicester City, but at least we were in a position to compete.
History is sometimes looked back at with rose tinted specs, certainly 1976 was, we went into the semi final against Crystal Palace on the back of a 6 game run of four defeats and two draws, a run that ultimately cost us promotion and there were those that moaned back then that we were just going to get stuffed at Wembley and miss out on promotion.
Back in 1984 between the quarter final replay and the semi final we took 1 point from 3 games and look how much that cost us come the end of the season.
In more recent times Gordon Strachan's team travelled to Villa Park on the back of a 10 game run that saw just 2 wins and 10 points picked up, not much better than the 7 that Hasenhuttl has gained in the same number of games and certainly Strachan didn't have the issues we have at the moment.
Indeed many look at that season with fondness, truth is in the 16 remaining Premier League games after beating Spurs on New Years day, we won only 4 and took only 17 points, did anyone demand the sacking of Gordon Strachan ?
There are those that will say the club lacks ambition, they bandy around things on social media such as #gaoout as if that will change anything, beware of what you wish for, so far Gao has not damaged the club, he has not leveraged it as some recent purchasers of football cubs have done, he has not sidled us with debt owed to him through loans, he told us how he was going to run the club from the start, google what Gao said and then google what Markus Liebherr said when he took over Saints in 2009, tell me what the difference was.
Ralph knows the situation he has to work with, he has committed himself to Southampton Football Club in a way that no other manager has done since Chris Nicholl who was sacked 30 years ago, since then we have stumbled from manager to manager, occasionally we have found a good one, they left as soon as their stock was high enough to go to a bigger club or at least one that gave them money to spend.
In Ralph Hasenhuttl we have found a man who is looking at the bigger picture, it is a long term project for him, it is about the whole club, not just about the first team squad as it was for Strachan, Koeman & Pochettino.
Before you post Hasenhuttl must go on twitter or for that matter any social media, tell me who would we get to replace him and would they be able to do a better job ?
Would they be as committed as Ralph Hasenhuttl, or would they be like Pochettino or Koeman, just there for a year or two and then on to what they see as bigger things.
As a football club we are still in stormy waters, not just because the owner cannot put in £500 million for transfer fees, but because of the fact that we are still paying the price for poor signings over the past 4 years , add to that the current Covid 19 situation and the financial implications for all football clubs and it is a lot more stormy that some realise.
Ralph has done a good job during that time, he has steadied the ship and he can see calmer waters ahead at the end of next season, we have searched for some stability for many years, why on earth would anyone want to change the stability we have now !
This is not a total tribute to Ralph Hasenhuttl, he has done things wrong at times, he made mistakes in the West Brom game, but he has learned from those mistakes and come back stronger.
Money doesn't guarantee anything in football, it is about getting the right manager who suits the football club, back in the early 1990's Manchester United got the right man and waited the best part of 7 years for him to win them the league, Liverpool only got that when they appointed Jurgen Klopp and stuck with him as he rebuilt the side.
Everton have spent big money for the past 5 seasons , something like £500 million on transfers, yet they haven't done any better than Saints during that time.
Keep faith with Ralph, the clubs that sack managers at the first sign of trouble are the ones that keep repeating it and struggle to achieve their goals overall.
But if you still don't buy into what I am saying that is fine that is your opinion and you are entitled to it, but perhaps wise to wait until the season is over and see what has or hasn't been achieved, don't be like those who ranted on social media exactly 28 minutes into the Burnley game and who all looked foolish afterwards, keep calm and wait till the final whistle blows not just on Sunday at Wembley but the season itself.