The media are full of reports that if Saints lose to Fulham then Mark Hughes will be sacked, perhaps they are just speculating but the reality is that win lose or draw on Saturday Hughes is walking a fine line.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at the results of Southampton Football Club and work out that Mark Hughes is a man under pressure, defeat at Craven Cottage on Saturday could plunge Saints into the bottom three and the alarm bells will start to ring louder than ever in the Saints boardroom..

Although results have picked up in the last four Premier League games in terms of there being only one defeat and that being at Manchester City was almost expected, but there is far more evidence against Hughes than for him.

Unlike say Mauricio Pellegrino who came in at the start of a season Hughes has now been in charge for 20 League games over half a season and he has a grand total of only 3 wins and 16 points, a ratio of only 0.80 points per game overall.

This season it is even worse and he has accrued only 0.66 points per game and somewhere along the line this has to change even under Hughes or without him.

Put it another way he has now had over a half a season in charge and even if he improves to his overall ratio that is still only 30 points over a season.

In comparison in his 30 games in charge Pellegrino managed to accrue 28 points, a ratio of .93 a game, again rocket scientist's are not needed to work out that if Pellegrino was not up to standard at that ratio, then why should Hughes be.

Certainly the whisper in the press is that the Fulham game is do or die for him, that the Saints board are well aware that they left it too long in firing Pellegrino and that almost cost them dearly, the Mail claims

"There is acknowledgement behind-the-scenes at Southampton that waiting so long to make a material change was a mistake, even though Hughes eventually kept them up."

"And there is a feeling at St Mary's that they cannot afford Hughes a similar amount of time and are likely to take decisive action significantly sooner if he can not halt their alarming slide down the table."

"Furthermore, Southampton's top-brass believe their squad is far better than their current 17th place position and are therefore concerned Hughes is currently underachieving. "

But the fact that the board are even thinking like this, if indeed they are is perhaps suggesting that whatever happens Hughes days are numbered, after all this is no blip, it runs across two seasons and not a lot has changed.

The Mail also suggests that the firing of Les Reed might have bought Hughes time, I don't quite agree with this in that Reed has paid the price for sticking with Pellegrino for too long,if he had stayed he would have had to back Hughes as sacking him would be damning on Reed's own judgement.

The fact that Reed has gone means that the board can point the finger at Reed and the fact that he has gone and do not have to keep Hughes to try and protect themselves.

The only thing that is perhaps keeping him in the job is that Reed's departure has left a hole in the committee that would appoint a new manager and Krueger would rather have Reed's successor in place to get in the man that he wants.

Saints have given Hughes all the time and resources that he needs and although it cannot be denied that the last transfer window was not great ( I discount last January, we had to make a panic buy and do something, we stayed up to that justifies the expense) but the squad should still have been doing better than it is.

It is still short in key areas notably in the central defensive positions and again Reed failed to deal with that, but there is a spark missing that is present in teams like Bournemouth and Watford and wins them games that we would draw, we are no worse than them, but we don't have that motivation and that has to be down to Hughes.

Reed went safe in appointing Hughes, there was a euphoria in staying up and it was only after that died down that we realised that Hughes didn't as much keep us up as Swansea dropped like a stone.

If Saints draw at Fulham it may buy Hughes a little time, but I feel only enough to allow the board to source his successor, even a win might not be good enough for more than a few weeks grace.

But defeat would surely mean the board would have to act quickly and decisively to change things, at the moment it could be claimed that because the team lacks so much spark, direction & leadership that anyone could pick it and the truth is that if we have to sack Hughes without his successor lined up then it would be down to goalkeeping coach Dave Watson and Kelvin Davis to pick the team unless we go to the academy and bring in Radhi Jaidi, none of these three have any real experience and that is a dilemma for Saints.

By 5pm on Saturday we will either have a little bit of time bought for both Hughes and the board or we will be in crisis.

However better to have that crisis now when there is more than enough time and games to turn things around and get out of it than do as we did last season and leave it to the last 8 games.

Photo: Action Images

TeamCortese added 06:38 - Nov 24 I agree with many on this thread. We need to get rid of Hughes asap and find the next best alternative Nagelsman like manager (he's going to RB Leipzig next season btw). I think this will be contingent on who the board appoint as the DoF both in terms of reputation for prospective managers and input as to whether Hughes stays or goes. I also disagree with the quality of the players. Our defence and midfield need to employ the right tactics and habits under a decent manager who actually knows how to defend! We shouldn't forget the gulf in quality between this side and the side that was promoted to the EPL is much higher (with exception of the attack). We just need to build confidence and the foundations of that need to come from the manager! Moreover, I think the main problem is with the quality of our attack. Even with Gabbi (and possibly Ing) I am not inspired one iota. I think we need to bring Boufal back from loan and buy a decent pacy winger. I would try Ademola Lookman and Bergwijn (from PSV). Most importantly the board need to have a purpose/vision of where this club wants to be and stick to it. Otherwise, it's all just a waste of time!

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Consigliere added 11:24 - Nov 24 Sorry TeamCortese I was with you until you mentioned Boufal! If he is the answer then we really are doomed, he's a lazy, inconsistent, moody and disinterested journeyman and is the last thing we need even if he does have the occasional flash of talent (when he can be bothered to use it).
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