Southampton To Give Ralph Hasenhuttl More Time
Tuesday, 4th Oct 2022 10:00

Saints are said to be willing to give under fire manager Ralph Hasenhuttl more time to show that he is the man to take the club forward in the next couple of years, however that will not go down well with a rising number of the fan base.

Ralph Hasenhuttl has been under fire in the past month after three straight defeats have seen the club drop out of the top 10 and now sit 16th in the Premier League, a position that is not likely to improve this weekend with a trip to Manchester City on the fixture list.

For some this is enough, a minority of the fan base has been on Hasenhuttl''s since the 9-0 drubbing at Manchester United a couple of years ago and use this result to highlight why he should have been long gone, however their thinking on this point is flawed, Ted Bates & Lawrie McMenemy, unarguably the two best managers in the club's history, both suffered thumping defeats in their history, Bates saw an 8-0 drubbing at Everton in November 1971 followed by a 7-0 thrashing at Leeds United just four months later.

Lawrie McMenemy took over from Bates in 1973/74 season and suffered relegation in his first season, that included a 7-0 defeat at Ipswich, but he still kept his job and although it would take to his third season to finally win the fans over and that FA Cup win in 1976, during the glory years of 1976-1985 under McMenemy, we weren't immune from the odd thrashing every now and then, not least 7-1 at then second division Watford in the League cup and a 6-0 reverse at Tottenham in 1982/83.

During his time we used to score for fun, but also leak them just as badly, in the Kevin Keegan Era in 1981/82 we finished 7th, with 72 goals we were the divisions third top scorers, but with 67 conceded we were the leakiest defence and despite topping the league for the longest period of any team that year, our defence cost us.

So in our history conceding goals and the odd thrashing every now and then has been part and parcel of being a Saints fan.

The truth is a manager has to be judged on the bigger picture and that means where he finishes in the league and that has to be judged on where our standing is as a club, 6th for Saints would be a cause for celebration, for Chelsea or Liverpool disaster, the Premier League is now polarised, it's big six really finish out of the top six and with Newcastle newly minted that situation is going to get worse.

Up to last season in the pecking order of the Premier League based on resources etc, the truth was that as a club Saints sat somewhere between 11th & 17th, in any given season there were 11 clubs with distinctly more money & resources than us, we sat in a middle group of 5 or 6 clubs all broadly even in their resources.

All were vying for somewhere between 11th & 17th with the hope that one of the bigger clubs such as Villa or Everton would have a nightmare season.

So in his 3 full seasons in charge Ralph Hasenhuttl has overperformed in an 11th place finish and in the last two seasons just about been at par score in 15th place both seasons.

At times in both seasons he looked like he might just take us up a notch, but ultimately we didn't have the spending power or squad quality to keep up the good results when they came.

So from this perspective it could be said Hasenhuttl has done a good job in keeping us up with such limited resources.

With the new owners things have changed, there has been money invested, they are looking for us to be pushing for the top 10, but they are realistic in their ambitions, they bought the club because they saw potential in the way it was being run, they did not buy it because they expected instant success.

They investor heavily in the summer, but they did so in youth not experience, it was difficult at the start of the season, we had 6 new squad members to assimilate in the team and just as we had done that we signed another 4 on deadline day.

7 of the starting line up against Everton were not at the club last season, add substitute Samuel Edozie and that is 8, look at the team and would anyone have picked much different, perhaps only Mohammed Salisu in defence, the same demanding the sacking of Ralph are not demanding the inclusion of Elyounoussi, Djenepo or even Adam Armstrong.

Saints are a work in progress and it is good that the new owners have not panicked at the first sign of turbulence, they knew that by buying in the main youngsters the results would not be instantaneous , things would take time and the manager needed time.

But there is a cut off point and I'm sure that Sport Republic are looking hard at the situation, sacking Ralph Hasenhuttl after 8 games is not giving him a fair crack of the whip, but when we reach the international break at 16 games is likely to be the first review period.

That gives them time to make a decision, find and appoint a new manager and give him 4-6 weeks to work with the squad, it is the natural point in this season at least to take stock,

This won't please some, the Ralph haters have spent two years on his back, they have shouted long and hard enough to the point that more people are listening, but that does not mean they are right.

Would the clamour have died down if we had beaten Everton and sat in 11th this morning ? or say also drawn with Villa and sat in 8th, that is how close we are to being where we want to be in the table, yes it didn't happen, both games were disappointing, but we only lost by a single goal against sides who were no better than us.

Under Ralph Hasenhuttl we have found stability we had lacked since the departure of Ronald Koeman with 3 managers in two seasons that took us to the brink of relegation, indeed the same people who have been demanding Ralph goes where the same people on social media demanding that Claude Puel was sacked as they weren't being entertained, this a manager who in getting us to 8th and a League Cup final had probably had just about the 6th or 7th best season in the club's history in terms of what he had achieved.

Of course the Ralph rumours will surface, ex players and journalists in the know will troll out stories of how he has lost half the dressing room or has no relationship with certain players etc, they do so as it sells newspapers and gets page hits, but it is the Saints board and indeed the owners who know the real picture and see that after a good start we have hit a small blip, yes perhaps that blip will get better, but now is not the time to panic, now is the time to stay focused on what the club is trying to achieve.

16th might not look good in the Premier League this morning, but if we finish there in May it will see us right in the pack of clubs we are competing against, the Premier League has changed over the past 7 years, the rich have got richer and the rest of us just stay where we are, that is not a lack of ambition it is reality, if you don't believe me look at the Premier League tables or FA & League cup winners since 2016.

Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will the resurgence of Southampton Football Club be achieved in 8 games, Sport Republic seem to believe that and so should Saints fans, perhaps Ralph Hasenhuttl is not the man to take us forward, but let's see where we are on November 11th.

This isn't a defence of Ralph Hasenhuttl, it is just clarifying the facts of the situation as I see them and trying to put things in perspective, if anyone things that I am wrong and that we should be in the top 6 year in year out I am truly interested in their views why.

This situation could drag us down, we need to trust the new owners to get things right.

Photo: Action Images

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