The draw against Stoke City was a case of Deja Vu, it is the same thing happening week in wekk out and unless something changes then it will continue ! The only trouble is that there is now only one thing to change !
I have tried to be the voice of reason this season, although I have made it very clear since November that I do not think that Mauricio Pellegrino is the man for the job, I have tried to look at what the alternatives are, tried to look at how the team might suddenly improve, pointed out that a failing manager doesn't neccessarily mean the club is rotten from top to bottom and in general tried looking at things in some sort of perspective.
But here we are in March and each game blurs into another, we are not a bad side, indeed we have only been beaten once in the last ten games and if not for a cheating Watford player we would be sitting in 13th place, but nothing is changing, we just cannot make the jump from drawing with sides to actually beating them in the Premier League at least.
The squad is good enough, the bulk of it is the side that finished 8th last year and 6th the year before that, we have boosted the team with some good transfers, in short we have changed what we can change and we have given the manager not only the tools to do the job, but unlike some clubs we have also allowed him time to show that he is the man for the job.
Indeed the team seem to be playing for the manager, they can't be accused of lacklustre performances since the turn of the new year, but they cannot seem to win games that they dominate.
But here we are and things are not getting any better, everything is predictable from the team selections, to the tactics to the substitutions, there is no leadership, there is no motivation, you have to ask what is the manager adding to the squad ?
A good manager will make the subtle changes needed and improve things, but there is nothing visible to the naked eye to suggest that Pellegrino is adding anything at all, in short I could go into the dressing room with a team sheet and we would not get any worse results than we are at the moment and that is the core of the problem.
I am very fond of quoting the saying "If you do the same things, you get the same results ! and this is very true in what Pellegrino is doing at Saints, he is just not changing anything, whatever he does ends up in the same result and that is usually a draw.
I don't thin Pellegrino is essentially a bad manager, but he just doesn't appear to have that extra oomph that makes a team go into overdrive once in a while, some would say that it is merely his tactics, if he played two up front then all would magically be solved, that is too simplistic, in the last two games we played two up front, yet never looked much like scoring apart from shots from distance, it is all about the build up play.
I think that Pellegrino can keep us up, he may even win the FA Cup, but the fact is we will do it the hard way and nothing will change next season.
As I say something has to change and that is the manager, if only for the short term burst that a new man in the dressing room would bring.
The board should be considering that change this weekend, they should be looking at making a change now, whilst there is still time to make a difference, but if they don't then surely next week's game at Newcastle will be the defining moment in Pellegrino's tenure at St Mary's, he either wins or he goes, it should be as simple as that.
Yes a draw at Newcastle would not be the worst result in the World in the normal course of events, but due to the lack of wins and points thrown away, normal rules don't apply.
So change is needed at St Mary's and there is now only one thing left that can be changed and that is the manager, it is time to do it !
The ball is now very firmly in Les Reed's court, he is sometimes unfairly criticised, he has done some good work at this football club, but sometimes Directors of Football have to make harsh decisions that define their role at the club and for Reed this is one of them !