Saints could be appointing Mauricio Pellegrino's successor in the next 24 hours accoring to the latest news reports.

Saints are said to be in talks with Mark Hughes and an appointment could be happening within the next 24 hours with the club keen to have a replacement in place to take charge of the team when they travel to Wigan in the FA Cup on Sunday.

Hughes played for Saints for two seasons from August 1998 till March 2000 playing 50(2) times in the Premier League and scoring two goals, his first was possibly his most important, with Saints 3-1 down at home to fellow relegation strugglers Blackburn in April 1999, hughes reduced the deficit on the hour mark and sparked the fightback that saw the 3-3 draw start what would become known as the Great Escape.

Saints fans will hope that if Hughes does return Hughes has enjoyed a he can once again become the catalyst that keeps Saints in the Premier League.

Hughes has enjoyed a long career as a manager, but although his early career blossomed, after leaving Manchester City he started to become known as a long ball merchant and at Stoke put out teams known for their physical attributes rather than ball playing.

Saints fans who have been crying out for entertainment perhaps wont be impressed by that playing style and Saints certainly don't have too many players who would fit the stereotype Hughes type of player.

However Saints appear to be looking for a stop gap manager to bring discipline and organisation to a squad that has been poorly led for the past 7 months or so and from that viewpoint Hughes might just be the man.

Photo: Action Images

kenis added 23:22 - Mar 13 If as reported by Jeremy Wilson in the telegraph its a short term to end of season then maybe it could work, but reports from end of his tenure at stoke re lack of motivation, no tactical awareness, poor fitness etc doesn’t inspire confidence. Would rather we had Silva or paid the Dutch FA to loan us Koeman for the final eight. Where’s Di Canio or Advocaat?
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saintmark1976 added 23:30 - Mar 13 I was beginning to think that my previous opinion suggesting that the owners may not be unhappy to see us relegated was incorrect given that they finally acted yesterday in removing M P. Now this. Only we could think about appointing a manager who was sacked from a team which is currently lower in the league than we are. Put simply, with the Saints you just can't make it up anymore.

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Jesus_02 added 23:35 - Mar 13 This is unbelievable .... why wasn't a replacement arranged before they sacked MP? What if Hughes says no? I'm guessing we go slowly down a list until we become desperate. A bit like in Jan?
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Jesus_02 added 23:36 - Mar 13 @ kenis .. seriously Di Canio? a facist at Saints.. jog on
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amsterdamsaint added 23:42 - Mar 13 Adkins.
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amsterdamsaint added 23:44 - Mar 13 I had so much fun with the Saints. With Adkins.
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StRipper added 23:55 - Mar 13 Hughes has to be the bottom of the list. Who cares if he played for us? He fell out with the club and got nasty when they rightly didn't want to give him the job. He's the relegation choice manager. If he's who we appoint, we haven't looked very far
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StRipper added 23:56 - Mar 13 Why not Billic as a stop gap?
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kenis added 23:56 - Mar 13 @ jesus_02 - not the actual Di Canio (or Advocaat), but a crazy motivating character who can perform a miracle.... our version of We should go for Marcelo Bielsa - we’ve had the disciple, let’s go for the master. He’s out of work and surely can leave his dispute with Lille to his lawyers. That would be a gamble...
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kenis added 23:58 - Mar 13 If Birmingham hadn’t taken them Monk/Beattie combo would have been good, but they’ll get sacked from there soon enough. Wagner from Huddersfield might be a good summer appointment but no chance now.
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KriSaint added 00:03 - Mar 14 I kinda like Hughes. He has hopefully learned from his mistakes and is eager to continue his managerial career. Him having been a former Saints player is a plus. He still holds the record for most yellow cards during a PL season, 14, and that record was made when he played in midfield for Saints. He only left Saints for Everton because incoming Hoddle had other plans which didn´t include Hughes. Considering our situation I welcome his physical style. Blackburn had worst disciplinary record four seasons in a row under Hughes. He did a great job in Blackburn as manager. Good league positions and 2 FA cup semis. 1 league cup semi when at City but was sacked before the games were played. Hughes would enjoy the challenge, has a point to prove and deserves some success as manager, and now is the time starting with taking us to the FA cup semifinals. Yes, I preferred Silva or Strachan, but Hughes would be an ok choice imo.

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CautiousOptimist added 03:50 - Mar 14 I am old enough to remember Hughes playing for Saints. He was dreadful: lazy and dirty. If people on here think that we need a manager who can take players to task for lack of effort Hughes doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Teams he’s managed have played some of the worst football It’s been my misfortune to watch. “Football is about glory, about doing things in style”, Joyless tossers like Hughes are the antithesis of that, and I don’t want him associated with us in any capacity I support a football club, not a business. I appreciate that commercial success and revenue affect what happens on the pitch but it doesn’t actually matter to me what league we’re in. Watching entertaining football does matter.

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Saint_bezzer added 06:29 - Mar 14 Short term Its a good appointment In a way I'm glad they've changed there 'Southampton Way' of appointed untested continental managers as it's not working anymore. As long as the fans get behind him then we have a chance. If we beat Wigan then everyone will be on board. He did a great job at Blackburn. Was unlucky to lose the City job, they were just to ambitious and pumped to much money in for him to have a go. Yeah he was poor at QPR but that was the owners fault. First two seasons at Stoke we're excellent (Stokelona).

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oldeastterrace added 07:10 - Mar 14 If Hughes is appointed we have to get behind him and the team. The sensible thing would be a short term deal with a sizeable bonus for him should he keep us up. We should make a more considered long term appointment early in the summer so that he has time to get in the players he needs for the start of next season.
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GeordieSaint added 07:24 - Mar 14 Oh come on people, stop moaning. We all knew pellegrino had to go, yes it maybe should hav happened a while back but it is what it is. Hughes is as good a short term option as anybody. Stoke got paul lambert for gods sake. Chin up, get behind the club and we can reassess at the end of the year come what may.
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SanMarco added 08:41 - Mar 14 I agree with Geordie, oldeastterrace and Saint bezzar. It would seem to be rather silly to start a moaning campaign before the guy has even signed. Also I fear that CautiousOptimist is not living up to his name. I would go for three lucky, scrappy wins over attractive football at the moment. Also, I do not remember Hughes as 'lazy' as a player for us - quite the opposite although he was past his best obviously. I vote we get behind him and hope for a new manager 'bounce' if such a thing has ever really existed...

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saintjf added 09:24 - Mar 14 Fully agree GeordieSaint. Lets support Hughes and not get all negative. We are very close to relegation and need to be rescued. Hughes is available and experienced and has got to be better than MP.
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DorsetIan added 09:39 - Mar 14 I need to stop posting about this because I agree that if Hughes comes everyone needs to try to get behind him but I do think the club will have missed an opportunity to appoint someone who can really inspire a bit of excitement in the fans and the players. With one or two exceptions, I think most people will be at best ambivalent about this appointment. He's got more experience than MP and has had some success in the Prem, but he has also had quite a bit of failure and, a bit like MP, he seems to be quite an understated, serious individual. If the fans are in two minds about him, my guess would be that the players will feel the same uncertainty. So just not sure he can deliver the psychological 'bounce' we need and if he doesn't deliver results in the first three games, everyone will be on his back and pointing the finger at Reed for having made (in retrospect) such an obviously bad appointment. So, with Hughes, it's all going to turn on whether he has the footballing nowse to know how to turn us into a winning unit. (Tip for Mark Hughes: Whatever you do, don't play 4-2-3-1)

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LoisDeem added 09:43 - Mar 14 Football is ridiculous, and our Saints are a shining example of just how. With many, many sponsors and 'customers' in businesses that assume proper business practice and reward achievement, all 'following' our fortunes, few would hire and fire like SFC, nor sack someone before finding a replacement. To the wider world the 'line manager' (that's you LR and RK) would have come under closer scrutiny by now. So, whilst this next appointment might be crucial, our fate this season will just as likely come down to fluke or luck, so we might just as well ask Sammy Saint. Good Luck to Sparky or whoever then. This fan now believes that Saints are now a fully certified 'basket case' -like so many other football clubs.

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skiptonsaint added 10:26 - Mar 14 Hughes is as good an appointment as we could hope for at this stage of the season Look at what other teams the same size as ourselves have managed as manager replacements this season! He will kick em up the backside and I don’t think he will be as much of a Les Reed puppet. Let’s get behind him
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StRipper added 10:41 - Mar 14 Is the Saints PR team now the main contributor to the comments section? It's like the old Lowe media management days. If appointing the sacked manager of the team that sits below us in the league is the best we can do, then we are indeed a basket case of the first order. SanMarco, I don't need to jump off of a cliff to know that it will kill me. As such, I don't need to see Hughes first few games to know he is most likely to take us down. GeordieSsint I don't think anyone is saying we should have kept Pellegrino. But two bad decisions don't make a good one. Saint_Bezzer that's the most rise tinted spectacle view of Hughes management career I've ever read. He's an awful failed manager. We fundamentally need a positive, motivational manager to get out of the mess we are in. Hughes is the opposite to that. We're fighting to relegated if we appoint him and the lunatics are running the asylum.

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underweststand added 10:52 - Mar 14 Not a lot of choice is there. Surely it has to be Hughes...or? We definitely need someone who knows /understands the Premier League. Not only has MH managed in the Prem., he has played in it too. YES ..There have been mixed reactions to his time at Stoke, but the blame for the last 2 season or so can't just be his.. Many of the players (at Stoke) are the same as he had and they don't seem to be doing any better under Pardew, (and I wouldn't call him a bad manager either).. What we don't need is an " outside manager " who doesn't know /understand the demands of the Prem. and who knows the teams /players in it . I can't believe that every unemployed manager is doing his gardening at 3 pm on a Saturday instead of keeping track of all the English games., like millions of us. Sink or swim, Hughes had to be our best (perhaps only decent) bet at this moment.

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StRipper added 10:55 - Mar 14 Note, the Southampton Way saw our club have the most successful seasons in its history. Who in their right mind would argue we should turn our back on it just so we we don't appoint Johnny Foreigner managers. Saint_Bezzer?
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StRipper added 11:04 - Mar 14 Underweststand it sounds like you are arguing that Pochettino and Koeman were rubbish. I'm not sure there is any evidence to support the assertion that outsiders are bad. If Barry Bennell had links to our club, I wouldn't use that as my benchmark for letting him run out youth set up. Hughes is by far not the only choice. Bilic, Martin O'Neil, even Tim bloody Sherwood would be better appointments. Hughes is an English Pellegrino. Anyone, even Jaidi, Kelvin Davies or Steven Davies would be better interim for Saints because they must know a thing or two about the Premier League too. It's not like they need to sign anyone. Just get us playing football that that the players are comfortable with. Something Hughes in particular will have no idea how to achieve

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BoondockSaint added 13:19 - Mar 14 Here we go with the new "Southampton Way" shifting a player or manager out and then having a look 'round to see who's available or who the media thinks are in the mix. God forbid we have the replacement lined up and ready to sign before making a change! As saintmark1976 says: "You just can't make it up anymore!"
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