Matt Watts has come up with is perspective on the managerial situation at Southampton FC and he thinks it is time to assess the options whilst Saints have the respected Ruben Selles on hand to provide short-term stability
It’s certainly fair to say Ralph Hasenhuttl’s sacking as Saints boss on Monday morning was not a surprise to anyone associated with the club.
That said, I think it is always a sad situation when a long managerial reign comes to an end, particularly off the back of home hammering.
Four years at a Premier League club is no mean feat in today’s game and there have been some notable highs over that time.
There have also been some very low lows, as well as many periods of mediocrity, during the Austrian’s tenure and now seemed the right time to bring this chapter in the club’s history an end.
I don’t think anyone could argue Hasenhuttl didn’t demonstrate great passion, desire, commitment and positivity to the role and his interest in the club at all ages and levels, including the women’s game, was laudable.
Ultimately, though, it looked as though he had run out of ideas and both his selections and tactics grew increasingly frustrating and sometimes bizarre.
What I always find particularly frustrating when a manager departs a club is that they often do so having rarely played a starting 11 that so many around a club believe should have been selected.
On so many occasions this season we have seen Stuart Armstrong, Joe Aribo, Sam Edozie and Sekou Mara sit on the sidelines or take to the field too late in games when there is little time to have the desired impact.
I find the "he’s not ready yet” argument a weak one when it comes to the younger players. Edozie is 19 and Mara is 20. They are both old enough and talented enough to warrant regular opportunities and a chance to establish themselves, something they’ve not had yet.
Clearly Hasenhuttl’s struggles were compounded by injuries to young stars Toni Livramento and Romeo Lavia, as well as the inability to recruit an established striker in the summer and the departure of Oriol Romeu to Girona.
However, it perplexes me the manager did not see the vision and potential of selecting his best, most exciting and stable first 11 regularly, often opting to fiddle with the team selection.
With a record of three wins in 14 games this season, something has clearly not been working - so why not have ensured Edozie was unleashed on unsuspecting teams, given Mara a chance to build up experience and resilience and help Aribo and Armstrong establish themselves as integral components?
It often seemed Hasenhuttl had some kind of grand plan to bag a result with the team he had selected, but rarely did it happen. Yet we will never know if the strongest possible first 11 would have turned a game around.
Take the two 1-0 away defeats to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa as examples, when only Aribo started one of these matches out of the four players named above.
Various positions have also been tampered with so regularly that it was clear Hasenhuttl couldn’t decide on his best team and that has been reflected in performances and results. He has ultimately taken the fall for this and he leaves with us never really knowing if the outcome may have been different had his decisions been more rational.
Even so, despite his friendly demeanour, rumours of rifts with key players and questionable man-management skills were also never far from the headlines either, so all things considered and with Saints dropping into the bottom three at the weekend, his time had definitely come.
Where Saints go from here will be interesting. The immediate focus on Luton’s Nathan Jones came too early for me personally. I would like to have seen a commitment from the club to enable assistant Ruben Selles to take interim charge for a short period to enable a period of calm and stability from within.
Despite the fact news will undoubtedly slip out, I felt the public pursuit of Jones immediately after the announcement about Hasenhuttl’s departure was in poor taste and I would much rather have seen the club state Selles would have the opportunity to regroup the squad in the coming weeks while a subtle process takes place behind the scenes.
Reports suggest Selles is respected by the players and he has a rich coaching history across Europe in Greece, Spain, Russia, Norway and Denmark, with Saints having paid significant compensation to bring him to St Mary’s from FC Copenhagen.
Selles takes charge for the first time in this evening’s EFL Cup tie against Sheffield Wednesday and it will be intriguing to see both what team selection he makes, as well as the reaction from those on the pitch.
With the season break approaching after Saturday’s trip to Anfield it seems unnecessary to rush the process - particularly given any work carried out over the past few months may now be worthless should potential targets have settled elsewhere.
Jones stated after his team’s 2-0 defeat at former club Stoke City his upcoming date with Saints’ officials is "just an opportunity to go and chat and to find out if it is right for me”. Hopefully the process is in much wider swing and the club will take time to make the best choice to move things forward.