Saints are being linked with former Watford boss Marco Silva to replace Mauricio Pellegrino, but how near to the mark are these rumours.
Several media outlets are reporting this morning that Saints are preparing to replace Maurcio Pellegrino with Marco Silva after the now ex Watford boss became unexpectedly available.
It has to be said that with Pellegrino's record it would be strange if the Saints board were not considering options, whilst they have retained faith in their manager, they know it can't go on much longer and after 11 games without a win in the Premier League and indeed only 1 in the last 15, Pellgrino's position is precarious.
The problem for the Saints board is that sacking him without having a replacement lined up could be an even bigger recipe for disaster, there is no one on the coaching staff within the club with any managerial experience at any good level and as much as Kelvin Davis might be a club legend, he has only just been promoted to a first team coach and would be the most senior man left assuming that if Pellegrino left so would his chosen staff.
Likewise finding a quality replacement isn't as easy as it sounds as both Everton and Stoke found out, so as much as the fans have called for the manager to go, there has to be a replacement lined up first.
Silva is linked because he was reputably a target back in the summer when Claude Puel position was uncertain, but Watford moved fast and signed him up before Puel had been sacked by Saints.
But Silva's reputation is tarnished by the events at Watford with allegations that after being refused a move to Everton he "lost interest" and didn't perform to the standards expected meaning that Watford have dropped down the league almost as quickly as Saints over the past few months.
As a manager he appears to have no loyalty and usually leaves a club under a cloud after a short period of time, something that the Saints board would not be enamoured with.
Although his managerial career at Estoril in Portugal started well and lasted three seasons between 2011 & 2014, after that it is a series of short stays, a season at Sporting Lisbon on what was a four year contract ended with him finshing 3rd in the league and winning the Portugese cup, their first silverware in 7 years, but he was sacked four days after that final for apparently not wearing the club suit, a technicality highlighting that something was seriously amiss behind the scenes.
In the summer of 2015 he was off to Greece and Olympiacos, he won the title there, but shortly after he resigned for personal reasons.
He then had a break for a few months until joining Hull City in January 2017, he could not keep them up and within days of relegation resigned and within two days had joined Watford.
Initially it went well, but Everton came in and Silva wanted to go, the Hornets dug in and refused and that lead to his latest sacking with the allegations that he was disruptive, sounding out players to join him at his next club wherever that may be, being late for and missing team meetings and generally not giving any sort of real commitment.
Watford described it as a "significant deterioration in both focus and results to the point where the long-term future of Watford FC has been jeopardised"
So now he is linked with Saints again and whereas many Saints supporters would have been glad to see him a year ago, perhaps the only reason now that they would be glad to see him join is sheer desperation and that is no basis to appoint a manager with his track record.
At best it would be a short term fix and he would surely show no more loyalty than he has done at other clubs should what he considers a better offer come along.
His record in the Premier League is not great, at Hull he took over a club in turmoil and from that point of view his 21 points from 18 games is solid, blighted by heavy defeats in their last three games that sent them down, but his record at Watford is no better 26 points from 24 games and only 1 win in their last 11 games.
So if Saints should make this appointment it would be a panic move and even worse it could be one that upsets the unity in the dressing room, whilst Pellegrino has made mistakes and cannot make many more without it being one too many, he does still seem to have the players behind him and that could count for something in the long run.
Whilst football managers rarely stay long at many clubs these days let alone Saints, there is the need to make the right appointment now and Marco Silva does not seem to be the right appointment on many levels.
So would Saints fans welcome Marco Silva vote now in our poll using the link below.
https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/forum/216625/should-saints-ap