Yesterday we put out a poll asking whether Saints supporters would be willing to welcome back Ronald Koeman, the landslide result was somewhat surprising.

Yesterday poll asked Saints fans to consider whether they would be happy to welcome back Ronald Koeman to St Mary's given his acrimonious departure to Everton, given the current predicament the fact that there should be some support for him to return was expected, what was not was the landslide majority in favour.

Of course this is only a small proportion of our total support who voted, however it is a good cross section and from the moment the poll first opened up until now the ratio in each category has remained consistent suggesting that it would be a fairly accurate snapshot of the entire fanbase.

At time of posting this follow up article to the poll, 61 % of Saints fans have said they would welcome Koeman back unreservedly, add to that 27% who said Yes we need him and that is a very big majority who feel that he needs to be brought back to the club now.

But there are also 4% who voted maybe, that makes 92% who would not be adverse to his return.

The other 8% was split fairly evenly between those who felt it was never a good idea to go back in football whether it was Koeman or not and those who just can never forgive him for the way he left the club.

The landslide majority was completely unexpected and perhaps shows the depth of feeling amongst Saints supporters that Mauricio Pellegrino is not the man for the job, contrast that with similar polls for Claude Puel last season, at this stage of the season Puel still had a majority who were backing him, if only for the fact that he had taken us to a League Cup Final.

However it was not just about that and even going into the final week of the season the fan base was fairly evenly split over whether Puel deserved another season, ultimately though the board felt swayed by such a large section of the support having no faith in the manager, whilst not a majority, at least not a significant one, it was big enough and season ticket sales poor enough to persuade them that the Frenchman had to go.

Perhaps the board feel that having been swayed by fan opinion back in the summer they cant be seen to do so again and they can't be happy with the results at present whatever the mitigating circumstances.

It is thus fair enough to assume that they are not unaware of the depth of feeling against Mauricio Pellegrino, the worry amongst the fans is that Pellegrino has now won only 1 Premier League game in the last 14, that is well over a third of the total season and this is surely unacceptable to any club especially given that in those games we have only taken 9 points out of a possible 42 and that is well short of even the point a game benchmark for survival in this division.

In other words it is ,64 points per game, over 38 games that is 24 points the exact total Sunderland went down on last season in a season that was considered one of the worst in Premier League history.

Our reasonable start has kept us out of the bottom 3 although that could change come Saturday, but surely enough is enough and the time for the manager to go has now been reached.

last season I tried to be the voice of reason over Claude Puel and I have tried to be the same this season with Pellegrino, but I am afraid that there is little I can defend him over, too many games have been lost, too many points thrown away due to poor selections and a complete lack of tactical awareness with regard to substitutions.

The fact that even if we had held the lead in our last two games instead of tamely surrendering it would have seen us in 10th place tells us that we are not a bad team, that we can get out of trouble with a little luck, but something has to change and I am afraid that is the manager.

The supporters seem to be united over this one, young or old and whether they are of the sort that demands the head of a manager after a couple of bad results or they are like myself and try to see a bigger picture, all are of the same feeling and that is:

"This manager has had plenty of opportunity to show he is the man for the job, he has not taken that opportunity and it has now gone past the point where he can recover his position, he needs to go now whilst there is still time to turn the season round !

To view the poll results so far, or to vote if you haven't already done so click on the link below.

https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/members/!/polls/1939/would-yo

Photo: Action Images

ItchenNorth added 13:25 - Jan 17 Could you confirm if the is "Day 18' news !?
0

AirFlorida added 13:48 - Jan 17 Look, the situation is that bad I'd welcome Sturrock back :-D
3

petedoors1 added 13:58 - Jan 17 Well said Nick. SACK PELLEGRINO NOW.
3

saintnick79 added 14:07 - Jan 17 Sack him now, get Martin Oneil&Keane in until end of season, They know the league get in some experienced players(even if on loan) Keep us up, then see if they want to stay on.
2

IWOZTHERE added 14:11 - Jan 17 I'm well in the minority then. Nothing to do with the way he left. I disagree purely on ability. People don't obviously remember the state we were in at Christmas 2015? His Everton tenure did nothing to change my opinion.
7

skiptonsaint added 14:13 - Jan 17 Next question is how many would lose Les Reed to make it happen ?
5

PopeyeTheSailor added 14:33 - Jan 17 This is the time to get behind our team and not look for scapegoats. We have seen better football this year with luck not on our side. It's players that have made individual errors and cost points wether defending or in front of goal. Perhaps some substitutions have been questionable at times but that can be said about any substitution if they don't work. We know when confidence is fragile help is needed so get behind the team on Sunday and perhaps that luck will change.

-4

cornishsaint added 14:58 - Jan 17 Popeye you must be pissed as we definitely do not play a better style of football ! Plus you can’t use bad luck as an excuse for poor defending or not playing for 90 plus mins We all continue to support our team but enough is enough reminds me of the Rupert Lowe era with poortvielt in charge
1

cornishsaint added 15:26 - Jan 17 Wouldn’t mind a punt on slumani he has scored goals and is what we are looking for surely get him on the cheap as well
2

Jesus_02 added 15:59 - Jan 17 "Sack Him! Get another bang average yes man ASAP! Ignore the slide since MP1 left! While your at it get Peter Crouch back in and start playing some proper football. Cortese was a twit who fell out with The Sun, didnt respect Lawrie Mac, or Nick, and got back to back promotions by accident... or was because Les was brilliant back then. Either way all you need to know about the bloke is that he charged for car parking...I'll never forget the picture of those die hard fans handing back their season tickets... it still haunts me! " Can you remember when we sneered that West Ham employed Fat Sam? We cant dream of having him now as he is too big of a personality. At what point will people wake up?

2

aceofthebase added 17:02 - Jan 17 Popeye you are correct we have played better football, but never for a whole game. It looks like everyone blames the manager rather than the guys on the pitch. I blame the latter. Individual errors Davies this week, Hoedt another week, Cedric lots of weeks etc. My feeling is that another manager will get the same results until we have some more goalscoring players in our squad

1

aceofthebase added 17:03 - Jan 17 I repeat, "SaintNick the problem with democracy is that the majority is not always right"
1

A_Saint_in_Stoke added 17:03 - Jan 17 Back in the Alan Pardew day's when we have deducted points and near the foot of Div 1 .... I still supported my Saints and enjoyed banter with my mates who supported other teams - and dished out as good that I got. This season has been totally different .... Southampton F.C. is the " LAUGHING CLUB FOR ALL OTHER FOOTBALL FANS " Why? Mauricio Pellegrino is the joke with his bazar team selections - team set up formations - his crazy rotation policy - Dropping man of the previous match players - totally stupidity - inept and slow tactics - reactionary instead of being proactive ( " He seems void of any footballing/team ideas " ) and not to mention the substitutions and there timings .... Mauricio Pellegrino HAS TO GO NOW to give us any chance of avoiding the drop. Incidentally, the would not object to a Koeman return is now nearly 91% ( well over 550 voting fans ) - Nuff said.

1

davej added 17:14 - Jan 17 88% of what a hundred people who voted, certainly not 88% of the 28000 people who fill St Marys
1

bstokesaint added 18:21 - Jan 17 Given my vote counted for like 0.2% I’d suggest more like 500 people. As Nick says that’s a pretty good indicator of the wider group. I don’t know anyone personally who would oppose a return from Ron.
-1

warrens76 added 18:47 - Jan 17 Prima donnas, scaredy cats, bring back Nigel Pearson..the team need to be more frightened of the dressing room firestorm than the opposition..
2

redandwhitedee added 19:16 - Jan 17 Iwasthere.. you are not the minority. Only on this forum. Everyone else I know remembers how bad koeman was. His 10 game run with no win, how he insisted on playing those he signed even though they were not performing. Finally the board forced him to drop pelle for long and his season was saved.
1

kenis added 19:52 - Jan 17 I wasn’t at the palace or Watford games but if they didn’t sack him before them I don’t see how cs dont see how can sack him after as it’s too reactionary. He’s here till end of the season and based on Puel lesson think he’ll stay if we stay up. IF we go down then we’ll get a promotion specialist who knows the championship. I’d like to see the squad going away for a few days and focus on a positive / confidence boosting experience. The players need it and the manager needs to just go for it and let a them loose. If we don’t sign anyone then need Sam G back from loan.

0

SanMarco added 20:37 - Jan 17 I think the problem with the poll is that it presents, in effect, a RK vs MP binary. Although I share some of the reservations about RK mentioned above I would still feel he was better than MP. Most available managers would beat MP in a 'straight fight'. RK vs say Martin O'Neill or Tuechel or Pellegrini (i not o) would be a bit more revealing.
5

dovif added 03:28 - Jan 18 Sorry I don't think your poll means much, if we ran a poll to have my Dog replace MP... it would get 100% approval
1

SanMarco added 11:37 - Jan 18 Is your dog available immediately though dovif?
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