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.

Photo: Action Images

PaleRider added 11:59 - Nov 9 Hi Matt - thanks for your insightful balanced article. It's a shame that many of the other articles on here are so lacking in the balance that you always display.
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wessexman added 12:06 - Nov 9 The WC break comes as as a godsend. Strangely enough, we will not be the only club making use of this bizarre interruption. Bournemouth down the road and maybe Everton and West Ham will be looking depending on results. I agree with the Nathan Jones assessment.....we are in a too big a predicament to go for a rookie. A striker come Jan 1st is an absolute must. Ralph did not help himself but you cannot help thinking that in buying a load of youngsters, not buying a striker and selling Romeo our manager was not exactly helped by the powers to be. But.....the board have now got to make a decision to make which will determine the future of our club. Let us hope rational thinking and patience will be high on the agenda.

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dirk_doone added 12:06 - Nov 9 With just 1 win in his last 5 games maybe it's time for Luton and Jones to part company. They seem to be on slide and are struggling to score goals the same as we are. Their recent 0-4 derby defeat to their bitter rivals Watford must have been quite a blow to their fans. When Stoke sacked him they were bottom of the table. I think he'd make a good fit for Pompey.
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IanRC added 13:42 - Nov 9 The difference between a drumming and us getting something from the game on Sunday was that shocking miss by Elynoussi at the end of the 1st half. Wonder if he was one of the dissatisfied dressing room. Even Eddie Howe admitted that we outplayed them for much of the game. Those who wished for RH gone earlier should have been more careful with what they wished for, as an appointment of Jones would be a huge risk.. Beginning to have real doubts about Sports Republic in view of their failure to bring in a striker over the summer and their apparent lack of ambition with regard to the manager appointment.

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dowater added 13:54 - Nov 9 first i do not believe that this has been a rush appointment. i believe (hope) that the board have been looking at replacements for quite some time and the sacking of RH was just the end of the process. i think that its a positive that we have acted quickly, the new manager will have time over the break to train and input his style of play on the team and give the new manager time to get results and keep us up. had we gone for a interim manager we are just wasting time and games to keep us up. as for the striker situation. lets be realistic. we do not have £30m to go and blow on a new proven talent and still no guarantee that he will get the goals we so sorely need/want. we have brought in 2 of the top championship strikers in the last 3 years and both are struggling, CA has never hit the 30 goals a season he did in the championship and neither has AA. we all keep saying it, our biggest problem is the defense. we ship goals like its going out of fashion, yet we have some great defenders that the bigger clubs are looking at. 1 clean sheet in 14 games is relegation form. had we not conceded so many and kept clean sheets we wouldnt be in the bottom 3 and those above us wouldnt be so high lets be positive whoever we appoint as our new manager hopefully they can get the best out of our squad, get the defense tight and forwards more accurate

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ElSanto added 15:07 - Nov 9 It’s foolish to say Nick’s articles are not balanced. He does have his opinions, but he also talked about Ralph’s team selections being strange, substitutions coming on too late, not having a decent level coaching staff etc. Some people only see what they want. They don’t have the ability to hold contrasting opinions and understand both sides.
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PaleRider added 16:17 - Nov 9 ElSanto - I'm afraid I have to disagree with you. As examples, Nick's consistent defence of Gao and attacking of Yoshida are testament to the lack of balance, as well as his continued disdain for Saints' fans. Others are equally guilty and every one is entitled to their own opinions. I agree with some of his opinions but to say they are balanced is just not correct. It's not a question of seeing what I want to see. I agree with some of his opinions but to say they are balanced is just not correct. If you were to look at my education and professional career you would see that I have the required intellect to see multiple facets of an argument. Perhaps you shouldn't jump to conclusions without knowing the full facts!

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Colburn added 16:51 - Nov 9 I agree this is a better more balanced article than many we have read from Nick and its the attack on other fans within the club and their opinions, accusing people of being short sighted and having knee jerk reactions has not endeared him to many.. Those sorts of remarks are inflammatory and bring out equally strong responses! However, I do see the emotion and passion behind Nick's words and know his love for the club and his desperation to see us succeed brings out the passion in his opinions. I have accused him of being this and that on this forum and sadly things online always come across harsher without body language etc and despite the disagreements, I know Nick is a top guy and these things can be lost in the disagreements. So no offence Nick, but this is a much fairer assessment of the recent history with Ralph. I think the club had decided weeks ago who they wanted in next so I don't think this is a quick move, it just could have been kept quiet for the day that Ralph left, out of respect.

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PaleRider added 17:10 - Nov 9 Colburn - you have expressed it better than me! I also admire Nick's passion and support for the team we all love. We are all on the same side and I think it reflects badly on the management of the club that it has sown division amongst the supporters (who are here before, during and after) the management. I think we are all worried about the future direction of the club and I can't help but compare our "progress" with that of a comparable club - Brighton.

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Ifonly added 17:12 - Nov 9 "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." Indeed and this is one reason why an extra new striker would have made no difference. RH doesn't start attacking players until they have spent a year on the training ground adopting his methods, which is mostly about closing down. Che didn't start many games when he joined, Adam A didn't start many last year and Mara hasn't been starting this year. Another new striker would have just been another option in the last 10 mins when it was already too late.

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