Saints seemed to have slowed down in their appointing of a new manager, possibly because they want to avoid the ridicule that would have been thrown in their direction. if they had left the Premier League this afternoon with two managers in charge.

I can understand why Sport Republic have been keen to show to the fanbase that they are in charge of the situation at St Mary's and have been quick to make changes and rectify the issues.

But their pursuit of Russell Martin from Swansea City showed a lack of understanding on their part as they seemed set to try and unveil Martin as the new Saints boss ahead of the game against Liverpool with Ruben Selles still taking charge for that fixture.

That would be embarrassing, not only for the fact that it would be four manager at the club in one season, but also we would bizarrely have had two managers at the same time.

Whilst Ruben Selles might not be the most popular man amongst Saints supporters for the way he has blundered through the last 10 games or so , seemingly not knowing what to do for the best, he still deserved to be treated with dignity and that is something that Sport Republic have failed to realise.

Firstly whilst they might not have been the cause of the leak that Russell Martin is their man, they have done nothing to dampen them down, all the while whilst Ruben Selles was expected to carry on managing the team.

He should not have been asked to take the team for the Liverpool match and face the derision of the fans, for that matter neither should Martin have taken charge, his era should start from the final whistle against Liverpool, he should not have a defeat on his hands before he has even started.

Especially since his imminent arrival is not exactly being greeted with glee by the Southampton supporter base, he does not appear to have the track record for the task in hand next season, it seems to be a Nathan Jones mark 2 appointment, indeed Jones had a far better CV when he joined the club back in November.

I would also suggest that aside from calming down a fanbase in understandable meltdown at the moment, it is hardly likely to entice some of those players we might like to keep into staying with the club next season.

Swansea City fans website PlanetSwans suggest that Martin will be appointed on Tuesday, they say the finer points of the compensation deal with Swansea have now been agreed and the only thing holding it up is the fact that Sport Republic have finally realised the folly of appointing him before the Premier League season has ended.

The Brighton born Saints manager elect is expected to be at this afternoon’s game and has already started his planning for his new role.

He is expected to take Matt Gill and Dean Thornton with him as part of his backroom staff as a bare minimum, again this will not change many supporters minds about the new manager and his methods, I would hope that we start to get some experience in on the coaching staff, that is perhaps the main reason why we collapsed this season, Ruben Selles a man that had never managed a team at adult level, had a coaching staff with no Premier League experience prior to this season and it showed.

Today though is a day to put an end to this season and start again for the next one.

Photo: Action Images

WestSussexSaint added 09:32 - May 28 At least Martin will have the opportunity to watch todays game before he signs on the dotted line. He may decide to pull out if Liverpool give us a pasting. In all fairness to RM, calling him Nathan Jones mark 2 is hardly helping the fans form an opinion of him. Despite his lack of success in his relatively short career this appointment does feel different to the Jones one. There appears to be a bit more joined up thinking between SR and incoming Jason Wilcox to get a manager who aligns with their desired style of play for next season. Like any new manager he deserves out support…..until he doesn’t.

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arfurdent added 09:37 - May 28 surely Moses would have more experiene of being in the Wilderness for ten years
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Frank_Xerox added 10:41 - May 28 Let's get it right. SR have made some awful decisions so far, but as West Sussex Saint says, this appointment seems different to the Nathan Jones one and calling him Nathan Jones Mk 2 is lazy and unfair. As for timings, reading this, SR are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Assuming they didn't leak the news, then what are they meant to say? Lie and say it's not happening and make relations with the fans even worse when it turns out he is being appointed in Tuesday after all? Confirm it is happening and humiliate Ruben Selles even more? Sack Selles one match earlier? The idea that the news about Russell Martin will lead to more abuse for Selles doesn't work for me either. The Selles experiment clearly has failed, but you'd have to have a heart of stone to abuse the man today, knowing that he's a decent bloke who has given it his best (albeit it a pretty poor best) and is definitely going. Pressure off at last, I would say. So that just leaves the timing of the discussions between SFC, SCFC and Martin. Does anyone seriously think Saints should not have been working night and day to get next season's team in place as early as possible? If they hadn't done that, we'd all be even more annoyed that they'd lost an opportunity to get ahead with their planning. You don't need to be a Spurs fan to realise that hiring a new manager doesn't always go the way you'd hoped! I'm not sure Russell Martin will turn out to be the manager we need, but back to West Sussex Saint's comment again, the least he deserves is our support ... until he doesn't.

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Monksway added 12:33 - May 28 Agree with Frank. I know SR have made some awful mistakes and appointing NJ in November was a complete aberration. However I don't think they are handling this situation particularly badly. Knowing Selles is going should remove some toxicity from today's match. I suspect it will be very downbeat in every sense. RM isn't NJ mark 2 in fact the complete opposite in terms of approach. Whether this is what we need to get out of the Championship is another matter but let's get today over with, sell and offload as appropriate and start planning for next season ASAP.

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Bowlercow added 13:38 - May 28 As I have always done I will give RuMa ten games to prove his worth or otherwise Some of the managers we have had didn't take ten games to prove themselves RoKo on the good side and Jones on the flip side I hope this one proves to be more like the former and a million miles better than the latter Since Markus bought us we have had a fair smattering of good and bad Fingers crossed

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ItchenNorth added 13:53 - May 28 Ha ha ha, stop covering your own paniced ass. Who said Saints were going to announce Martin before Sunday's game, at Sunday's game.......... wait, no one. You put 2 and 2 together and got 9! Perhaps stop speculating to enforce your agenda!
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