With Hughes in place, we are going down, so if needs be, give him a contract similar to Hughes last season. That way, if we still go down, nothing lost, if we stay up, then review the situation in the summer. Sadly, beggars can’t be choosers, so very few managers will take the job under the present regime.

Watching from a distance as a geographically distant supporter so much seems awry.

1) The situation with Mark Hughes seems to be drifting to an end. Drift is dangerous - plunge the metaphorical dagger or announce he is being stuck with but end this perennial drift. I fear he may be a manager who has not changed sufficiently with the demands of the premier league. It had caught him out at Stoke and is doing so with Saints. The board needs to find some courage and sack him or back him and do so quickly.
2) The squad is not one currently equipped for a relegation fight. I sometimes think that chemistry between players and supporters can make such a difference. When a squad is technically less gifted (take Cardiff or Huddersfield) supporter know only encouragement will do. When a squad, as the Saints squad currently is, ought to have sufficient quality not to be in this mess unity can be replaced by discord. As a supporter from a distance with a few exceptions the squad seems to lack the collective sense of unity needed to battle relegation. Talent may be there but tenacity and grit less so. At least without something changing. This in turn means the supporters feel less affinity. Saints stayed up in the 90’s with supporters and players as one because the likes of Benali may not have been the greatest players but the fact they demonstrably cared for the club meant the supporters did too.
3) The club has lost its identity. We have sold the family silver and stocked up with Ratner standard replacements. We have stopped growing our own, or stopped giving our own a chance, and thus lost our sense of being a club that promotes and nurtures its in house talent.
4) Leadership at the top of the club seems to lack clarity or sense the urgency of the club’s current plight. I am not sure at this point in time it is a Sousa who is needed. The club needs an Allardyce type manager. What matters now is survival not another experiment. It is someone with a track record of getting clubs out of the mire they have got themselves in.
5) The board itself seems flawed. Minimal public comment, little clarity of vision and no sense that they see what is unravelling before their eyes. Indifference or lack of urgency in the boardroom filters down through the club.

I hope it doesn’t happen but the club has that feel of relegation around it. It need not happen but someone at the top needs to take their head out of the sand. If they do not that perhaps would imply that passivity from the top is to become the norm with dire consequences ensuing. Time for those at the top to smell the proverbial coffee!

It sounds inevitable (according to some) that Mark Hughes will be on his way if Saints lose dramatically v.Man Utd. Well after all - it is only Man U. (!)
Hughes was tainted with his sacking from Stoke before he joined Saints in the Spring, and Stoke's subsequecnt relegation only went to show that even Hughes' replacement wasn't up to the task , and so far this season they haven't set the Championship alight either.

IF Hughes goes can we expect a "Superman " figure emerge and reverse our bad trend and even get us on a good cup run-even Puel and Pellegrino managed that OK.
ANSWER : I think not. Those of you who like to ignore stats. should avert your eyes...but once again Saints have had more shots this season than any club outside the top six and yet have one of the worst goalscoring records in the League. All those near-misses, shots off the woodwork and missed chances surely go beyond the term of " bad luck".
All of our strike force have a share of the blame , and surely someone could make a good training film of Shane Long's 99 ways of missing goal chances.

The well-documented defensive errors that have cost us valuable points (this season and last) are far outweighed by the "sometimes" excellent chances fluffed by our Fab (sorry) " Sad Four "...up front. More jokes about the proverbial " barn door".
If Hughes does go - it maybe harder still on his successor, who will need a very good magic wand, if we are to reverse this deplorable lack of goals.

Don’t know enough about him but would have preferred (based on what I do know from my armchair) Flores or Bosz or Jardim. Definitely don’t want Allardyce, Bruce. Monk or Moyes not sure

They may well be waiting for the current crop of tough fixtures (Man U, Tottenham, Arsenal etc) to be over before wielding the axe, to give any new boy a fair chance of a not too demoralising start.

But if anyone thinks Sousa is the answer, they obviously haven't read ex Saint Garry Monk's account in Chapter 7 of his autobiography of Sousa's season at Swansea while Monk was captain. Lazy, disorganised, uninterested, commanding no respect - but looks and sounds good with a great playing CV- so can easily fox people who know nothing about football (ie Saints hierarchy).

As Captain, Monk took over some of the training himself. In the end Leicester came in and hired him-just before he was about to be booted out by Swansea. It prompted a phone call to Monk from his ex Saint chum, Matt Oakley - then at Leicester saying 'Who the hell is this bloke?' And then a few weeks later, Leicester sacked him after a disastrous run of results, amid much gnashing of teeth and payment of compo.

I guess I'm one of those with mixed feelings about Hughes- some disastrous games, but some bad luck. Depends who they are thinking of bringing in - Sousa obviously a disaster in waiting - but if they do change why not someone like Big Sam?

He may not be versed in 'The Southampton Way'. But the Southampton way is seeing us sinking slowly towards a trip down the M27next year.

Or even Moyes (who Rupert Lowe rejected as manager before he went onto success at Everton, because he wanted to bring an assistant with him - or one of his 'mates' as Rupert called him).

Either way, we need some wins.....could Sam be the man?

Sousa's position at Tianjin Quanjian seems to have been similar to Hughes' position here now:

"Paulo Sousa leaves Tianjin Quanjian amid relegation fears


Paulo Sousa left his position as head coach of Chinese Super League side Tianjin Quanjian by mutual consent on Thursday, the club announced, after a run of poor results brought fears of relegation.

Just one win in the last 10 games has seen the big-spending Tianjin, who finished third last season under Fabio Cannavaro, drop to within five points of the relegation zone with six games of the season remaining. Even with Brazilian striker Alexandre Pato, the club have scored just two goals in the last seven matches.

At the same time, Tianjin exited the AFC Champions League in September, thrashed 5-0 on aggregate by Kashima Antlers of Japan. Ever since that loss, the local media has been speculating as to whether the former Fiorentina and Swansea City boss, appointed in November 2017, would last until the end of the season."

David Moyes

The situation is a joke as is employing yet another unemployed no hoper in Sousa, why cant we for once pay the small amount of compensation and hire some-one that has an identity and back bone,
I don't think the hierarchy at our club give a monkees whos in charge just as long as we can still sell players ,we are one of the worst teams on and off the pitch in all four leagues a complete embarrassment among other fans so I ask why us and its quite simply easy money for the owners
we could not put on a show or entertain anybody so who is responsible for all that.

Typical Saints board. Indecisive and ridulous all at once.
For gods sake. If your gonna do then do it. Stop f***ing around. Go and get Jardim and be done with it. Dont be cheap.No Sousa, no Monk, no Moyes and defo not Allardyce.

No thanks

José Mourinho will be available soon... worth considering ;)

No get Brendon he'll sort it out

I can't find one piece of information pointing towards Sousa being a good choice. We need an improvement on Hughes not someone worse.