It is hard to believe that only 7 months ago Southampton fans were dancing with joy at Wembley in the play off finals and describing the day as one of the best in their Saints supporting lives, the feeling could not be more different in the fan base today.

OK it wasn't an FA Cup final at Wembley back in May, but in these days where the so called Big Six clubs dominate both domestic cup finals and usually take up all the European qualification places, there are few things for the rest of the top two divisions to celebrate, other than avoiding relegation and getting promoted.

For Southampton FC it was the latter in a great day at Wembley, where Russell Martin stormed through the play offs, after tweaking his total possession football tactics for the final few games of the season.

Last term was ultimately successful, not because of possession football, we saw far too many poor performances and errors that cost us dearly, but because the manager changed things and showed he could adapt.

That led most to hope and I would include the owners of Sport Republic, the board of Southampton FC & the players themselves that Russell Martin would be flexible to adapt his tactics in the Premier League to suit his squad.

The first game at Newcastle showed that he hadn't, but the hope was there that he would learn fast, each game seemed to bring yet another error due to trying to play the ball along our own back line and slowly but surely even the most staunch of Russell Martin supporters came to the reality that this was not a man who was going to adapt, that he cared more about his own agenda than keeping Southampton FC in the Premier League.

Bearing in mind that Sport Republic had blundered through 3 managers in the 18 months they had been in charge before appointing Martin, their stock was not high with the supporters and the fans themselves were looking to Phil Parsons as CEO and Sport Republic themselves to show that they now had their fingers on the pulse.

No one can accuse the Saints fans of not staying loyal, they bought season ticket in record numbers and sold out the away games, the fans were determined to keep the momentum of the play offs going and they did not turn on Martin vocally at the games, until the Spurs game.

Most could see what was happening after the 3rd game, a debacle at Brentford, by the 6th game at Bournemouth there was no doubt, this was a squad who were not good enough to play the possession game to the level that Russell Martin wanted and we saw that day at Bournemouth that he did not know what to do next.

Four straight Premier League defeats followed and at this point the board should have acted, we all wanted Russell Martin to succeed, we knew that VAR had not been kind to us, but we were seeing game after game being thrown away as we kept getting caught playing out of defence.

That would not have been too bad, had we actually got the ball forward every now and then, but to be frank we didn't, by now the players were scared to try and play the killer pass.

So why did Sport republic not act back in October, approximately 8 weeks ago, why did they not act decisively and at least give the new manager a chance of escaping relegation, back then we were within 3 points of getting out of the relegation zone, now after 5 defeats and just a single draw in the last 6 games we have been cast adrift.

So after finally waking up to the situation and sacking Russell Martin, the club have to get this appointment right, they need to act swiftly to show that although on the surface they appeared to be dithering over sacking the manager, that behind the scenes they had been preparing for that moment.

But what way will the cookie crumble ? will they go for an experienced Premier League manager such as David Moyes in a short term appointment the hope that the situation is still retrievable or will they take the longer term viewpoint and go for an up and coming coach.

The fans would prefer to see someone experienced in the Premier League, but that does not mean they are right.

But whoever the club appoint, the supporters want to see that those in charge at St Mary's have their finger on the pulse, everyday that goes by without an appointment will see the fans blame the owners and cause division.

We need a catalyst, someone who can get the fanbase firmly behind the club again, this season the team has been supported, but not the club, that sounds a bit strange, but it is the truth, the fans have been magnificent in supporting the team, but their opinion of the manager and the club has gone steadily downhill to what is now an all time low.

The next manager needs to be someone who the fans can identify with and more importantly he needs to change the playing style, that does not mean that possession football should be completely ditched, everyone plays it, but no one except Manchester City played it to the level we did and that was the problem.

It needs to be tweaked and if it is then we have a squad that can win games of football, perhaps not enough now to keep us up, we may well have left the change of manager too late to be able to do that, but that he can show the supporters that we are building for next season.

There is a lot of flak at Dragan Solak and Sport Republic, but they have pumped plenty of money into this club, some would say in the first year of their reign they have been the victims of their own ambition, Joe Shears was a major acquisition in player recruitment, yet he was poached by Chelsea within 3 months of arriving, likewise Jason Wilcox of Manchester City who was poached by Manchester United within 6 months.

That has led to a lack of direction within the club and that too has to change.

Sport Republic's vision is long term, but that is not what the fans want, they want success now and will say that the 3 years that Sport Republic have been here has seen us go backwards not forwards.

So the ball is now very firmly in the club's court , they need to show strong leadership and unite the Southampton supporters behind both the club and team.

All Photos Via Reuters

Centurion added 10:27 - Dec 17 Good report Nick. As for the manager, do we go for a manager to get us out of the Championship? IMO the Premier League survival is all but lost.
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PaleRider added 11:31 - Dec 17 Nick - overall a reasonable article but I disagree with your comments about SR. Of course they have had a lot of flak - they have mismanaged Saints during their tenure (along with Valenciennes to be honest). They may have thrown some money at the club but as anyone who understands business knows - execution and implementation are critical and in this they have abjectly failed. They do need to show strong leadership - again, something they have failed to do so far. StMichael referenced a plan recently and you say that Sport Republic's vision is long term - could you explain what that vision and plan is? Again, anyone with an understanding of business is that it's a balance of long term and short term and that (short term) tactics are a means of executing (long term) strategy. The owners/board are only there as caretakers for the duration and need to balance skills of running a football club with business management skills. They have had the best part of three years after all - not a short amount of time! Measuring over this time scale, it's very difficult to cut them any slack and I have little optimism for the future of Saints under their ownership.

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PatfromPoole added 11:39 - Dec 17 You are right, Nick. He should have gone after the Boscombe game. Particularly as it was 2 days after Arsenal v Leicester on the Saturday, our next two opponents after Boscombe. He should have been at the Emirates watching the game, but was spotted in Winchester with Lucy Pinder and their assembled kids. That showed how little focus he had on Saints.
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Jesus_02 added 11:46 - Dec 17 Spray painting my focus cherry red wont turn it into a Porsche. Its looking increasing logical that we appoint someone like Hjulmand on a short term deal . Its going to be a very long season. Performances will not improve without Martin. He wasn't an idiot he just didn't have the options (player wise) to play any differently . It was really frustrating to watch but the difference was marked when we played Lallana and Onuacho. But they were both injured as despite having quality its clear that neither can cope with the physical demands of the PL. Fans are understandably frustrated that we don't get it forward earlier of cross the ball more often. But to who? Arma looked like a child next to the spurs defence.

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Bowlercow added 14:01 - Dec 17 It will take 8 games for the new man to instill his system into the players He will the have to win 10 straight games If he fails the fans will be calling for a change
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