Former Chelsea and Celtic forward Chris Sutton says Southampton would have been better off keeping Ralph Hasenhuttl in charge of the club rather than sacking the Austrian.
Saints decided to part ways with Hasenhuttl after almost four years in charge of the club in November, citing the club’s poor run of form in the Premier League as a reason for sending him packing.
His replacement was former Luton Town and Stoke City boss Nathan Jones, though the Welshman lasted just three months in the job before he too was sacked in February for a run of bad results.
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Ruben Selles, who had been in the background working as a first team coach during the season, was then given the reins, though despite starting well with two wins in his first four games, Saints then quickly nosedived with eight defeats in their last ten games.
That’s now seen them officially relegated from the Premier League for the first time since 2005, with questions now being asked of club owners Sport Republic for their decision-making during the season.
“It is a hard one to judge,” said Sutton on the Football Daily podcast. “I think they would have been better off staying with [Ralph] Hasenhuttl.
“You ask Southampton fans and they are saying he had to go, he possibly should have gone at the end of last season, so you understand that. What we do know is the self proclaimed messiah coming in, Nathan Jones, that was an absolute disaster. One of the best coaches in Europe, in his opinion, but they were doomed from that moment.”
Sutton was also critical of the turnover of players and staff during the season, including the decision to let experienced midfielder Oriol Romeu leave the club a year before his contract expired.
The Spaniard was of Hasenhuttl’s most trusted generals on the pitch and, combined with the departures of Jack Stephens, Fraser Forster and Nathan Redmond among others, saw the Southampton dressing room stripped of most of its experience during one transfer window.
“Romeu seemed a really odd one,” Sutton continued. “His experience I think was vital. They are probably going to lose James Ward-Prowse now and it is how they go again.
“The other thing that was really odd was the guy Joe Shields coming in to do the recruitment and he cleared off after a few months to go to Chelsea. The whole season has just been chaotic hasn’t it.”
He added: “How are they going to recover from this? Firstly, they need to make a decision on whether to stick with Ruben Selles, whose record of two wins in 14 games is not necessarily on him, but it is how are they going to move forward?”
Former Stoke City and Scotland midfielder Charlie Adam was also speaking on the Football Daily podcast and suggested that the culture and standards at Southampton may have slipped and contributed towards the club’s slide towards relegation.
Saints skipper James Ward-Prowse alluded to a lack of effort following last Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat against Fulham, saying that he didn’t feel the players had done enough when it came to giving their all for the team.
“To be fair, Ward-Prowse said about the standards and that for me comes from within the dressing room and also from the management,” said Adam.
“If the manager is allowing players to turn up late for training or whatever, not doing the right things, that is the culture of your football club and that can take its toll on other players trying to do it right.
“We had that at Stoke where people turned up late and nothing was done about it and all of a sudden, the culture it becomes a divide within the group, and I think that’s how it sounds at Southampton. I’m not saying [that is the case], but it could happen and Ward-Prowse talked about the standards every day from the top to the bottom, there is a lot going on, not just on the pitch, but off the pitch as well.
“If the culture is wrong, it is small things, but if it becomes a habit and bad habits it seeps in to the whole football club and it takes your performance onto the pitch.”
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