Each week a Twitter poll is run on Saints Marching’s official account, grasping the views of the Southampton faithful on a topical subject.
This week’s poll was actually run as a reaction to the drubbing at the hands of Leicester, but with the game against Chelsea coming so quickly after the defeat to the Foxes, there was no room at the inn for the analysis to the poll.
Nonetheless with Southampton losing to a fairly average Chelsea this past weekend, the poll and it’s result remains very relevant.
Claude Puel’s sacking over the summer was always going to be a crowd-divider. The view among the Saints’ supporters was that it was the correct move – there was an obvious regression and a negative atmosphere around the club. It seemed that Puel had lost the support of both fans and players.
However from outside it seemed like a weird decision. Southampton finished eighth and with a League Cup runners-up medal in tow, despite the fact that star players Charlie Austin and Virgil van Dijk were injured for great portions of the campaign.
WEEKLY POLL: Hindsight if a beautiful thing after Wednesday - who would you rather have managing #SaintsFC right now?
— Saints Marching (@SaintsMarching_) December 15, 2017
With Puel and his Leicester side completely dismantling the Saints in their own backyard, hundreds of Southampton fans took to social media to suggest that the Frenchman should not of lost his job.
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Leicester are currently eighth, with the 56-year-old having won more games than Pellegrino this season, despite taking over at the tail end of October.
With that in mind, just over half of those who voted in the poll would rather have Puel in charge than their current boss – although the final result was as narrow as they come.
46% of people would still rather have Pellegrino at the helm, despite the fact that the Argentine has won just four games all season with just one more match until Christmas.
Pellegrino was seemingly brought in to play high-tempo, attacking football which was so sorely missed during the Puel era but so far Southampton fans are yet to see that.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and and we’ll never know whether the Saints would be in a better league position right now had they stuck with Puel rather than sacked him.