Paul Merson has raised an interesting point about Russell Martin which Southampton fans have been waiting to hear.
Up until last week, Premier League fans didn't bother much to keep updated with Southampton's circumstances. Understandably, so as the Saints had carved out a rock-bottom image of themselves for months and had already seen a plethora of scathing assessments and stinging critiques directed their way.
To give an idea, many pundits as well as rivals also decreased their routine Southampton slamming and simply wrote them off as Championship-boys. And this could have been the usual scenario again if Southampton had only lost to Tottenham Hotspur.
That was indeed the case but Ivan Juric's swift removal after the match has raised many question marks about Southampton's long-term vision. After all, naming three different coaches in back-to-back Premier League seasons doesn't do any good to the club's future planning.
Merson signals Russell Martin's dismissal was a poor decision in hindsight
But Russell Martin's exit still stands as the most irritating of all the dismissals Southampton made. Since this year, the St. Mary's faithful has always been wondering what bettered Juric from Martin if the Croatian was equally incapable to avoid the top-flight drop similar to the former.
Optimistically for the Saints, their most vocal fault-finder Paul Merson has raised this point to the club's transfer chiefs.
In his own words, the Daily Echo quoted Merson speaking on Sky Sports: "I thought the whole idea was to bring him in so they can build for next season. Otherwise, you might as well have kept Russell Martin, who's done it before and brought them up."
At this stage, all Southampton fans can do is stay fingers-crossed that the first-team somehow forks out a couple of points to prevent further humiliation. Because, offloading Juric could also be the biggest talking point soon if Southampton earns the tag of the weakest Premier League outfit ever.