Nigel Adkins was sacked as manager of Southampton Football Club yesterday and immediately replaced with Argentinean manager, non English speaking, Mauricio Pochettino.This follows a fantastic 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge with current Champions of Europe Chelsea and a run of 12 games where they have tasted defeat only twice. However it seems this sort of form doesn’t quite cut it for Southampton’s executive chairman Nicola Cortese who insisted his actions were purely for footballing reasons and to take Southampton Football Club forward.
Adkins was appointed manager of Southampton in 2010 and has guided them to back-to-back promotions, from the lower end of League One to the Premier League – In view of this, it may be quite a harsh decision, however I do see where Cortese is coming from.
It’s a huge gamble at this stage of the season, especially when Southampton are finally beginning to adjust to Premier League life, but was there really much more Adkins could offer? With Pochettino at the helm, they have someone who has played the modern game and according to sources from his time with Espanyol, he is a ‘great tactician’. They have someone who is young and if successful could be at the club for years to come.
This could go either way, Improvement – Where Southampton begin to play ‘The Spanish Way’ and light up the Premier League or Deterioration – Where Southampton revert back to how they started the season and plummet back down to the Championship.
As I said, this is a huge gamble by Cortese and with just under half of the transfer window left, I expect there to be a few arrivals at St Mary’s in the coming days, but only time will tell how this will end.