When Saints fans talk of the difference between Ronald Koeman and Mauricio Pochettino it is very often a tale of two c words.

Whatever happens this season there can be no doubt that Saints supporters consider Ronald Koeman to be a far better fit as manager of Southampton Football Club, he seems to have embraced the club, its culture, its supporters and even the City of Southampton in a way that you never felt his predecessor ever did or indeed showed any interest in doing.

Add to that the way he completely rebuilt the squad and made it bigger and better than before at a time when many including some of our own support where writing us off and predicting relegation.

But in came Koeman and he showed why wherever he has been in football he has left with the affection of that Club's supporters ringing in his ears, I could wax lyrical een further about just what he has done for this football club, but it can be all summed up by using just one word beginning with C

"CLASS"

A year ago there were many who spoke of Mauricio Pochettino in the same glowing terms, I have to say I never warmed to the man, whether it was his refusal to speak English at press conferences or just the way he didn't have a squad but around a dozen or so individuals that he played to distraction, I just felt that here was a man who did not care for Southampton, its football club or its supporters, that he could not even show us the respect of addressing us directly in our own language even though after his initial period his English was good enough to do that.

The translation of what he did say did not sound good to me, he spoke often about qualifying for the Champions league, but that seemed to be lip service, he showed distain for the domestic cups and he publicly stated that the Europa League was of no interest to him.

To me that didn't sound like a man with ambition, he had spent all of his career with Espanyol avoiding relegation and it now seemed that at St Mary's his ambition stretched no further than that, he did not wish to damage his own reputation and was putting that before the growth of Saints.

When his mentor Nicola Cortese left, there were rumours that he would be out of the door soon after, these rumours were fueled further when Spurs announced that Tim Sherwood would not be retained at the end of 2013/14, the feeling was that Pochettino had already been sounded out and that a change would happen at the end of the season.

Pochettino of course denied this, but he refused to commit himself to the club even though technically he still had another year left on his contract, behind the scenes the Saints board were trying to pin him down, but they were unable too and you had the feeling that they were as mistrusting of the Argentinian manager as some supporter were at this stage.

The feeling amongst some was that he was only staying till the Spurs job became vacant and that whilst he was here he would be speaking to players contracted to Saints and perhaps talking of his next job hwerever that may be to him.

Of course we now know what happened at the end of the season, allegedly Pochettino met with the Saints board and said that he wished to leave Saints and at this stage he had no intention of joining anyone else, after being reminded that there was a break clause in his contract he left to ponder his options, Spurs were soon in touch with Saints.

So Saints fans remember Mauricio Pochettino not with affection as they really should do but with the same feeling of being strung alon that they felt when Spurs poached another manager of ours in 2001 Glenn Hoddle, an even that led to then Saints Chairman Rupert Lowe describing Tottenham as "A bunch of North London Yobbos" for the way they pushed that deal through.

The Hoddle deal though came virtually out of the blue whereas Pochettino continued with Saints for around 4 months when on reflection it was clear his heart wasn't really in it.

It cannot be denied that Pochettino got the best out of some of his players but he underperformed in many ways and unlike Koeman most of his team were inheirited rather than signed by him.

So there are many words beginning with C that could describe Mauricio Pochettino but this is a family website so i will use just one.

"CUNNING"

Photo: Action Images

ItchenNorth added 13:28 - Apr 23 Personally I haven't got a problem with Pochettino; because he took the club / team forward during his time with us ! Equally if Pochettino hadn't left we wouldn't have Koeman ! It is though the one game I really want Saints to win this season !
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ChristchurchSaint added 20:09 - Apr 23 Excellent words Nick. I have to agree with you totally about MP ( sorry, I won't even mention his name!). Although I admit he did do wonders with our club, I always felt that he was using us to get to higher things within the EPL. I could also add another C word: "Cold". I felt that he warmed to those players that were within his confidante, but those that were not some of the "Chosen Few" were left on the outside looking in. RoKo , on the other hand always comes over as being "Warm" and seems to endear himself more and more to fans as time goes by.

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