Saints are playing Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend so the media are looking to make up a few stories about managerial changes.
According to radio station Talksport's website this morning Saints could be facing a battle to keep Mauricio Pochettino with Spurs already considering ditching Tim Sherwood only a few months into an 18 month contract.
Whether Talksport have a link into the Spurs boardroom or this is just more media speculation based on nothing more than Spurs reputation for jumping on the managerial merrygoround will perhaps be tested in the summer.
From a Saints perspective they are keen to tie down the Argentinian Tactician (Copyright the Calgary Herald) to a longer contract with his present deal like Sherwood's only taking him to the end of next season and advanced talks are being held in that regard.
In my opinion Pochettino has done well at Saints, but he is inexperienced in English football and therefore has made mistakes, however he has taken Saints forward and if he continues to learn then there is no reason why Saints should not continue to make the progress they made not only since his arrival but from the foundations laid down by the previous two managers in the role.
Since Spurs pinched Glenn Hoddle off us in 2001, Tim Sherwood is the 8th manager they have employed in a little over 12 years and perhaps Pochettino would do well to read the circumstances that Hoddle left and what happened to his career after, indeed two years later Hoddle would be sacked, ironically after Saints went up to White Hart Lane and won 3-1.
That makes it 7 managers in 10 years for Spurs, but take out another ex Saints boss Harry Redknapp who presided in the WHL hot seat for just under 4 seasons, Martin Jol who lasted 3 and the average shelf life (Good pun !!!) for a Spurs manager is not even a season.
Jacques Santini lasted 5 months, two of those where the close season, Juande Ramos lasted exactly a year and Andre Villas Boas went after a season and a bit back in December.
Pochettino should note that Spurs are chasing a dream of matching the big boys and regular Champions League qualification, however they are not taking note that clubs like their big rivals Arsenal, Man Utd and now Liverpool are succeeding not by firing managers every time something goes wrong, but by looking for continuity, their goals are not short term but long term and perhaps until those responsible for hiring and firing managers on the Spurs board grasp that, then they are perhaps destined to keep repeating their history of the last dozen or so years when either they sack their manager after a year or when the first thing goes wrong later in his tenure, whatever the motto was on the old Spurs crest i dont think it translated to patience is a virtue.
So perhaps Pochettino will be the next Spurs manager, if thats this summer then I think that perhaps it will be a repeat of history for Spurs, Pochettino is still not experienced enough in the Premier to take on a job such as Spurs, his background so far has been taking Espanyol and Saints from relegation fodder to mid table, whilst that may be acceptable to Saints in their current phase of development, it isnt what Spurs are looking for, far more experienced manager such as Andre Villas Boas have tried to move Spurs up a place or two but have failed, whoever takes the Spurs job needs to have a robust reputation and the experience to handle the pressure at this sort of level.
What is surprising is the number of ex Spurs managers who barely work again or in some cases never work again after the sack from the job, George Graham never took another managerial position, Glenn Hoddle had a year out, went to Wolves for a couple of years, but since leaving there in 2006 and never been employed again as a manager.
Jacques Santini after his year in the job spent a year at Auxerre but never worked as a manager again.
So history tells us the Spurs job is a poisoned chalice, whilst they on the face of it like to employ a young coach with an up and coming reputation, the hard fact is that it hasn't worked out foe them when they have done so, in fact when that coach has been foreign its usually been a recipe for disaster, in the last 20 years they have employed 6 foreign managers, only Martin Jol has lasted more than even Villas Boas short tenure.
Mauricio Pochettino is an ambitious man Im sure he wants to work at one of the big clubs one day, hopefully for his sake he wont be yet another young manager seduced by Spurs only to find their career in tatters in a fairly short time later.