Mauricio Pochettino left St Mary's under a cloud back in the summer of 2014 and although he became public enemy number 1 for a while there can be no doubt he did a reasonable job at the club, but how does his record compare against Ralph Hasenhuttl's.
Mauricio Pochettino was respected during his time at Southampton, but he was never truly liked due to his insistence that he would only converse in Spanish during press conferences, at first that was a little understandable but in the latter period of his 16 months or so at the club it became a little wearing and stank of not only an arrogance to the press, but also of being aloof and disrespectful to the Saints fans when it was quite clear that he spoke better English than he was letting on.
Ralph Hasenhuttl on the other hand is the polar opposite, he wears his heart on his sleeve and has a passion for the club, OK it may not be his everlasting passion, but whilst he is here he will give 100% and respects the club and it's fans and the part they have to play.
But being nice does not win you games of football and ultimately at any football club it is about results and achieving to the maximum, Pochettino was tolerated because he did well and Nigel Adkins was quickly forgotten by some because in the Premier League he had struggled even though his record was almost identical in the first part of the season to his predecessors.
So how do Ralph Hasenhuttl and Mauricio Pochettino compare as Saints managers ?
Pochettino when he took over officially for the first time was in for the remaining 15 games of the Premier League season, of those games he won 4, drew 6 and lost 5 making it a total of 18 points from 15 games at a ratio of 1.20 per game.
It was a patchy start in that in his first 6 league games we won only once drew twice and lost 3 for a points total of 5, compare that record to Hasenhuttl's first 6 where we won 3 drew 1 and lost 2 for a points total of 10, so it's first blood to Ralph in the short term.
If we go a bit longer so far Hasenhuttl has managed in 14 games in the Premier League, he has won 5, drew 3 and lost 6 at a points per game total of 18, that as you will see two paragraphs above is slightly better than Pochettino's opening season's total, the points are the same but Ralph has played a game less.
That means that so far game for game Ralph with 1.28 points per game is ahead of Poch with 1.2, but of course that could change Saturday, when Ralph's rate could get that much better if Saints win and Pochettino is playing not just for points but to try and make the man in the home dugout's record over 15 games identical.
So short and medium term Ralph Hasenhuttl has the better record than the nowSpurs manager and that of course bodes well for the future in that Pochettino took over a team with the likes of Lallana, Schneiderlin, Shaw, Clyne, Fonte, Lambert and of course Yoshida and at the moment we could do with a couple of those in our team.
So the big question is whether Ralph Hasenhuttl can build on his promising start with Saints and go on to better Pochettino in the longer term, overall the Argentinian gained 74 points from 53 games in charge a ratio of 1.39 per game and if we can beat Spurs for the first time at home since 2005 then that will not only make it a double for Ralph with the better stats over the first 6 and 15 games, but it would also make it a points per game ratio of 1.4 per game to complete the hat trick.
There is a long way to go this season but the good news is that Ralph Hasenhuttl is shaping up well in his first three months or so, yes there have been blips and failings, but he is still getting the points required.
If he can maintain 1.28 points per game in the final quarter of the season then we will be safe long before the end of the season, if we can do that then like his predecessor now at Spurs he can take us forward in his second season to the lofty heights of the top 10 again.
Victory to Ralph so far, let's hope it continues on Saturday !