According to media in the West Midlands, Aston Villa's short list to replace Dean Smith after his defeat at Southampton on Friday include Saints manager Ralph Hasenhuttl and Glasgow Rangers boss Steven Gerrard.
A couple of months ago some Saints fans were calling for the head of Ralph Hasenhuttl after what they saw as a bad start to the season, although thankfully the Saints board could see what the Austrian was trying to achieve at St Mary's and look at his tenure as being a long term project. Certainly back in October CEO Martin Semmens had been quick to back his manager and tell the club's supporters that it is not about the odd bad result or period, but the way the club is heading in the long term.
Fast forward a few short weeks in football and even a lot of those who wanted Hasenhuttl gone are now starting to see that we are building a decent squad again, there is still a lot of work to be done though and hopefully Ralph sees it that way as well.
Aston Villa have lost 5 Premier League games in a row and now Dean Smith is gone, as I said football is sometimes very short termist, after 6 games Villa were flying high and talking about challenging for Europe, they had raked in big money from the sale of Jack Grealish and spent it on three big signings including Danny Ings from Saints.
With half a dozen games gone Smith's standing was high and Hasenhuttl was under fire, yet now the pendulum has well and truly swung.
So most Saints fans will be dismayed to hear that the Villa board are considering Ralph Hasenhuttl as a replacement for Smith as well as ex Liverpool player and current Rangers manager Steven Gerrard.
I have always backed Ralph Hasenhuttl and seen what he has had to try to achieve with a limited budget, some fans could not see the irony of demanding Gao Out for not putting money in and then slating the manager for not being in the top 10 with no money to spend. I do understand that this was not the opinion of most Saints fans, but the vocal minority on social media, but it felt like it was.
To lose Hasenhuttl now as he approaches his third year at the club would be a disaster in my opinion, he has given us stability that we have lacked for over 30 years evidenced by the fact that he is the longest serving manager since Chris Nicholl left the club in 1991.
He has also build a structure within the club that has been lacking for a long time and slowly has built up a squad with a mix of quantity and quality.
This is why he has attracted the interest of of Aston Villa now and if he carries on with the progress he has made at St Mary's Aston Villa will not be the last club to show interest.
Hopefully Villa will look elsewhere, with the money their owners have, they are looking for instant success and a name manager and not another manager in a similar vein to Dean Smith who like Hasenhuttl has worked hard for his club and rebuilt it after it's relegation in 2016, yet that progress has been rewarded with the sack after a short run of defeats.