Nowadays one expects a new manager to bring in his own staff who " know his ways ". The fact that we have an established name like Dave Watson (one time England gk coach) is safe enough, but I wonder if your "opinion / criticism " of Kelvin Davis is really justified?

KD has been with the club since 2006 and has the most g.k. apps (300) in Saints' history and has been team and club captain, one can hardly say he's gone around with his eyes closed or hasn't learned something along the way - even after his playing days were over he wasn't AWOL and was always with the squad both in training and in dressing room.

Just how good a coach he is / will become.. remains to be seen but to suggest someone who has been with the club for 12 years is "inexperienced" may need a re-think Nick...

Underwestand. There is more to being a coach than being with a squad and in the dressing room, if that was the case then the likes of Bobby Moore Bobby Charlton and our own Terry Paine would be the three greatest English managers in history.

Kelvin retired from playing in 2016 although effectively his playing time ended after the first five games of our return to the Premier League in 2012, for a year he worked in the support staff at st mary's in a non coaching role, so presumably was not in the dressing room on matchdays.

He became a coach on 29th December last year, he had no qualifications at this stage, he seemed to be a man whom the club wanted to reward for his long service, but for a while couldnt quite fit him into a role.

Under Pellegrino it was thought that after Eric Black left perhaps he could fill a liason role between Pellegrino and his foreign coaches who were struggling with the culture of not only the club but the Premier League, at this stage he would very much be the junior man.

Mark Hughes brought in an assistant and a coach, again Kelvin would have been on the peripheral how much "Coaching" he did is open to debate.

Now the question is whether he get a more hands on role, yes he is still needed for his experience of English football and the Premier League, but how much Ralph will trust him further is yet to be seen.

Yes he might have 12 years experience at the club, but that is not coaching experience and that is a big issue, coaching is a lot more than a few drills its about having the respect of the players and that has to be earned, does he have that respect we are yet to find out.

My worry is that when he picked the team he reverted to Yoshida, Stephens, Davis and Ward Prowse all players he had played with in the past, when Ralph walked in he dropped the lot of them, that doesnt suggest that he trust's Kelvin's judgement, I am struggling as to why he selected that team unless asked to which doesnt look the case.

You are right the jurys out he might become a good coach, but can we take the chance in the meantime

I'm conscious of what you wrote Nick, and maybe I expected this sort of response, but the fact remains KD has been with Saints under half-a-dozen managers ..maybe more and I can't believe that he hasn't learned something from them all - even if it was how NOT to do things. There is such a thing as learning by watching others ....which is what all courses are about, and the man isn't stupid.
I wasn't suggesting that he was OK to be first team coach at the moment (in fact I'm expecting yet another "Hasenhutti favourite" to turn up fairly soon) but your tone of phrase in the original article seemed to suggest you thought KD to be an inexperienced beginner, which I don't believe him to be.

As for your other comments; YES I also recall those World Cup players who tried their hand at managing and you might also have included Martin Peters, Jack Charlton and Alan Ball in your comments. The last two named did have managerial careers - albeit at lower levels- and without great success, and sadly Bally's departure (to manage Man City) was a mistake that harmed both him and Saints at a time when we needed stability.

As for KD's one game team selection - I think most managers would utilise their most experienced players - especially against a team like Spurs. Our record against them is abysmal and the one point we did get of late was through an own goal. KD has 48 hours notice to pick from a squad without key players and that (for the most part) had also failed for Pellegrino and Puel and I might have chosen much the same team on the day. Your thoughts on Yoshida have been on record for sometime past, although I've never totally agreed with them either. The result on the day was hard on the Saints, only because "the usual suspects" made the usual mistakes - and not for the first time.

As for "respect " for KD . Has anyone ever heard a bad word about KD from the playing staff ? I agree that respect has to be earned but I think he's past that barrier by now - don't you?

and finally ...YES Hasenhuttl made changes ..that's what he's there for . and if we don't get a result against Arsenal ...I'm sure he'll make even more changes ... until he gets it right, or until we are relegated.

I hope Hass brings in as many as he can to make him feel comfortable and give us a fighting chance of staying up, I thought Kelvin Davis was nothing more than an ambassador for the club a liaison between players and manager, in this day and age its all about coaching badges and Kd has none of those, KD has bags of experience as a player mainly on the losing side always beaten at the near post even when the home support were shouting to him to cover the near post he would still fall for it, come to think of it he was beaten low in the corners and in the top corners with alarming regularity in the end he was getting bigged up just for making a save so how much he was capable of learning is anyone's guess , he was extremely loyal though but like yoshida sooner or later you have to say goodbye with a big thanks of course,
a lot of our squad are not good enough but some will fit into the new fast paced system and some will leave I hope the biggest disappointment of all those forster goes he has never looked good except for the odd game even with an England gk coach and good old Kelvin to teach him i think all of them can go and replace them with some hungrier coaches and free up the wages