THE sacking of Nigel Adkins at Southampton was probably the harshest thing I've ever seen in football.
I've seen a few, but to me, if you look at the two records, one doesn't stand up to the other one.
The one that doesn't stand up gets given the job, and he lost his job in Spain.
He got worse in the four years or so he was there, so how does that work?
It's obviously down to something with the chairman and their relationship. Maybe it's something we don't know, because it can't be on football.
Southampton were actually hitting the best peak of form they've had under Nigel – six games undefeated.
I think the team looked confident, and the hardest part when losing a few is regaining and keeping your confidence.
Nigel had been superb at that club – it's just the madness of football.
At the end of the day, they are owners of clubs and they can hire or fire people, but surely there has to be some sort of rule to it.
People are winning games and have taken that club from where they were two-and-a-half years ago in League One to 15th in the top league of our country.
To me, it just sums up football. There are more owners who don't know that much about their clubs – they can say they care about it, but do they?
It's very sad for the club because they've got a bloke who doesn't speak English there and now making gestures on the line.
All I know is that having a translator next to him will make it that much more difficult for him to get his message across to the players.
They looked a well-organised unit and I thought the fans and players made a great attempt, but for captain Morgan Schneiderlin to say after the game that it will be great the more Pochettino works with the players? Good God, any chance of wanting to wish his ex-manager the best? It's just not right.
Adkins will always have a place in the hearts of Southampton supporters and if it doesn't go very well under Pochettino, you'll start hearing his name again.
This is the game we're in now in this country. It's changing and there's more hire and fire and sack – it's become a case of more owners choosing players or interfering with the players the management bring in.
It's getting more and more continental all the time.
