Southampton have announced that the appointment of Mauricio Pellegrino as its new Manager. Pellegrino has been managing the Spanish side Alaves in season 2016/2017. He has also been a Rafael Benitez assistant between 2008 and 2010. The 45-year-old has signed a 3-year contract with Southampton and is about to join the Club from July to start pre-season with the Saints.

The Argentinian manager has also manager Estudiantes between 2013 and 2015, and Independiente in season 2015/2016. This would help him a lot on the summer transfer market to bring some promising players from his home country to the Premier League. Within the last few seasons Southampton have transformed themselves into a money machine in the English football, but selling some of their best players each season. They have been bringing good players relatively cheap, developing them for a season under managers like Mauricio Pochettino, Ronald Koeman and Claude Puel and then sold them to for big money.

Among the players transferred out by the Saints are: Calum Chambers for for £16 million to Arsenal, Morgan Schneiderlin for £25 million and Luke Shaw for £27 million to Man United, Victor Wanyama – £11 million to Tottenham, Rickie Lambert for £4 million, Adam Lallana for £25 million, Dejan Lovren for £20 million, Nathaniel Clyne for £12 million, Sadio Mane for £34 million – to Liverpool, Graziano Pelle for £12 million to China, Jose Fonte for £8 million West Ham.

Now the club would probably expect Pellegrino to bring fresh footballing talent to the club, just for some of the players lie Dusan Tadic, Ryan Bertrand, Virgil van Dijk to be sold at the end of the next season.

The Saints – a selling club or one that competes for trophies?

Southampton sacked Claude Puel despite that he led the club to the League Cup final and finished 8th in the Premier League. The reason for his sacking was that the Saint’s bosses were unimpressed with the teams playing style. There have also been reservations about his methods among the players and the fans.

After the Pellegrino’s appointment, the Southampton’s legend Matt Le Tissier has said that he believes that the club’s decision to bring Mauricio Pellegrino in will reignite hope among the fans ahead of the new season. Le Tissier told Sky Sports that he hopes the new manager to “bring back the fast-paced style of play which brought so much success for the Saints”.

He said that the biggest thing for Southampton under Pellegrino would be to add more creativity in the way the team plays. According to Matt Le Tissier, it would be great for the Saints, if they play with more of the high pressing that they used to use a lot under Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman.

“That’s what the club are looking for – somebody who can take the club back to the way we were playing before last season”, explained the legendary Saints player. He commented that the Mauricio Pellegrino’s appointment as Southampton manager is “a very typical Southampton appointment over the last few years”. He added that if Pellegrino is going to be as successful as most of the previous managers were, according to him, “every Southampton fan will be looking forward to him”.

The biggest challenge for the Argentinian manager is to motivate the Southampton’s best players to stay at the club, to bring some that would improve the team. Then he’d try to transform the Saints from a club that develops players to one that fights for the top spots in the Premier League. However, to achieve that he’d need the full support of the club’s owners.