BEING sacked by Saints will come as a "relief" to Ralph Hasenhuttl, believes former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan.
Jordan was speaking as part of his regular co-presenter spot on talkSPORT.
Hasenhuttl was sacked by Saints on Monday morning, following Sunday's 4-1 defeat by Newcastle United, which left the south coast club in the Premier League relegation zone.
It brought to an end a near four-year stint in charge of Saints for the Austrian.
"I’m surprised it’s taken this long, primarily because you’ve had a new ownership model," said Jordan.
"And when the new ownership model came in, he wasn’t pulling up trees.
"And there’s lots of reasons. If you’re going to buy him a young squad, you’ve got to expect some time for this young squad to gel.
"It’s been years of situations with Southampton where they have unfortunately had to lose their best players, because other bigger clubs can lure them away by the presence of these other big clubs."
He added: "I’ve not been a big Hasenhuttl admirer. I admired him greatly for the ability to recover after the 9-0 spanking they got from Leicester and then three months later they righted that wrong by going and beating Leicester in the reverse game.
"I also wasn’t an admirer, and people didn’t like my attitude towards the fact that he was crying on the touchline after they beat Liverpool (in January 2021).
"I thought that was too much. I thought it showed a certain attitude and a side of your character that in the dressing room I don’t think players should need to see.
"Everyone is human, everyone is emotional, but I think you’ve got to maintain a degree of dignity and control and lead your players and expect to win games and not be overly emotional about when you do win them.
"But I think on the whole, at times, they’ve been after him. Or we’ve been after him, the media have been after him, whatever the category is.
"They’ve been building this narrative that forever and a day, this guy is going to get it, and he’s constantly avoided it. So I expect it’s probably a bleeding relief for him.
"If it were me, I’d want to have a conversation with Sean Dyche. I would look and Sean and say, okay, sensible, solid, is a long-term play?
"What I wouldn’t want is the situation where Sean Dyche publicly announces that he’s not interested! But I think someone like Sean Dyche is a conversation worth happening."
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