Hughes guides Saints to safety, but is lambasted by Stoke

IT says much about an eventful season for Mark Hughes that in a week during which he has won so much praise for almost certainly keeping Southampton in the Premier League, he has also found himself being blamed for taking his previous team down.

On the day Saints won their crucial relegation showdown with Swansea City, Hughes’ previous club Stoke City, who had their relegation confirmed last weekend, released a statement from their owners suggesting they should have sacked him earlier.

“It is right that supporters will question whether we should have made a managerial change sooner,” said Peter and John Coates, who got rid of Hughes in January. “With hindsight, we perhaps should have made an earlier change.”

Stoke fans accused Hughes, who was axed with the club in the relegation zone, of failing to organise or motivate a talented squad who under-performed amid reports of ill-discipline and open revolt. Few supporters bemoaned his departure. Tomoorrow (All games 4pm)

Yet within hours of the Coates’ barbed statement, Hughes was lauded by one of his new players for his transformative work at Southampton.

Oriol Romeu said that Hughes “made a huge difference” since replacing Mauricio Pellegrino in March, overseeing two wins and two draws in their past four league games.

“He has been positive and tried to make us better players and a better team. He has done it and put everyone together.”

In other words, Hughes was acclaimed for doing exactly what he was accused of failing to achieve at Stoke.

As a manager in his 19th year who has been in charge of six clubs and the Welsh national team, Hughes will appreciate the irony of his situation.

He was once sacked by Manchester City, who Southampton face on Sunday, for being unlikely to cope with the superstars they planned to sign even though few of them had a playing career as stellar as the one Hughes enjoyed.

At yesterday’s pre- match media conference, Hughes did not want to hark back to a relationship at Stoke that ended in some acrimony, preferring to stress instead that Southampton are not yet completely safe.

“On Tuesday night everyone stepped up,” he said. “Being destructive is more easy to accomplish than to go out there and win, especially in the Premier League.

“The win at Swansea was a big step but not the final step. The focus and commitment has been unwavering ever since and we’ll be ready to go again on Sunday. Today I wanted to see the same focus we displayed [at Swansea].”

Yet it would take a sporting earthquake for Saints to fail now, given the three points and plus-nine goal difference that separate them from Swansea, who need to win well against Stoke and hope Saints implode against Pep Guardiola’s champions.

Another win would round off City’s triumphant season nicely by making them the first team to reach 100 points in a season, which Guardiola believes is incentive enough for them not to relax.

For Hughes, whose contract expires at the end of the seaosn, another huge effort is required before the subject of his own personal future can be raised.

“I totally understand that the club need to know where they are going to be next season. They are a very good club, a very well-run club.”

Asked if he would like to stay on, he smiled and said: “It would be a very good opportunity for whoever gets it.”

Even if he does not, he can console himself with the reported £ 1- million pound bonus he will receive for keeping them up which, given where he was in January, would represent a remarkable outcome to a season that had gone sour.

● Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino said the club should be in a celebratory mood after securing a Champions League place for the third successive season despite another trophyless campaign.

The north London club have guaranteed a top-four Premier League finish ahead of tomorrow’s final match against Leicester City, but once again failed to pick up any silverware.

After suffering an FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United and exiting this season’s Champions League at the hands of Juventus in the last 16, Tottenham’s fans have endured a 10th consecutive year without winning a major trophy.

Pochettino, however, says the club should celebrate what they have achieved.

“At Tottenham, we have always had that feeling that what we have done is not enough,” he told reporters.

“In the last three years we have achieved massive things at this football club, like playing in the Champions League, but we never celebrate.

“So this time I am going to celebrate with my staff. It is not enough, because we want to win trophies and titles, but in football, winning titles is not the only thing - even though this group of people and fans deserve some trophies.”

Tottenham will assess the fitness of fullback Kieran Trippier before they face ninthplaced Leicester at Wembley.

The 27- year- old England international twisted a knee during their 1-0 win over Newcastle United on Wednesday.

Defender Serge Aurier (hamstring) and central midfielder Mousa Dembele (ankle) are also a doubt for the weekend. – Reuters