Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino has been awarded the Barclay's Premier league Manager of the month award for October.

October for Saints saw them play only 3 games, but the two home wins against Swansea and Fulham plus a draw at Old Trafford were enough to earn Mauricio Pochettino the accolade of being Barclays manager of the month.

A fitting reward for the work that the Argentinian has done at St Mary's this season and the way he has conducted himself.

Only real downside is that in the past when Saints managers have won the award it hasn't been a lucky omen for them, in 1996 Dave Merrington won it for an April run that saw the team pull out of the relegation zone and beat Champions elect Manchester United 3-1 at the Dell in the famous grey shirts game, Merrington was of course sacked only weeks later despite staying firm in his post whilst his wife was in a hospital bed with a serious illness.

Next winner for the club was Graeme Souness in October 1996, 2 wins and a draw back then included a 6-3 drubbing of United and had Saints fans dreaming of a resurgent team with Eyal Berkovic pulling the strings, however although November started well with a 1-1 draw at Sheffield Wednesday, that game was followed by five straight league defeats and although Saints would win a game in December that would mean that since October that win and the draw at Sheff Weds would be the only points gained out of 8 games and Saints would be 19th in the table as the New year arrived.

Souness would win the award again in April 1997, but like Merrington a year previously, although he had kept Saints up, he would be leaving the club.

There would be a big gap before it arrived at the club again, this time it was Gordon Strachan who smiled for the cameras, January 2002 saw big wins including a 4-2 victory at Chelsea on New Years Day that saw the club start the month in 17th and finish it in 11th, Strachan would make his mark and although Saints wouldn't really get sucked back into the relegation battle, after he got the award we would win only 1 out of the next 9 games with 6 being draws, indeed we would win only 3 more games that season after January.

Strachan would win it again in December 2002 for an unbeaten month which saw Saints in 7th place and building up a head of steam for what would be a memorable season in the FA Cup, however league wise after a memorable win against Spurs on New years Day, our league form would tail off a little winning only 1 of the next 6, strangely although we would win only 5 games after the turn of the year, we hung on in there for 8th position come the end of the season, still our best Premier League finish.

Next winner was Harry Redknapp, March 2005 strangely saw us play only 3 league games, one was a 4-0 drubbing at Manchester United, but the other two, a 1-0 home win over Spurs and a 3-1 win at Middlesbrough got Harry the award, but only 1 point out of the next 5 games saw safety ebb away and relegation followed.

This would be the last time a Saints manager would get the Premier League manager of the month award until now, lets hope that Mauricio Pochettino has better luck than his Saints predecessors in the coming weeks.

Photo: Action Images

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