An insight into the siege mentality that has developed at Southampton during this surprisingly turbulent season came during a visit to the city’s general hospital this month. Mark Hughes’s whole first-team squad were in attendance, handing out signed cards and gifts on the children’s ward before talking to some lifelong Southampton fans in the elderly-care wards, but all requests to speak to the television crew filming the visit organised by the Saints Foundation were politely declined.

All the players stuck to the line, showing a resolution and esprit de corps that has often been absent during a campaign in which there has been a growing divide between the club’s British and foreign contingents, a lack of leadership and at least one physical confrontation between Hughes