The month of March is never a great time to be changing managers but when Southampton became the ninth Premier League club this season to decide a new man may do the trick they probably fell just on the right side of the line between bold decision-making and blind panic.

There are eight games remaining. Not much time for a complete turnaround but with enough potential points on offer for the club to climb away from trouble. Southampton are one point above the bottom three, barely keeping their heads above water, and there appeared enough reason to believe that under Mauricio Pellegrino they would have continued to sink.

In that position – and there are a few teams immediately above Southampton who must feel the same way – a club struggling for points and confidence are always susceptible to one of the sides below them putting a run together and climbing out of danger. Exactly as Swansea appear to have done since the appointment of Carlos Carvalhal. The Swans are not safe yet – no one in the bottom half of the table can take anything for granted – but the outlook in South Wales is massively brighter than it was a couple of months ago.

Carvalhal has done everything Swansea must have hoped he would do and more. It was an inspired appointment, particularly as the Portuguese had no Premier League experience and had not exactly been setting the Championship on fire with Sheffield Wednesday.

All of which brings the task of Mark Hughes into sharp focus. Can a manager sacked after a dismal sequence of results at his old club really be expected to achieve an instant uplift at a new one? Hughes’s general record when working with clubs at the wrong end of the table is good but if Southampton are hoping to pull away from the bottom three it does not appear to make much sense to go for the manager who led Stoke into their present predicament. To put it even more bluntly, Stoke would be bottom of the table were West Bromwich Albion not having such a spectacularly poor season and, after four and a half years at the club, Hughes has to assume the responsibility for that.

Boards in fear of relegation normally tend to look upwards rather than downwards for possible routes to salvation, though Carvalhal has shown what is possible with a little lateral thinking and, when there are only eight games left, the overriding consideration is to find someone both available and attainable.

Carlos Carvalhal has so far proven to be an inspired choice by Swansea. Photograph: Aled Llywelyn/Huw Evans/Rex/Shutterstock

While Hughes certainly ticks those boxes, the worry for Southampton supporters is that he may not turn out to be a breath of fresh air like Carvalhal but a member of the rent-a-dour-manager group that has mostly been found wanting this season. Alan Pardew has had no effect whatsoever at West Brom after all, in fact it is something of a surprise he is still in situ. There have been signs of improvement at Stoke under Paul Lambert, though only small ones. Roy Hodgson does not count as a dour manager, to be fair, but he too is back in the bottom three after an initially promising mini-revival, while David Moyes’s work in steadying the ship at West Ham appears in danger of being undermined by off-field tensions and a general collapse of confidence.

Even Sam Allardyce at Everton, who is not in any immediate relegation danger but is definitely dour, has not been greeted as an obvious improvement on the unpopular Ronald Koeman. Everton are a point above Watford, whose own managerial change has worked quite smoothly, but their away record is terrible and few supporters believe Allardyce is the man to take the club forward.

The good news for Hughes and his latest charges is that the new regime can start with something of a free hit. Southampton’s FA Cup quarter-final at Wigan on Sunday has now been overshadowed by slumps in league form by both parties – the visitors have changed manager while the home side’s promotion push has been knocked off course – then the international break allows a period of respite before the trip to West Ham at the end of the month.

The bad news is that the Saints’ remaining eight games include fixtures against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City, as well as trips to Leicester, Everton and Swansea, so points are not going to be easy to come by. One would not envy anyone sent in as a firefighter so late in the season, though Southampton have some good players and eight games in which to survive should ensure everyone’s full concentration. That could be important.

Hughes is in a completely different situation now to the one at Stoke, where he claimed he knew the players better than anyone else and was confident they would pull through in the end. Here he does not know the players, has little time in which to operate and if he is to salvage his managerial reputation must be positive from the start.

There are no guarantees, but it just may work.