Premier League managerial merry-go-round spins once more as Mark Hughes is installed as early favourite to replace Pellegrino at Saints

Pellegrino, who took over from Frenchman Claude Puel in June, “parted company” with Southampton on Monday after a 3-0 loss to Newcastle United at the weekend left them with just one win in their last 17 Premier League games.

Ex-Watford boss Marco Silva and former West Ham United head coach Slaven Bilic are the other front-runners in the betting to take over at St Mary’s Stadium.

It is Hughes, though, who is the early favourite to be handed the task of rescuing the club from their parlous situation only a couple of months after he was fired by Stoke City.

Hughes played more than 50 times for Southampton in the late 1990s and his appointment would end a run of four non-British managers after Mauricio Pochettino, Ronald Koeman, Puel and Pellegrino.

Hughes guided Stoke to top 10 finishes for three successive seasons from 2013 to 2016 but the club was in the relegation zone when he was sacked after an FA Cup third round defeat at the hands of League Two (fourth tier) Coventry City.

Like Hughes, Silva was sacked by a Premier League club in January – in his case Watford – and he has also been linked with a move back home to Portugal to take over at Benfica next season.