Players at Saints have started responding to the club’s decision to sack Nigel Adkins and appoint Mauricio Pochettino.

Left-back Luke Shaw, who broke into the first-team under Adkins, wrote on Twitter: “very confused lol”.

Midfielder Richard Chaplow, who was Adkins’ first signing, added: “Obviously NA [Nigel Adkins] brought me to the club have a lot to thank him for would like to wish him all the best for the future”

He later added: "Now Looking forward to working under Mauricio pochettino and adding to our points tally for the season."

Meanwhile, the furore has made Southampton FC the most talked about topic on the social networking site.

At one point, of the ten most popular topics on the site, seven of them relate to Saints' decision to replace Adkins with Pochettino.