I think it's unfair to pin Southampton on Hughes, if he'd been given a crack from early January maybe but trying to take a club that was SO negative and deep in the relegation mire (even if the consistently deluded players were still waffling about Europe a few months ago) and save them in 8 games is the job of a miracle worker, nevermind a good manager. He hasn't got us relegated, he's just been installed as the captain of a ship that wasn't quite sunk but had a 200ft hole in the hull.
This season sits squarely on the shoulders of Puels terrible end to last season and the insipid negative football he instilled here and Pellegrinos ability to do nothing other than take that negative ethos and go over 9000 with it. Well them and the arrogant/deluded directorship that let them do it.