Saints' drop a needless blow in season of self-destruction

After their predictable relegation from the Premier League, Southampton should listen to departing manager Ivan Juric

- RICHARD JOLLY SENIOR

A couple of hours after Southampton’s fate was sealed, a manager talked about having the worst season in history. It wasn’t Ivan Juric, either, but Ruben Amorim, with his gift for smiling exaggeration. Although, earlier in the week, candid Croatian Juric had said: “I don’t want it to be that we are the worst team in the history of the Premier League.”

If everyone needs an ambition, it is a particularly undignified one. Relegated at record pace, mathematically gone with seven games to go, the drama in Southampton’s season rests on their attempts to equal or better Derby’s historic low of 11 points. It all seems to depend on a trip to Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Leicester. They will go there without Juric, sacked for either hopeless results or an honest appraisal of their demise.

If demotion was sealed by defeat to Tottenham on Sunday, it merely confirmed the inevitable. Perhaps, given the struggles of promoted teams, Southampton were down when they beat Leeds in last season’s play-off final. They almost certainly were after their first nine games produced a lone point. The symbolic moment of their season came at the start: facing Newcastle’s 10 men, and dominating possession, goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, ordered to do something he cannot, passed to Alexander Isak and Joelinton scored.

Outside Hampshire, Southampton’s season may be remembered for the failure of an idea, the obvious outcome when misguided idealism collided with brutal reality. When it mattered, before they were cast adrift, and before Juric discovered they were beyond rescuing, they were like Vincent Kompany’s Burnley in overdrive.

In 16 games before Russell Martin was sacked, Southampton made 11 errors that directly led to goals (and others that did not). Jurgen Klopp once called gegenpressing the best playmaker: opponents instead realised Southampton could create chances for them. The Premier League is hard enough for the weaker sides without donating goal after goal.