Star Metro - Southampton sack manager Juric after Premier League relegation

Southampton were condemned to relegation in record time after a 3-1 defeat at Tottenham on Sunday.

Juric's bottom of the table side have lost 25 of their 31 top-flight games in a wretched campaign.

Relegation with seven fixtures left gives Southampton, last season's Championship play-off winners, an unwanted Premier League record, surpassing Derby and Huddersfield's relegations with six games left in 2008 and 2019 respectively.

Juric took over from Russell Martin in December, with Southampton already deep in trouble, but the 49-year-old won only one league match, at Ipswich in February.

Saints have lost seven of their past eight league matches.

"We can confirm that we have today reached an agreement with our men's first-team manager, Ivan Juric, to end his spell at the club," said a Southampton statement.

"Ivan came to Southampton at a tough time and was tasked with trying to improve a squad in a difficult situation.

"Unfortunately, we haven't seen performances progress the way we had hoped, but we would like to thank Ivan and his staff for their honesty and hard work as they fought against the odds to try and keep us up."

Simon Rusk will take charge of the team as interim manager for the remainder of the season and will be assisted by Adam Lallana.

A.Hill--SMC