Inside Southampton’s relegation: ‘Slow-motion car crash’, Solak frustration and what comes next

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In less than a year, Southampton went from the highs of a champagne-filled Championship play-off win celebration to walking off the pitch on Sunday as the first Premier League team relegated with seven games still left to play.

During those 316 days, more than £100million ($128m) was spent on new signings, Russell Martin, their promotion-winning manager, was sacked, Sport Republic’s Henrik Kraft stepped down as chairman and resigned from the board, Ivan Juric was hired, and Johannes Spors became the technical director.

If you add an extra day to the total, then you can include that Juric, who replaced Martin in December, was sacked following the club’s relegation, having overseen one Premier League win in his 14 games in charge.

This means that since Sport Republic bought a controlling stake in Southampton in January 2022, they have been relegated twice, churned through multiple managers (Ralph Hasenhuttl, Nathan Jones, Ruben Selles, Martin and Juric), and arguably assembled the worst Premier League side in history.

So, by the time the final whistle blew on Sunday, signalling a 3-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur and confirming their relegation back to the Championship, it should not come as a surprise that Juric was sacked on Monday morning.

Their Premier League campaign has so far seen them win twice in 31 games and concede more than three times as many goals (74) than they have scored (23).

It has been left to Simon Rusk, a first-team coach, to take interim charge until the end of the season, with Adam Lallana, one of the club’s players, assisting him.

(Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

There is a likelihood that Southampton will wait until they officially lose their Premier League status in the summer before making a permanent appointment, especially if a managerial target is already in another job. Compensation for a team in the Championship will be lower than what it would be for a top-flight side.

The Athletic has spoken to multiple sources, all on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, to chart the ins and outs of their 2024-25 season — and one thing has become clear: relegation was a foregone conclusion before a ball had even been kicked.

“It was like a slow-motion car crash this summer,” explained a first-team source. “That’s the only way to describe it. It’s knowing something (relegation) is going to happen but you can’t do anything about it.”

With Southampton chasing promotion towards the back end of last season, they were dealt a significant blow when Jason Wilcox, then their director of football, was headhunted by Manchester United.

Wilcox accepted the technical director role at Old Trafford, with Southampton releasing a statement to say they had “reluctantly agreed” to let him go. It was quickly decided that Wilcox was not going to be replaced, even ahead of an important summer transfer window that had the potential to define what their return to the Premier League would look like.

Wilcox’s role was split internally, with Mark Bitcon leading on the football performance side and Phil Parsons, the club’s chief executive, taking on negotiating player transfers and contracts, which would see him become a point of contact for agents.

Heading into the transfer window, Rasmus Ankersen, Kraft’s co-founder at Sport Republic, was still involved in making decisions on transfers, as was Parsons, Darren Mowbray, the club’s recently departed head of recruitment, and Martin.

Sport Republic, funded by Dragan Solak’s vast wealth, has not been afraid to spend money, and did so again leading into the 2024-25 season.

Their marquee signings included an £18million move for Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, Taylor Harwood-Bellis’ promotion clause was triggered in a £20m deal, they made West Ham United midfielder Flynn Downes’ loan permanent for £18m, signed Sheffield United striker Cameron Archer for £15m and Mateus Fernandes from Sporting CP for £15.3m.

Southampton also failed in their attempts to sign Liam Delap — who, at one stage in the window, was at the club’s Staplewood training base — Matt O’Riley and Fabio Carvalho.

Martin pushed hard for Ramsdale and Fernandes to join and was also keen for the club to bring in Ryan Fraser and Charlie Taylor as free agents. Other players, however, were clearly not targeted by him, such as forward Ben Brereton Diaz, who joined from Villarreal for around £7million, only to leave for Sheffield United on loan in January.

Multiple intermediaries have criticised Parsons’ approach to transfer deals, suggesting he blocks them rather than trying to get them done. Intermediaries may often criticise chief executives or directors of football when their players don’t get signed.

Southampton sources highlight that it is Parsons’ role to protect the club’s interests as opposed to just bowing down to demands when it comes to transfer fees and player wages.

At a fans’ forum at St Mary’s Stadium on August 6, just over 10 days before their first league match against Newcastle United, Martin, sat alongside Parsons and Bitcon, noted how the team had not improved ahead of the campaign, highlighting that Harwood-Bellis and Downes were already at the club on loan in 2023-24.

As the transfer window ticked on and key targets joined other teams, internally, there was a concern about the quality of the squad and its ability to stay in the league.

Before a ball had been kicked, conversations had taken place at a senior level in relation to using the season to develop some of the younger players — Dibling and Fernandes, for example — and turn them into assets, knowing relegation was almost a foregone conclusion.

Dibling has been developed this season (Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

What followed in the opening weeks of the season did not come as a surprise, with Southampton losing eight times in their opening 10 league games, picking up only four points.

Martin, who had guided the club back into the Premier League at the first time of asking, was now being ridiculed for his possession-heavy style of football that sees his teams playing out from the back. It was a risky approach, and they made far too many mistakes, often giving the opposition goals from needless turnovers.

Martin, however, was not for turning. It was his way of playing or no way. There was no plan B in that regard, much to the bewilderment of supporters. Although positive results were non-existent, Martin maintained a positive relationship with his players and was a popular figure.

Southampton’s board desperately wanted to avoid sacking the 39-year-old, but the longer he remained in post, the more toxic it was becoming in the stands.

During the club’s heavy defeat at home to Chelsea on December 4, Solak, sitting in a hospitality suite behind the press box, was visibly angry, throwing his arms around in frustration as the team continued to pass out from the back under immense pressure from the opposition.

After the full-time whistle, the Serbian billionaire was witnessed by The Athletic saying, “Just kick the f***ing ball out” during a conversation. Southampton lost their next game to Aston Villa and were then swept aside in a 5-0 drubbing against Tottenham Hotspur at St Mary’s.

During the game, there were anti-Martin chants and the fans had voted with their feet. The stadium was almost empty before the match ended, and Martin had walked down the tunnel before Tottenham’s fifth goal had gone in.

Solak had seen enough, and Martin was sacked. At this stage of the season, Southampton were rooted to the bottom of the table on five points and were nine points adrift of safety.

But with 22 games remaining, the club felt a change was necessary to give them any chance — no matter how unrealistic — of staying in the league.

Having been sacked by Serie A club Roma in November, Juric was available. There was a clear problem, though. His playing style was the opposite of Martin’s, something Solak would later acknowledge as a clear issue.

Sport Republic’s top target to replace Martin was Danny Rohl. Rohl previously spent six months at St Mary’s in 2018-19 as Hasenhuttl’s assistant, but protracted talks with Sheffield Wednesday collapsed after a compensation package could not be agreed.

“It’s a really bad situation in this moment, but I’m very optimistic because I saw a team that can do it better and I will try to improve the team,” Juric told the club’s official website after his appointment.

“I will try to be much more aggressive, to do much more pressing and try to be quick and change mentality, and this is my idea of football.”

Southampton were counting on a new-manager bounce, but they didn’t get one. Juric made little to no impact and Southampton’s players, so used to Martin’s style of play, now looked at a loss as to what they should be doing on the pitch.

Behind the scenes, Solak continued to make changes. Kraft resigned from his role as the club’s chairman in January and was replaced by Solak. Kraft remains a shareholder and on the board for Sport Republic.

“I think we need to rebuild our football department,” Solak told talkSPORT at the end of January. “When Jason (Wilcox) left, he was not properly replaced. We are working on that and setting up a new structure to become competitive again.”

Spors, who has previously held senior positions at RB Leipzig, Vitesse and Genoa, was most recently the global sporting director of the 777 Group, which failed in an attempt to buy Everton last year.

But if the German had a grand vision of leading recruitment for a Premier League team, he would have to wait. It was clear from the opening weeks of the season that Southampton were destined for the drop.

Rohl was the first-choice to replace Russell Martin (George Wood/Getty Images)

Juric had done little to improve the team, leaving many supporters thinking he had made them worse. With Martin, they felt there was at least an identity and an understanding of how he wanted them to play. But with Juric, it was not evident.

“We obviously have a very ambitious manager who is trying to change how we play,” Solak said during his talkSPORT interview. “Unfortunately, the squad has been assembled for a different style. He’s trying to do the best he can.”

The players, perhaps unsurprisingly, did not warm to Juric. No personal relationships were struck up between the manager and the squad.

At times throughout his tenure, Juric would tell the players they are not good enough to be in the Premier League and are Championship quality, something the table makes clear. But players do not always like to be told hard truths.

He fell out with Downes early on, after the midfielder expressed a desire to play. This led to a breakdown in communication between the pair for several weeks as Juric felt it was disrespectful for a player to suggest he should be playing and it almost led to Downes leaving in January.

Given their predicament and the situation he inherited, it would be unfair to lay the blame for Southampton’s season at Juric’s door — and that is a sentiment echoed by others.

While they did not progress under Juric and he did not improve any players, sources admit the squad was simply not good enough to stay in the league, regardless of who was in charge.

Towards the end, it was evident to sources close to the first team that Juric was not going to be the manager to lead them into next season. He had burned too many bridges with the players and staff, making a clean break necessary.

After the Tottenham game, Juric highlighted the club’s recruitment as a key reason for their struggles.

“I think the recruitment is everything in football and you have to find the right players for this league so they can be intense, physically good players,” Juric said in his post-match press conference. “What I notice the most in these three or four months I am here is a completely different physicality between us and the other teams in the Premier League.”

And that is why on Sunday night, the club’s senior management team — Ankersen, Parsons and Spors — met to discuss what should happen next, given that  relegation had been confirmed.

It became clear during the meeting that they did not view the Croatian as the best person for the job. There had not been enough, if any, tangible evidence of what he was trying to implement working.

So, on Monday morning, and having been in the job for only 108 days, Juric was sacked, and the players were informed of his departure. Juric took the news well and, given his vast experience in football, was not overly surprised.

“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,” a club statement read.

The thought process behind giving the interim job to Rusk and Lallana for the remaining seven matches is to allow Spors to run an open process to hire a new manager.

Rohl will no doubt be a top candidate for the job, although it is unlikely Southampton are going to be the only club interested in his services, while Liam Rosenior, excelling at French club Strasbourg, has also been linked with the job.

Southampton have given themselves some breathing space to assess the market, work out how they recover from such a disastrous season and formulate a plan to ensure they have a good chance of being promoted from the Championship in 2025-26.

The summer may see them lose two of their brightest sparks — Dibling and Fernandes — and you would expect Ramsdale to attract interest. Kyle Walker-Peters will be leaving as a free agent in the summer. Other players are likely to depart, too.

This should allow Spors and other senior management to hit the reset button.

But the pain of possibly being remembered as one of the worst Premier League sides of all time — they are yet to surpass Derby County’s record-low points haul of 11 in 2007-08 — will be difficult for all involved to forget.

Additional reporting: David Ornstein

(Top photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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