Southampton have parted ways with manager, Ivan Juric following the club’s catastrophic Premier League campaign, culminating in a record-breaking relegation with seven games still to play.
Simon Rusk is to replace Juric in the interim at Southampton with Adam Lallana acting as his assistant.
The axe finally fell on Monday morning after a 3-1 defeat at Tottenham mathematically sealed the Saints’ fate, writing them into history as the earliest-relegated side in the Premier League era.
It was the final straw for a board that had backed Juric in December but watched the team unravel under his leadership.
Juric, who was brought in mid-season to stop the rot, lasted just four months in charge. His reign produced more questions than answers — and just three wins in 18 league matches.
In a fiery final press conference, the former Torino and Genoa boss blamed a gulf in physicality between the Championship and Premier League as a key reason for the club’s failure — a remark that didn’t go down well behind the scenes.
“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,” Juric said, moments after confirmation of relegation.
“Physically, when it’s a moment of transition, when it’s a moment like a basketball game, you cannot do it because they are stronger, faster — and this is the huge difference.”
He didn’t stop there.
“I think the same thing happened to Leicester and Ipswich Town. The difference in physicality is real. It’s something that Championship teams are simply not prepared for.”
But the club’s hierarchy was reportedly unimpressed by what sources described as “a defeatist tone” in the manager’s remarks, and questioned whether Juric was ever the right fit to lead a Premier League survival battle.
With Southampton rooted to the bottom and 12 points adrift of safety, Juric’s dismissal seemed inevitable — but few expected it to come before the season’s end.
The club is now expected to install an interim manager for the final fixtures, while a long-term rebuild begins once again in the Championship.
Despite the unceremonious exit, Juric maintained he was willing to stay and help the club bounce back.
“It is really good to be a coach in the Premier League, and if I took the long way to come back here, I am ready,” he said.
“Then I have to see with the club, with the ideas, with everything — what they think, what I think, and whether we can do it or not.”
Ultimately, the club decided they couldn’t do it with him.
Juric leaves with his reputation dented and his Premier League dreams dashed, while Southampton now face a summer of soul-searching — and another shot at climbing the brutal ladder of English football.
