A relegation that has looked on the cards for weeks was finally confirmed on Saturday, as Southampton became the first club to fall out of the Premier League after an 11-year stint and back into the Championship for next season.
It was a very tame 2-0 home defeat to Fulham that sealed the Saints’ fate, with goals from Carlos Vinicius and sub Aleksandar Mitrovic, back in the squad after his eight game ban for pushing referee Chris Kavanagh in an FA Cup tie at Manchester United.
But at St Mary’s where the boos rang out, the recrimination needs to be swept away and then the rebuilding begun over the summer. The Sport Republic owners switched it up this season and splashed the cash to the tune of almost £150million. But much of that was spent too late in January, and arguably on too many inexperienced young players who were unable to excavate Southampton from their plight.
READ MORE:
Southampton’s last game in the Championship was a 4-0 win against Coventry City in April 2012 – a far happier day than Saturday. And it is back to the second tier of English football that a club that for soi long was the pride of the south coast is headed. Brighton and Bournemouth remain in the Premier League to carry that torch, with Portsmouth a fading memory in top-flight terms.
And only a fool would predict with confidence exactly what the club will look like by the time that 46-game campaign kicks off in August – with so many variables and personnel issues to be decided. For the optimists, there is the example of this year’s Championship winners Burnley to admire.
With several star players on the move, an ambitious and exciting young manager in Vincent Kompany and a huge squad rebuilding job paid handsome dividends. And the new arrivals plus a huge lift given to morale and mood saw the Clarets sweep almost all before them this season.
The Saints need something very similar. After three managers in short succession, there seems no chance Ruben Selles will be kept on in his interim role. Southampton have already been linked with the likes of Russell Martin of Swansea, and Steven Schumacher of promoted Plymouth. And that next appointment is crucial. There can be no more Nathan Joneses, who succeeded Ralph Hassenhuttl last year.
And though there will inevitably be departures, if the Saints can hang on to a few key players around which they can build a new team – perhaps the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Jan Bednarek, Tino Livramento and Kamaldeen Sulemana.
As far as the game went, Mitrovic returned as Fulham’s prodigal son – and it took him just seven minutes off the bench to become the grim reaper for Southampton.
The 28-year-old striker was in the Cottagers’ squad for the first time since an eight-game ban for pushing referee Chris Kavanagh in an FA Cup tie at Manchester United.
And Fulham scoring talisman Mitrovic entered the pitch to administer the last rites at St Mary’s as the home side were the first side to be relegated from the Premier League this season.
Southampton’s demise was watched by supporter and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. At one stage the Saints enjoyed four consecutive top-eight finishes. But this truly been a horrible season to forget.
The current campaign has seen them go through three managers, with already a record 24 defeats, and just 10 points at home from 18 games. This was an 11th game in a row without a victory. Early in the second half Vinicius had hammered a first nail into the Southampton coffin – and it was left to Mitrovic to finish the job.
Ruben Selles is in the interim managerial role but the hunt for a permanent successor is already well under way. And this was a limp surrender from the Saints, who disappeared into the second tier with a whimper rather than any sort of bang.
Sunak was certainly risking headlines about sinking ships in the port city – and could maybe have done with some spin doctor help on the photo-op from a budding Malcolm Tucker in No10.
The travelling Fulham fans, no strangers to relegation from the Premier League themselves in recent years, were quick to twist the knife with early chants of ‘You’re going down’. The drop, though, is not something Marco Silva’s side have remotely had to worry about in this fine season - one that is already seeing the Portuguese coach linked to other jobs.
The match and ultimately their season ran away from Southampton just after half-time. Carlos Alcaraz had the ball in the net only to see the offside flag go up. And as play moved to the other end Harrison Reed won a tackle that offered Vinicius a tap-in for his third goal in four games.
Mitrovic appeared off the bench after 65 minutes. And the Serbian striker had been on the pitch barely seven minutes before heading home Fulham’s second – his 12th Premier League goal of the season. Southampton’s players remained on the pitch before embarking on a bizarre ‘lap of dishonour’ – with still one home match to play this season.
Southampton captain James Ward-Prowse, 28, who has been at the club since the age of eight and made more than 400 appearances, delivered a withering verdict on the season.
The midfielder’s own future is uncertain, but he said: “We knew we were in a difficult position. We need to go away individually and as a club and assess if we've done everything we possibly could.
“I don't think we have, and that is a shame. I think as a team and a club overall we'll think about the season that has gone by. Have decisions been right? Have we done everything we could on a pitch? I think we should perform at a better level than we have done.
“From the first day of the season until now you can tell the standards have slipped. I have been here right through form eight-years-old, for all the ups and downs. I'm sure with the good people at the club it will be back in the Premier League in no time.
"My future? I'm not thinking too far ahead. We've just been relegated. I'm not looking beyond tomorrow. It's about sticking together and dealing with it in the right way. Over the last 10 years we have had that kind of consistency and that has wavered.
“It will be testing for everybody but these are the times that make you as a player and as a club, we have done it before and we will do it again.”
