Southampton have sacked manager Nathan Jones after just 3 months in charge.
The Saints have endured a dreadful run of form in which they have lost seven of their last eight league games.
They are currently at the bottom of the Premier League standings with just 15 points and are likely to face the drop, being 5 points adrift of safety.
Just over three months in charge
Jones departs after just 95 days in charge of the club having taken up the reins in November.
The 49-year-old was brought in to take over from Ralph Hasenhuttl after his impressive stint at Luton Town.
However the Welshman son found that the Premier League ceiling was perhaps a bar too high as he failed to motivate the squad and following four successive home defeats, his fate was sealed.
Jones thus becomes Southampton’s shortest-serving manager in the Premier League era, having taken charge of just 14 games and losing 9 in the process.
The writing appeared to be on the wall after Saturday’s horror show in which Southampton inexplicably lost to 10-man Wolverhampton Wanderers at home despite taking an early lead.
First-team coaches Chris Cohen and Alan Sheehan have also been relieved of their duties. It is now expected that lead coach Ruben Selles will take charge of next Saturday’s away trip to London to face Chelsea.
Fans turned against Jones
Jones immediately walked straight down the tunnel after the defeat and when questioned about his future, said that he didn’t know if it would be his last game in charge.
The club faithful had made their frustrations clear last week after the 3-0 loss to Brentford signing, “You’re getting sacked in the morning” and “Nathan Jones, get out of our club”.
Earlier this week on Tuesday the club hierarchy had admitted that they were not pleased by Jones’ comments following the defeat in which the manager defended his record. Rasmus Ankersen, the CEO of Sport Republic, the majority shareholder of the club, had said to the fans,
“We will back any manager we have until we don’t believe he can improve the team and, if that time comes, we will do our work behind the scenes to be ready for that.”
It remains to be seen who will be appointed to take over the reins at the club with an aim to avoid the drop come in May.
Photo credit: IMAGO / PA Images
