Relegated Southampton sack Ivan Juric after 107 days as manager

Southampton have sacked Ivan Juric after 107 days in charge, with the club at risk of recording the lowest points tally in Premier League history. Saints were relegated on Sunday after defeat at Tottenham.

Juric replaced Russell Martin in December but failed to fashion an uplift in results, with the 49-year-old winning only one league match, at Ipswich in February. Saints have lost seven of their past eight top-flight matches.

Southampton have 10 points after two league wins and require two points from their remaining seven matches to eclipse Derby’s record-low haul of 11 points in 2007-08.

In a statement confirming Juric’s sacking the club said: “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.”

Southampton said Simon Rusk, who was in interim charge between Russell Martin’s sacking and Juric’s first game, a Boxing Day defeat by West Ham, would take the reins for the rest of the season. Adam Lallana, the 36-year-old who has made five league starts since returning to the club last summer, will assist him.

Juric had talked up Johannes Spors, who came in as technical director in February as a replacement for Jason Wilcox, but the pair have swiftly parted ways. Sheffield Wednesday’s Danny Röhl, who knows Spors from RB Leipzig, though the pair did not work together directly, is thought to be a leading candidate, and Liam Rosenior is thought to have support after his impressive work at Ligue 1 Strasbourg.

Southampton have picked up only four points in Juric’s 14 Premier League games, giving him the lowest points-per-game average of any manager to take charge of at least 10 games in the competition. The Croat was sacked by Roma in November after 12 games.

After Southampton’s relegation was confirmed, Juric told his squad he wanted them to avoid unwanted history. He said: “I don’t want to be the worst team in Premier League history. This is our goal.”