Southampton boss blames “huge” problem behind the scenes after relegation confirmed

Ivan Juric hailed Southampton fans for how they responded to Premier League relegation as head coach points finger of blame at club’s recruitment decisions for doomed campaign

Ivan Juric hailed Southampton’s fans for staying behind to applaud after they were relegated with seven games to play. But the head coach, who is in the dark over whether he will remain at St Mary’s next season, has called on his bosses to learn from their recruitment mistakes.

And Juric, who replaced Russell Martin in December with Southampton already appearing to be doomed, admits his team now face a challenge to earn the two more points required to ensure they beat the Premier League record for fewest points in a season.

“For me it’s something completely new, a new experience,” Juric said of Saints fans’ unusual display of love for their crestfallen players.

“The players have to be really thankful they have fans like this, something incredible the way they love the team even the players. Incredible. They deserve much more. Every person working at Southampton has to do better to create something much better than this year.”

Southampton have now been relegated from the Premier League twice in three seasons and Juric says there are “huge problems” behind the scenes that need to be fixed.

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Saints spent more than £100m on new signings, along with the addition of five more free agents, but the focus was on youth instead of experience – a strategy that Juric said has also cost Ipswich and Leicester.

He added: “Now it’s a really important moment to understand the mistakes the club has made in the last three or four years. The fans deserve better. Now is the moment to think and create something good.

“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.

“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. I think the same thing happened to Leicester and Ipswich.

“The gap is huge between Championship and Premier League, but you have to find from now, from this moment, players that can grow up and improve not just thinking to win the Championship but to create players that can be ready in the Premier League. This is my idea. Not to win the Championship and start to buy but to create now.”

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