Soaked to the bone and charging down the touchline in an animated frenzy, Ruben Selles signalled to his gamers that they had 5 minutes to attain an equaliser and save their trainwreck of a season.
Such was the anxiousness within the Metropolis Floor, that stoppage interval felt like an eternity however time quickly ticked away and ran out.
Selles is aware of time is working out for him too as first-team supervisor, and for Southampton as a Premier League membership.
Eleven years as a top-flight entity will quickly finish barring a miracle of three wins from three to finish the season, and a summer season of upheaval will observe.
So the place did all of it go improper for a longtime Premier League membership?
The loss to Nottingham Forest leaves Southampton getting ready to Premier League relegation
Southampton boss Ruben Selles doesn’t know what the longer term holds after Monday’s defeat
Three managers have occupied the St Mary’s hot-seat this season and none of them have managed greater than three league wins: Ralph Hasenhuttl three from 14 video games, Jones one from eight and Selles two from 13, together with a 10-match winless streak on the finish.
Hasenhuttl received three of 14 video games earlier than he left amid a backdrop of a fallout with gamers and board members. Senior stars privately likened the Austrian to a headteacher – the alternative to Selles, who’s regarded as ‘too good’ for a relegation-threatened group.
Sport Republic, the possession group that purchased the membership in January 2022, needed to sack Hasenhuttl on the finish of final season however waited, a expensive choice given the damaged dressing room that was left for Jones to return into.
In the summertime, Southampton have been very eager on making an attempt to lure Thomas Frank from Brentford, whereas they have been additionally scorching on Roberto De Zerbi earlier than he joined Brighton. Steve Cooper, ought to Nottingham Forest haven’t received promotion, was additionally on the listing.
However with these out of the query when Hasenhuttl departed, Saints turned to Jones.
Pound for pound, the Welshman’s job at Luton was up there with the best within the nation. However he felt like a sq. peg in a spherical gap at St Mary’s and his direct ways – which labored at Kenilworth Street – weren’t efficient with Saints’ squad stuffed with small, technical gamers.
Jones, a great man supervisor, was nicely preferred by the gamers however followers had written him off earlier than he’d even began.
Ralph Hasenhuttl solely received three out of 14 video games earlier than he was dismissed from the dugout
Nathan Jones managed one win from eight video games earlier than he was ruthlessly reduce unfastened
Southampton’s gamers have had a number of managers however have lacked an id and a plan
He was open about his failed tenure at Stoke and talked about this in his job interview, however his shortcomings in Staffordshire haunted his status with followers.
He modified formation 5 occasions in 90 minutes throughout his first match, a loss to Brighton on Boxing Day, and his 96 days within the job have been affected by weird quotes discussing how he needed to ‘compromise’ on his philosophy to discover a center floor somewhat than observe his temporary of replicating his Luton blueprint.
Selles, already a coach at Southampton, stepped up and admitted he’s ‘as accountable as anybody’ and refused to make excuses after the 4-3 loss to Forest. His contract ends this month and it’s unlikely the Spaniard will stay as head coach.
Other than catastrophic managerial appointments, participant recruitment has been shambolic. Southampton, a membership famed within the final decade for a clever method within the switch market, signed 10 gamers in the summertime.
4 of these got here from Manchester Metropolis, although none had any league minutes for the champions. And of the ten signings, solely loanee Ainsley Maitland-Niles had any Premier League expertise, whereas six have been aged 20 or youthful.
Romeo Lavia seems to be a great funding, as does Armel Bella-Kotchap, however the others have barely obtained going, and Gavin Bazunu has been displaced as No 1 goalkeeper underneath Selles.
The Eire worldwide spent final season on mortgage at League One Portsmouth and has struggled up to now.
Charly Alcaraz has impressed since becoming a member of in January however fellow winter signing Paul Onuachu, a big-money striker, has not scored for the membership but and is usually an unused substitute.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles was the one arrival final summer season with some Premier League expertise
Paul Onuachu was a big-money signing however is but to attain for the Saints and is usually left on the bench
It might be unfair to criticise Southampton’s switch mannequin after a decade of praising their talent-spotting and funding in youth, however it has failed within the final two years and a scarcity of goal-scorers and leaders has value the membership. Solely three males have greater than two objectives this time period.
Captain James Ward-Prowse is the apparent candidate, together with Lavia, to get a big-money transfer ought to they go down this season, although he joined the membership aged eight and is devastated at Southampton’s plight. Alcaraz is alleged to be settled on the south coast and will keep put.
He stated on Monday: ‘It has been too simple. Proper from the primary sport till now we have probably not discovered something, not progressed, we have simply taken these outcomes as they’re.
‘It hurts all people. It isn’t simply me, it is all people’s careers, it is all people’s alternative to do one thing particular for this membership and it hurts all of the followers and all people related to the membership.’
Senior gamers are understood to have thought they overperformed final season and appeared nervous and resigned that this was the yr Saints wouldn’t have sufficient to remain up after a number of campaigns of flirting with relegation.
A switch mannequin that has been hailed by rivals has failed Southampton this time spherical
Fingers are additionally being strongly pointed at Rasmus Ankersen, the previous Brentford talent-spotter who’s a part of the possession group at St Mary’s.
‘Rasmus, you will have failed on this venture,’ tweeted one fan. ‘Each huge choice you will have made has failed. You could have failed the people who find themselves employed by you, you will have failed the followers who believed in you, you will have failed town.’
The Dane is a worldwide keynote speaker, has written books on excessive efficiency and wrote a weblog on ‘the boiling frog metaphor’ which suggests causes for firms not sensing hazard earlier than it’s too late as a result of they’re like a frog dipped into scorching water.
No matter meaning, it feels apt as a comparability to his tenure at Southampton. The hazard is simply too sturdy now and it’s too late to repair this mess of a season.