Saints have issued a statement regarding the departure of Ivan Juric as men's First Team Manager at St Mary's.

Why it has taken so long for Saints to make the change is anyone's guess, but it is better late than never and it is good that in the statement the club recognise the loyalty of the Saints supporters who have turned up in numbers both at home and away, I think that the empty seats at St Mary's for the visit of Crystal Palace, might well have been the wake up call they needed to realise that the supporters were not willing to stand for much more.

Anyway here is the statement.

"We can confirm that we have today reached an agreement with our Men’s First Team Manager, Ivan Jurić, to end his spell at the club.

I"van 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.

"With relegation to the Championship now confirmed, we believe it is important to give fans, players and staff some clarity on the future as we head into a very important summer.

"The process of finding a new manager to lead us as we look to secure an immediate return to the Premier League has now begun and is being led by Group Technical Director Johannes Spors.

"In the meantime, Simon Rusk has agreed to take charge of the team as Interim Manager for the remaining seven fixtures of this season and will be assisted by Adam Lallana.

"We remain incredibly grateful for the ongoing support of our fans. Their continued dedication and passion, despite what has been a very tough season, is remarkable and is appreciated by everyone at the club.

"Despite the challenges that relegation will bring, our goal is to restore a sense of pride for them in their team and club once again."

Of course words are easy, actions are much harder and Saints now need to lead from the front to get the club back on track.

I would also say that Ivan Juric himself has behaved with dignity and respect for the club and it's fans, no one could accuse him of not trying to get the club back into winning ways, sadly though he was not up to the task in front of him, this does not make him a bad man, just a poor manager in the history of Southampton FC.

All Photos Via Reuters

underweststand added 14:37 - Apr 7 Difficult to find alternative words for the situation. Ivan was on a hiding to nothing when attempting to convert a squad deeply-entrenched in " Russball style football " when they clearly out of their depth from Day 1 after promotion.
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SanMarco added 14:55 - Apr 7 I feel no hostility towards Juric. Underwest's 'hiding to nothing' sums it up well. The root cause of the dismal nature of this season lies in SR's player recruitment. RM's tactics didn't help of course and Juric just seemed bewildered. Nick questions the timing - yes, this might as well have happened several games ago. Yet again SR were too slow to act. Fingers crossed they will get it right now.

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pintsizedsaint added 15:23 - Apr 7 above posts have it spot on, although i suspect the delay was something to do with contract and compensation following relegation. Put simply we invested stupidly into Russball with no plan B. Russ had admitted he didn’t even account for the physicality of the league - alongside the clear step up in class. Any manager would need to be amazing and have luck - Juric had neither. great reset now needed

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Centurion added 15:25 - Apr 7 A steep learning curve.
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DorsetIan added 15:25 - Apr 7 I've got no personal animosity towards Juric either and yes he took over a struggling team that was ill equipped for the PL but let's not get carried away. To say he was on a 'hiding to nothing' is nonsense. If he had anything about him he would have been able to bring at least some measure of improvement to the team. Instead, he managed to make sesults even worse. A different manager, a better manager might at least have got us on a par pointswise with Leicester and Ipswich. Juric has been a disaster as a manager for us.

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Colburn added 17:20 - Apr 7 I actually really like him, perhaps the wrong man because he didn’t have the players to play his style which would have been an appropriate style to compete at the top level. There’s a lot I liked and stuff I didn’t like but that’s usually the way. He wasn’t given the chance to build his own team so it’s harsh to say he’s a poor manager. Our squad just isn’t good enough and to be blunt many of them have not put in the effort that the fans and their wage merit. A real lack of passion to wear the shirt and that hasn’t helped, you shouldn’t need a manager to tell you to show pride and passion.

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YosemiteSaint added 17:48 - Apr 7 Neither Martin nor Juric had the tactical nous for the Premier League. But the root cause is we just didn't have the players. Next time, if there is one, we'd better be certain to have both.
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mountsaint added 21:48 - Apr 8 no one could accuse him of not trying to get the club back into winning ways, sadly though he was not up to the task in front of him, this does not make him a bad man, just a poor manager in the history of Southampton FC. I thought that statement was a bit rough, but true. Could have been worded better.
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