The Southampton season was troubled from the start.
They lost eight of their first nine games this quarter, and after 23 games had only one victory in their name.
After replacing Russell Martin in December, Juric supervised six consecutive defeats and won only a victory in his 14 championship games at the helm.
The saints were nine points at the end of his arrival, but 22 points now separated them from the Wolves, who won 2-1 in the third-basic Ipswich on Saturday.
They had five points from Martin’s high -flying fate this season, one under the acting boss Simon Rusk and four so far during the mandate of Juric.
Southampton is only the third team to lose up to 25 of its first 31 games from a high-flying campaign, after Sunderland in 2005-06 and Sheffield United in 2020-2010 (both also 25).
They have by far conceded the most goals in the League (74) and are the best scorers of the four main divisions of English football (23 goals in 31 games).
No team has ever had fewer points in the Premier League after 31 games (10), although Sunderland in 2005-06 and Derby in 2007-08 also had the same count.
The saints have the same number of points after 31 games (10) as the county of Derby in 2007-2008, with rams which reach 11. The derby campaign remains the worst in the history of the Premier League, although it is a record that Southampton could still break.
“We have to avoid this record, do our best. It cannot happen,” added Joric.
Goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale echoes these thoughts saying: “We want to get as many points as possible until the end of the season. No one wants this record and we will do what we can – but we will do what we can to get more points on the board.”
This is the third relegation that Ramsdale suffered during his career after dropping with Bournemouth in 2019-2020 and Sheffield United in 2020-2021.
“Some (players) know the relegation for the first time, so there will be a lot of emotions on their part in the coming days,” he added.
“The guys who have already been here, we have to try to pick up the young boys. This group did incredible things last season. No one will want to jump the ship with seven games. We are tight and we just have to shoot each other now.”
Captain of the Saints Jan Bednarek was also honest about the situation of his team.
“We cannot change the past, the only thing we can do in the last seven games is to enjoy the Premier League,” he said.
“We have to improve as a player and as a club. I hope we are going to build something great. The best is that we can learn, we can work hard and we can improve.”
