The managerial merry go round at St Mary's never seems to stop, but after Saturday's defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers, it is clear that it is counter productive for Ivan Juric to remain in place as Saints manager.

As it stands Ivan Juric is the worst manager that Southampton has ever had in the history of the club, now that is not completely all his fault, he took over a squad at the bottom of the Premier League that was lacking in quality players in key areas and low on confidence.

But when a new manager comes in there is usually a bounce, even if it doesn't last long, initially he seemed to bring some stability to the team, a narrow defeat at home to West Ham showed promise, as did another 1-0 reverse as few days later at Crystal Palace.

However in his third game in charge we collapsed into chaos with a 5-0 defeat at home to Brentford and in his next game at Manchester United, we started to see that Mr Juric had some strange team selections and tactics and that his substitutions were often scattergun.

At Old Trafford leading 1-0 and having dominated the game, he made some puzzling substitutions that saw us firstly concede and equaliser and then after that removing key figures in the spine of the team and we collapsed to a 3-1 defeat, if that wasn't bad enough, he left out some of those key figures in our dominant 80 minutes for the trip to Forest, only to see us go 3-0 by the break, bringing the likes of Ugochukwu on at half time we almost snatched a draw, but the die was cast and a win at Ipswich aside, the rest of the season has seen diabolical team selections and substitutions and the goals against column need a calculator.

So with the squad in complete disarray and no sign of anything changing, it is time for our new Technical Director to show that he is the man to take things forward, there is absolutely no point in continuing with Ivan Juric until the end of the season and then letting him go under the break clause.

We might as well put him on gardening leave now, it won't us anymore than paying him to continue with the current debacle.

It is counter productive to keep him in charge, team spirit has fallen and players who we will need in the Championship already want away because of the situation.

We are going backwards under Juric and not forward, the longer it goes on, the more it goes on the more disillusioned the fan base is becoming and many will not renew season tickets as they feel that Sport Republic's lack of leadership in appointing Juric and now letting things deteriorate even further with no action is symptomatic of Sport Republic as a whole.

Change is needed now to show that under Johann Spors directorship things have changed, that the club has once again found its direction and although this season is dead and buried, the planning for next season is already underway.

We need to put Simon Rusk and Adam Lallana in charge, give the supporters something to rally around and more importantly hope, at the moment it feels like we are drifting into oblivion and nothing is being done to stop the rot, in fact it is festering and spreading.

I do not know anyone who can support Ivan Juric and his bizarre management, the support against Wolverhampton Wanderers was despite noticeable empty seats for the first time this season, still good in numbers, if not in voice, the Northam End barely finding the energy for even one chorus of Allez Allez, let alone the endless versions we have heard in previous games.

If Juric is not removed from his position now, then I feel that many supporters will lose faith in the club and once they have broken the habit of going to the games will not return.

A year ago the mood could not have been more different, mistakes have been made this season and we can't change that now, but we can change it going forward and the club have to show that they are at the forefront of the change, that they are leading it and can take us forward again.

You cannot change the past, but you can change the future, now is the time for Sport Republic, Dragan Solak, Rasmus Ankersen, Phil Parsons & Johann Spors to step up to the plate, please dont let the rot continue to spread, deal with it now & CHANGE THE FUTURE

All Photos Via Reuters

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codge added 14:08 - Mar 17 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
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halftimeorange added 14:49 - Mar 17 I posted a couple of weeks back "Are Sports Republic really bothered?" If they are then why haven't they said somewhat more than Spors somewhat recent ambiguous statement, like "Saints supporters can rest assured that the board will invest robustly in players, staff and structure to endeavour to secure promotion back to the EPL where this club truly belongs" and then take some immediate action (such as Juric out) to show that they do mean business. At least that would awaken hope in the fanbase because travelling to St Marys at this time is akin to being sent repeatedly to prison for punishment for crimes we haven't committed but, are innocent onlookers of.

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SanMarco added 15:01 - Mar 17 Difficult to argue with Nick on this one. What is the point of Juric? He came in far too late to have any chance of keeping us up and now seems to be cynically trying to demonstrate to potential employers that it is the players ' fault and not his. Of course, he has a little bit of a point but even so he is clearly needs to go NOW. I wonder if he is angling for the sack so he can spend the next few weeks on paid leave - give him his wish I say. The whole thing stops at the door of SR. They are hopeless and I would like to see the club up for sale. I don't accept the idea that we will be relegation candidates next year but I don't trust SR to do the right thing to give us a realistic chance of promotion...

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Boris1977 added 15:23 - Mar 17 I thought at the time they should have stuck with Simon Risk as he showed some nous lacking in the the last 3 or 4 manager appointees by sports direct (better the devil you know etc) but of course sports direct know best. It's time for them to go back to playing their games in the lower leagues of Europe and leave our club alone.
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Boris1977 added 15:23 - Mar 17 I thought at the time they should have stuck with Simon Risk as he showed some nous lacking in the the last 3 or 4 manager appointees by sports direct (better the devil you know etc) but of course sports direct know best. It's time for them to go back to playing their games in the lower leagues of Europe and leave our club alone.
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HythePeer added 16:11 - Mar 17 👍🏻
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Bowlercow added 16:28 - Mar 17 Keeping a bad apple will spoil the whole barrel Get rid now and let Rusktake the reins
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Colburn added 17:15 - Mar 17 Agreed we should make the change now and put Rusk and Lallana in. Rusk on his own may be far too defensive but with Lallana, we might have more attack. The Rohl compensation is worth it if he is the right man. We’ve wasted absolute millions on inadequate players over the last few years.
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DoctorSleep added 18:31 - Mar 17 Considering everything that has gone on and is till going n and inevitably will go on I surprised at the crowd attendance, another game with 30k+ support but how much longer is that likely to go on? As a ST holder I'm seriously considering not going to the next match I mean sit in the cold and watch my team get soundly beaten or sit at home in the warm watching a different match on Sky - tough choice! Talking of the crowd - no mention of the chanting from Saturday? Whats ging on Nick? They have turned against Juric and have started on some of the players. So yes Juric out in the hope we can get past 12 pts!

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pintsizedsaint added 18:44 - Mar 17 AMEN!🙏
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StillaSaint added 19:18 - Mar 17 Well said , top report . Couldn't agree more . The club needs to act now . NOW not at the end of the session . I'm in pain evert Saturday
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Centurion added 19:28 - Mar 17 SR are clearly paralysed by the shock of trying to compete in the PL. The have under estimated how unforgiving and tough the PL is. I think they are genuinely so paralysed they cannot make a decision.
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Jesus_02 added 01:53 - Mar 18 I genuinly believe that RM would have done better than Juric. Maybe not much better , but better. I think that we would have had a better chance of keeping some of our better/ more promising players. That said, we now need someone to come in and simplify our game so we can at least be difficult to beat and hopefully get a couple of results, maybe a dead rubber towards the end of the season. Our biggest problem seems to be whoever the manager is we seem to be reluctant to play 4 at the back, when we do we seem a lot better.

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StRipper added 13:29 - Mar 18 It feels to me that the club, primarily with Juric and his decisions, are actually trying to antagonise the fans. Whoever went on Saturday saw a masterclass in doing everything to annoy the fan base, football wise. Reverting back to 5 at the back, with our best full back being played as a CB. No striker. And nothing done to address the glaring problem of not having anyone to score when we were dominant n possession. Then destroying any chance of recovery at half time by taking off our most effective midfielder as the price for giving us a striker on the pitch. It wasn't just that though. The way the security treated some fans during and after after the game. Even the hospitality was appalling. All season, Ive been able to wander to one of the many numerous bars at half time to get a drink without a long queue if I wanted to. That all seemed to change on Saturday too for some reason, when we've had less fans. Suddenly long queues at the bars with nobody seeming to be getting served. Issues with the pumps. Being told to queue rather than just approaching the outside bars. Weirdly, it hasn't been like that all season. I don't know if thats what the police wanted because we were lucky enough to have a Saturday game and might want to enjoy the day. Either way, it really does feel that the club, in every way it can, wants to stick two fingers up to its own fanbase right now. Whether this is psychological, so that the fans breathe a bigger sign of relief when this sh*t show of a season ends. Or just simply they get off on ruining our day. Only time will tell

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