AFTER circling the drain for months, Southampton have finally dropped.
In front of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Saints became the first club to hit the deck in one of the tightest relegation scraps for years – defeat to Fulham sealing their fate after 11 years in the top flight.
After the Tories took a beating in local elections last week, Sunak must be a glutton for punishment.
Despite not being a St.Mary’s regular, the boyhood Saints fan would have at least felt at home having accepted the club’s invitation.
An old institution burning through three leaders in a year, sliding backwards after more than a decade at the top table – it’s all alarmingly familiar.
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Though the Prime Minister stopped short of joining in the gallows humour of home fans chanting: “We’re going down” after four minutes.
The regulars knew this was coming. And, in the end, it was a fitting goodbye from the Saints. A soft performance having rolled over one too many times this season.
There has been little urgency shown by an inexperienced and confusingly assembled squad all season – so why start now?
Carlos Vinicius and Aleksandar Mitrovic delivered the coup de grace on Southampton’s season but this moment had been coming for months.
Ruben Selles is the third Saints manager of the campaign and after a promising start has been unable to aid this sinking ship.
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Selles has continually shuffled the pack in search of a miracle to keep Southampton up.
Towering striker Paul Onuachu, signed in January to add much needed goals, was the name pulled out of the hat this time.
He was handed just a fourth start having been dropped from the squad altogether at times under Selles.
The 6ft 7in striker was largely ineffective throughout, another reminder of the muddled season Southampton have endured.
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Onuachu was a striker signed in January for Nathan Jones, who was sacked just days later after just three months in the job.
Things are very different for the club from the banks of the Thames, and the Fulham fans enjoyed a day in the sun on the south coast.
Marco Silva named Mitrovic on the bench following the end of his eight-week ban, a sign of just how comfortable the promoted side are at this stage of the season.
Fulham have been safe for weeks but it was Southampton who looked like they were on the beach despite knowing they simply had to win their last three to stand a chance of surviving.
There were cries for a penalty when Brazilian defender Lyanco appeared to handle a cross, though referee Thomas Bramall and VAR Tony Harrington did not agree.
Lyanco was then forced to clear off the line as Willian looked to dip a volley into the top corner.
They were holding out at the back but too pedestrian in possession, a common problem all season.
Selles tried to fire them up at the break, but the first three minutes of the second half offered a perfect summary of their sorry season.
Carlos Alcaraz fired a low effort past Bernd Leno, though the goal was ruled out as a poor run had taken the midfielder well offside before he had been played in.
Then moments later they were behind.
Sloppiness at the top reflected at the back. Southampton's defence has more leaks than Number 10 and Fulham exploited them with ease.
Harry Wilson drove forwards and slipped in former Saint Harrison Reed. He had to slide to reach the ball before Lyanco but managed to hook it across the six-yard box to Carlos Vinicius, who was unmarked and facing an empty net.
To make matters worse, Mitrovic then made his long awaited return.
The striker was welcomed to huge cheers by the away end, many waving Serbian flags, and he rewarded them with a goal on 72 minutes, getting across Kyle Walker-Peters to head home Wilson’s cross.
And that was it for Southampton. The stands emptied as their fate was sealed.
Their fans now just have two more Premier League games to witness, at Brighton and here against Liverpool, before they go back to the Football League for the first time since 2012.
Two more games to see icon James Ward-Prowse in their red and white before he surely departs, leaving behind a club he loves and has fought for with so many problems to tackle over the summer.
Others will be plucked from a squad which offered much promise on paper but has never looked like delivering in the real world, their limp surrender here today is prime evidence of obvious shortcomings.
Sporting director Rasmus Ankersen, absent from the directors’ box as he has often been in recent months, once said: “If it ain't broke, consider breaking it.”
Having bought Southampton as a largely stable club last January, the Dane has taken his mantra very seriously.
Fans will have huge questions and concerns as to whether he is the right man to plot their route back to the Premier League next season.
