Ivan Juric has been sacked by Southampton after overseeing just 14 Premier League matches. He won only four points across that time, but does that make him the worst manager in Premier League history?
When Ivan Juric took the Southampton job on 21 December 2024, there would have been an expectation that he’d at least see out the season on the south coast. However, with Saints setting a new Premier League record for the earliest relegation in terms of games left to play (seven), the Croatian has departed the club after just over three months in charge.
He replaced Russell Martin in the Southampton dugout after their terrible start to the 2024-25 Premier League campaign but somehow produced an even worse return.
Juric won just four points across 14 league games in charge of the club, fewer than Martin both overall (5) and on a per-game basis (0.29 vs 0.31). Martin had equalled Terry Connor’s record as the worst Premier League manager for points per game (of those to have managed 10+ games), but Juric has outdone the pair of them.
The 49-year-old will at least have some comfort in the fact that he did oversee a Premier League win, with Southampton beating Ipswich Town 2-1 at Portman Road on 1 February. That’s more than Connor produced in his spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers at the end of 2011-12; he holds the record of the most Premier League games managed without a single win (13).
Juric’s first Premier League game in charge of Southampton came on Boxing Day, when Saints lost 1-0 to West Ham United at St Mary’s. Since that date, only Leicester (3, but from a game fewer) have won fewer Premier League points than Southampton (4). Saints have, however, conceded the most goals (38) across that period.
With Juric departing, Southampton may appoint a third permanent manager of the season. They did this in 2022-23 too, another campaign in which they suffered relegation to the Championship. That time around, they began the season with Ralph Hasenhüttl in the dugout, before making a change and appointing Nathan Jones after a successful period with Luton Town. Jones lasted just eight league games, however, before Ruben Selles took over for their final 16 matches of the campaign.
Southampton also went through three permanent managers in 2004-05, when they eventually finished bottom of the Premier League table.
Paul Sturrock took charge of only two games before being replaced by Steve Wigley, who lasted just 14 matches himself. Harry Redknapp was brought into rescue them but ultimately failed across 22 league games in charge. That was made even worse by the fact that Southampton’s rivals Portsmouth stayed up by six points and Redknapp oversaw the first 13 league games of their season, winning four games – the same number he won in 22 matches at Southampton.
Only last week, Juric said: “I don’t want it to be that we are the worst team in the history of Premier League.” He didn’t do much to help eliminate that possibility, though, with Southampton still needing one more point from their remaining seven games to even equal Derby County’s record of 11 points in 2007-08. Whoever takes the reins now has the pressure of avoiding that all-time low.
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Was Ivan Juric the Worst Manager in Premier League History? Opta Analyst.
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