Southampton's 10-Year Premier League Run Comes to an End with Relegation

Southampton will be playing in the Championship next season but they've had some real highs as a Premier League club over the last decade.

After achieving promotion for the 2012-13 season, the Saints have now been relegated 10 years on having lost 2-0 at home to Fulham this weekend.

The defeat leaves Ruben Selles and Co. on 24 points with just two games to go, eight points off Everton who sit 17th in the division just above the relegation zone. Of course, the current manager isn't solely at fault with Ralph Hasenhuttl and Nathan Jones also struggling at the helm this term.

It's been a decade packed with some real highs and lows for Southampton as Mauricio Pochettino helped them become a top-10 side during his spell on the south coast. 

The Argentine led them to eighth before Ronald Koeman came in for a couple of seasons, taking them to a highest-ever PL finish of sixth in 2015-16. They also made the Carabao Cup final in 2017 under Claude Puel, losing 3-2 to Man United despite a brace from cult hero Manolo Gabbiadini.

During their Premier League stay, star players such as Sadio Mane, Adam Lallana, Virgil van Dijk, Rickie Lambert and Luke Shaw all impressed before securing notable transfers to rival Premier League clubs. Eventually, the Saints struggled to replace their departing stars, though they did an admirable job in player development for many seasons.

Club captain James Ward-Prowse told BBC Final Score: "We need to go away individually and as a club and assess if we've done everything we possibly could. I don't think we have and that is a shame. I think as a team and a club overall we'll think about the season that has gone by. Have decisions been right? Have we done everything we could on a pitch?

"I think we should perform at a better level than we have done. From the first day of the season until now you can tell the standards have slipped."

 Saints suffered not one, but two humiliating 9-0 defeats in the space of two seasons. They lost by that scoreline to Leicester in October 2019, before being demolished by Manchester United at Old Trafford in 2021.

It's likely that Southampton will lose some key players this summer – with Ward-Prose and Romeo Lavia linked with exits – while it remains unclear if Selles will be trusted to guide them in the Championship next term.