Newcastle United Championship winner amongst early candidates for Southampton role

A former Newcastle United favourite has been named amongst the frontrunners to lead Southampton’s attempts to bounce back from relegation into the Championship.

The Saints made Premier League history on Sunday when their 3-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur ensured they had suffered the earliest relegation from the top flight in the 32-year history of the new look league. Their disastrous campaign started with a 1-0 defeat at St James Park as a Joelinton goal helped the ten-man Magpies secure a narrow win after Fabian Schar had been shown a controversial red card after a coming together with Ben Brereton-Diaz.

Since that opening day loss, the Saints have won just two league games and have collected just ten points from a possible 93 throughout the course of the season. After guiding his side to promotion into the top flight last season, Russell Martin was sacked in mid-December after the Saints suffered a 5-0 hammering at the hands of Spurs and he was replaced by former Torino and Roma head coach Ivan Juric. However, the Croatian boss won just two of his 16 games in charge and his departure from St Mary’s Stadium was announced on Monday, less than 24 hours after Southampton’s relegation into the Championship was confirmed.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Rohl has been suggested as a leading candidate to replace Juric as off-field talk continues to dominate the headlines at Hillsborough. Former Saints boss Russell Martin is also stated as an 8/1 shot to return to his old club according to Gambling.com and the likes of Steve Cooper, Sean Dyche, Steven Gerrard and Gary O’Neil are also rated as possible candidates. However, there will be some surprise to see the name of former Newcastle United and Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez also named amongst the leading contenders.

The Spanish boss, who guided Newcastle back into the Premier League in 2017 and helped establish the Magpies back in the top flight before departing two years later, has been out of work since leaving La Liga side Celta Vigo just over a year ago after a nine-month reign with the Galician club. Benitez is rated at 10/1 to replace Juric and secure a fifth managerial role in England after also taking charge of Everton and Chelsea.

What have Southampton said about Ivan Juric’s departure?

A statement released on the club website read: "Ivan came to Southampton at a tough time and was tasked with trying to improve a squad in a difficult situation. Unfortunately, we haven't seen performances progress the way we had hoped, but we would like to thank Ivan and his staff for their honesty and hard work as they fought against the odds to try and keep us up. With relegation to the Championship now confirmed, we believe it is important to give fans, players and staff some clarity on the future as we head into a very important summer."

What did Rafa Benitez say about his departure from Newcastle?

Speaking in a column for The Athletic months after his departure from St James Park, Benitez said: “Over my long career, and especially in my time at Newcastle, I’ve always shown commitment to my club, its city and its community and I’ve done it with professionalism and honesty. I want to remember the good moments I spent in the north-east — and there were many of them — and not have to keep denying things about my time there or about my departure.

“Newcastle’s board had a year to sort out my contract but, when we met after the end of last season, they didn’t make me a proper offer. They told me they didn’t want to invest in the academy or the training ground — if they like, I can explain the reason why Mike Ashley refused to do that. Their idea of a project was a policy of signing players under 24 and, in my opinion, the budget available was not enough to compete for the top 10.”

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