Southampton captain, Jack Stephens believes that the squad “didn’t deserve the reception” from fans following their relegation from the Premier League.
Brennan Johnson’s first-half brace plus Matthys Tel’s penalty saw Tottenham beat Southampton 3-1 at home to confirm the Saints’ relegation – after one season back in the top-flight – despite Mateus Fernandes halving the hosts’ deficit.
The result also meant that Southampton became the first team to suffer the earliest-ever relegation from the Premier League after just 31 games.
Stephens post-match spoke to southamptonfc.com about how “tough” it felt to break that unwanted record which was shared by; Derby, Huddersfield and Sheffield United of 32 games in 2007-08, 18-19 and 20-21 seasons respectively.
“We’re fully aware that we’ve been nowhere near good enough this season and we’re really disappointed in the dressing room that we weren’t able to do ourselves justice this season.
“Obviously it’s still really fresh. We knew it was a possibility today but we wanted to get a good result, we wanted to win the game and unfortunately we just couldn’t do that today.
“It’s really disappointing after the high of last year, of coming back into the Premier League. We had really high expectations, we were very demanding of each other but we’ve fallen well short of expectations.”
Stephens however praised the fans for standing by the team despite several awful performances this season and felt that he and his teammates didn’t deserve the respectful reception from the away crowd at full time in North London.
“I think it’s gutting for us as players but also for the fans. They’ve stuck with us for the full season, they’ve been incredible. I said last year how good they were but I think they’ve been even better this year and especially the last few weeks where, like you say, the writing’s been on the wall.
“I’ve never experienced anything like today. We didn’t deserve the reception that we got at the end there. We know how frustrated they will be. We know how disappointed and upset they’ll be, like we are, but for them to be so loud, so supportive. That doesn’t go unnoticed in the dressing room and I’ll be forever grateful for that response from them.
“I think it’s important for us to show our gratitude towards them at the end there and go over and applaud them, but I just wasn’t expecting that sort of response from them. I’m fully aware they’re frustrated, upset, and they have every right to be frustrated with us as a group of players and as a football club. We’ve come up well short of expectations this season.”
The defender also iterated that next season has to mark “a fresh start” and that they can’t expect a repeat of last season where they returned to the Championship, only to secure an immediate top-flight return via the play-offs.
“We have to understand that this year hasn’t been good enough and just because we’re going down to the Championship and we came up last year doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen just by chance, we have to work at it and that has to start now.”
Stephens’ sentiments were echoed by Head Coach, Ivan Juric who believes that the team now need “a big school” approach to understanding where the season went wrong.
“We are disappointed. It has to be a big school for everything – for us, for me, for the players, for the club – to see what we did wrong.
“What went wrong? Did we give everything that we can in this one year, or can we do some things better? It has to be a big school for everybody.”
