Ivan Juric is set to leave his job as Southampton boss after the club were relegated from the Premier League, with the Croatian winning just one top-flight game since taking charge

Ivan Juric has left his role as Southampton manager after the club's relegation from the Premier League, with Sunday's defeat to Tottenham leaving the Saints 22 points adrift of safety with only seven games to play.

It is the earliest point in a season a team has been relegated from the top flight. Juric won just two games after replacing Russell Martin in December, one of which was in the FA Cup third round. Juric's sole Premier League win in charge came against fellow strugglers Ipswich back the start of February. He has failed to secure a victory in any competition since then, losing seven of their eight games in that time.

It means he leaves St Mary's with one of the worst records of any coach to lead a team in the Premier League. Juric picked up just 0.29 points per game, the lowest average for any top-flight manager who has overseen ten or more matches since 1992. His 107-day spell in charge is the 11th-shortest managerial stint in the Premier League era, just one day more than Claudio Ranieri at Fulham in the 2018/2019 campaign.

Juric's contract contained a relegation clause that the club have now triggered with Simon Rusk set to take interim charge until the summer with Adam Lallana acting as his assistant.

It is the second time this season Juric has been sacked, with the 49-year-old having also been dismissed by Roma back in November after winning only four of his 12 games in charge. At this point it is unclear who could replace him on a permanent basis.

But first-team coach Simon Rusk is expected to lead team until the end of the season. Rusk took charge briefly when Martin left St Mary's. Club legend Adam Lallana will also likely be involved in the new set-up, with Juric's backroom staff having followed him out of the door.

Southampton's players were informed of the decision to move on from Juric on Monday morning, with the club at serious risk of setting a new record for the lowest-ever points total in a Premier League season.

In a statement Southampton said: "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. The process of finding a new manager to lead us as we look to secure an immediate return to the Premier League has now begun and is being led by Group Technical Director Johannes Spors.

In his final press conference as manager, following Sunday's 3-1 loss away to Tottenham, Juric admitted his side were no match for the top-flight.

And the writing appeared on the wall once he said the club's recruitment strategy was to blame for their struggles. Saints have spent more than £100m on new signings in the past two windows but with an emphasis on youth, Juric accused the decision-makers above him at St Mary's of setting the team up to fail.

"What I noticed we missed the most in these three or four months that I'm here, [it's a] completely different physicality between us and the other teams in the Premier League. I think the same thing has happened to Leicester and Ipswich," he said.

"The difference between physicality in the Championship and the Premier League… the gap is huge. But you have to find, from now, from this moment, the players that can grow up, that can improve. Not just thinking about winning the Championship, but create the players that will be ready in the Premier League."

Juric also told the players on Sunday that they needed to feel grateful for how the club's supporters have stuck by them despite losing 25 of their 31 league games to date. They require two more points to overtake Derby County's class of 2008 as the worst team in Premier League history.

Juric added: "I said to the players they have to be really thankful that they had fans like this, it was something incredible how they love their team. I think they really deserve much more. Every person that works at Southampton has to do it better and create something much more stronger than we did this year.

"It is a different culture and even for my mentality, it is something incredible and to show loving in these moments is the great English and Southampton culture, incredible. Now is a really important moment to understand all the mistakes the club has made the past three or four years and for the club to start to create something really good."