Southampton have confirmed the departure of manager Ivan Juric following the club's relegation from the top-flight.
Sunday's defeat to Tottenham saw the Saints become the 'earliest' ever team relegated in the Premier League, with their fate confirmed on Gameweek 31.
That beat the previous record of Gameweek 32 held by Huddersfield in 2018/19 and the infamous Derby outfit of 2007/08.
Reports indicate that a clause within his contract allowed Southampton to part ways, with Juric originally putting pen-to-paper on an 18-month deal.
In a statement on their club website, Saints 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."
Juric leaves with the lowest points-per-game record of any manager in Premier League history to have been in charge for at least ten games (0.29).
Southampton's campaign has been one of disaster from the very start following promotion via the Sky Bet Championship play-offs last season.
Russell Martin was the one to guide them back to the top-flight at the first time of asking but was he dismissed in mid-December following a 5-0 thrashing by Spurs.
Juric's arrival came over the Christmas period. Taking charge of his first game on Boxing Day, Southampton have managed just one win and one draw in 14 league outings.
Simon Rusk will take interim charge until the end of the season, with support from Adam Lallana as his assistant.
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