Former Dundee No 2 Simon Rusk will be a Premier League manager once again after taking interim charge at Southampton for the second time.
Relegation back to the Championship was confirmed for Saints after a 3-1 loss at Tottenham on Sunday.
Less than 24 hours later the south-coast club relieved manager Ivan Juric of his duties.
Juric took over at St Mary’s in December after Russell Martin was sacked, also after a defeat to Spurs, with Saints earning just five points from 16 games.
Rusk took charge of two matches as interim before Juric was installed, losing to Liverpool in the EFL Cup and drawing 0-0 with Fulham.
Juric himself won just five points with Southampton still needing one point to avoid the ignominy of registering the lowest-ever points total in a Premier League season.
Assisted by Premier League winner
A Southampton statement read: “We can confirm that we have today reached an agreement with our Men’s First Team Manager, Ivan Jurić, to end his spell at the club.
“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 the meantime, Simon Rusk has agreed to take charge of the team as Interim Manager for the remaining seven fixtures of this season and will be assisted by Adam Lallana.”
Rusk moved to Southampton as their U/21 manager after a short spell as Nottingham Forest set-piece coach.
That was after leaving the England youth setup.
He moved to the FA job after leaving Dundee following Mark McGhee’s sacking.
McGhee and Rusk took over from James McPake in February 2022 but managed just one win in 14 matches.
Relegation to the Championship followed with McGhee’s win ratio of 7% the worst of any permanent Dundee manager in history.
Now Rusk will be in charge for seven Premier League matches, tasked with topping Derby County’s 11 points record, starting against Unai Emery’s Aston Villa at home this coming Saturday.
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