Southampton appoint Ivan Juric as new manager.

Southampton have named Ivan Juric as their new manager on an 18-month contract, subject to a final work-permit approval.

The 49-year-old replaces Russell Martin, who was dismissed last Sunday night just hours after a 5-0 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur left the Saints bottom of the table with five points, nine from safety.

Juric arrives at St Mary’s Stadium following a short-lived spell at Roma, where he was in charge for only 12 games, having been appointed by the Serie A club in September.

“I’m very pleased. I think it’s a really big challenge but I’m very optimistic because I saw a team that can do better,” Juric said on the club’s official website.

“It’s important to immediately be connected with the fans. I want us to be more aggressive, to do much more pressing and we have to be quick to change mentality because this is my idea of football.”

He becomes only the third Croat to take charge of a Premier League club, following former West Ham United and Everton boss Slaven Bilic and ex-Portsmouth manager Velimir Zajec.

Juric’s journey to Southampton

During his decade in coaching, Juric has experienced an historic promotion with one club, before being dismissed three times inside two years by another.

A former Sevilla and Hajduk Split midfielder, he represented Croatia five times before retiring while at Genoa in 2010.

Until now, his entire managerial career had been spent in Italian football. His pathway began with four years on the coaching staff of Genoa, Inter and Palermo.

Juric first went into management in 2014 at Mantova. But within months, Crotone – the club he played for between 2001 and 2006 – approached him to return.

It was a good decision, and he guided Crotone to promotion to Serie A for the first time in 2015/16, arguably the club’s greatest ever achievement.

He was soon lured back to Genoa, and his appointment as head coach there in June 2016 was the beginning of a rollercoaster ride. Things started encouragingly with victories over AC Milan and Juventus, but he was dismissed in February 2017 following a 5-0 defeat to the side at the bottom of Serie A, Pescara.

Two months later, Juric was reinstated after Genoa’s owners lost patience with his successor, Andrea Mandorlini. The Croat guided the team to safety but his time was up again in November 2017 when Davide Ballardini replaced him.

Less than a year later, in October 2018, he was appointed Genoa boss again but it was not to be third time lucky. Juric was sacked seven weeks later after being knocked out of the Coppa Italia by Serie C side Virtus Entella.

Juric returned to management a year later with promoted Serie A club Hellas Verona, impressively keeping them in Italy’s top division for two seasons before he was given permission to depart for Torino.

Following three respectable seasons with Torino, finishing in midtable each time, Juric was offered the chance to turn Roma’s season around after the sacking of Daniele De Rossi, successor to Jose Mourinho.

However, Juric was unable to inspire an improvement and on 10 November, after just 12 matches at the helm, he was dismissed and replaced by Claudio Ranieri.

At the time, Roma were just four points above the relegation zone in Serie A and occupying 20th place in the UEFA Europa League, a competition in which they reached the final under Mourinho in 2023.

(EPL)