Hovering just three points above the relegation zone in the Championship, four wins from 51 league games and now looking for a new manager.
It’s all gone wrong for Southampton, a club that once seemed to be a staple of Premier League consistency.
And it never took off for Villa Stilla. The 33-year-old has lasted 13 Championship games since taking up his first England role.
Just two wins in that time, and just one from day one, made his sacking pretty much inevitable. The Saints are currently 21st in the table. They have not been this low in the pyramid since promotion from the first division in 2011.
He still had a fascinating backstory and looked like a tempting date after his time in Belgium and France. Now he may regret his first England job at a club that suffered such a terrible relegation.
They beat Wreckham on the first day, but only thanks to two stoppage time goals. The only other league win came thanks to a bit of brilliance from Ross Stewart against Sheffield United at the end of September.
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Highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Southampton and Preston North End
After the defeat to Preston on Saturday, the situation at St Mary’s has become really toxic. Shouts of “Put the board down” echoed around the house as frustration with club owner Sport Republic boiled over.
They took over in 2022, fired Ralf Hasenhuttl, and have since made a series of dubious appointments. Nathan Jones was followed by Ruben Seles in the season they were relegated.
Russell Martin managed to get the club back into the Premier League via the play-offs, but began their dreadful 2024/25 campaign, with Ivan Juric the man who replaced Martin and Still.
That’s just two wins at home since the start of last season.
Still having no luck with the results?
The baseline data from this season suggests that, yes.
In the table of expected goals (kG) for this season, Southampton should be fourth in the Championship table. Neither side has a worse record.
Still, it was clearly a coaching performance that created chances, with the problem that they just didn’t take them.
You can see that both of Southampton’s main attacking options, Adam Armstrong and Cameron Archer, have been in the top six for kG’s poor performance after the first 13 games of the season.
Margins can be so good in the championship. And Still’s Saints seem to have come out on the wrong side of the divide too many times.
Sometimes there were missed chances that had to be seen to be believed. Check out Caspar Jander in the video below as he spurned a golden opportunity in a game that ultimately ended goalless last month.
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Southampton created numerous chances against Swansea, but it was no better than a pair for Kaspar Yander
Southampton were also, quite comfortably, the biggest underdog in the league after 13 rounds of matches.
Still’s team scored 13 goals, and the data shows that they should have scored 23.
Despite all this, it was inevitable that Still’s time was up. And he reduced his resignation figure after their latest defeat.
Still dealt a bad hand in many ways
ski sports EFL Editor Simeon Gholam:
They have had more to prepare for the start of the season than many, having been appointed at the end of May and were even in the stands for their final Premier League game of the season.
But business relations were slow at Southampton, which could only serve to halve his pre-season preparations.
In an attempt to squeeze the maximum value out of departures. the likes of Tyler Diebling and Mateus Fernandes weren’t sold until the final week of the summer window, meaning arrivals were also delayed.
Tom Fellows and Finn Azaz were the Championship’s best operators last season, but both have struggled to adapt after arriving in the last few days of August, with Yander and Leo Scienza in a similar boat.
Combine that with a club lacking in confidence after such a miserable season in the Premier League, and a fan base alienated from the club’s ownership, and it’s no wonder Still has struggled. He was dealt a very bad hand.
What’s next for Southampton?
He might have been given one last chance to turn things around, had one more game been scheduled before the international break, rather than two. But instead, the owners chose to react ahead of their trip to QPR on Wednesday night, which is being televised live Ski Sports.
QPR have lost three of their last four, while St Mary’s host Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday. It gives Southampton a chance to season the car as they work towards their next meeting.
But whoever takes over – their fourth permanent manager since the start of last season – faces an uphill battle to stop the rot.
And his first task will be to somehow get his key attacking players to get up in front of goal and take their chances.