Southampton boss Nathan Jones bizarrely took a pop at Romeo Lavia and the club’s fanbase after another Premier League defeat.
The Saints were swatted aside with ease by Brentford on Saturday afternoon at the Gtech Community Stadium in a 3-0 defeat.
Ben Mee and Bryan Mbeumo both scored before half-time as Mathias Jensen made it 3-0 ten minutes from the final whistle to leave Southampton rock bottom of the Premier League.
It means that Jones has overseen just one win in the league since taking over in November and fans have had enough of the ex-Luton Town boss.
In the away end, fans could be heard singing, “Nathan Jones, your football is s***” and “Get out of our club, Nathan Jones.”
The Welshman responded to the chants in his post-match press conference with a bizarre pop at Lavia, who he had hooked after an hour.
Fans had booed the decision after the midfielder’s number was shown on the substitution board before a rousing rendition of: “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
He said: “I can understand that. To be fair, they’ve sung that at any point.
“Was Romeo Lavia running the game? They must have been watching a different game to me.”
In a separate answer, he took a wild swing at the fans and said: “I’ve compromised my principles because of personnel and the way people want to play. Because of fans and so on. But no more.”
The Southampton fans have been largely unhappy with Jones throughout his tenure but the relationship between supporters and manager has hit an all-time low.
And his pop at Chelsea target Lavia will likely not go down well with the Saints faithful.
In the summer, it emerged that the Blues tried to prise him away from St Mary’s in a £50million move just weeks after leaving Manchester City for the south coast.
And Chelsea were again interested in January with Graham Potter speaking to the teenager over a potential move.
The free-spending Londoners might be in again in the next window despite splashing out £107m on Enzo Fernandez as they look to partner the World Cup winner with another top talent.
But whether Jones will be around to answer the phone to Chelsea remains to be seen, while he also admitted that he has not been impressed by himself in recent weeks.
He added: “I’ve let everyone down because I was brought in to drive the standards and that wasn’t good enough today.
“I’ve allowed certain things to happen and gone away from what’s made me successful in the past.”
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