They’ve already played their change-of-manager card and flailing Southampton still show no signs of significant improvement.
The Saints dispensed with the dogmatic defensive possession of Russell Martin and replaced him with the more experienced Ivan Juric, but the death metal fanatic is yet to get Southampton rocking.
2024/25 is shaping up to be a historically bad season for the Premier League’s bottom club. With six points from 23 games, Southampton are averaging around 0.26 points per game and are therefore on track to finish with ten points. (If their average is rounded up.)
Derby County’s 11-point season
Derby County are the not-so-proud holders of the current record low Premier League points total, which they achieved in a catastrophic 2007/08 season. The Rams were relegated on 29th March with six games remaining. For the record, it was after Easter.
Their meagre tally of 11 points was achieved courtesy of draws with Portsmouth (home), Bolton Wanderers (home), Fulham (twice), Newcastle United (away), Manchester City (home), Birmingham City (away) and Sunderland (home), and a single win, against Newcastle at Pride Park, in September 2007.
After 23 matches, the worst team in history had collected seven points, one more than Southampton at the same point this season.
They sacked their manager, Billy Davies, in late November. Paul Jewell took over but couldn’t rescue a squad that was exceptionally poor by the admission of its own players after the fact.
Captain Robbie Savage has spoken openly about the difficult environment for Derby’s players in 2007/08, identifying some issues with attitude and a devastating losing habit that took the Rams down with barely a bleat.
Jewell only lasted a year in the job. Derby brought in Nigel Clough in December 2009 and finished 18th in the Championship. They have not returned to the Premier League and spent two seasons in the third tier before being promoted back to the Championship in 2023/24.
Which other teams came close to Derby’s record?
The previous holders of the unwanted record for the worst Premier League season were Sunderland (15 points), who were relegated from the top flight in 2005/06 and scored only 22 goals in the process.
Huddersfield Town (16 points) might have been even closer to Derby’s record if they hadn’t done the double over Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2018/19. Those six juicy points topped up their total, making them the third-worst team in Premier League history.
The Terriers snatched that questionable accolade away from Aston Villa (17 points) and might have grounds for appeal.
Huddersfield might have won one point fewer than Villa’s dismal relegation team but at least they haven’t spent the better part of a decade listening to Micah Richards laughing about it on ex-players’ podcasts.
The bottom five is completed by Sunderland (19 points) who managed just 21 goals in 2002/03, losing their last 15 matches and chasing both Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson out of the dugout during the campaign.
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