A shattered Southampton player after the final whistle
Southampton players and coaching staff have pledged to donate their wages, from Friday’s humiliating 9-0 defeat by Leicester City, to the club’s charitable foundation, in an attempt to put things right with their supporters.
Leicester recorded the biggest English top-flight away win by thrashing 10-man Southampton at St Mary’s, with hat tricks from Ayoze Perez and Jamie Vardy; helping to inflict Saints’ worst home defeat in their 133-year history.
“The squad has been working on putting things right for the club’s supporters,” Southampton said in a statement.
“As the first step towards that, the group has decided to donate their wages from the day of the Leicester game to Saints Foundation, in order to help the vital work that is conducted by the charity.”
The players would look to make further amends in the upcoming double-header against Manchester City, who Southampton face first in the League Cup today and then in the Premier League on Saturday.
Saints manager Ralph Hasenhuttl said his team would not stay up this season unless they found a way to improve.
“We must know that when we play like this, we have no chance to stay in this league, that is for sure,” he told reporters. “Everybody knows this. It’s about us now, to try and find a way to do better than this.”
The defeat sent Southampton, who lost Ryan Bertrand to an early red card, into the relegation zone, while Leicester stayed third in the table, eight points behind leaders, Liverpool.