Southampton boss Ruben Selles to BBC Match of the Day after Saints’ relegation: “It is a very tough day – for me, for everybody in the dressing room, for the city, for the fans. It has been a tough season for all of us.
“We have been fighting not to be relegated from the very beginning and the day came today. I just want to say thank you to everybody for the support we felt from the very first day.
“It’s tough, especially for the fans that have been supporting us for their entire lives.
“This club has quality enough to bounce back immediately, with or without me, but what we feel now is a very big disappointment.”
“There is not only one reason [for relegation] – but one of the things that we didn’t find during the season was enough togetherness, enough trust in each other just to be competitive.
“We showed it in bits in games like against Chelsea, Arsenal, in the first half against Newcastle but we were not able to be continuously competitive in those moments – we have not been good enough as a team.”
On whether the problems pre-dated his interim reign: “I will not make that excuse, that is not me – when I took the team I was convinced I could get this team out of relegation and I didn’t make it, and I am the first one who is responsible for this run. From the beginning I thought we can do it so if somebody is responsible for the last three months, it’s me.
On his future: “No, I don’t have any indication right now. We talk with the club and we will do that at the end of the season – I say ‘with or without me’ because that is the reality, it is one or the other, there are only two options.
“I know the quality around me, I feel it and I know the club will bounce back quick.”