Outspoken Nathan Jones facing increasing pressure in Southampton hotseat ahead of Wolves clash

The Welshman was heavily criticised for his comments after the 3-0 loss to Brentford, where he labelled himself ‘one of the best managers in Europe’ last season and claimed he had ‘compromised’ his ideas to pander to others.

Fans of the south coast club have been calling for him to go this week, with Southampton bottom of the table with just 15 points from 21 games, but the 49-year-old is set to remain in charge for the clash with Wolves tomorrow.

Rasmus Ankersen, CEO of the club’s owners Sport Republic, spoke at a fans’ forum this week and backed the manager.

He said: “With any Premier League manager, it is a high pressure environment. It is no secret that if you keep losing games, you can’t do that forever, at some point you hit the point where it is enough.

“I appreciate you are looking at it from the outside and you have certain reference points with the games and what is said after the games. When we are on the inside, we have a lot more reference points.

“We see what goes on every day and we see the quality of the work that is being carried out, the relationships with the players and all these things. Do they look right? Are we comfortable that all of these things will lead to better results? We are not happy with the results. You are not happy with the results.

“But our job is to try and improve it. And as long as we think that the work that is being carried out by Nathan and the team, and the players at the training ground every day is high quality, then we have something to believe in, that this is going to get better and we can turn it around.

“Another thing is worth taking into consideration is we have just been through a transfer window where we have spent a significant amount of money in trying to address some of the weaknesses the team had, especially in terms of creating chances and converting the chances that we create. That is the part of the game that is harder to coach, because it is down to individual quality.

“Lots of defensive things can be coached and improved on the training pitch and Nathan has been part of selecting the players and selling the project to them, and I think it is fair that he gets the chance to show what he can do with the new weapons that he now has.”