Fulham Fans Call for Claudio Ranieri to Be Sacked After 2-0 Defeat at Southampton

Fulham have fallen to yet another defeat, this time to Southampton on Wednesday night, and the fans have seemingly had enough as they called for manager Claudio

Fulham have fallen to yet another defeat, this time to Southampton on Wednesday night, and the fans have seemingly had enough as they called for manager Claudio Ranieri to be sacked.

The Whites lost 2-0 at St Mary's Stadium with goals from Oriol Romeu and James Ward-Prowse hammering the nail further and further into Fulham's Premier League coffin.

22 - Claudio Ranieri is winless in 22 Premier League away games (15 for Leicester, 7 for Fulham). The last manager to have a longer winless run was Iain Dowie (23 games between November 2004 and May 2010). Issue. #SOUFUL pic.twitter.com/627vpk79ZB

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 27, 2019

The result has left the West London club 10 points from safety with 10 games remaining, with fans venting their anger at club executive Tony Khan and under-pressure boss Ranieri with numerous banners and chants.

As reported by Football.London, Ranieri submitted to 'You don't know what you're doing!' chants from the fans when the Italian made a double substitution in the 69th minute as Southampton led 2-0.

Much to the dismay of the travelling supporters, Fulham captain and main creative outlet Tom Cairney was replaced by Luciano Vietto, while fans also jeered Ryan Sessegnon's overdue introduction in place of Kevin McDonald.

Marc Atkins/GettyImages

On the appointment of Ranieri in November, Khan described the Premier League-winning manager as 'risk-free' and these words came back to haunt the co-owner as fans displayed banners asking 'Risk free? Are you watching Tony Khan?'. 

Ranieri replaced Slavisa Jokanovic as Fulham boss - a decision still mourned by the Whites' fans with banners at St Mary's paying tribute to the Serbian who earned them promotion to the top flight last season.

Fulham famously spent big in preparation for their return to the Premier League, with 12 new arrivals totalling over £100m and the spree could hardly have gone worse as the Cottagers seem surely doomed for immediate relegation back to the Championship.

Claudio Ranieri is clearly a very decent guy, but that’s surely him done now? #ffc #COYW

— Richard Osman (@richardosman) February 27, 2019

Although they are above Huddersfield Town in the table, Fulham have the league's worst defence (63 goals conceded in 28 games) and the defeat to the Saints was Fulham's seventh in eight games.

With Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City all visiting Craven Cottage in March, it's highly improbable that Ranieri's fortunes will change any time soon and fans may see the arrival of their third manager of the season before May.