Nathan Jones was up against it from the off.
He inherited a struggling squad containing some players who were already growing resigned to this season being the one when they go down and needed to somehow inspire a change of belief.
He was not the unanimous choice of the Southampton hierarchy, with strong support for Torino manager Ivan Juric among others outweighed by key decision maker Rasmus Ankersen’s long-term interest in Jones dating back to the former’s Brentford days.
And then there were the supporters, underwhelmed by the appointment of a manager from a Championship club and doing little to hide it, leaving Jones shocked by some of the vitriol coming his way from the stands before he had even managed to reach the half way point of his first Premier League home game.