SAINTS defender Kyle Walker-Peters admitted "it was a tight-knit squad” when he first joined the club as he lamented a season of changes that have culminated in relegation.
The 26 year old played 90 minutes of Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Fulham, which confirmed the club’s relegation to the Championship.
Walker-Peters, who has made 118 appearances for the club since a January 2020 initial loan move from Tottenham Hotspur, faces an uncertain future with likely Premier League interest.
His disappointment and frustration at relegation were clear to see in the mixed zone outside St Mary’s when Walker-Peters agreed that too much change has derailed the campaign.
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“It hasn’t helped,” he said. “Being 100 per cent honest, that has been really tough for everyone.
“When I first came here it was a smaller squad, a tight-knit squad and sometimes when there is a lot of change it makes things hard.
“On the pitch, we haven’t been good enough, we haven’t done our jobs well enough and ultimately that is why we’re getting relegated.”
Walker-Peters added: "Really disappointed as you can imagine but it’s been something over us all season and unfortunately, we weren’t able to change it.
"We haven’t been good enough. We haven’t stopped enough goals or scored enough goals and if you aren’t good enough in both boxes you can’t win games.
"It’s hard to say why, these things happen sometimes in football and unfortunately, it’s happened to us.
“Ultimately if you’re not good enough in both boxes then it’s hard to win games. That has been the story of our season.”
In March last year, Walker-Peters was called up to Gareth Southgate’s England squad and received his first two caps in friendlies at Wembley Stadium.
His progress has stalled and a Three Lions shout now seems a long way away but it might have elevated Walker-Peters’s ambitions well beyond playing in the second division.
Asked if he plans to stay at the club beyond the summer, he responded: “There are still two more games so that is my main focus – try and make those results positive and see what happens after there.
“I’m not looking too much into my future yet. I always see myself in a Southampton shirt, I love the club. I enjoy being here so we’ll see what happens.”
Asked how the club can bounce back into the top flight, he replied: “It is not for me to say, the club have their own ideas and they will want to bounce back asap.
“They’ll try and keep everyone they can and everyone they want to keep and try and bounce back from there.”
