25-year-old Southampton centre-half Jack Stephens rose through the ranks with plenty of praise and expectation at St Mary’s Stadium, but with another season of disappointment as we battled against the drop, he has certainly been one of the casualties as a number of fans have thoroughly turned against him after more recent performances.
This year under Mark Hughes and latterly Ralph Hasenhuttl, he’s made 23 starting appearances with a further five showings from the bench and he has featured more recently given the current injury situation at the heart of defence and he’s again been rounded on by some in the fanbase for a poor showing against West Ham United.
Totally agree on assessment of those 3 CB’s. Sadly 2many people place 2much value on players coming thru youth academy & players with good social media content. Bednerak has shown great potential and should b great player for us-Stephens has a career in the championship #saintsfc
— Ian Brown (@harrydunn999) May 5, 2019
Jack Stephens and Jan Bednarek are not even communcating today. West Ham are getting through easily and clearly missing that Yoshida/Vestergaard experience in the back line. [1-0] #SaintsFC
— Southampton Page (@SouthamptonPage) May 4, 2019
It's unrealistic, but these are some of the 'outs' i would hope to offload this summer. Forster, Elyounoussi, Stephens, Yoshida, Austin, Gallagher, Lemina, Hoedt, Carrillo, Boufal, Soares, Clasie. #SaintsFC
— Matt (@upthesaints) May 5, 2019
#saintsfc madness that Stephens plays a prem defender. He’s woefully out of his depth. Shoe-horned in as the club was adamant we didn’t need a VVD replacement. Last 3 years has shown he’s a barely a champ quality defender. Needs to leave the club
— Charlie Mercer (@Charlie_Mercer_) May 5, 2019
Watching Jack Stephens trying to "defend" actually hurts. #SaintsFC
— Jay (@FatalJaay) May 4, 2019
Austin, Stephens, Forster, Elyonoussi and all the loan players need to be shipped out in the summer. But who will want them as most of them are bang average at best #saintsfc
— Matt Ashley (@MattAshley1) May 5, 2019
Also, Stephens isnt good enough for the prem. Hasnt been for a while. #saintsfc
— Scott Dyer (@ScottyDyer3) May 4, 2019
He’s clearly struggling to live up to his earlier promise, and those fans that feel he was maybe thrown to the Wolves a little bit and he’s suffering from a severe lack of confidence with Hughes dogmatically refusing to change his defensive selections earlier in the season, have a massive point in my mind, but with change expected over the summer, maybe a clean break is best for all here now.
“That’s The Premier League For You” – Southampton Midfielder Admits Weekend Disappointment
