Aribo, Onuachu, Edozie and 11 other new signings blamed for Southampton's relegation  

Super Eagles duo, Joe Aribo and Paul Onuachu and Nigeria-born Samuel Edozie have been identified as part of the players that led to Southampton's relegation from the English Premier League.

The Saints spent more than £100m last summer against virtually no sales, the spree was met with understandable excitement.

Granted, much of that expenditure was placed on unproven youthful talent but this was still a completely new approach to the transfer market.

January continued the extensive - and in fairness ambitious - transfer activity as another £50m-worth of new additions arrived at the club.

The majority of 14 signings, including the Nigeria trio. have proven underwhelming and deemed not good enough by at least one of Saints’ three managers.

In fact, only five of Saints' 14 signings have started at least 50% of the games they were at the club for and only one - Gavin Bazunu - hit the 75% mark. 

Eagles playmaker Aribo was considered one of the bargains of the summer when he joined for £6m from Rangers, it’s been a disastrous season for Aribo.

A regular for large swathes under Hasenhuttl, Aribo flashed his ability in moments but struggled for consistency.

Still, he would have been expected to play a fairly large role in the second half of the campaign. But he’s appeared in just one of 14 games under Selles and been left out of the squad entirely nine times.

Perhaps too languid for a relegation battle, you would have hoped Saints could find room for someone with his game-changing ability. Onuachu was signed to be Saints and Hasenhuttl were marquee striker and in January they dug deep to spend £18m on Onuachu.

Prolific in Belgium with 79 league goals in 114 games for Genk, the towering forward flashed promise initially before being almost entirely cut adrift under Selles.

Onuachu’s start against Fulham was his first in his side’s last 12 Premier League games. Another who Selles decided could not be relied upon at the most crucial point of the season.

Another example of appalling scouting or appalling management. Or a combination of the two.

Nigeria-born Edozie started only 16% of Saints matches. Another one from the bucket of unproven youngsters, Edozie took a while to acclimate to this level as Ralph Hasenhuttl relied on others during the end of his tenure.

But Hasenhuttl’s sacking and the appointment of Nathan Jones proved a real blessing for the winger.

Edozie went on to appear in all eight of Jones’s Premier Legaue matches, starting five of them. And really, he looked bright despite his lack of end product.

But Edozie’s season essentially ended when Selles took over, the 20-year-old playing only 24 minutes under the Spaniard while being left out of the squad 11 of 14 times.

Others unproved signings who led to Southampton's relegation are  Gavin Bazunu, Duje Caleta-Car, James Bree, Armel Bella-Kotchap, Romeo Lavia, Sekou Mara, Jaun Larios, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Mislav Orsic,  Kamaldeen Sulemana and Charly Alcaraz the only exception of the January window.

Alcaraz has been a revelation. Joining from Racing Club in his native Argentina, Alcaraz needed virtually no time to adapt, becoming a fan-favourite almost overnight.Scorer of four goals in the league – good for Saints’ third top scorer – Alcaraz has been pivotal to his side’s best performances and should be a huge player in the Championship should he stick around.