Sky Sports journalist Mark McAdam has claimed that Southampton will be standing by their manager Nathan Jones, amid a poor start to his tenure at St Mary's.

The Lowdown: Suffering Saints

Jones was appointed as Saints boss following the sacking of Ralph Hasenhuttl in November, but since his arrival, he's won just once from seven league games.

Southampton currently sit bottom of the Premier League table under the former Luton Town boss, four points away from safety.

It's not just been difficult on the pitch, as Jones has come under criticism for recent comments he made in a press conference about his managerial ability following the success he had in his previous role.

The Latest: Saints backing Jones

Speaking on Sky Sports News, McAdam claimed that the Saints are going to stick by Jones despite his poor form.

He stated: "It's going to be an interesting next few days and weeks - some media have been reporting that the club have had a board meeting in the last 24 hours to discuss the future of Nathan Jones. As things stand, they're standing by their man."

The Verdict: Wrong appointment

We believe that Southampton got it totally wrong when deciding to appoint Jones as the successor to Hasenhuttl.

It's clear that the Austrian was well-loved by the Saints fans, but regardless of the matter, he's not endeared himself with his previous comments that we mentioned earlier.

He's said in recent times that he's blocking out criticism, but he will constantly bring it up and call out others. In our view, we suspect that perhaps he might not be so confident in himself about the job he's doing,

With fans making their opposition to the manager clear, the current mood at the club seems pretty bleak, and our feeling is that the majority of Southampton supporters would want to see Jones sacked sooner rather than later based on scenes on matchday.

In many ways, it was quite baffling that he was given the nod to take the reins of the south coast outfit given he had essential in a relegation fight.