Alex’s unwanted place in history

IF Alex Jankewitz wanted to be extra-certain of an undistinguished place in Southampton history, he could not have chosen a better referee.

Mike Dean, the man who, with varying degrees of flamboyance, has brandished more than 100 red cards and 3,000 yellows in his career, was never going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The studs of Jankewitz had not even made the transition from Scott Mctominay’s left thigh to right knee before Dean was reaching to familiar pocketed territory.

He had no option, of course.

It was a shocker. No referee in the world would have shown the teenager any clemency.

No amount of sympathy for a 19-year-old making his first Premier League start could have sweetened the violence of the challenge.

But for all its recklessness, it cannot have been malicious.

Barely a minute is not enough time to gather one iota of malice.

In the adrenaline rush of a full debut at, of all places, Old Trafford, Jankewitz just got it badly wrong.

His emotions were not in control of his body.

And imagine the young man’s emotions when the humiliating, landslide defeat followed his walk of shame.

Talk about selfrecrimination.

Ralph Hasenhuttl’s job will now be to counsel Jankewitz, to man-manage the youngster.

But it will also be to ask the rest of his Saints team why they surrendered so abysmally, why they almost took the shocking opening scene as an excuse to jack it in for the night.

OK, in terms of firstchoice staff, they were seriously depleted anyway and 10 against a United 11 for almost the entire match is a challenge.

But not as mountainous as Southampton made it seem.

The last time the

Saints were properly thumped, it turned out to be a long-term positive.

Hasenhuttl can only hope for more of the same this time around.