Sofiane Boufal has been banished from Southampton’s first team after an altercation with Mark Hughes during the Premier League defeat by Chelsea and will not be considered for Saturday’s game against Bournemouth.
The Morocco midfielder, a £16m club-record signing from Lille in 2016, was a substitute against Chelsea at St Mary’s and is understood to have refused to warm up when Hughes instructed him to do so. That apparently led to a clash in the dressing room after Southampton, who had led 2-0 with 20 minutes to play, were defeated 3-2 – since when Boufal has not been in the squad.
“Unfortunately, Sofi made a mistake, which he acknowledged, and he has acknowledged to me since,” said Hughes, who is alleged to have lost his temper with Boufal post-match, with some reports suggesting he threw a water bottle.
“At the moment he’s training with the under-23s. He’s missed a few days’ training because he was ill but given where we are at the moment, he’s probably best served training with a different group just to make people aware the situation we found ourselves in wasn’t what should have happened.
“He understands that now. He probably needs to rebuild a bit of trust with us and his team-mates. That’s what we’re working on. He won’t be involved this weekend. We’ll have to wait and see [whether he can return this season].”
Premier League
Champions: Manchester City
Europe: Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham are favourites for the top four with Chelsea in fifth. Arsenal could still reach the Champions League by winning the Europa League. Burnley look certain to finish seventh and return to Europe after 51 years away.
Relegation: West Brom are now five points from safety with two games to play. Stoke are just two points above the Baggies, while Southampton are now a point behind Swansea, who they play in their penultimate match. West Ham and Huddersfield are still looking over their shoulders.
Championship
Champions: Wolves
Automatic promotion: Cardiff need a home win over Reading to seal promotion, with Fulham hoping to pounce on any slip-up as they face Birmingham on the final day.
Play-offs: Aston Villa and Middlesbrough, and Derby leading the race to join them. Preston can still force their way into the top six.
Relegation: Sunderland will finish bottom with Burton, Bolton and Barnsley separated by a point. Barnsley can secure survival with a win at Derby on the final day, while Burton go to Preston and Bolton host Nottingham Forest.
League One
Automatic promotion: Wigan and Blackburn (pictured) have sealed automatic promotion and will now battle for the title. A point at Doncaster on the final day will realistically be enough for the Latics.
Play-offs: Shrewsbury and Rotherham, with Charlton, Scunthorpe and Plymouth battling for the other two places. The latter two meet in midweek.
Relegation: Bury and MK Dons are down while Walsall's late winner has left Northampton all but mathematically relegated. Oldham and Rochdale are fighting to avoid the final spot; they face Northampton and Charlton respectively on the last day.
League Two
Champions: Accrington Stanley
Automatic promotion: Luton Town, Wycombe (pictured)
Play-offs: Exeter City, Notts County and two from Coventry, Lincoln and Mansfield, who need to beat Crawley on the last day to have any chance of sneaking in.
Relegation: Barnet's win at Morecambe took the race for survival to the final day. If the Bees beat already-relegated Chesterfield, they can leapfrog Morecambe if the Shrimps lose at Coventry.
National League: Macclesfield Town have secured the only automatic promotion spot, with one from Tranmere, Sutton, Boreham Wood, Aldershot, Ebbsfleet and AFC Fylde to come up via the play-offs.
Scotland
Premiership: Celtic can seal the title by beating Rangers on Sunday. Relegation looks a straight fight between Partick Thistle and Ross County.
Championship: St Mirren are champions, with Livingston, Dundee United and Dunfermline set for promotion/relegation play-offs. Brechin are relegated.
League One: Ayr United are champions with Raith, Alloa and Arbroath joining Dumbarton in the play-offs. Albion are relegated.
League Two: Montrose are champions with Peterhead, Stirling and Stenhousemuir joining Queen's Park in the play-offs. Cowdenbeath face a relegation play-off with Cove Rangers or Spartans.
“These things happen. My reaction to it ... it’s happened many times in dressing rooms I’ve been involved in. Sometimes I’ve directed it; other times it’s been directed at me. It is what it is. The key is that it’s been put to bed, a line’s been drawn, and we move on.”
Hughes, who succeeded Mauricio Pellegrino in mid-March with Southampton having won once in the league since late November, has made clear the need for focus as he attempts to instigate a late revival.
In that context, Boufal’s reaction could not be tolerated, leaving a player who started the new manager’s first two games but has only two goals and two assists in 26 league appearances this season, an outcast for the foreseeable future.
“I spoke about focus on the very first day in the job here,” Hughes said. “We can’t allow anything to distract us from the task at hand. We have very few games left. If I feel something might affect that focus, I have to address that.
“That’s the situation we find ourselves in with Sofi. He made a mistake. He’s remorseful about it, which he needed to be, and we’ll build him back up to be in the group again. But the time for that isn’t now. It’s about him biding his time, doing the right things, until he’s reintegrated.”
Hughes, who signed a deal until the end of the season, is increasingly resigned to being without his influential midfielder Steven Davis after the 33-year-old sustained an achilles injury.
“It’s an irritant to him and to us, clearly,” the manager said. “He’ll have a couple of days’ training and then it flares up again. We’ll see where we go with it. We’ve had him scanned and they’ve shown damage in the achilles, so maybe we have to shut him down until next season. I don’t think that’s definitive yet but it’s maybe close.”
