Saint J 77

It is time for a change. The past 2 months have been absolutely pathetic. No fight, no desire to win. Apart from the blip against Arsenal. There is something rotten at the core of this team. Is it all Ralf? Is it the players? Is it both? Some big changes are needed before next season. If we carry on as we are now we will be dead and buried before the end of November.

Wow this is a depressing read. Makes me wonder why do we bother carrying on as a club? There seems to be no positive news to look forward to. From reading all the comments on here it seems we have an unhappy Staplewood, with a load of players wanting out or leaving. A manager who wants to get sacked and a board with no money to invest. It sounds like Sports Republic only bought the club because our unambitious board would only sell the club to business men that kept them on as employees, so they can keep the selling all the talent and make no progress philosophy in place. If it’s all true we might as well not bother next season. In fact why have a Southampton football club at all? While I hope it isn’t as grim a picture as being painted here, I do wonder why we haven’t heard something positive yet? The club have had lots of opportunities to start putting out some reassuring feel good stories for the plans the new owners have for next season, the future and beyond. But here we are 3 months on since the takeover and we are yet to here anything. This season has ended on a downer and they’ve done nothing to make us think it will get any better next season. I don’t really know what to say about Ralf. He did well to keep us in the premier league in his first season and we’ve had a few purple patches of form in his time but it never lasts and we are far too easily torn apart more the often. If we did have money and a real plan that stems from the top I’d would say it’s time for a change. A clean sweep of the staff and players. We need a whole new coaching staff to come in and toughen up the fragile mentality the team clearly has. I hope something positive changes soon because it been a painful few months of watching dross.

Even though the pressure is now off the players I don’t see anything changing. We are so poor right now. I fully expect a high scoring win for Liverpool. Tomorrow will be all about damage limitation and keeping the score respectable for us. Liverpool will always have looked at this fixture as a guaranteed 3 points. I reckon they will be confident of of high scoring win. I just hope it’s not embarrassing for Saints again.

Does anyone think the owners will actually change much this summer? Club Infrastructure? New signings? Stadium improvement ? New Coaching staff? it would be good to have a feel good story and some positive news coming out of the club as this season ends on some what of a downer. I know there is a bigger picture to be explored but I’m not that excited about the ownership buying another club right now. I’d like to hear that they have some solid plans for Southampton Football Club going forward. While I’m sure there are plans a foot, from the outside It feels that isn’t much happening at the moment. It would be good if the club released a feel good story just to get the fans excited for the coming season.

This is my feeling too. Miserable weather combined with the new manager bounce for Everton. Plus Ralf doesn’t have a good result history against Lampard. I’m not expecting a favourable result today but would love to be wrong.

Personally I don’t mind players moving on. It is inevitable. We can’t compete with the wages and promise of trophies the big teams offer. But I would hope Martin Semmens and co will try and convince the players who do eventually attract the big clubs to stay a bit longer and try and build a winning team here first. I’d like to hope the club have some aspirations to at least win a cup competition.

It’s annoying Everton won so convincingly today. They will come into the game full of confidence now. It would be nice to get some pay back for the opening game of the season. It would be good to see a 3-1 reverse.

Wasn't it last season we came back from 2 nil down against Burnley? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56553199

I think if our new owners are serious about their investment they will have plans to improve the stadium. It will be interesting to see what they do to improve the stadium over the years to come. I know it is a point of contention for some but I do wonder if they could finally find a way to move the away fans from behind the goal. I know the issue for moving the away fans is the police not wanting it to happen for safety reasons. Maybe now we have some modest finances behind us the board could find a sensible solution for this? Apart from actually extending the stadium capacity, which we know will not happen until we fill it out each home game. I wonder what other smaller changes will be made? What things can be done to help give us home a better home advantage? What fan facilities can be improved? Could we see some of the land and property around the ground bought up by the club? It will certainly be interesting to see what happens next. I’m hopeful we will see some serious investment from our new owners on the stadium in the near future.

Back down to earth with a big kick to the teeth. I really hope we can repaid Wolves in kind next season. A great goal from JWP but a very frustrating day. Just when you begin to hope you realise that was a silly thing to do. The one thing Saints are great at and never fail to do is disappoint!

I wonder when the dust has settled on this news, if the club might put out a video or some other content to talk about the vision of the new owners. It would be good to have a bit more understanding what the vision and plan is for Southampton FC. To actually hear from the owners in a video in a more open way would be good. It would be a refreshing change from what we had from the previous owner. I think the only thing we heard from him was that bizarre short video of him saying "We march on".

I'd take a draw right now but it would be nice to get revenge for their win at St Marys. We really should not have lost that game, so it would nice to even it out.

Is it cynical to think Newcastle are just using this as an excuse? Is the real reason delay so by the time they do play us later in the new year they will have all their new signings in place and be a much stronger team?

Do you have to be a big city to be a big club? Is past club success what makes a team 'Big' or is it the size of the city? I'd say it is the past success that is more important. I can see the logic of, the bigger the city the more potential fans there are to make money from. But there must be some examples of top teams in sports around the world who don't have big cities, but because of their past success have fans all over the world? Either way does it matter? If the right owner comes along with the right motives and big enough wallet, then any team could potentially become a big team and win things. And by doing so increase their fan base numbers along the way. Southampton the city is in a great commercial location and the club has a rich history and currently has a great infrastructure to build from. I really do hope we can attract an owner with a vision and the financial clout to take us forward and make us competitive. It would be great to know if the recent rumours are genuine or just put out in to the public to try and stir up interest again. I have no inside information but my current feeling is there probably isn't really much happening. I hope I am wrong and there is a serious bidder just waiting to finalise everything but I'll believe it when I see it.

That is exactly what I thought as soon as I heard yesterdays comments. I foolishly allowed myself to have some hope when we first heard Gao wanted to sell back at the beginning of 2020. This will drag on for some time yet. There is no way it will happen before the end of this year.

I don’t think anyone can really believe we will get anything out of this game. It surely has to be a case of damage limitation. I really don’t want another thrashing for people to bang on about for the next 20 years.

Before all the contract drama I would have loved him to stay. I know for a club like us he will very difficult to replace but I would rather he went now. It is great when you have a player at the club who clearly loves the team they are playing for. Just for a brief moment it felt like we had that with Danny, just as we had with Rickie Lambert some time ago. For a while, perhaps it was even a little bit more special seeing a local lad that had come home and find his form again. But I guess, even if he is or at one time was a Saints fan, his aim for success is greater than loyalty. I know Danny and his agent are doing what is best for him financially. They believe he has the chance to play European Cup / Champions League football and maybe win medals. As a fan I don't take it personally as it is just business these days. But I also can't deny as a fan it isn't just a little bit disappointing. I do think the sad thing now would be no-one coming in for him and so he reluctantly accepts our offer as being the best he can get. If he stays and signs a new contract what kind of player will we have on our hands? Over the last few seasons he had something to prove. I suppose If he gets his way with the speculated 20m release clause in his contract nothing will change his attitude and motivation. But then it almost feels pointless him signing the contract as he is still playing for a move. Plus the club will still only get the same kind of money we hope to get for him now if a bid came in afterwards. If some how we got him to sign with no release clause, then what? Would we have a player who is slightly unmotivated and disappointed to be here? That would be good for no one. If he did end up signing a new Saints contract now it would feel a bit insincere. We would get standard club video bigging him up for staying. Then Danny would say something like "It was never about the money or wanting to move on. I've always been happy here." Maybe that bending of the truth won't matter to most, but we will all know secretly he will be disappointed he didn't get his last big move. So I hope he and his agent get the move they both clearly want and hopefully Saints get a decent fee. Then there is just the small matter of wisely reinvesting the money on a replacement.

If there truly is no one interested, let's keep hope alive. Let's start a https://uk.gofundme.com/ page 😆 We could out do the Skates as the best run community club ever 😂 I know I shouldn't have to say this, but just to be clear I am joking.

The Ownership has to be the most important thing to get sorted over the summer. Yes the squad needs a massive overhaul but the club is a mess. Rotten at its core. When we went down to league 1 on minus 10 points. The squad we started that season with was down to the bare bones but the new ownership brought with it new hope. The fact the squad was weak didn’t matter because the optimism was there. Fans and the playing staff alike knew things would get sorted and as we know they did. As it stands right now everyone knows we are a sinking ship and I don’t blame any of our half decent players wanting out. At the recent fans forum Martin Semmens said something was happening with investment and he was surprised it had not happened yet. To me that sounded more like broken promises from the current owner, not hope for a total change ownership. I know takeovers take time to complete. Even longer to be approved, if approved at all by the league these days. But IF there is something in the pipeline it can’t happened quick enough!

It’s not a question of if we will lose, but rather a question of how many will we lose by?

Whatever the score, I think we all know it will be zero points for Saints. Hopefully the players have some kind of pride and can at least manage to keep the score respectful.

Leeds are a much more efficient side than us, so it was not difficult to predict we were unlikely to get anything out of tonight’s game. I had hoped I’d be proved wrong but it was a typical 2021 Southampton FC performance. Leeds are a club on the up and we are a club currently headed on the way down. Tonight was easy to see coming, just as it is easy to see Sunday’s match against West Ham will bring forth zero points for Saints. I’m glad we are safe from relegation this season but it’s really not looking good for next season. As many have said on here already, unless something changes behind the scenes for the better during the summer break, we have only just delayed the return to the championship by a season.

It seems like this season has been one of the worse seasons in recent history for injuries. Hopefully having a bigger squad to choose from next season will help reduce the number of players on the sidelines.

Until it’s impossible for us to go down then nothing would surprise me at this point. I honestly think we deserve to go down for the absolutely appalling second half to our season.

I think most people can see the current problems at the club stem from lack of finance. We obviously don’t want just anyone taking over the club. We definitely sound like we’ve dodged a bullet in Joseph DaGrosa. It is just a shame we didn’t manage to dodge the bullet of Gao. What concerns me most is there is seemingly no obviously serious interest from anyone with their own cash. The latest speculation of 5 interested parties seemed to suggest none of the interested parties have their own money to fund any potential purchase of the club. Even if by some miracle we do somehow manage to find a good owner, it won’t happen quick enough to stop the current rot. I know we can’t buy players right now but I feel if the current squad could see positive changes were happening behind the scenes, then that optimism might start to show in our results and performances on the pitch. Right now I think the lack of vision from the top is one of the main reasons for our terrible slump. I think a lot of our current first team squad are starting to see their future away from the club and maybe just don’t care anymore.