Clifford Nelson

The problem is, Mark, that you're not basing your assumptions on evidence, but on hope. If the club really is planning for a great tomorrow, why is it a secret?

There has been a number of good comments on this thread which encouraged me to post another of my few and far between efforts. There is a widespread view that if you are feeling worried and confused about the goings on at St Mary's, than you are a "bed wetter" or a "wrist slitter". Contrary, if regardless of the evidence you keep on believing in an increasingly rosy future, then you are a "happy clapper". I can't see the virtue of either being a depressed pessimist, or exuding manic happiness. The issue is to try to understand what the club is doing, which is far from an easy task. - Both Reed and Krueger told us that we weren't selling, and we are seeing anything up to 7 of our best players disappearing over the horizon. -The club has got one single person, apart from the manager, with any understanding of football: Les Reed. -The very low profile finance guy was made CEO. -The belief in the future of most players has vanished. That is entirely the responsibility of the Chairman, the CEO and the rest of the board. - Chairman Krueger has disappeared, as has the owner. The CEO has never turned up apart from on photos. - If Koemans was given assurances of the future, why can't that be communicated to the supporters. - With the ousting of Cortese we were offered openness, but we are treated with silence. I could go on, but I think that's enough to create a combination of confusion and alarm: Something different is going on, compared with the Cortese days, but what is it? I tend to think that if you have good news to tell you shout it from the rooftops, but if the news is bad you try to keep it quiet. In the positive corner we have hired a manager and signed 2 (!) replacements. (Whatever else is hopes and wishes, and hardly evidence.) I have got my season ticket for next year, so I will be there, but I can't see a single piece of evidence suggesting that we will do anything near as well as last season.

Football is not like any other business in every respect, but it is in some. If you feel your place in the market is OK and think staying there is enough you will be overtaken rapidly and slide backwards. What NC tried to do here was to change the expectations, which are woefully low both not least amongst the fans. If the belief are that we are only a small club which is doing well to beat relegation, then we have not better future than that, and if we are trying to sign players to improve our position they will not join us because their ambition is higher than ours. Simples! Regardless how this turns out, and I fear that it will be poorly, KL made at least three mistakes: 1. She didn't know what she wanted to do with the club. 2. She appointed the finance guy as CEO and ended up with Reed as the only football person. The CEO needed to be a person with a footballing plan and the leadership qualities to to match it. 3. She appointed RK. Clearly she didn't know where we've been and where we were going, and confused another batch of "positive thinking" with leadership. No, it is not! I don't think that the board is full of bad people, but with so little vision for the future, combined with so little knowledge of the business, bungling is becoming a way of life. As for the fans: Beware that your hopes and dreams for the future becomes mere self delusion. There is plenty of that about type: 'Selling all our best players is a clever plan for building a better team.' (Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...) KL needs to get hold of a plan, a vision for where this club is going and start to promote it. She needs to get hold of a proper leader of the football club instead of the accountant, and maybe the way of doing it is to leave Ralph to slowly drift away and replacing him with an Executive Chairman.

By the way, Mannheims new manager is Geoff Ward if anyone is still interested. The attacks on Fitz are totally unjustified. What on earth are you getting off on? More interesting is that regardless of the Mannheim rumour, Ralph has lowered his profile. Ye olde positive thinking went nowhere I'm pleased to say. Has he got anything else in his locker or is this it?

Whatever reputation and whatever excitement, it's worth nothing unless you keep the ball. Sterling reminded me of Puncheon, always taking players on, but no end product (OK, the cross to Rooney). I can't see anything with Barkley in spite of the hype, nor with Welbeck, and as far as Sturridge goes, for a striker it is the goals that count. I'm thinking about what Waddle said about not opting for just the best 11 players, but the key players and support for them. In my view Lambert, Lallana and Rodriguez looks like a vastly superior combination to Sturridge, Rooney and Welbeck, and generally the team looked slow and cumbersome in the passing. Whatever the manager and the players it's the same disappointment, so we are doing something fundamentally wrong. Is Waddle right in his analysis?

Danny Ings may be a good signing, but he is no replacement for Lambert. Don't forget that Lamberts was much more than a goal scorer. Ings scored 21 in the CC, which isn't bad, but he hasn't got the experience to play a major function for the team, at least not yet. But then there may be other interesting combinations: Graziano Pelle, for instance, and if Lallana goes, a replacement for him... Last year it was easier to 'read' the clubs intentions: Young, technically gifted and an international with potential. That was the recruitment policy. At present I haven't a clue. Does Reed and the board know?

Let's be clear that this was an interview that was under the club's control. Nevertheless, there is a suggestion that the team which starts the season will not be a weakened one. That contributes towards me feeling somewhat less despondent, but I will retain the right to be cautious.

Well, folks, that's the way I feel about it. It's not a suggestion that you ought to feel the same, but for Crab Lungs it resonated. Archie Bland's article was in the same vein. It wasn't a journalistic investigation, but what he feels as a Saints fan. He's got a right to his feelings, and I suppose I've got a right to mine. I will not comment, at least not at present, on any of the ill perceived comments, but having endured the Branfoot years I think I got a right not to be accused of being a fair weather supporter. I've grown to understand football to be entertainment, not something to be endured.

Please be aware that Uncle Les is the only one in the running of this football club with any knowledge about football. That's a frightening thought.

After all the misery of the Lowe years, I came back on board in L1. It's been great. No infernal flirtations with relegation, no selling of our best players, no fire sales, no "early bird" season ticket sales to get money in. Liebherr and Cortese banished the small town attitude in the club and amongst many of the supporters. There was a plan. Saints was going places. There was no turning back. I have bought my season ticket, but I am not sure that I am prepared to bite my fingernails on the last day of the season once more the year after. I have tasted what it is to be in a club which is challenging for the big time, and I don't want to go back. The current regime makes me despondent. Back is the Polyanna positive thinking of Adkins, now encapsulated by Kruger, but no clarity of purpose. I can see a number of mistakes being made: Appointing the finance guy to CEO and leaving the club with one single person with a background in football: Les Reed, who's charisma bypass and lack of sense of authority hasn't satisfied anybody. From what felt like a powerhouse I am now looking at an empty shell of a football club, full of accountants, solicitors, positive thinkers, but not one who could perceivably analyse the football here last year, nor what the shortcomings are. If McLaren and Bruce were on the shortlist it only confirms my deepest fears, before long we'll be back to 4-4-2. This club doesn't know what it's doing. The only thing I'm really holding on to is the fact that we are not going bust, as was regularly threatened in the past. It is no secret that Katarina doesn't know or understand football, but neither does anybody else, save Reed, and I'm not sure how much he understands. Neither is there anybody with any knowledge about running a football club in the Premier League, which is not comparable to running ordinary businesses. So where is a plan going to come from? Our structure before the ousting of Cortese was right: Somebody to drive the club forward and somebody else to drive the football team. Now we haven't got either and there is a dithering about whether we ought to sell our best players or not. You tell me where you will find another Lallana for £20M?! What did Arsenal pay for Ozil? Appointing a new manager is only one thing which needs to be sorted out, but it is not an answer to the changes needed to sort the club out. This is a ship with no rudder, no captain, no helmsman, no engine, no destination and no purpose. The ship's owner is rich, but is suffering from a small town mentality. I am not part of the wrist slitters union, but somewhat of a miracle is needed for us not struggling with relegation the coming season. However, I like to look after myself, and don't intend to spend more years depressed about all the stuff which was wrong in the past. If it is coming back again I want to be counted out. I am not prepared to let the club take me for granted expecting me to cough up regardless of the football I'm watching or the future of the club. There are hordes of journalists and football folk who has always looked down on us, and they carried on doing it regardless of the "project". Our best players were only here to be harvested by "big" clubs. We ought to tug the forelock and be grateful. You know what? I have discovered that that is not me at all, and maybe in part I am grateful for Cortese for that. I will never support another club, but I deserve better. Luckily football is not my only interest in life.

If you think of yourself as small you are guaranteed to remain small. The only way to challenge this is to refuse to think like a club which is tempted by £20M for Lallana. And the only way your players are going to give you what is necessary is if they believe that they will play Champions League football with us. "Small town mentality" is never going to get you there whatever the size of the town.

I'm touched by the belief that a few have got in Les Reed. I sincerely hope you're right, because with a genius in our midst we haven't got anything to worry about. Why don't I quite believe that?

Positive thoughts, Ron, but who will be making those shrewd decisions: Les Reed? Nobody else has got any knowledge, and I don't trust LR to land us anything apart from the usual suspects with no understanding of the modern game and with as much charisma and vision as LR himself. I have a feeling that we are in a bigger mess than we thought.

A small attempt to analyse what has happened. It wasn't a bigger salary which took him to Spurs, but the possibility to manage in the Champions League and improve his standing as a coach/manager. This also means that Ralph Krueger and Katarina Liebherr were unable to convince him that he would be able to do that here, which would have improved his standing far more than as manager for Spurs. I'm afraid that a board has been installed without any feeling for football or the Premier League, apart from Les Reed, but I wouldn't leave the club to him to sort out on his own. All the decisions, the vision, the belief, were instilled by Cortese. Reed was told what to do. I am really worried that there is nobody on board the good ship which stands any chance of even taking on the job of appointing the new manager, They don't understanding how the modern game is played. Chances are we will end up with one of the usual suspects, neither of which plays exciting, winning football, or they would be successful already. (McLaren, Mackay, etc.) But they also need to understand how the first team relates to the Academy, etc. etc. As a business woman KL tries to run the club as an orderly business, but football is anything but an orderly business. A number of mistakes have been made and we are now in a poor position to defend the club and in even less of a state to drive us forward.

In spite of plenty of opportunity to establish himself with Djurgarn he never had quite the attitude nor skill to really get there. So he left for the arch enemy AIK and has had a decent season in a fairly poor league. For all those questioning Mayuka, Kennedy is not in his class.

New manager new ways. The pollyannaish attitude started to wear a bit thin, and I don't think that the secrecy about injuries made any difference for our results. It is probably better to believe in your teams ability to do well, rather than looking for every wafer thin doubtful advantage.

Best performance by a Saints team since I can't remember when, and that goes back to B.B. (Before Branfoot). I can't help thinking about those who kept telling us that we didn't have the players to play anything else but 4-4-2. Good players can play well in any formation. May self critique is about thinking that the team wasn't good enough in the beginning of the season. They clearly are, and with prudent improvement over the next couple of years NC's ambitions don't seem so far fetched. As for MP's influence: He has given the pretty passing a completely new purpose stemming from his convictions about how to play the game. A much needed change. Seldom have so many Saints fans been so enormously entertained.

Whatever anyone thinks MP looks like wanting players to play within the system, rather than accommodating their wishes. We already have one striker, and one no 10, and we will not return to 4-4-2 again, so Mayuka needs to look at himself as one of the front three, and in his case the competition is Puncheon. He is quicker and more straightforward, so he ought to get game time if not yet a regular starting spot.

There is now a whole gang of "usual suspects" who can all be guaranteed to offer a quote negative about NC. The gang consists of ex-players and an ex-manager. Has it all got to do with Benali's house? Or has it also got something to do with that NC when he and Markus arrived made it clear that ex-players didn't have any special privileges at the club. No free tickets, hospitality, etc. If I combine our history with the ex-players and managers and consider it in comparison of where we are going, what do I get? Maybe, that ex-players will contribute to the mediocrity of yesterday more than the excellence of tomorrow? I can see a lot of sense in this, however much I appreciate both MLT and Lawrie for what they did in their time. If I was responsible for the owners' invested millions (about 100 I reckon at present) I wouldn't bet on those who seems to celebrate yesterday.

???

I met the decision with incredulity, but let's not forget that a football club is not a democracy. A chairman and/or board is backing it's judgement after having invested money in the enterprise. The biggest failures are the ones following their feelings, sadly to say, however nice it is that the chairman is blue/red/striped/whatever through and through. NC is the custodian of a considerable investment, and he is the one who will have to demonstrate results to the actual investor. He has decided to make a choice, we've better get used to it, because in the world of club and football management life is incredibly tough, with no place for softies. Whilst I was delighted to see Pardew depart since I couldn't see a future in punting for Ricky's head, which I also didn't enjoy watching, I am thoroughly sad to see such a nice and genuine chap as Adkins lose his job. But then there is the analyst in me thinking about that the turnaround in our fortunes this season was NA's long chat with NC, leading to a number of games with an unchanged side after endless tinkering. Now we are back to tinkering and the once bold moves towards putting Ramirez in the middle of the park in a modern and flexible formation have drifted back into 4-4-2 and variations of it with Ramirez on the left or on the bench. I have felt the lack of certainty, and maybe the chairman has as well, although I think this decision was made a long time ago although not possible to realise until now. In the cold light of day it matters little. Only results do. Let's not pretend that we've got a choice, since we are not going to campaign relentlessly as in the Branfoot days. Let's move on after the anger has left and support the new chap and the team. Demonstrations and protests on Monday night will contribute nothing. It really needs to be the king is dead, so long live the king.

Have everybody forgotten about Ben Reeves? He was originally a left back who we re-schooled to CM. His progress is hampered there and he has once been subbed in as LB. Has always acquitted himself well, so why not be first back-up for Shaw?

I don't think the Guly negativity is a small minority, nor do I think that there is any hope that it will change. Admittedly Guly didn't have a good season last year, but struggled most of the time, playing in one position or another after losing his role as striking partner to RL. The constant boos and sighs didn't help his confidence a lot either. I thought he did well yesterday, but it probably isn't the point. I can't imagine what he could do to turn things around. I remember him being a revelation a long time ago, but I can't see that it will happen again. Sadly I don't think the boo boys will ever let him be appreciated.

The Daily Echo is a newspaper. Newspapers print news. Live with it! The chances that a newspaper which is banned from the premises will self censure when it comes to less salubrious news are absolutely none. There is also no chance that situation will change since neither the editor nor NC will back down. Get used to it!

2nd part: he ever will is probably questionable. He lacks the aggression needed to make it in the PL. We have to admit that we haven't always done well with recruitment. SDR is another one. Struggled to assert himself in the CCC and stand no chance in the PL. You also got to ask yourself why we added both Sharp, Jayrod and Mayuka to a formation which doesn't allow either of them to play in their preferred position unless RL is injured. It seems that the recruitment policy didn't gel with the tactical plans. Whatever the reasons NA must now stick to his convictions and play his best team every week.