Daft Kerplunk

Remember the scarfs. That was a funny one as they flew from the stands to the pitch. One of the commercial leader’s bright ideas as he knows fuck all about football. I think our board should stick to a manufactured noddy culture they’d prefer to be involved in if the money was there for them, like rugby or cricket.

Massive match. I feel sorry for Nathan Jones. Signs today/yesterday that he is probably a decent manager but he’s joined a club that’s absolutely messed it up royally for too long. I hope Nathan keeps us up as he seems like a decent human being, but that Sports Republic then get rid of the current board and replace with people from at least a sport background, preferably football, fully review all of the departments and make cuts where nothing really happens, get rid of all those who block progress, make the club lean and focussed on being more ambitious and less satisfied with its averageness.

3-4-3 then by the look of it, with the wing backs playing a flexible role

Surely it’ll be a 5-4-1 with that selection. Lyanco as a DM seems crazy as for that position, disciplined play is absolutely vital. Maybe he can become a new player reimagined over Christmas but surely caJones will go for a standard set-up.

Semmens is a director of both SFC and St Mary's Football Group Limited, the company that is the holding company for the football club. I’d suggest he has ‘skin in the game’ because his position depends on it (even if as a simple employee, which he isn’t because he’s a director of two SFC entities with the responsibilities that the title carries, particularly of a business in a reasonably regulated industry), and he’s clearly an important person in the way the football club runs. Someone previously associated with the club, and a very close associate of Martin told me that he’d been the one who bought Gao to the table and was the driving force behind that takeover. Perhaps you know more about that as it’s interesting that you are continuing to try to deflect any criticism from him when he’s a thread that connects the early days of the Kat era to where we are now 🤔 Anyway, we are where we are, and unless things improve,

You’ve answered it for me. Those moments were part of what promised so much about a more positive future. Today, we are bottom of the premier league, and this calendar year has been a horror show. A well run club would’ve built on those positives you very helpfully mention, and sustained it, but we are now facing likely relegation. I know you see no wrong with club but even you must be gutted that we are now where are.

At minimum, we need a DM, AM and CF with ability and grit, as well as having the ability to get the best out of others. This won’t necessarily save us but it’d give us a better chance. 2022 has been pitiful, 2023 could be the sad end of a decade that promised so much.

Of course. I wouldn’t underestimate the influence of Martin Semmens though, he managed to work his way through some powerful people to become the CEO. All being well, SR will be acutely aware that the plan that he has led for 7+ years hasn’t yielded the results needed.

I don’t think it’s about doing his bidding, it’s that as directors, they had a say over in who took over the club, and that they therefore had a vested interest in making sure their jobs were safe. Ask yourself if they’d have stepped aside if someone else bidding asked them to having read the words of Semmens himself. It’s not the most well paid role but Semmens sold a marketing agency and money isn’t a big concern, but relative power and glory is, and the premier league is a big deal globally. It’d certainly open some doors, even if most can’t grasp that when we are a provincial club. The reality therefore is that we are in deep trouble, likely because of their overconfidence in their abilities, and we are where we are, which is in a very difficult relegation battle. Semmens and Co are Rupert Lowe and Co but in more relaxed corporate clothes and modern presentation with less pompousness and no red trousers and checked shirts underneath green country jackets.

3. I need a win of something when I’m actually aware of it. A win would be for the fans. Relegation would mean those with us only because we are a premier league club would fuck off.

Words of Martin Semmens about him and the board finding the ‘right’ people to take over Southampton FC: "Over the last two years, together with the shareholders of our club, we have searched for the right partner to take the club forward. "Today we have found the perfect solution for our club. "Sport Republic are experienced investors, but also experienced within the world of elite professional sports. “That combination is very hard to find, and we are thrilled to have reached an agreement that secures our short and long-term future. "We are grateful for the support of Mr Gao and Katharina that allowed us to take our time, turn away the wrong options and ultimately find the right partner for the future of this great club, its fans, staff and the people of Southampton." He added: "Today we welcome a new beginning with a new ownership group. "We have found partners with ambition for the future, but with a clear understanding of what Southampton stands for and the direction we must go in now. "The strategy is to push forward with the plans we have had in place over the last two years, but with their support we can now do this with a renewed focus and speed. "Continuity, stability, and clarity of the way forward are equally as important as the new initiatives and ideas we can now bring to the club. Sport Republic is being built to provide a network of people, clubs, and technology that allows the clubs within it to grow every day and gain the advantages you need to be successful. As a club, we have never wanted to buy success, but to earn it. Sport Republic gives us the power to improve our operations at every level, helping us to reach for the success our staff work so hard for, and our fans crave. "Everyone at Southampton welcomes Dragan, Henrik, Rasmus, and the people within Sport Republic to our great club. "We searched the world for good people with the ambition and resources to lead us into the next era and I am happy to confirm we have found them. "We can’t wait to get started and be part of the future of Sport Republic."

So Nathan, how would you sun things up? Well, you’d think after telling the players what to do, they’d be able to understand basic instructions but I’ve inherited a group of players who’ve had the confidence totally knocked out of them. Some of them aren’t good enough for this level but they’re what we’ve got to work with as money has been wasted all over the place. They haven’t had a way of playing for at least a year and the previous manager use to change the team so regularly that on pitch partnerships couldn’t form, team cohesion was non-existent, players never knew if they were in the good books or bad books and after good performances, they’d be dropped with no reason given. I’m a different type of coach than many of them are used to as most of them have been mollycoddled at well-funded academies where everything is done for them. That doesn’t stop either when you’re a premier league player, only those with true winning mentalities make it to a higher level, and we don’t have many winners in this squad at the moment. Also, the board told players that new players would come in, and the previous manager wouldn’t last of results and approach didn’t change but that never happened. The academy hasn’t produced a proper first team player for well over a decade, there are some players who might step up but there are no ex players of any calibre to guide them through their development. So basically, staying up is unlikely unless we get some quality players with some grit in. These lot need a kick up the arse and a reminder of what their job is, and that’s to win and entertain fans. It’s a great job and when they can give a shit, they’ll enjoy it more too. The club needs to remember that it’s about producing good football teams too. Profits will come if the team is good, they want to develop young players into saleable assets but if they’re surrounded by weak players with little character, and ability, they’ll never learn how to be good players. This is a turd that’s going to be difficult to polish, and I’ve not had the experience dealing players at this level who think they’re better than they are, at a club that thinks it’s better than it is. It’s going to be tough to stay up, no mistake. Erm, thanks Nathan. Nathan walks off down the tunnel looking like he’s seen the ghosts of Southampton FC past, present and future.

The lesson for SR here is that they shouldn’t have believed they were buying a dream of a club with an incredible academy and slick football and commercial operation. If they can’t see that there are big changes needed, then we will be relegated and they will struggle finance a return to the top flight.

When you consider a definition of arrogance, which is: ‘an attitude of superiority manifested in presumptuous claims or assumptions’ then we have a board who assume they are best placed to lead the club (they apparently chose the takeover of SR, probably because it kept them in jobs and as a result of their overconfidence/arrogance) and they are presumptuous in their superiority. The arrogance is believing that they somehow have found a model that nobody else has thought of, or considered, and that their way is the only way for Southampton FC. Arrogance is continuing to follow a path that hasn’t worked so far, and has holes in it that are invisible to people who believe they are exceptional. That’s flawed thinking. Many people could do a better job, with less self-congratulation.

This seems to be true but this was the approach of Semmens and co too. That’s what SR thought they were getting when they were sold Saints, and Semmens and co sold them the the thought that were the ones to continue doing the ‘amazing’ work they’d been doing. And that’s the arrogance. Sign Tino, think that’s all we need to do as it’ll just keep happening. Today’s performance was another in a long line of ‘that’s been coming’ shit performances. At some point the penny will drop.

The board’s arrogance is a major reason we are headed down. They’re convinced they’re brilliant, they treat fans like customers that are just there to extract money from, the hubris about our academy and ability to sign players is unbelievable. They continue to fail. The board deserve relegation. Maybe relegation would get rid of them.

The naivety here sometimes is amazing. The Athletic will have really decent contact with the club’s PR and the messages we read will be shaped by the club. We wont be spending much this winter despite the clear need for new decent recruits in critical areas. The board and SR (it appears) will believe that Jones can achieve a miracle in getting us out of trouble.

Is there anyone within the football structure that has premier league playing experience now?

100% We talk a good game about recruitment and thankfully for the people leading the football club now, most of our fans lap it up thinking we are amazing. The proof is in the pudding. We are bottom 3 for a reason. And when you look at the squad, you see the piss poor result of a period of leadership where Semmens has been one of the leaders making the decisions, even when Less and Ross were here. Here’s hoping that SR can stop the rot.

Ain’t that the truth 😁

Mbappe’s goal last night. Expected goal or finish that 99 out of 100 would have messed up? But ultimately, still the same, I know what you’re getting at with the use of the stat but it isn’t needed to confirm we are crap at scoring goals. I could be on the pitch and miss loads of chances. It wouldn’t take xg to tell anyone I was shit in front of goal. It’d be obvious 😎

For the last 150+ years, there’s only one stat that matters when it comes to forward play. That’s goals. It’s high time people remembered that. How you go about goals is another matter but xg is about as pointless a stat as possible when it comes to the actual point of football.

Great news about David Thomas. From everything I’ve heard from people at the club, he was a prize knob and won’t be missed. Definitely not a loss. Crocker is an interesting one, Ralph had so much first team power that his influence would’ve been less that it could’ve been, the academy wasn’t a focus despite the need for it to be. Sports Republic making room for their own. Both of these fellas were Semmens appointments so will he be next?

Not sure it’s pretentious. Almost the opposite in that all the details are what get pretentiously obsessed over these days (xg, final third receptions - so what on this pointless stat, forced turnovers aka tackles), but when it comes down to it, the best teams find a way because of their footballing quality and inner belief. That’s all the journalist is saying here. Think of Ralph with his winning duals chat, taking an age for players to learn our way etc. It’s football speak in an era of mass middle managers who love a spreadsheet or PowerPoint more than the actual game. Bellingham is fantastic but he was letting the ref get to him yesterday. His time will come, and hopefully it will happen for England at some point. Unlike Sancho, let’s hope he doesn’t waste his talent by leaving Dortmund for Man Utd. Players like Kane probably need to play in teams where the expectation is realistic too. Tottenham are consistent also rans even though they believe they’re contenders. Southgate is very good and in many ways, the example of leadership that would be useful across the country right now but he lacks that one thing that takes you to the next step. A little risk taking that leads to confidence in being able to find a way.

With the talk of Nathan Jones being seen as the person who can make what we’ve got work better, Also, with relegation a clear possibility, the board might choose not to spend big as we will be in financial trouble if we go down. Perhaps we will get a loan player in who’s out of favour somewhere and has nothing to lose by joining us in the winter. Just like when we went down when ‘Arry was in charge! Hopefully, Sports Republic will see that none of the above will be a good way to go and they will take over decision making and boost our chances of avoiding relegation and a likely long stay in the lower leagues.