Daft Kerplunk

Was he 18 though? 🤣

A bit tired to be honest, haven’t slept well recently

Indeed, although still odd that the coaches aren’t in place already…or just not announced yet perhaps. For an optimal pre-season that we need after the last few shambolic seasons (as in utterly inconsistent), you’d think the coaching staff would be in place, fully involved in the planning etc. to get the best out of players and start developing some togetherness and grit. More players in place would be good too. Pre-season might be mostly about fitness but it’s also about building team spirit and confidence for a better season.

Looks quality, far more comfortable on the ball than many of our existing players from this game against our own Premier League level players 😆

Still need a fresh DM, at least one quality AM and absolutely need a CF. And plenty more to move on too. Would be ideal if they were all signed for the beginning of pre-season but that must be fast approaching.

Brexit believers Trump followers Climate change deniers Covid deniers The vaccines contain chips owned by Bill Gates 5G mast destroyers QAnon White lives matter too Pride is being forced on us Lizards are controlling us, or is it the Jews? How many is Matt ticking these days? Don’t need to research any of the above because they’re all daft as fuck 🤣

Seems to like to move forward early, different passes and appears to keep opponents guessing. Scores goals. Looks more like a JWP replacement than Oriol or others. Looks decent though.

5. Some good runs and feelings of positivity, and waving to fans balanced against awful runs and falling out with numerous players, being totally inconsistent with team selections, substitutions etc. He’s half and half Hassenhutl for me.

Saints commercial sign off process taking too long

One of the key reasons the Saints need to bring in better coaching staff. Ralph and good man management are apparently like water and oil. The problem as it appears with the club’s overall attitude is that the players and staff can like it or lump it, and whilst this might work for cleaners and digital marketers, it doesn’t with ‘talented’ assets that need to be nurtured to perform to or beyond their abilities consistently. As you say, it is a failing of Ralph’s that means he’d struggle at a big club with bigger egos to work with.

Others have said it but the key will be what is in front of him. We need a quality CB, a new first team midfielder who makes an impact, and a centre forward who does the same as a minimum.

Buffon made his Serie A debut at 17 and joined Juventus at 22 for a world record fee, and made his Italian senior mens team debut at 19. Age isn’t everything and fingers crossed he is superior to McCarthy, just like Buffon would’ve been at the same age.

For me, Forster and Broja helped keep us up the season just finished. In the context of the huge impact relegation would have had, I wish him well, even if he is a benchwarmer.

Surely you know it is the player or another club’s fault, and never a Saints mistake 😎

He’s a better front man than either of those were but make no mistake, he was a core part of that previous leadership team and led strategy whilst Ralph and Les were ‘in charge’ and was from what I understand, actually in charge. He now has a chance to help clean the mess he also created. With a forgiving fanbase who don’t know how involved in club decisions (including selling to Gao) he was. We now need him to succeed more than ever.

Can’t imagine him being a player that Ralph would like. Not an automaton type of player.

Oh man, regardless of the merits of the leadership discussion, saying football means more here than in a country like Germany is quite mad. The country is football bonkers, they have bigger stadiums than us, they fill them up, they’re far noisier inside than us, and there’s the small matter of them winning a fair few more world cups than us. For my money, a leader, or leaders can come from anywhere. They lead by example, they encourage, they get on people who aren’t performing to keep them at a higher level, they get the best out of others, not make them worse. These people are not exclusively of these islands, and it’s easy to see that we don’t have any more than any other nation.

Well, plenty has been spent in improving hospitality but that’s what the board understands. The person responsible for improving this isn’t a football people so he don’t really know what to do about the rest of the ground. That’s why they need to carry out loads of surveys. Zero instinct. But regardless, St. Mary’s is a very basic stadium, poor kiosks and set up for food and drink. But worst of all is just how quiet we as fans have become. In the chapel you get looked at strangely if you try and start a song, and few people join in. Is it because it’s tourist fans? Are we scared to show any enthusiasm now? Whatever it means, its boring going to games and with often unreliable football effort from the players, and a tactically stupid manager (will this change with better coaching staff advising him? Hopefully so) the football doesn’t help.

For those worried about Kelvin, I’m sure the club will find a role for him if they still want him around to make people laff

About time. Time to raise the quality far higher

For his career, he should definitely move. We are stagnant and going to find it difficult to move forward this summer unless we show something that nobody really sees coming, or believes will happen. Only reason he will stay is that he is really settled in the area and knows he is the chosen one here.

The problem with the club’s approach is that it impacts the overall mentality of the players and, and the fans. Bringing in talented youngsters is an absolutely fine approach but you need more of them because they will get knocks, go through patches of bad form and have their head turned easily. They also need bloody good coaching, and some competent experienced pros alongside them when on the pitch to help them through when things get tough. There are two things there that can be addressed. Better coaching. Regardless of whether Ralph stays or not, the coaches are absolutely not good enough if the mission is to develop players with high resale value. And that’s not just a fans view, but coaches too. If Ralph wants yes men then he just needs to be told that for the Southampton way to work, exceptional coaches need to be part of the back room staff. Otherwise it’s a waste of time. Signing experienced players would truly help the young players (probably the manager too) and therefore the resale value has to overlooked, and the value of the player’s experience to help development included as part of the equation that looks to raise money. Any young player in this team looks lost when things don’t go well and the senior players we have look the same too and just don’t have what it takes to lead. The current model overlooks the importance of mentoring and quality input, as well as playing experience in general. We are definitely in danger of going down next season if nothing is done to stop the decline, and one look at our playing and coaching staff shows that we will struggle. If the club really sees it’s future only as somewhere to attract and develop talent for maximum resale, staying in the league with some quality behind the scenes and on the pitch means this might be done in the Premier League and that’s the only place the model really works. Get it wrong again, and we are screwed.

Last goal for saints?

We’re shit, and we know we are. Just a shame the board is absolutely clueless and can’t see it.

Big big summer ahead for the new owners. The honeymoon should now be over. It’s not just about signing players, it about totally changing the culture of a club that has been high on its own supply for too long. Semmens owned a marketing agency so is highly competent at spin and making people believe stuff about how brilliant we are, but surely most people can see that things are not remotely right at the football club. Fans piling out before a lap of appreciation says more than saying we’ve got a lovely plan in a shiny video. Fans can see through the bullshit the club’s marketers put out and Sports Republic need to be challenging every single area bar the foundation on what they’re doing to be at the highest level of football, and make changes. The rot is always at the top, the leaders at this football club have been pretty much the same clique since Koeman left and that has been a time of slow decline, whatever a digital marketing award here and there says. If Sports Republic don’t act to stop the rot, and make big changes and provide some investment, we will know their level of commitment is the same as the last owner. Let’s hope we haven’t been duped again…