SFC Ownership Board

[Nolan]

So now we have it, from Krueger's mouth, the following are on the Ownership Board of the Club:

 

Mr Gao

Nelly Gao

Katherina Liebherr

Ms Li (Finance)

Ralph Krueger

 

Sorry, but IMO that isn't a group suitable to successfully run a PL football team and I wouldn't have any faith in them getting things right.

 

Massively lacking a CEO with football knowledge, let alone the eventual 'replacement' for Reed.

 

Worrying times.

 

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/17213570.southampton-chairman-ralph-krueger-on-les-reed-mark-hughes-the-january-window-and-gao-jisheng/

 

what a ludicrously panicked post. They're not running the club.

 

Krueger, Semmens, Steele, Thomas and Greenwell run the club. They simply have to justify the decisions to the Ownership board.

 

A differing era starts Saturday and it'll be interesting to see any nuances on the pitch to see what if anything was mandated by Reed / Hunter. Will we see a change in captain? Was Lemina promised a place in the starting line up? etc. etc.

 

While its hardly unusual for some fans to wet themselves over the littlest thing. lets see how things progress on the pitch.

[Colinjb]

100 words used to say what could be summarised in 10.

 

Just.... dismal reading.

Edited 9 November, 2018 by Colinjb

[hypochondriac]

"We are expecting a change in performance and a change in results with some minor shifts we have done within the club."

 

This is the interesting bit to me. The changes.... Reed/Hunter gone. I understand they are big players but in theory those two going on a thursday shouldnt impact the result at teh weekend. This means something has been happening that has been some form of interference - be it the team formation/personnel we may never know or we may know at teh weekend. Either way i found it a quite pointed and interesting comment. Interested to know if anyone has any snippets about what it is referring to??

Well someone said they had been training at the stadium. That's a minor change.

[Faz]

Yeah, it's never good when Ralph has to give answers that basically say the owner doesn't have any money.

 

Where does he say that?

[Badger]

I wonder if getting rid of Reed and today's 'Ralphagram' is a posturing for the possible sale of the club by Gao.

 

Am also hoping we don't employ a Les strategy to replacing him, ie the Art of Dither.

 

Perhaps I'm hoping for too much.

[ecuk268]

That just says that the owners haven't got a clue on how to run a business let alone a football club.

 

With estimated wealth of close to £1bn, I think he knows a bit about business.

[East Kent Saint]

Trump is not a businessman like we understand , he was left billions by his Dad and runs his empire on borrowed money , his companies make losses so he doesn't pay any taxes (so he won't show his tax returns) He borrowed 3 billion from Deutsche Bank to build another hotel then refused to pay it back , when they sued he counter sued saying they caused the 2008 crash so it was their fault !! Some deal was then done to his advantage so no we do not want that type of person owning our club .

The Guardian has an article today suggesting the Prem is poor this season , 7 clubs at the bottom with few points and the "top six" scraping by in europe as they are not as good as they think they are . The Prem needs reform (City PSG etc seen to be dodging ffp ) to make a proper competitive league all about football not money.

[Dalek2003]

I wonder if getting rid of Reed and today's 'Ralphagram' is a posturing for the possible sale of the club by Gao.

 

Am also hoping we don't employ a Les strategy to replacing him, ie the Art of Dither.

 

Perhaps I'm hoping for too much.

 

'The Art of Dither' identified years ago. Every summer the same. Got lambasted for saying it four years ago.

[Saint Billy]

I’m not even bothering reading Ralph’s statement, I can guess the meaningless chunder coming out of his mouth.

[saintant]

So we've won one game in God knows how long and Ralph claims that his daily discussions with Gao are all sweetness and light. Either Gao is a clueless businessman and easily satisfied or Ralph is being disingenuous. Who would shell out on our football club and be happy with how we are being run and the appalling record of the team? Makes zero sense.

[Saint Without a Halo]

If the board could guarantee 17th every year with the minimal outlay they would be happy. Money keeps coming in and sell any player half decent.

 

The trouble is, that at the moment the chances of finishing below 17th are increasing and that is causing panic due to the financial implications.

 

Makes you seem an optimist at last with your consistent forecast of 17th

[shurlock]

With estimated wealth of close to £1bn, I think he knows a bit about business.

 

Maybe his political skills are better than his business skills.

 

#cronycapitalism

[doddisalegend]

is it me or did Ralph admit in that interview that the final say on hiring managers and recruiting players has always been his?

 

These are important football decisions so are you now hamstrung to make decisions on players or changing managers if needed without Les or an immediate replacement and if not who makes those decisions in the interim period?

 

Ultimately, I am responsible for those decisions. I always was. The operational team that is in place here supports me in all my decisions.

 

oh this is going to end well...

[doddisalegend]

So now we have it, from Krueger's mouth, the following are on the Ownership Board of the Club:

 

Mr Gao

Nelly Gao

Katherina Liebherr

Ms Li (Finance)

Ralph Krueger

 

Sorry, but IMO that isn't a group suitable to successfully run a PL football team and I wouldn't have any faith in them getting things right.

 

Massively lacking a CEO with football knowledge, let alone the eventual 'replacement' for Reed.

 

Worrying times.

 

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/17213570.southampton-chairman-ralph-krueger-on-les-reed-mark-hughes-the-january-window-and-gao-jisheng/

 

Well having read that interview all I can say is LOL anyone who thought sacking Les was the answer to all our problems I think we are in for a lot more pain yet...

[hypochondriac]

is it me or did Ralph admit in that interview that the final say on hiring managers and recruiting players has always been his?

 

These are important football decisions so are you now hamstrung to make decisions on players or changing managers if needed without Les or an immediate replacement and if not who makes those decisions in the interim period?

 

Ultimately, I am responsible for those decisions. I always was. The operational team that is in place here supports me in all my decisions.

 

oh this is going to end well...

He says he's responsible for the decisions not that he made the decisions on his own. Who knows though with his waffle.

[Pamplemousse]

is it me or did Ralph admit in that interview that the final say on hiring managers and recruiting players has always been his?

 

These are important football decisions so are you now hamstrung to make decisions on players or changing managers if needed without Les or an immediate replacement and if not who makes those decisions in the interim period?

 

Ultimately, I am responsible for those decisions. I always was. The operational team that is in place here supports me in all my decisions.

 

oh this is going to end well...

 

He always has been the Chairman - that was the role previously occupied by Cortese.

 

Of course, he would never have made those decisions on his own and I'm sure all of the managerial hirings/firings, recruitment etc. would have come from extensive input from Les Reed and the other departments.

[doddisalegend]

He says he's responsible for the decisions not that he made the decisions on his own. Who knows though with his waffle.

 

He always has been the Chairman - that was the role previously occupied by Cortese.

 

Of course, he would never have made those decisions on his own and I'm sure all of the managerial hirings/firings, recruitment etc. would have come from extensive input from Les Reed and the other departments.

 

 

Well looks like he will be making the next couple of decisions, like who the new DoF will be, on his on his own though I guess he can get input from the wee ross and the board of people who no nothing about football....I'm hopeful Ralph will get it right

[IronCitySaint]

It really is quite astounding that a serious business can make a decision to get rid of a key member without having any clue what to do next. Removing Les was the right thing to do but you would think they would have a plan on his replacement whereas it seems like there is no idea even of the type of replacement they need. I expect RK's satellite will be in orbit for some time trying to figure out what to do next - probably not returning to earth until it is too late. Thought we were supposed to be a model club that everyone else was jealous of

[doddisalegend]

I know that training has been changed this week.

 

assumingly nothing to do with Hughes as he apparently doesn't take training..

[doddisalegend]

It really is quite astounding that a serious business can make a decision to get rid of a key member without having any clue what to do next. Removing Les was the right thing to do but you would think they would have a plan on his replacement whereas it seems like there is no idea even of the type of replacement they need. I expect RK's satellite will be in orbit for some time trying to figure out what to do next - probably not returning to earth until it is too late. Thought we were supposed to be a model club that everyone else was jealous of

 

It does increasingly look like Les's sacking was a spur of the moment thing rather than a planned change which doesn't fill me with confidence they are going to get this right.

[Avenue_Saint]

Why did fat kat sell us down the road to this clown then? Is this moving the club to the next level?

 

Tell her about it at the games.

 

No wonder Cortes said **** it. I’m off

[Toomer]

Tell her to buy some ****ing decent players.

 

She would not know one if he came up and kicked her up the arse.

[Katalinic]

She would not know one if he came up and kicked her up the arse.

 

Nor would Ross Wilson it appears.

[Miltonaggro]

So now we have it, from Krueger's mouth, the following are on the Ownership Board of the Club:

 

Mr Gao

Nelly Gao

Katherina Liebherr

Ms Li (Finance)

Ralph Krueger

 

Sorry, but IMO that isn't a group suitable to successfully run a PL football team and I wouldn't have any faith in them getting things right.

 

Massively lacking a CEO with football knowledge, let alone the eventual 'replacement' for Reed.

 

Worrying times.

 

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/17213570.southampton-chairman-ralph-krueger-on-les-reed-mark-hughes-the-january-window-and-gao-jisheng/

 

Maybe Ralph is setting up a band - The Five Pledges...

[Saint-Fred]

Why did fat kat sell us down the road to this clown then? Is this moving the club to the next level?

 

Tell her about it at the games.

 

No wonder Cortes said **** it. I’m off

 

There is a couple of hundred million reasons she did what she did.

Does she even go to games now?

[Plastic]

I couldn’t get beyond his first answer. He makes no sense.

If the upshot is that there is zero investment, then I’m not giving SFC one more penny of my money until we see an improvement.

[Bolokov]

There is a 'space' we are about to move into for sure, it's a great big f***ing void if this pr**k stays in charge

[Delmary]

Another cringe worthy interview from RK. [emoji30]. Meaningless noise.

[hypochondriac]

I couldn’t get beyond his first answer. He makes no sense.

If the upshot is that there is zero investment, then I’m not giving SFC one more penny of my money until we see an improvement.

I don't think we needed this interview to tell us that.

[Red]

So we've won one game in God knows how long and Ralph claims that his daily discussions with Gao are all sweetness and light. Either Gao is a clueless businessman and easily satisfied or Ralph is being disingenuous. Who would shell out on our football club and be happy with how we are being run and the appalling record of the team? Makes zero sense.

 

Quite. Just like the name - it is not the Ownership Board. It may be the Board the owners have chosen to run the club, but those 5 are not all owners - at best 3 are. Is this more of the Ralph made up words/phrases like "Space, Open Minds, Satellites, Percentage Points"

[Saint Pete]

The only thing that can be concluded from that interview is that there will be no significant improvement at Saints until Krueger is removed.

 

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[CB Fry]

I've tried to read the whole interview but I gave up when he started talking about amateur arms.

 

 

 

 

Personally I have moved into a space and area where the figurehead and leader of strategic direction for global Christianity would very much target the action of tears and the opportunity of crying in the same direction we are moving in with regard to weeping.

[rooney]

I am afraid it soon made me "tired" reading it and I did not understand most of it.

[Cabrone]

"We haven't got any money, none of us has a clue about running a football club, the owner doesn't even have much of a clue about running a business, however we've now sacked someone so we should be OK for 17th and another pay cheque. Oh and I have a real problem trying to explain myself in plain English"

 

Would have been a much quicker interview.

[alehouseboys]

I know that training has been changed this week.

 

Didn't they change their home game pre-match routine this season, meeting up at a hotel and all arriving at the stadium together on the coach? That worked well, wonder if that's another change for this weekend? Scoring/winning will be the most welcome change.

[Dalek2003]

"We haven't got any money, none of us has a clue about running a football club, the owner doesn't even have much of a clue about running a business, however we've now sacked someone so we should be OK for 17th and another pay cheque. Oh and I have a real problem trying to explain myself in plain English"

 

Would have been a much quicker interview.

 

Dalek was right all along...

[Holbury Saint]

Krueger is an even bigger problem at this club than Reed was.

He talks bulls hit and just hasn't got a fuc king clue. Was hoping that Reed going would bring someone with genuine top class football knowledge in. Krueger is gonna destroy this club more than Reed ever could. We need football people high up who know what a premier league club needs and understands it's fan base. We want to be able to trust the leaders and watch entertaining fast paced football. It is soooo boring being a saints fan at the moment and soooo frustrating. We are only going one way with these pr icks in charge

[Bit of a plonker]

What are you expecting him to say? You cut out the massive amounts of bull**** and drivel, then he is effectively saying that they are not happy with results, they need to change things, first change made, review going on, we need people who understand football. He even said that they can act (buy) in January if they need to (obviously it took a few more paragraphs, but it was hidden in there).

 

However, if he is setting direction, it is easy to see how people could get lost following it.

[Crab Lungs]

A person who doesn’t understand football is in charge of finding someone who knows about football. Jesus.

[Saint Billy]

A person who doesn’t understand football is in charge of finding someone who knows about football. Jesus.

 

It does make you wonder who is calling the shots here.

 

We really do need someone like Cortese to come in and shake it up and make sense of the mess, but whilst Ralph and Kat hang on to their cosy status that won't happen.

 

Wouldn't it be interesting if the Chinese connection that Cortese mentioned way back was indeed Gao, but I suspect not.

[Ultimatt]

I don't get all the posts worrying about the board not knowing football. That's just not their job. They're in charge of approving budgets, branding, sponsorship etc. For anything football related they hire specialists. Scouts that know football, Coaches that know football, Physios that know football players.

 

As for hiring for those roles it's no different to any other company out there; a C.V. and referees.

 

We should be happy that we finally have action on two of the people responsible for our poor 1st team and U23 results the past couple of years. Much better than sacking yet another manager when that's never been the big issue.

[Saint-Fred]

I don't get all the posts worrying about the board not knowing football. That's just not their job. They're in charge of approving budgets, branding, sponsorship etc. For anything football related they hire specialists. Scouts that know football, Coaches that know football, Physios that know football players.

 

As for hiring for those roles it's no different to any other company out there; a C.V. and referees.

 

We should be happy that we finally have action on two of the people responsible for our poor 1st team and U23 results the past couple of years. Much better than sacking yet another manager when that's never been the big issue.

 

If the last few years hadn't been so poor including managerial appointments then you could say there is nothing to worry about. But frankly if we had shareholders this bunch of muppets would be long gone.

 

they have already proven they are useless so I can't see why you would defend their ability to appoint someone who knows about football this time?

In all likelihood unless Fat Kat, silent Goa and Wreckit Ralph go we are pretty much up there with the weakest clubs, leadership wise in the top two divisions.

[Millbrook Saint]

Dalek was right all along...

 

Have a day off mush, you seem to think you're some sort of knowledgeable expert with just that little bit more insight than anyone else. When really you just come across as a massive helmet.

 

If I was to drone on every single day saying 'Today Dalek will die' sooner or later I'd be right but it wouldn't make me Mystic ****in Meg would it.

[shurlock]

Have a day off mush, you seem to think you're some sort of knowledgeable expert with just that little bit more insight than anyone else. When really you just come across as a massive helmet.

 

If I was to drone on every single day saying 'Today Dalek will die' sooner or later I'd be right but it wouldn't make me Mystic ****in Meg would it.

 

[VectisSaint]

I don't get all the posts worrying about the board not knowing football. That's just not their job.

Running a business that is purely based on one product, football, and you have no (or very little) knowledge of the product. Crazy. No business would succeed in such a set up. If they know nothing how do they hire people who do? On what basis do they select the appropriate candidate. Agreed not all of the Board need to have football expertise, but someone must have some knowledge. That's why Reed was on the Board. Markus and Cortese were knowledgable about football, though admittedly not deeply ingrained, Markus had been involved before buying Southampton, and Cortese was in sports management. Andy Oldknow recommended Read to Cortese. We sort of hope that Krueger has gained some knowledge in his time here, but whenever he utters his bull**** you seriously wonder.

[doddisalegend]

I don't get all the posts worrying about the board not knowing football. That's just not their job. They're in charge of approving budgets, branding, sponsorship etc. For anything football related they hire specialists. Scouts that know football, Coaches that know football, Physios that know football players.

 

As for hiring for those roles it's no different to any other company out there; a C.V. and referees.

We should be happy that we finally have action on two of the people responsible for our poor 1st team and U23 results the past couple of years. Much better than sacking yet another manager when that's never been the big issue.

 

Well in every job interview I've done, as the interviewer, I had a very sound knowledge of the job I was interviewing for. In my experience when people interview for a job they don't have good knowledge of (or better yet actually done before) they tend to hire the wrong person and it doesn't workout to well....but hey maybe Ralph will get lucky.

[saintalan]

Dalek was right all along...

 

Perhaps you could now enlighten us to the next 4 years, no point keep going on again about past victories!

[Millbrook Saint]

Maybe it's become apparent that any ambitious managerial appointment we went for turn us down due to Les Reed, I imagine most managers speak to each other, what do you think Koeman would have said if they approached him asking about the club? Hopefully the club realised this and acted accordingly.

 

I have confidence that the owners will approach 3rd parties with the expertise to help them appoint a successor. Who knows Hughes replacement may already be lined up but refused to work with Reed.

[doddisalegend]

Maybe it's become apparent that any ambitious managerial appointment we went for turn us down due to Les Reed, I imagine most managers speak to each other, what do you think Koeman would have said if they approached him asking about the club? Hopefully the club realised this and acted accordingly.

 

I have confidence that the owners will approach 3rd parties with the expertise to help them appoint a successor. Who knows Hughes replacement may already be lined up but refused to work with Reed.

 

What you think they are super stoked to work for Ralph? Ambitious managers don't come to saints...because they are ambitious. No one wants this current mess of a club on their CV when much better jobs will become available to them.

[Dalek2003]

Have a day off mush, you seem to think you're some sort of knowledgeable expert with just that little bit more insight than anyone else. When really you just come across as a massive helmet.

 

If I was to drone on every single day saying 'Today Dalek will die' sooner or later I'd be right but it wouldn't make me Mystic ****in Meg would it.

 

Ok.