Sport Republic

[Weston Super Saint]

4 hours ago, John B said:

I am not sure a £40m would want to come here I cannot even remember the club paying a really high amount of money for a proven PL player ever even Bertrand was relatively cheap

 

Ramsdale earns a pretty penny and Macca before that...

[Wade Garrett]

50 minutes ago, John B said:

You are obviously correct but my point is why on earth would any £40m attacking player want to come to St Mary's 

Sorry, didn’t read all the thread.  It would be a difficult sell.

[saintant]

3 hours ago, saintant said:

Why would any of us on here wish to listen to a message from Ankersen to the fans of Goztepe?

In words that you will recognise very well, 'You did not answer my question'

[FredVaFC59100]

9 hours ago, Turkish said:

BTW Kraft seems to be escaping a lot of the flack with most of it directed towards Rasmus. Kraft is chairman of Saints with Phil Parsons as CEO. It seems Rasmus is the president of Goztepe whereas Kraft and Parsons are more involved in Saints.

Kraft is also Chairman of Valenciennes FC, another disaster in the making. Lets play musical chairs and swap Rasmus with Kraft and see how it goes...

[Dark Munster]

So I logged on this morning and saw that this thread had added 3-4 new pages. Excitedly I clicked on it, praying that is was because Dragan had given Rasmus a one-way ticket to Turkey and told him not to come back. Then I saw the first @Matthew Le God post, then the second, and by the third the real reason dawned on me and my hopes were dashed.

[Matthew Le God]

11 minutes ago, Dark Munster said:

So I logged on this morning and saw that this thread had added 3-4 new pages. Excitedly I clicked on it, praying that is was because Dragan had given Rasmus a one-way ticket to Turkey and told him not to come back. Then I saw the first @Matthew Le God post, then the second, and by the third the real reason dawned on me and my hopes were dashed.

[Badger]

On 31/12/2024 at 10:53, Turkish said:

BTW Kraft seems to be escaping a lot of the flack with most of it directed towards Rasmus. Kraft is chairman of Saints with Phil Parsons as CEO. It seems Rasmus is the president of Goztepe whereas Kraft and Parsons are more involved in Saints.

Fair point that Kraft and Parsons seem to be going under the radar and escaping the wrath of supporters.
 

Given Krafts comments in an interview about Rasmus being ‘Mr Football’ though it’s not surprising that most link all football decisions as having Rasmus’ dabs on them. 

[ApprenticeBillionaire]

This racket needs to get gone.

And I include Dragan in that.

Have they ever got one single thing right?...

They have been an absolute fucking disaster for us.

[FarehamSaintJames]

Has Dragon tied Rasmus, Kraft etc to a chair in a basement yet demanding where all his millions have gone?

[SambaMaverick]

 

Hugo Scheckter's video just another episode in a long line which makes us the laughing stock of this league

Carries on the 'lucky to be here' theme which started under Semmens

Still nothing from the SR losers by way of a statement which suggests they've got a clue what they are doing at all

Rasmus clearly still pulling all the strings as evidenced by this managerial appointment, I'm not sure anyone else in a boardroom role could even name a realistic manager target - they know fuck all about football

[aintforever]

It us just one bad decision after another, god knows why Dragon hasn’t given them the bullet.

[AlexLaw76]

Horrific owners. Have said it for a long time. 
 

this is certainly not the greatest era in our history

[SaintNewForest]

When are the protests to get them out of the club? They get away far too easily with their utter incompetence.

An Everton or a Newcastle would have forced them to sell by now. We're sadly too accepting of mediocrity 

[Challenger]

All this lot can do is lay on the football matches that they are committed to do in order to fulfil the league requirements . And fuck all else.

 

[Matthew Le God]

8 minutes ago, SaintNewForest said:

When are the protests to get them out of the club? They get away far too easily with their utter incompetence.

An Everton or a Newcastle would have forced them to sell by now. We're sadly too accepting of mediocrity 

We are heading to the Championship, the value of the club will significantly drop below what they paid for it. So there would be no incentive to sell up and lose a lot of money before seeing if they can get them promoted again. Even less incentive when Saints are the keystone club in the group.

[Dark Munster]

11 minutes ago, SaintNewForest said:

When are the protests to get them out of the club? They get away far too easily with their utter incompetence.

An Everton or a Newcastle would have forced them to sell by now. We're sadly too accepting of mediocrity 

I’d bite your hand off for mediocrity. We’re too accepting of their absolute shit. 

[SaintNewForest]

2 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

We are heading to the Championship, the value of the club will significantly drop below what they paid for it. So there would be no incentive to sell up and lose a lot of money before seeing if they can get them promoted again. Even less incentive when Saints are the keystone club in the group.

At some point in business, you've got to accept your losses, realise you've fucked up and move on ...

They should be in that scenario now. In 3 years, they've somehow made us worse. 

Edited Sunday at 18:16 by SaintNewForest

[Badger]

7 minutes ago, SaintNewForest said:

 

They should be in that scenario now. In 3 years, they've somehow made us worse. 

Despite spending the best part of £200m.

Thats a pretty remarkable achievement. Would make an interesting Ted Talk from Mr Football .

Title: Southampton FC; my part in its downfall.*
 

*with apologies to Spike M. 

[Badger]

32 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

 

Hugo Scheckter's video just another episode in a long line which makes us the laughing stock of this league

Carries on the 'lucky to be here' theme which started under Semmens

Still nothing from the SR losers by way of a statement which suggests they've got a clue what they are doing at all

Rasmus clearly still pulling all the strings as evidenced by this managerial appointment, I'm not sure anyone else in a boardroom role could even name a realistic manager target - they know fuck all about football

Perhaps his mum should be recruited as Director of Football.

[Badger]

Is Hugo Schekter still involved with the club in any capacity? 

[Daft Kerplunk]

8 minutes ago, Badger said:

Is Hugo Schekter still involved with the club in any capacity? 

No, left ages ago as he couldn't do the better job he wanted to do because of the shite people above him 😎 They're still there. 

[S-Clarke]

The Gao era was pretty deflating as there was no investment, but the people 'local' who actually run the club day-to-day applied a bit of common sense to decisions.

This lot have all the gear and absolutley no idea.

They started their ownership stint watching us beat Brentford 4-1 with Ralph in charge. 3 years later they've just witnessed us lose 0-5 to Brentford with their 4th permanent manager in charge, on course for our 2nd relegation under them. They are absolutley horrific. There is no football experience at any level, just a bunch of businessmen with money who are trying their hardest to wing it.

They have absolutley ruined this club. We don't recover from this season overnight, trust me.

Edited Sunday at 18:47 by S-Clarke

[Badger]

49 minutes ago, aintforever said:

It us just one bad decision after another, god knows why Dragon hasn’t given them the bullet.

Surely the penny must have dropped. 
 

If Dragan has any hope of a ‘reset’ ( dress  it up as you like) in the Championship he needs to get rid of these fuckers ( Rasmus, Kraft, possibly Dyson bloke etc). No potential target ( manager or player) is going to take those clowns seriously when they try and ‘sell the project’.

Last time we at least had Willcox who could distance himself from the 12 months beforehand. We don’t have that luxury this time without serious change, as the present bods are clearly associated with and responsible for the shitshow. 

[Dr. Kucho]

45 minutes ago, SaintNewForest said:

When are the protests to get them out of the club? They get away far too easily with their utter incompetence.

An Everton or a Newcastle would have forced them to sell by now. We're sadly too accepting of mediocrity 

What might help is to somehow get the national press to report more on SR’s terrible leadership. Blackmore and House aren’t going to ask difficult questions to SR as they could easily lose their contacts within the club. 

If we end up with the lowest points tally at the end of the season we might  get more articles from the press, and SR would laughed at nation wide. 

[miserableoldgit]

1 minute ago, Dr. Kucho said:

What might help is to somehow get the national press to report more on SR’s terrible leadership. Blackmore and House aren’t going to ask difficult questions to SR as they could easily lose their contacts within the club. 

If we end up with the lowest points tally at the end of the season we might  get more articles from the press, and SR would laughed at nation wide. 

Weirdly, this may be the best thing to happen to us now in our current situation. There will be no way of papering over the fact that under SR we would have become officially the worst team in Prem history. Solak would HAVE to do something then.............wouldn't he????

[Pamplemousse]

The recruitment has been shocking. Mowbray I think is the head, he should be sacked immediately. Not up to the job.

[FredVaFC59100]

Kraft is also at the helm of Valenciennes FC. Chairman and responsible for our relegation from Ligue 2 to National, and our current piss poor standing (12th out of 17) and very likely to stay in National or  relegated to National 2 next year.

 

People say that Dragan is not responsible for this mess, but I beg to disagree, the buck stops with him! he has not done is due diligence before getting into business with Kraft and Rasmus and have not done any changes to his dream team ever since despite all the disappointments and losses

Edited Sunday at 19:07 by FredVaFC59100

[Pamplemousse]

5 minutes ago, FredVaFC59100 said:

Kraft is also at the helm of Valenciennes FC. Chairman and responsible for our relegation from Ligue 2 to National, and our current piss poor standing (12th out of 17) and very likely to stay in National or  relegated to National 2 next year.

 

People say that Dragan is not responsible for this mess, but I beg to disagree, the buck stops with him! he has not done is due diligence before getting into business with Kraft and Rasmus and have not done any changes to his dream team ever since despite all the disappointments and losses

They only care about their Turkish team. We're both victims.

[Badger]

21 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

The recruitment has been shocking. Mowbray I think is the head, he should be sacked immediately. Not up to the job.

Really wonder about his input. I was quite optimistic when he was first mentioned as had done a reasonable job for Aberdeen. What has gone wrong, did he just strike lucky there with Duk and Miovski, or are the transfer committee ( involving Parsons, Bitcon and Lego) not listening to him ?

Whoever was responsible for Archer and BBD then that should be a signal to the exit door. 

[Matthew Le God]

1 hour ago, SaintNewForest said:

At some point in business, you've got to accept your losses, realise you've fucked up and move on ...

They should be in that scenario now. In 3 years, they've somehow made us worse. 

Why would they before seeing if they can get another promotion? We have a squad packed full of top Championship players. A promotion sees the value return to their asset.

[Matthew Le God]

31 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

They only care about their Turkish team. 

If that were true... why have they spent significantly more money on Saints? It is a vast amount of difference in money invested in both clubs.

[S-Clarke]

Just now, Matthew Le God said:

Why would they before seeing if they can get another promotion? We have a squad packed full of top Championship players. A promotion sees the value return to their asset.

It's a bit of a stretch to say we're packed full of top Championship players.

There is a hell of a lot of average EFL in this side, once the remnants of the quality leaves in the summer (Fernandes, Dibling, KWP, THB), we'll be left with a core of Stephens, Charles, Armstrong, Aribo, Fraser, Wood, Manning, Bree, Smallbone, Bazunu, Taylor, Archer etc etc. One or two top level champ players in there for sure, but a hell of a lot of absolutley average champ players too.

This is why I don't expect us to compete at all next season. We're absolutley ruined as a squad at this current juncture, some of these players will never recover from a season like this. This time next year we won't be talking about a squad 'packed full of top championship players', trust me.

[aintforever]

3 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

It's a bit of a stretch to say we're packed full of top Championship players.

There is a hell of a lot of average EFL in this side, once the remnants of the quality leaves in the summer (Fernandes, Dibling, KWP, THB), we'll be left with a core of Stephens, Charles, Armstrong, Aribo, Fraser, Wood, Manning, Bree, Smallbone, Bazunu, Taylor, Archer etc etc. One or two top level champ players in there for sure, but a hell of a lot of absolutley average champ players too.

This is why I don't expect us to compete at all next season. We're absolutley ruined as a squad at this current juncture, some of these players will never recover from a season like this. This time next year we won't be talking about a squad 'packed full of top championship players', trust me.

I disagree, as long as we get a decent manager in the summer we should have a great chance of promotion, if managed right.

Big if though.

[Matthew Le God]

19 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

It's a bit of a stretch to say we're packed full of top Championship players.

There is a hell of a lot of average EFL in this side, once the remnants of the quality leaves in the summer (Fernandes, Dibling, KWP, THB), we'll be left with a core of Stephens, Charles, Armstrong, Aribo, Fraser, Wood, Manning, Bree, Smallbone, Bazunu, Taylor, Archer etc etc. One or two top level champ players in there for sure, but a hell of a lot of absolutley average champ players too.

This is why I don't expect us to compete at all next season. We're absolutley ruined as a squad at this current juncture, some of these players will never recover from a season like this. This time next year we won't be talking about a squad 'packed full of top championship players', trust me.

You've missed out quite a few players that would excel at that level. Plus the ones you have included and dismissed are very good at Championship level even though they are out of their depth in the PL. 

Take our strikers, Armstrong, Archer, Brereton Díaz have all been prolific in the Championship. Injury plagued Stewart was prolific in a small sample of games. Onuachu probably would be if he stayed. Similar applies to other positions throughout our squad.

Many Saints fans are currently seeing players out of their depth in the Premier League and thinking that means those players would struggle in the Championship. They wouldn't struggle. Our squad is essentially that of an automatic promotion challenging Championship team with a small handful of Premier League players (Ramsdale,  Fernandes, Dibling, Walker-Peters and arguably a couple of others).

We'd also be a year one parachute payment team and have a lot of money recouped from some players sakes. We'll have a significant financial advantage over 21 of the 23 opposing teams in the Championship. 

Edited Sunday at 20:07 by Matthew Le God

[Pamplemousse]

23 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

If that were true... why have they spent significantly more money on Saints? It is a vast amount of difference in money invested in both clubs.

We have 6 points. The fact is, we should be their number 1 priority. The multi-club model is a disaster for a team like us, we're not their sole focus.

[Matthew Le God]

1 minute ago, Pamplemousse said:

We have 6 points. The fact is, we should be their number 1 priority. The multi-club model is a disaster for a team like us, we're not their sole focus.

That does not answer the question.

The question was... 'if that were true why have they spent significantly more money on Saints?'

[Pamplemousse]

Just now, Matthew Le God said:

That does not answer the question.

The question was... 'if that were true why have they spent significantly more money on Saints?'

Because we have a bigger income initially - whether that has come from TV deals or player trading.

[Matthew Le God]

6 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

Because we have a bigger income initially - whether that has come from TV deals or player trading.

I'm not talking about income from other sources. The accounts of both clubs show Sport Republic have put significantly more money into Saints than the other two clubs. Have does that tally with your claim we are not there many focus?

Alot is made by Saints fans that we have signed players and then listed them out. But Göztepe only have 2 Saints players on loan, both of them were very cheap and has minimal impact on us.

The issue is not lack of focus, lack of money or lack of ambition for Saints. Nor is it that we are in a group of clubs. The issue is a fuck up of recruitment and a fuck up in terms of managerial appointment decisions. 

Edited Sunday at 20:15 by Matthew Le God

[Lee On Solent Saint]

5 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

I'm not talking about income from other sources. The accounts of both clubs show Sport Republic have put significantly more money into Saints than the other two clubs. Have does that tally with your claim we are not there many focus?

Alot is made by Saints fans that we have signed players and then listed them out. But Göztepe only have 2 Saints players on loan, both of them were very cheap and has minimal impact on us.

The issue is not lack of focus, lack of money or lack of ambition for Saints. Nor is it that we aes in a group of clubs. The issue is a fuck up of recruitment and a fuck up in terms of managerial appointment decisions. 

Putting more money in doesn't mean we are the full focus of their efforts. You say the biggest issue is a fuck up on recruitment and managerial appointments, if Goztepe are doing well, that could point to the fact that they have put better practices behind the scenes in Turkey rather than with us. 

[Matthew Le God]

3 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Putting more money in doesn't mean we are the full focus of their efforts. You say the biggest issue is a fuck up on recruitment and managerial appointments, if Goztepe are doing well, that could point to the fact that they have put better practices behind the scenes in Turkey rather than with us. 

What indicates Göztepe are their main focus? And what would the rational be? Saints are in a league system that allows for significantly bigger returns than Turkey.

Edited Sunday at 20:28 by Matthew Le God

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Just now, Matthew Le God said:

What indicates Göztepe are their main focus?

By seemingly getting more things right behind the scenes, they are 5th in their league at present. They seem to be getting more right there then here. 

[FredVaFC59100]

Given SR's track record with Saints and Valenciennes FC, isn't Goztepe relative success story more than a fluke/strike of luck than expertise?

[Football Special]

This is remarkable 

[bpsaint]

As I said in the Brentford match thread Martin Semmens has a lot to answer for choosing this pack of clowns as our preferred purchasers.

I’d love to you know who else was interested and whether they’ve subsequently gone onto to purchase other clubs.

I bet SR are too arrogant to even believe they are the problem. Are any of the clowns on social media?

[Matthew Le God]

7 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

By seemingly getting more things right behind the scenes, they are 5th in their league at present. They seem to be getting more right there then here. 

Getting it right at Göztepe doesn't mean it is the main focus. I don't think there is or needs to be a 'main focus'. All three clubs can get on with what they need to do and alongside hopefully beneficial player movements around the group.

Valenciennes and Saints clearly need a lot of work!

[Lee On Solent Saint]

9 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Getting it right at Göztepe doesn't mean it is the main focus. I don't think there is or needs to be a 'main focus'. All three clubs can get on with what they need to do and alongside hopefully beneficial player movements around the group.

Valenciennes and Saints clearly need a lot of work!

So, Manchester City aren't the main focus for their owners? Stands to reason that the most high profile club in your portfiolo is going to be the main focus of your attention, or it should be. 

[saintant]

1 hour ago, Matthew Le God said:

Getting it right at Göztepe doesn't mean it is the main focus. I don't think there is or needs to be a 'main focus'. All three clubs can get on with what they need to do and alongside hopefully beneficial player movements around the group.

Valenciennes and Saints clearly need a lot of work!

The fact is it doesn't matter which club they put most focus on because they have no idea what they are doing and are seriously out of their depth. They couldn't run a pub team. The day Rasmus and his motley crew of snake oil salesmen walked into our club was one of the worst in the history of Southampton FC. They arrived with no knowledge and have failed to learn a single thing along the way. All the time they are here it will continue to get worse.

[Matthew Le God]

Just now, saintant said:

The fact is it doesn't matter which club they put most focus on because they have no idea what they are doing and are seriously out of their depth. They couldn't run a pub team. The day Rasmus and his motley crew of snake oil salesmen walked into our club was one of the worst in the history of Southampton FC. They arrived with no knowledge and have failed to learn a single thing along the way. All the time they are here it will continue to get worse.

How are Göztepe 5th in the Turkish top flight having not come close to that for decades? 

Sure Saints and Valenciennes aren't having the best time of it at the moment, but the Turkish league isn't pub level. 

[saintant]

3 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

How are Göztepe 5th in the Turkish top flight having not come close to that for decades? 

Sure Saints and Valenciennes aren't having the best time of it at the moment, but the Turkish league isn't pub level. 

I don't give a monkeys about Goztepe or what SR have and haven't done for them. I have witnessed the way they have proceeded to ruin Southampton FC and have had more than enough of their incompetence. You can make as many contrary remarks as you like in your efforts to prove they might have redeeming features but nothing you say will convince me that they have ever been anything but a total disaster for us or that anything is likely to change.  

[Master Bates]

Anyone want a pizza the action?

 

https://thebusinessmagazine.co.uk/companies/southampton-football-club-launches-partnership-with-dominoes/