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maysie

maysie

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Master Bates said:

Screenshot_20230119-205917_Samsung Internet.jpg

Screenshot_20230119-210230_Samsung Internet.jpg

Screenshot_20230119-210154_Samsung Internet.jpg

All I know is that I’m definitely going to start confusing people with the phrase ‘in short, the more bread the more meatballs’

Probably start using it tomorrow at work to sum every situation/ problem.

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FarehamSaintJames

FarehamSaintJames

Posted
Posted
On 04/01/2023 at 11:10, FarehamSaintJames said:

Given it's the one year anniversary I thought I'd make a quick positive/negative of SR's first year:

Positives:
- Bought the club in the first place from Gao's ownership. Talked the talk about building a firm to rival that of the City Group etc.
- Bought young and up and coming players, with the intention to sell on for higher vale (mixed reception on that front).

Negatives:
- Talked about Saints and how they should be "grateful" to be in the Premier League.
- Talked about how some random team from Turkey were bigger than Saints - a team that had been in the Premier League (the most lucrative league in the world) for the majority of their existence.
- Poor transfer policy outcomes.
- High staff turnover, something obviously isn't right.
- Plummeted to bottom of the league under the transfer policy of buying kids.
- Kept Ralph on for too long after results started faltering.
- Replaced him with a Championship manager whilst other clubs around us in the league have replaced theirs with a higher calibre of manager.
- Screwed up the summer window by not buying a striker, a replacement for Romeu or a GK that was ready for the Premier League.
- Large disconnect from the fanbase.
- Shambles of a kit(s) this season, no classic Saints identity. Branding talked bollocks about being "brave, daring" - everything the current players aren't.
- Pointless fucking lightshow (coming tonight), not really the priority right now.

 

Have I missed anything? 😂

 

Just thought I’d bump the above.

Can soon add “Failed to buy a striker for a second successive window, despite being bottom of the league and the most obvious position to improve”. 😂

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saintjimbo83

saintjimbo83

Posted
Posted

I’d say it’s a very high possibility that we are going to be relegated and IMO it has been entirely unavoidable.

For the first time we have have spent significant amounts of money in 2 transfer windows (we will spend more this window) and it’s been focused on purely youth and sell on, without selling keys players. If they would have approached this with a good mixture and an experienced keeper in particular, then I don’t think we would be odds on to go down.

Ralph should have have gone in the Summer and replaced with a much better candidate than we currently have.

Poor strategy and recruitment will likely see us relegated and totally unavoidable.

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ally_uk

ally_uk

Posted
Posted

My own thoughts on Sports Republic journey so far and why we are where we are. I will be honest.

Not rolling the dice quick enough on the termination of Ralph's tenure. The smart thing would of been to bring in a new manager someone who could of embedded in a philosophy and actually is a tactician which a gold 

Not properly getting a Broja replacement in the Summer.  

Adam Armstrong is not up to it this level. Adams needs about 10 chances to finish one..... 

Having Bazunu as number 1 has cost us points.... sorry but again not up to it this level.. 

This fetish to sign young players yes I agree polishing gems is good. However we need a sprinkling of experience to stay in this league.. 

January Window again no striker Ings would of been perfect.... 

Goal keeper situation is weak 

Defensive Midfield is weak Diallo I'm sorry cannot pass a football and is lightweight should be sold and upgraded. We need a proper no nonsense type player some may shoot me down but Scott McTominay or a play in similar mould with a bit of grit and destroyer type mentality. 

Lastly the appointment of Jones jury is still out? I'm not sure to be honest I'm willing to give the man a chance but still feel we should of recruited someone of mote calibre. 

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cloggy saint

cloggy saint

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, ally_uk said:

My own thoughts on Sports Republic journey so far and why we are where we are. I will be honest.

Not rolling the dice quick enough on the termination of Ralph's tenure. The smart thing would of been to bring in a new manager someone who could of embedded in a philosophy and actually is a tactician which a gold 

Not properly getting a Broja replacement in the Summer.  

Adam Armstrong is not up to it this level. Adams needs about 10 chances to finish one..... 

Having Bazunu as number 1 has cost us points.... sorry but again not up to it this level.. 

This fetish to sign young players yes I agree polishing gems is good. However we need a sprinkling of experience to stay in this league.. 

January Window again no striker Ings would of been perfect.... 

Goal keeper situation is weak 

Defensive Midfield is weak Diallo I'm sorry cannot pass a football and is lightweight should be sold and upgraded. We need a proper no nonsense type player some may shoot me down but Scott McTominay or a play in similar mould with a bit of grit and destroyer type mentality. 

Lastly the appointment of Jones jury is still out? I'm not sure to be honest I'm willing to give the man a chance but still feel we should of recruited someone of mote calibre. 

Would you normally lie about this kind of thing?  🤷‍♂️

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Saint86

Saint86

Posted
Posted (edited)
17 hours ago, ally_uk said:

My own thoughts on Sports Republic journey so far and why we are where we are. I will be honest.

Not rolling the dice quick enough on the termination of Ralph's tenure. The smart thing would of been to bring in a new manager someone who could of embedded in a philosophy and actually is a tactician which a gold 

Not properly getting a Broja replacement in the Summer.  

Adam Armstrong is not up to it this level. Adams needs about 10 chances to finish one..... 

Having Bazunu as number 1 has cost us points.... sorry but again not up to it this level.. 

This fetish to sign young players yes I agree polishing gems is good. However we need a sprinkling of experience to stay in this league.. 

January Window again no striker Ings would of been perfect.... 

Goal keeper situation is weak 

Defensive Midfield is weak Diallo I'm sorry cannot pass a football and is lightweight should be sold and upgraded. We need a proper no nonsense type player some may shoot me down but Scott McTominay or a play in similar mould with a bit of grit and destroyer type mentality. 

Lastly the appointment of Jones jury is still out? I'm not sure to be honest I'm willing to give the man a chance but still feel we should of recruited someone of mote calibre. 

IMO the critical mistake was not buying Ralph a striker and CDM cover in the summer. Do that and we're comfortably clear of relegation this season and likely mid table given the bottom half league table. As it was, they effectively hung him out to try until fan sentiment turned and made him into a good scapegoat for SR's transfer failures. Similarly, everything that has followed (since failing to sign a ST and CDM) has basically been reactive fire fighting... And by that, i even mean down to where we are recently - i.e. Jones (or any manager) would have had a significantly greater chance of winning more points had a competent CDM been available for their first few games, ditto a striker who could finish.

SR ultimately are responsible for our summer transfer business and the general upheaval of both playing and off field staff - they've tried to change too much too fast, and simultaneously missed the most important aspects. Repeatedly.

Edited by Saint86
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Saint Garrett

Saint Garrett

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Saint86 said:

IMO the critical mistake was not buying Ralph a striker and CDM cover in the summer. Do that and we're comfortably clear of relegation this season and likely mid table given the bottom half league table. As it was, they effectively hung him out to try until fan sentiment turned and made him into a good scapegoat for SR's transfer failures. Similarly, everything that has followed (since failing to sign a ST and CDM) has basically been reactive fire fighting... And by that, i even mean down to where we are recently - i.e. Jones (or any manager) would have had a significantly greater chance of winning more points had a competent CDM been available for their first few games, ditto a striker who could finish.

SR ultimately are responsible for our summer transfer business and the general upheaval of both playing and off field staff - they've tried to change too much too fast, and simultaneously missed the most important aspects. Repeatedly.

Yup - agreed. The key things for me are:

  • Not signing a solid GK (there were enough out there)
  • Not signing a goalscorer
  • Buying cheap options like Aribo who offers bugger all
  • Bringing in AMN to replace Romeu, despite him not being able to play in that DM role.

I actually don't think this squad is a million miles away from being half decent like they've proved over the last 4 years under Ralph, but we now have a worse manager, and we are missing that key goalscorer.  Also, Redmond offered us far more than Aribo. Should have just kept him.

Edited by Saint Garrett
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Saint Fan CaM

Saint Fan CaM

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, East Kent Saint said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64296717

Todays BBC article on Saints under SR

Looks like they didn’t look back at all the lost games to check whether we had scored in any of them. And then look to see how times we’d won with a margin of more than one goal. The stats don’t lie - worst GD in the league surely tells you it’s not just about the defensive aspects of the game…we’ve not been scoring goals and goals win games. I’m shocked to read that SR and Semmen’s have apparently ignored this fact.

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Dirkdiggler

Dirkdiggler

Posted
Posted
On 10/01/2023 at 16:00, benali-shorts said:

One bit of good news in the Athletic article - Vince Bertram, goalkeeper scout for the last 12 years has left. Boruc aside (and arguably Forster at times), our GK recruitment during his tenure has been questionable at best. 

 

 

Good news that I still can’t believe we haven’t produced one decent keeper from our academy! Vince wasn’t interested in developing players either just wanted players who were already at tier 1 level 😂😂 

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Smirking_Saint

Smirking_Saint

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Badger said:

Semmens says:

 

Christ on a bike !

Surprised BBC don't feature this on their Jackanory page.

 

I genuinely have no idea how Reed got hounded out but Semmens gets away with things relatively unscathed

His whole history is just soundbites that are either absolute shite or completely contradictory 

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AlexLaw76

AlexLaw76

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Smirking_Saint said:

I genuinely have no idea how Reed got hounded out but Semmens gets away with things relatively unscathed

His whole history is just soundbites that are either absolute shite or completely contradictory 

I genuinely think too many are just worn down with the crap from the club.  

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Dman

Dman

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Smirking_Saint said:

I genuinely have no idea how Reed got hounded out but Semmens gets away with things relatively unscathed

His whole history is just soundbites that are either absolute shite or completely contradictory 

Semmens has destroyed this club. This season is on him. 

He hand picked SR, likely to save his own job. 

He decided to keep Ralph for as long as we did. 

He (as I understand it) fucked up a few deals in the summer for penny pinching. 

Talks a good game, had me fooled under Gao with his ‘we can’t afford to compete bollox’. 

His whole mentality is negative “we should be lucky to be here”

I can’t wait for the prick to go. 

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benjii

benjii

Posted
Posted (edited)

They have been a failure. There were a few things that were needed. 

1 - inject some fresh impetus and drive; get rid of Mediocre Martin and instill some ambition. Failed.

2 - appoint a decent manager. Failed. Bizarre appointment. 

3 - improve the GK position. Incredibly, failed, with a very low bar.

4 - improve up front. Failed. Mara might be good at some point but clearly hasn’t delivered yet.

5 - improve CB. Fair play, succeeded.

6 - midfield: neutral. Lavia is great, but AMN hasn’t delivered so we are still lacking depth in CM. On the wings, Stu Armstrong seems to have issues. Aribo is shite. We’ve basically swapped Edozie and Aribo for Redmond and Armstrong. I know which two I’d rather have. Let’s hope Orsic and Alcaraz can do something, if  the manager lets them on the pitch.

In short, they’ve done terribly. Quite remarkable considering they only needed to be better than Gao.

Edited by benjii
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SambaMaverick

SambaMaverick

Posted
Posted

I'm going to want to see blood if we go down, and I think it should be Rasmus. But how does that work with someone so involved in the decision-making having a stake in the club?

ABK and Lavia (maybe DCC) the only signings to come out of the summer with any promise.

They've failed in the three most important areas - manager, GK, and ST. Aribo was a complete waste of cash, Larios ditto. Edozie just isn't remotely ready to start at this level.

The signings we've made (outside of ABK) have been a clear downgrade on what we already had.

Off the pitch, it's been arguably even worse. Waiting for an upturn in results to do a PR puff piece with a friendly journalist, treating fans like customers/cattle, etc.

Semmens may well be the fall guy, and I don't disagree with him going - but the buck can't stop there.

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Miltonaggro

Miltonaggro

Posted
Posted

We go down and Semmens, Ankersen, plus Jones and Co. should be off, likely prior to the fire sale of saleable assets. At that point it’s all down to Solak and Kraft in sticking with it to restructure or bailing out - could go either way. Whatever happens they should consider rebranding the group as either Spunk Republic or Banana Republic. 
 

 

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The Cat

The Cat

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, saint lard said:

It's mad how comedy actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhaney have done a better job owning a football club than our billionaire and our incumbents. 🤷🏻‍♂️😉

You know this, but it's a hell of a lot easier pumping money into a non league team to see gains than it is a Premier League team.

Still, they pretty much failed last season by missing out on promotion despite Wrexham signing players from leagues above.

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saint lard

saint lard

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, The Cat said:

You know this, but it's a hell of a lot easier pumping money into a non league team to see gains than it is a Premier League team.

Still, they pretty much failed last season by missing out on promotion despite Wrexham signing players from leagues above.

All of which is obvious…but the caveat to that is,and despite what I stated (which was with my tongue firmly in my cheek)….ask their fans how they are feeling about their club. 
I Wager they are having a blast,feel they are on an upward trajectory…not just fans of the club but the whole community. 
they did it right,bringing along everyone and everything as a whole.Can you make it better  for everyone, they have.   

when you buy a club you know your limits to how much you can make it a ‘success’be it on the pitch or off it or both  

you seek proper guidance,you do your research on the club and the community. 
now tell me,who seems to have done that better?

their whole approach has been measured…co ordinated and ‘in touch’ with supporters,can we say the same?

I will wait. 

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S-Clarke

S-Clarke

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, saint lard said:

All of which is obvious…but the caveat to that is,and despite what I stated (which was with my tongue firmly in my cheek)….ask their fans how they are feeling about their club. 
I Wager they are having a blast,feel they are on an upward trajectory…not just fans of the club but the whole community. 
they did it right,bringing along everyone and everything as a whole.Can you make it better  for everyone, they have.   

when you buy a club you know your limits to how much you can make it a ‘success’be it on the pitch or off it or both  

you seek proper guidance,you do your research on the club and the community. 
now tell me,who seems to have done that better?

their whole approach has been measured…co ordinated and ‘in touch’ with supporters,can we say the same?

I will wait. 

But it's still the fact that it's so much easier to do this to a lower league club, even more so a non-league club. All they had to do was put a few bits of loose change in and they'd be better than anyone else, so automatically they'll start winning games and it's fun and the feelgood factor spreads because they win games.

They win lots of games because they have spent money, that's the single factor in all of this. If they were bottom half of non-league and losing lots of games, I can guarantee you that their fans wouldn't be giving a hoot about Netflix documentaries and 'fan engagement', in fact they'd probably be calling it out.

It's a lot harder doing that in the PL or higher as you need oil money.

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Ted Bates Statue

Ted Bates Statue

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, The Cat said:

You know this, but it's a hell of a lot easier pumping money into a non league team to see gains than it is a Premier League team.

Still, they pretty much failed last season by missing out on promotion despite Wrexham signing players from leagues above.

Exactly, wait until the novelty wears off (for owners and supporters), or they stay in one league for an extended period of time.

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bpsaint

bpsaint

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, benjii said:

Ankersen is one of the three shareholders of SR. He's going nowhere unless he decides to step down.

If we fail to bring in a striker in the next 24 hours he should be asked to tender his resignation, as it will just confirm the already high likelihood of our relegation.

Wish the fan base wasn’t so passive these days, Semmens et al have had a very easy ride this far.

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Spark

Spark

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, bpsaint said:

If we fail to bring in a striker in the next 24 hours he should be asked to tender his resignation, as it will just confirm the already high likelihood of our relegation.

Wish the fan base wasn’t so passive these days, Semmens et al have had a very easy ride this far.

Agree regarding fanbase, wouldnt surprise me if that played into SR buying us, knowing kickback from the fanbase would be minimal during their experiment. 

IMHO its a combination of things, but the people that post online carry a lot of blame in my eyes eg on Facebook , Forums, Saints Reddit etc (ESPECIALLY admins of facebook fan pages)
Any time anyone citisized the club, they got jumped on by the happy clappers that have only been watching since our prem return.  Get enough of that and the person thinks maybe it is me just being negative. Rinse and repeat for however many years and dissenting voices are less and less. Add into that the fact many of our fanbase have lost interest during these past years of seeing us return to the 90s Saints form of just clinging on, knowing it could of all been so different and very nearly was (fighting for top 4 a few years back, those were the days) and we end up where we are with loads of placid fans.  

Then theres the whole family club model, Saints want families not young men. and sorry to say, I know a few families like that and they see it as much as a family day out as caring about the results/how the clubs run etc. Obviously everyones different, but its something ive observed.

Also tying into the  the demographics of our fanbase, in years past it was a mainly working class fanbase, not so true anymore. Stand near the gound on matchdays and listen to the accents of our fans as they walk by. Those arent Southampton working class accents.  Half the people are from Winch and New Forest way and all the provincial areas of Southampton, Romsey and the like. Much more middle class areas basically. Working class are more vocal fans . The club dont want those fans.
Which also aligns with how quiet our fans are now during games, dont care if its classist or whatever, but working class fans are louder, middle class dont really sing. (seen quite a few on here proudly posting that they dont sing at games too). 

 

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Maggie May

Maggie May

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, bpsaint said:

If we fail to bring in a striker in the next 24 hours he should be asked to tender his resignation, as it will just confirm the already high likelihood of our relegation.

Wish the fan base wasn’t so passive these days, Semmens et al have had a very easy ride this far.

It’s clear how difficult it is to buy a top class striker.  Ankersen can’t be to blame for the previous ownership spending huge cash on Adams and Armstrong. If they were decent finishers at this level then we wouldn’t be in as much mess as we are now.

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bpsaint

bpsaint

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Maggie May said:

It’s clear how difficult it is to buy a top class striker. 

Yet every other club seems quite capable of doing it. 

To fail to get someone in during a 3 month summer window was incompetent, to not have had someone lined up at the start of the January window when we needed it the most was suicidal.

Too much time spent fucking around looking for the cheap moneyball option that they can cash in on later rather than just putting their hand in their pocket and paying the asking price on a player very likely to succeed at this level.

Edited by bpsaint
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AlexLaw76

AlexLaw76

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, Maggie May said:

It’s clear how difficult it is to buy a top class striker.  Ankersen can’t be to blame for the previous ownership spending huge cash on Adams and Armstrong. If they were decent finishers at this level then we wouldn’t be in as much mess as we are now.

Huge cash? really?

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hypochondriac

hypochondriac

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, Maggie May said:

It’s clear how difficult it is to buy a top class striker.  Ankersen can’t be to blame for the previous ownership spending huge cash on Adams and Armstrong. If they were decent finishers at this level then we wouldn’t be in as much mess as we are now.

If we get to the end of the day and we've failed in another window then clearly there's something wrong with either our negotiation team or our targets are too ambitious. One of both need to change if we are to have any success getting promoted. 

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Dman

Dman

Posted
Posted

We’re SR / Rasmus in charge of recruitment in the last window? I genuinely don’t know the answer but I’d guess that it was that little bald fella and Crooker. 
 

Not sure it’s fair to stick the blame on them for the last window if they were in charge of overseeing it. 

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S-Clarke

S-Clarke

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Dman said:

We’re SR / Rasmus in charge of recruitment in the last window? I genuinely don’t know the answer but I’d guess that it was that little bald fella and Crooker. 
 

Not sure it’s fair to stick the blame on them for the last window if they were in charge of overseeing it. 

I think they were overseeing it, but to me it looks like most of what we did was influenced by Joe Shields.

4 Man City kids and Joe Aribo, pretty much personally done by Shields. DCC and AMN were club signings and had been on our list for some time.

Edited by S-Clarke
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Saint Matty 76

Saint Matty 76

Posted
Posted

It's been a bit of a bizarre season in terms of transfers.

If Sulemana (£26m) and Onuachu (£18.5m) are to be believed, we'd have spent around £130m without any money coming in this Summer, which is crazy expenditure.

Obviously begs the questions of why didn't we do it in the Summer, and will it be too little too late, but it's some serious backing they've put in.

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Dark Munster

Dark Munster

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

It's been a bit of a bizarre season in terms of transfers.

If Sulemana (£26m) and Onuachu (£18.5m) are to be believed, we'd have spent around £130m without any money coming in this Summer, which is crazy expenditure.

Obviously begs the questions of why didn't we do it in the Summer, and will it be too little too late, but it's some serious backing they've put in.

They spend all that money and yet keep the clueless muppet of a manager in charge.

Madness.

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WestMidSaint

WestMidSaint

Posted
Posted
19 hours ago, Dark Munster said:

They spend all that money and yet keep the clueless muppet of a manager in charge.

Madness.

This is what I really don’t get….

 

On the one hand, you’ve got to acknowledge they’ve laid out a significant net spend. Whether the money has been spent on the right players, at the right time is questionable, though it’s beyond doubt the highest net spend we’ve ever seen. 

 

While they get credit for investing and clearly trying to right wrongs to avoid relegation, all that goes out the window with their seemingly terrible choice of manager. The appointment looks like it could completely undermine their investment and doesn’t seem to tally with an ownership that have spent heavily on transfers  


It’s a bit like buying a few expensive bottles of wine and then trying to serve them in a substandard glass which is cracked, leaking and not fit for purpose!!

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Turkish

Turkish

Posted
Posted

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/africa/64513211?at_ptr_name=facebook_page&at_link_id=7D5B1C9C-A476-11ED-9E18-12160EDC252D&at_format=link&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_medium=social&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_link_type=web_link&at_campaign_type=owned&at_link_origin=Match_of_the_Day&fbclid=IwAR1RD64WszUnwNYWkZ58Rr4z86NV87n2MwRVjmCRQmQv4CLR7TNBUwVLddk
 

all he needs are their bank details….

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