Sport Republic

[Micky]

On 16/04/2023 at 20:08, Dark Munster said:

Yes, but that's still about a £50m loss. Not to mention the massive PL money down the drain, and that we'll have a much weaker squad.

What a clusterf**k by Martin "I don't worry about our league position" Semmens, Rasmus "I can see reference points you lot can't" W. Ankersen, and SR.

It's probably the most naive quote anybody in professional football could make. Get the league position right and pretty much everything else falls into place. Massive clusterfuck.

[AlexLaw76]

27 minutes ago, Micky said:

It's probably the most naive quote anybody in professional football could make. Get the league position right and pretty much everything else falls into place. Massive clusterfuck.

That was a very strange fans-forum.  Started with Adam Blackmore on the verge of tears when introducing Ralph

[Saint86]

21 hours ago, Smirking_Saint said:

He convinced the heirarchy to stick with Ralph and I believe was also heavily involved in pushing for Selles

Im not convinced his previous reign under Gao was as convincing as many believe either, he is, in part, responsible for the state of the club when SR arrived by over burdening us with incorrect contractual decisions 

Whatever happens we need a fresh start without Rasmus and Semmens imo

We should have backed and kept ralph imo... but we didn't and instead limped on without being decisive. its one of the key decisions in relegating us 🤷‍♂️. His metrics for the season were okay given serious consideration - he had bad injuries, a very young and inexperienced team to gel, and the toughest games. He had us one game of mid table despite the above, and 13th for xG. The main reason the side were struggling under ralph was because they couldn't shoot (18th goals scored), and the defensive injuries were compounded by the Lavia injury. Had Ralph been given the correct tools in the summer, let alone the mid season break and £60M + in January, there is no way we would be in trouble.

Also, you have no idea ultimately who was responsible for the semi permanent appointment of Selles? nor the overall mid/long term strategic decision making behind it - i.e. other targets, budget constraints, summer recruitment plans etc. So unfortunatley stating things like that just reads like you're just speculating to suit your narrative / argument 🤷‍♂️. I agree on Ralph/semmens, and given Semmens backed ralph he was probably more likely to be behind looking at a Marsch style appointment than Selles - obviously that all fell through quite quickly and we went for Rasmus' long term welsh love interest... The cynic in me wonders how that happened? Given how the control hierarchy actually seems to work these days, i would say its abundantly clear Rasmus had final say for pretty much the entire season... Its clear Rasmus was behind the Ralph sacking, the jones approach/appointment, jones' prolonged retention, and much of our transfer dealings. Whoever or why they settled on Selles ultimately is fairly irrelevant i'm afraid. He's an assistant thats been left holding the pieces after a year of horrific management at the highest level.

But regardless, this new fan spun narrative that Semmens is the issue has very little grounding. He had no pot to piss in for years - yet slowly cleared out the deadwood and made some very positive signings to the team - as well as finally starting to get the youth teams performing. And combined with Ralph, they steered us away from relegation contenders and delivered relative stability. Its a huge testament to the work the two of them did (on no budget) that we were never in a relegation scrap under Ralph. Both should be praised... Now SR come in, and within a year they've dismantled essentially everything Semmens and Ralph had built... the academy coaching/recruitment, the club's scouting setup, the first team coaching etc. Plus they've spent £160M totally changing the squad into some kind of academy flesh market... Everybody knows that Rasmus is the head dog in charge of that - he made it very clear himself at the fan's forum... So the fans blaming Semmens (for essentially dismantling years of his own hard work) just come across as angry/frustrated fans flailing around for anyone to blame - and everyone should be directing their decision making frustrations squarely at Rasmus - because that is where they bloody belong 😄

 

Edited 20 April, 2023 by Saint86

[Smirking_Saint]

1 hour ago, Saint86 said:

We shouldn't have kept ralph... its one of the key decisions in relegating us 🤷‍♂️. His metrics for the season were okay given serious consideration - he had bad injuries, a very young and inexperienced team to gel, and the toughest games. He had us one game of mid table despite the above, and 13th for xG. The main reason the side were struggling under ralph was because they couldn't shoot (18th goals scored), and the defensive injuries were compounded by the Lavia injury. Had Ralph been given the correct tools in the summer, let alone the mid season break and £60M + in January, there is no way we would be in trouble.

Also, you have no idea ultimately who was responsible for the semi permanent appointment of Selles, nor the overall mid/long term strategic decision making behind it - i.e. other targets, budget constraints, summer recruitment plans etc. So unfortunatley stating things like that just reads like you're just speculating to suit your narrative / argument 🤷‍♂️. I agree on Ralph/semmens, and given Semmens backed ralph he was probably more likely to be behind looking at a Marsch style appointment than Selles - obviously that all fell through quite quickly and we went for Rasmus' long term welsh love interest... funny how that happened? Given how the control hierarchy actually seems to work these days, i would say its abundatly clear Rasmus had final say for pretty much the entire season... Its clear Rasmus was behind the Ralph sacking, the jones approach/appointment, jones' prolonged retention, and much of our transfer dealings. Whoever or why they settled on Selles ultimatley is fairly irrelevant i'm afraid. He's an assistant thats been left holding the pieces after a year of horrific management at the highest level.

But regardless, this new fan spun narrative that Semmens is the issue has very little grounding. He had no pot to piss in for years - yet slowly cleared out the deadwood and made some very positive signings to the team - as well as finally starting to get the youth teams performing. And combined with Ralph, they steered us away from relegation contenders and delivered relative stability. Its a huge testament to the work the two of them did (on no budget) that we were never in a relegation scrap under Ralph. Both should be praised... Now SR come in, and within a year they've dismantled essentially everything Semmens and Ralph had built... the academy coaching/recruitment, the club's scouting setup, the first team coaching etc. Plus they've spent £160M totally changing the squad into some kind of academy flesh market... Everybody knows that Rasmus is the head dog in charge of that - he made it very clear himself at the fan's forum... So the fans blaming Semmens (for essentially dismantling years of his own hard work) just come across as angry/frustrated fans flailing around for anyone to blame - and everyone should be directing their decision making frustrations squarely at Rasmus - because that is where they bloody belong 😄

 

But the argument could also be levelled that there are a group of fans that hero worship Semmens, when in reality he is, in my mind, just as culpable in our slide as the others.

Ralph - I agree, he is a very capable manager but unfortunately was hamstrung by, as you say a lack of quality attacking talent and the Lavia injury… should he had been effectively backed when the board retained him then I’m sure he would have been ok

Semmens - He was responsible for keeping Ralph, Rasmus wanted shot in the summer… I see both sides to this argument. He was also heavily involved in the appointment of Selles, its not an opinion, I unfortunately/fortunately get information from time to time. He was also internally blamed for our failure to get a striker over the line in the summer fyi (whether this was bred by his historical need to haggle Im not sure).. and after was when Rasmus took the lead on negotiations

Jones - Probably the biggest reason we were relegated, and yes almost completely on Rasmus. I can’t comment on who made the decision to retain him for so long but it was a Rasmus appointment

Player recruitment - I’m not sure it was as rosy under the Gao reign as people are now saying, probably through rose tinted glasses. We replaced genuine quality with Diallo, A Armstrong, Walcott, Lyanco… We need a serious shake up in our recruitment team because for every positive buy they drop two clangers but I cannot get over Semmens throwing Reed under the bus for ‘over burdening us with long, needless contracts’ and then doing exactly the same

Moving forward - I think we need a genuine reset, and with relegation we have that opportunity. Remove Semmens and the previous board remnants. Allow Rasmus to take a less hands on and more over seeing role (which Im told is more of his specialty anyway) but more importantly we need to employ and effective and functioning recruitment team that are cohesive with whoever holds the reigns… there is a genuine disconnect between the old and new board members and we need some sort of harmony In whatever direction we decide to move as its seriously damaged us this season

 

edit - Not really sure whats been ‘dismantled’ as far as the academy is concerned tbh… not a huge amount has changed there

Edited 20 April, 2023 by Smirking_Saint

[Smirking_Saint]

17 hours ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Indeed.  Did Semmens make the transfer decisions?

He would of been involved, as part of the transfer committee, as he would of been this year too

Frankly I’m finding it worrying that you either have to be in the Rasmus camp or the Semmens one

I’m firmly in neither… we need to remove the old board remnants that helped put us in this position… move Rasmus into the over seeing of the SR multi-model which I feel was why he was actually here and get a CEO in to manage Saints that can focus on only Saints

[Saint86]

16 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

But the argument could also be levelled that there are a group of fans that hero worship Semmens, when in reality he is, in my mind, just as culpable in our slide as the others.

Ralph - I agree, he is a very capable manager but unfortunately was hamstrung by, as you say a lack of quality attacking talent and the Lavia injury… should he had been effectively backed when the board retained him then I’m sure he would have been ok

Semmens - He was responsible for keeping Ralph, Rasmus wanted shot in the summer… I see both sides to this argument. He was also heavily involved in the appointment of Selles, its not an opinion, I unfortunately/fortunately get information from time to time. He was also internally blamed for our failure to get a striker over the line in the summer fyi (whether this was bred by his historical need to haggle Im not sure).. and after was when Rasmus took the lead on negotiations

Jones - Probably the biggest reason we were relegated, and yes almost completely on Rasmus. I can’t comment on who made the decision to retain him for so long but it was a Rasmus appointment

Player recruitment - I’m not sure it was as rosy under the Gao reign as people are now saying, probably through rose tinted glasses. We replaced genuine quality with Diallo, A Armstrong, Walcott, Lyanco… We need a serious shake up in our recruitment team because for every positive buy they drop two clangers but I cannot get over Semmens throwing Reed under the bus for ‘over burdening us with long, needless contracts’ and then doing exactly the same

Moving forward - I think we need a genuine reset, and with relegation we have that opportunity. Remove Semmens and the previous board remnants. Allow Rasmus to take a less hands on and more over seeing role (which Im told is more of his specialty anyway) but more importantly we need to employ and effective and functioning recruitment team that are cohesive with whoever holds the reigns… there is a genuine disconnect between the old and new board members and we need some sort of harmony In whatever direction we decide to move as its seriously damaged us this season

 

edit - Not really sure whats been ‘dismantled’ as far as the academy is concerned tbh… not a huge amount has changed there

Not sure anyone sees Semmens as a saviour figure or gives him hero worship, just treat him with a dose of realism. His biggest mistakes imo stem from publicly implying a lack ambition - which got a fair portion of the fans on the wrong side.

I don't disagree on transfers still being hit and miss. But they were certainly an improvement. Reality is we were financially quite poor relative to the rest of the league, which impacts on our attractiveness, available pool of players, and our overall recruitment operation/resources. But players like Salisu and KWP were significant success stories from that period. Others like Djenpo and Diallo were only ever going to be squad players in reality and haven't worked out. Broja was a decent acquisition. Che i would say was a decent aquisition. AA was a "we need a pacey striker who can score" desperately signings - and it hasn't worked at all - but then equally no where near as some of the bad signings under the previous regime. I can't even remember who introduced Moi but obviously hasn't worked. Reed and co certainly oversaw tremendous transfer sales and then wasted a lot of the money on poor players tied to long contracts - I have no issue with anyone throwing them under the bus for that.

Edited 20 April, 2023 by Saint86

[Smirking_Saint]

20 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Not sure anyone sees Semmens as a saviour figure or gives him hero worship, just treat him with a dose of realism. His biggest mistakes imo stem from publicly implying a lack ambition - which got a fair portion of the fans on the wrong side.

I don't disagree on transfers still being hit and miss. But they were certainly an improvement. Reality is we were financially quite poor relative to the rest of the league, which impacts on our attractiveness, available pool of players, and our overall recruitment operation/resources. But players like Salisu and KWP were significant success stories from that period. Others like Djenpo and Diallo were only ever going to be squad players in reality and haven't worked out. Broja was a decent acquisition. Che i would say was a decent aquisition. AA was a "we need a pacey striker who can score" desperately signings - and it hasn't worked at all - but then equally no where near as some of the bad signings under the previous regime. I can't even remember who introduced Moi but obviously hasn't worked. Reed and co certainly oversaw tremendous transfer sales and then wasted a lot of the money on poor players tied to long contracts - I have no issue with anyone throwing them under the bus for that.

And my point is that Semmens came in and did the same, resigning Djenepo on a longterm deal, Walcott on 70k etc, McCarthy

Unfortunately he isn’t as blameless as he is made out to be. The Ings money was squandered, as was the Hojbjerg money

Transfers this year were equally hit and miss, Lavia, ABK almost certainly excellent but are flanked by terrible buys in Aribo/Orsic etc

A lot though, as I said is clearly down to whoever we have in charge of scouting and analytics over the last 3-5 years doing an awful job and we almost certainly need a complete revolution in that area

[Saint86]

21 hours ago, Smirking_Saint said:

And my point is that Semmens came in and did the same, resigning Djenepo on a longterm deal, Walcott on 70k etc, McCarthy

Unfortunately he isn’t as blameless as he is made out to be. The Ings money was squandered, as was the Hojbjerg money

So on wasting of transfer fees then, and according to transfer market (note transfer values are actually listed in euros, but its all relative so used the pound sign for convenience):

Season before last (20/21)

• Hojberg was sold for £16M, Reed was sold for £6.5M, and we got loan fees of about £3M for Lemina and Hoedt. Saores, Yoshida, Carillo, Boufal and simms left the club on frees. Total income was £26.3M and a lot of squad strength was lost.
• Against that, we signed KWP for £13.3M, Salisu for £12M, and Diallo for £12M - total spend was £37M (a net outlay).
• Personally, KWP/diallo/salisu for Hojberg and Reed is a more than fair return.

Last Season 21/22
We spent £43M and made £60.35M. So an element of profit making clearly required - perhaps to offset previous window's small net spend. Net spend over the two seasons balances out basically.

• Ings was sold for £29.4M, Verstergard for £17.6M (£47M total). We also saw Gunn, Obafemi, Bertrand etc leave fore free/nominal sums. Therefore a lot of replacements requried.
• Against that we signed Perraud, A.Armstrong, lyanco, Tino, and added Theo and Broja to the wage bill.
• We lost Ings - which obviously was not good - all our bad form under Ralph was in parallel with having no fit/available focal point - the chance creation was pretty much always there, just not the conversion. But the squad had major holes. I would argue rock and a bad place on this one. On balance, we strengthened the overall squad (which if people recall was appallingly threadbare at the end of the 20/21 season in particular.

If we had gone out and signed another £20-30M striker (plus wages), we would likely have been short 2 fullbacks and CB cover etc. 🤷‍♂️ Broja being in an out of form and getting injured is what largely did for us the next season. But the underlying issue here is we had to sell players to buy, we effectively did not have a pot to piss in, and we had to manage a total squad refresh, most of which is in fairness the legacy of the Les Reed era (and the fact our owner put nothing into the club over multiple years).

On balance, I think its harsh to overly blame Semmens or say that the money was "wasted". Could it have been spent a bit better? Okay yeah sure, if recruitment was perfect maybe... but the reality is we had very little financial muscle/flexibility, and over those windows were seeing a lot of players leaving the club - often on loans or for free - Having gone over it, i do actually think its pretty impressive that we were involved in precisely zero relegation scraps under Semmens and Ralph given the resources they had and the rebuild they were effectively undertaking.

EDIT - Also having just checked into it a bit further.

Semmens became CEO under Gao in June 2019. The season before his arrival (i.e. 18-19) was the year we signed Vestergard for 25M euros, Ely for 18M euros, Gunn for 11.3M, and Stu Armstrong for 8M. 

The season before that was 17/18 which saw Carillo 22M euros, Lemina 18M euros, Hoedt 16M, and Bednarek 6M.

Boufal was 18M the year before.

That's 74M euros for the 4 untouchables (Lemina, Carillo, Hoedt, Boufal). As far as I can make out from Transfermarket, we made in total about £22M in transfer or loan fees from them. So a 52M euro loss over a few season (plus wages, and signing on/agents fees) that had to be recovered (in terms of squad quality). Combined with the lack of investment - thats a pretty bad set of cards that Semmens ultimately got dealt as a starting hand... Doesn't seem fair to criticise Semmens for pointing that out? 😄 You could also add in Gunn to all of that - signed for 12M and sold for 5M.

In summary, i don't think Semmens has a bad track record... and after years of relative success (i.e. for our modest resources/situation), its unlikely that he's to blame for this season given the elephant in the room (i.e. a complete club restructuring via SR).

Edited 21 April, 2023 by Saint86

[FarehamSaintJames]

What you said above.

Semmens I don’t think is the problem.

Ankersen and the other Dane are. They’ve largely dictated policy on a number of fronts.

[Weston Super Saint]

4 hours ago, Smirking_Saint said:

He would of been involved, as part of the transfer committee, as he would of been this year too

Frankly I’m finding it worrying that you either have to be in the Rasmus camp or the Semmens one

I’m firmly in neither… we need to remove the old board remnants that helped put us in this position… move Rasmus into the over seeing of the SR multi-model which I feel was why he was actually here and get a CEO in to manage Saints that can focus on only Saints

Not sure you need to be in any camp.

If Semmens is carrying the can for the transfers, which he seems to be at the moment, then why were so many people so upset when our recruitment team were poached!

Whilst he was / is part of the transfer committee, I suspect (and hope to God!) his involvement is purely from a financial basis and whether we can afford the demands, rather than deciding whether or not the players would be a good fit for the squad.

[Turkish]

5 hours ago, Smirking_Saint said:

He would of been involved, as part of the transfer committee, as he would of been this year too

Frankly I’m finding it worrying that you either have to be in the Rasmus camp or the Semmens one

I’m firmly in neither… we need to remove the old board remnants that helped put us in this position… move Rasmus into the over seeing of the SR multi-model which I feel was why he was actually here and get a CEO in to manage Saints that can focus on only Saints

im in neither either but as Rasmus is balls deep in the owner of Sports Republic he aint going anywhere.

I struggle with Semmens, the stuff he comes out with and i get he might be trying to manage expectations but all this stuff about league postion doesn't matter, the womens team are the priority, lucky to be in this league that he says public strike me as someone who is doesn't have a clue how to run a football club. Before we even mention some of the recruitment and contract stuff mentioned below.

[miserableoldgit]

5 hours ago, Smirking_Saint said:

But the argument could also be levelled that there are a group of fans that hero worship Semmens, when in reality he is, in my mind, just as culpable in our slide as the others.

Ralph - I agree, he is a very capable manager but unfortunately was hamstrung by, as you say a lack of quality attacking talent and the Lavia injury… should he had been effectively backed when the board retained him then I’m sure he would have been ok

Semmens - He was responsible for keeping Ralph, Rasmus wanted shot in the summer… I see both sides to this argument. He was also heavily involved in the appointment of Selles, its not an opinion, I unfortunately/fortunately get information from time to time. He was also internally blamed for our failure to get a striker over the line in the summer fyi (whether this was bred by his historical need to haggle Im not sure).. and after was when Rasmus took the lead on negotiations

Jones - Probably the biggest reason we were relegated, and yes almost completely on Rasmus. I can’t comment on who made the decision to retain him for so long but it was a Rasmus appointment

Player recruitment - I’m not sure it was as rosy under the Gao reign as people are now saying, probably through rose tinted glasses. We replaced genuine quality with Diallo, A Armstrong, Walcott, Lyanco… We need a serious shake up in our recruitment team because for every positive buy they drop two clangers but I cannot get over Semmens throwing Reed under the bus for ‘over burdening us with long, needless contracts’ and then doing exactly the same

Moving forward - I think we need a genuine reset, and with relegation we have that opportunity. Remove Semmens and the previous board remnants. Allow Rasmus to take a less hands on and more over seeing role (which Im told is more of his specialty anyway) but more importantly we need to employ and effective and functioning recruitment team that are cohesive with whoever holds the reigns… there is a genuine disconnect between the old and new board members and we need some sort of harmony In whatever direction we decide to move as its seriously damaged us this season

 

edit - Not really sure whats been ‘dismantled’ as far as the academy is concerned tbh… not a huge amount 

....

Edited 20 April, 2023 by miserableoldgit

[miserableoldgit]

7 hours ago, Saint86 said:

We should have backed and kept ralph imo... but we didn't and instead limped on without being decisive. its one of the key decisions in relegating us 🤷‍♂️. His metrics for the season were okay given serious consideration - he had bad injuries, a very young and inexperienced team to gel, and the toughest games. He had us one game of mid table despite the above, and 13th for xG. The main reason the side were struggling under ralph was because they couldn't shoot (18th goals scored), and the defensive injuries were compounded by the Lavia injury. Had Ralph been given the correct tools in the summer, let alone the mid season break and £60M + in January, there is no way we would be in trouble.

Also, you have no idea ultimately who was responsible for the semi permanent appointment of Selles? nor the overall mid/long term strategic decision making behind it - i.e. other targets, budget constraints, summer recruitment plans etc. So unfortunatley stating things like that just reads like you're just speculating to suit your narrative / argument 🤷‍♂️. I agree on Ralph/semmens, and given Semmens backed ralph he was probably more likely to be behind looking at a Marsch style appointment than Selles - obviously that all fell through quite quickly and we went for Rasmus' long term welsh love interest... The cynic in me wonders how that happened? Given how the control hierarchy actually seems to work these days, i would say its abundantly clear Rasmus had final say for pretty much the entire season... Its clear Rasmus was behind the Ralph sacking, the jones approach/appointment, jones' prolonged retention, and much of our transfer dealings. Whoever or why they settled on Selles ultimately is fairly irrelevant i'm afraid. He's an assistant thats been left holding the pieces after a year of horrific management at the highest level.

But regardless, this new fan spun narrative that Semmens is the issue has very little grounding. He had no pot to piss in for years - yet slowly cleared out the deadwood and made some very positive signings to the team - as well as finally starting to get the youth teams performing. And combined with Ralph, they steered us away from relegation contenders and delivered relative stability. Its a huge testament to the work the two of them did (on no budget) that we were never in a relegation scrap under Ralph. Both should be praised... Now SR come in, and within a year they've dismantled essentially everything Semmens and Ralph had built... the academy coaching/recruitment, the club's scouting setup, the first team coaching etc. Plus they've spent £160M totally changing the squad into some kind of academy flesh market... Everybody knows that Rasmus is the head dog in charge of that - he made it very clear himself at the fan's forum... So the fans blaming Semmens (for essentially dismantling years of his own hard work) just come across as angry/frustrated fans flailing around for anyone to blame - and everyone should be directing their decision making frustrations squarely at Rasmus - because that is where they bloody belong 😄

 

Agree with all of this....

[ally_uk]

Rasmus is the donkey at the helm needs to take a back seat he has facked this season up royally 

[AlexLaw76]

No real change?

 

[Badger]

'upwardly mobile coach' .... one who fucks off within a couple of seasons IF he's any good. 

It's not so long ago that we talked of 'the project'... at least that gave a slither of hope that the manager would see it through

[Pamplemousse]

If any manager were to leave for another club, at least it would mean we were successful.

[Saint86]

Jacob Tanswell on power hierarchy, staff churn, responsibilities etc:

Semmens’ role has changed since the takeover. In hindsight, this may have been something of a surprise, given Semmens said Sport Republic will not have a hands-on role in the day-to-day running of Southampton shortly after its purchase was publicly announced. Ankersen was the leading, almost single, voice in Jones’ appointment, which is different to what Semmens had in the past, where he was steering the ship.

The distinct ways in which Sport Republic wants to operate is, understandably, not to everyone’s liking and can create a power struggle.

It changed the responsibilities of Crocker and Semmens and some parts of their roles were essentially overlapped and covered by the ownership. Even taking into account the most recent departure of managing director Toby Steele, there have been more exits than what’s been documented, too.  It is worth saying that Jason Wilcox should be given the autonomy to wield his influence on what will be a crucial summer.

Lastly, in response to Max’s question, Ankersen is an erudite thinker who should be applauded for wanting to be bold and get Southampton ahead of the curve. However, it is important there is a correct balance between risk and pragmatism and someone who challenges his ideas — shown when he worked excellently alongside Phil Giles at Brentford. There hasn’t been enough of that this year.

He also states within the same article that Bazunu, ABK, and Lavia's transfers were started by the old recruitment team in early 2022 (translation of "early last year").

Edited 21 April, 2023 by Saint86

[Weston Super Saint]

4 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

No real change?

 

Quote

Southampton will continue to buy young players with an upwardly mobile coach and hope

All professional football teams should rely heavily on 'hope'.  Seems like the best business plan and has worked really well this season so let's have more of the same next season.

[Crab Lungs]

Any idea what an upwardly mobile coach is?

[Turkish]

2 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Jacob Tanswell on power hierarchy, staff churn, responsibilities etc:

Semmens’ role has changed since the takeover. In hindsight, this may have been something of a surprise, given Semmens said Sport Republic will not have a hands-on role in the day-to-day running of Southampton shortly after its purchase was publicly announced. Ankersen was the leading, almost single, voice in Jones’ appointment, which is different to what Semmens had in the past, where he was steering the ship.

The distinct ways in which Sport Republic wants to operate is, understandably, not to everyone’s liking and can create a power struggle.

It changed the responsibilities of Crocker and Semmens and some parts of their roles were essentially overlapped and covered by the ownership. Even taking into account the most recent departure of managing director Toby Steele, there have been more exits than what’s been documented, too.  It is worth saying that Jason Wilcox should be given the autonomy to wield his influence on what will be a crucial summer.

Lastly, in response to Max’s question, Ankersen is an erudite thinker who should be applauded for wanting to be bold and get Southampton ahead of the curve. However, it is important there is a correct balance between risk and pragmatism and someone who challenges his ideas — shown when he worked excellently alongside Phil Giles at Brentford. There hasn’t been enough of that this year.

He also states within the same article that Bazunu, ABK, and Lavia's transfers were started by the old recruitment team in early 2022 (translation of "early last year").

As someone else said the the other day there is a lot of yes men behind the scenes.

[Turkish]

5 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

No real change?

 

It's worked so well this season. It's fantastic the Burnley are the model to which we aspire now.

[Weston Super Saint]

3 minutes ago, Crab Lungs said:

Any idea what an upwardly mobile coach is?

We haven't found out yet - ours are always taking us down hill  

[Turkish]

3 minutes ago, Crab Lungs said:

Any idea what an upwardly mobile coach is?

Nathan Jones was one it would seem.

[Weston Super Saint]

Just now, Turkish said:

Nathan Jones was one it would seem.

Because Merthyr is above sea level?

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Because Merthyr is above sea level?

Hes the fittest man alive so definitely mobile. 

[Fitzhugh Fella]

it's bizarre the further we sink the more Ralph's reputation soars and he's not even managing at present. Last seen playing the piano on a cruise ship. So God forbid we are bottom of the Championship come November he should be in line to be the next Pope.

[Maggie May]

What do these guys think when they see tonight’s line up?

7 of the 11 starters were part of Ralph’s abysmal descent last calendar year.

They spend millions on “transforming” the team to try and stay in this league only to see only one of the January window signings starting with three on the bench. The striker that they spend millions on that’s looked closest to scoring over the past few games can’t get on the pitch over Adam Armstrong who’s up their with Carrillo in terms of our greatest ever dud signings. 

Edited 21 April, 2023 by Maggie May
Orsic made the bench!!

[FarehamSaintJames]

All they had to do was make a few shrewd signings in key areas and hire a competent manager to take the club forward.

They have failed in both aspects.

This is squarely on the board.

[Badger]

Were  any of the board or key decision makers there tonight ? 

[bpsaint]

First Gao and then these cunts. The legacy left by Markus all but gone it seems.

Bizarre managerial decisions, weird team selections, comments about their not being much of a gap between the Prem and Championship, calling Goztepe a bigger club than Southampton, away fans getting preferential treatment…. Are SR just trolling us? Perhaps Solak lost a bet to his fellow countryman Mandaric.

[Archers Road Stand]

Wish they'd fuck off. 

[Andrew Watson]

THANK YOU COLLECTIVELY FOR HELPING TO RELEGATE OUR CLUB. BEYOND ANGRY,THE ONLY BLESSING IS THAT I NOW LIVE IN CORNWALL AND HAVE AN EXCUSE NOT TO WATCH THAT SPINELESS,USELESS BUNCH OF PATHETIC LOSERS.

[Elmore Saint]

We get onto a streak of billionaire owners and the prospect of reasonable, even good times coming. Except the last lot just go and crash the car. So Saintsy. 

Perhaps Semmens can go and chat up that Finnish bloke who was sniffing around ManU recently. He seemed to have something about him…?

[Pamplemousse]

This is incredibly embarrassing for Sport Republic, for an organisation who wants to buy more clubs, our relegation, the relegation of their "anchor" club, will hurt their reputation.

That's why I'm optimistic for next season. I think they'll back us and ensure we return asap.

Just someone please tell Rasmus to fuck off.

[FarehamSaintJames]

Rasmus is part of the problem.

They need to sack Selles today, put a ticking child in charge that plays FIFA a lot, he’ll have more tactical nous.

Sports Republic - we are waiting for the apology of how you monumentally fucked up what was in reality and a great position to be in when you took over.

Dismantled the team. Dismantling the staff. Dismantling the club. 

[CB Fry]

Sure, they've made some mistakes but really we should be grateful to them for delivering last summer what many described as a 9/10 transfer window.

[FarehamSaintJames]

I don’t think SR get talked about as much as they should.

[SambaMaverick]

If we continue this youth model bollocks next season, we are truly fucked.

Under-21's are more susceptible to injury, less likely to shoulder responsibility (Lavia aside), more prone to errors, etc etc.

It's bad enough in the Premier League, but it's even more of a problem in the Championship where teams will kick you up and down the pitch week in, week out. 

We need to do a complete 180.

[bennyev]

On 19/04/2023 at 18:43, AlexLaw76 said:

That was a very strange fans-forum.  Started with Adam Blackmore on the verge of tears when introducing Ralph

Swear he opened arrogantly with "the club couldn't be in better hands"

 

LOL

[S-Clarke]

5 hours ago, Pamplemousse said:

 

That's why I'm optimistic for next season. I think they'll back us and ensure we return asap

This is what I think, but....I keep looking at all the decisions and the choas that has reigned since they've been here. It's not all about money, it's how you use it. (Chelsea an extreme example).

This is how the last year has played out:

1 - Keeping Ralph after they'd undermined his position in the summer. They should have cut bases then rather than do half the job with the coaches.

2 - Staff turnover - Crocker, Hale, Shields, Clapham, Butterfield, Davis, Watson, Fleming, Steele - huge turn over in staff. Shields and Clapham in particular in and out in a matter of weeks which rings serious alarm bells. As does the likes of Crocker and Hale walking.

3 - Transfer Window. Deciding to merge with the Man City academy, that was seemingly our main philosophy. We made the decision to stick with Adams and Armstrong as our strikers and that was catastrophic. I don't care if we 'tried' for Ramos and Gakpo, they were Hollywood attempts but even a Goykres in the summer would have left us in a better position than we were.

4 - Nathan Jones - need I say anymore. Someone thought he was a good idea and then proceeded to give him an entire 'pre season' and a transfer window to play with.

5 - Getting Marsch, but then not getting Marsch. Ending up going with the current yes man in Selles and thinking that was the right idea.

6 - 3 managers in a single season.

So...what is happening under their tenure has so far been chaotic.

I'm not against change and we did need change in some aspects, so they are trying things....but they're just doing it all wrong, it's like they have no experience of football and are trying to be overly clever and making everything 10x worse. 

[Badger]

First watching Saints in the 1960’s, and all the way through to the 1980’s it was often commented on the Southampton was widely respected for its stability as a club.

Changed with Lowe’s involvement, but even then no one would have imagined how it’s been allowed to go down the toilet. 

[FarehamSaintJames]

We were more stable under Gao, there’s no real debate about that. 😅

The scattergun approach to transfers didn’t work at all, and as mentioned above, backfired spectacularly with a manager that wasn’t necessarily trusted and replaced with two that were even more inexperienced.

Woeful by SR.

[SotonianWill]

51 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

We were more stable under Gao, there’s no real debate about that. 😅

The scattergun approach to transfers didn’t work at all, and as mentioned above, backfired spectacularly with a manager that wasn’t necessarily trusted and replaced with two that were even more inexperienced.

Woeful by SR.

under gao we knew our limitations, we knew the plan of who did what and it was respectable. we also tried to build an identity of good football. SR have an unrealistic plan of basically being man city’s bitch, and a supposed style of doing things which they debatably ditched half way through the season with Jones and signings such as Orsic, paul. 

[Bob76]

3 hours ago, SambaMaverick said:

If we continue this youth model bollocks next season, we are truly fucked.

Under-21's are more susceptible to injury, less likely to shoulder responsibility (Lavia aside), more prone to errors, etc etc.

It's bad enough in the Premier League, but it's even more of a problem in the Championship where teams will kick you up and down the pitch week in, week out. 

We need to do a complete 180.

I'm not sure this has been a problem with the way we have played recently, last night he only started two of the young ones. I think we have been very badly let down by our more established played who have been mainly crap all season.

[SambaMaverick]

19 minutes ago, Bob76 said:

I'm not sure this has been a problem with the way we have played recently, last night he only started two of the young ones. I think we have been very badly let down by our more established played who have been mainly crap all season.

Yeah agreed, but I'm more looking to the inevitable clear out this summer and then how we go out and replace those leaving.

If we sell half of the side but replace them with Under-21s who are inevitably lower quality because of the league we're in - then it's curtains.

[Morse]

If I was Dragan Solak,  I would ditch Semmens and Rasmus Ankersen.  Neither are up to the job, and that's a demonstrable fact.  He needs an experienced CEO and a respected Director of Football. Get those in place quickly and let them pick a new manager/ coaches etc. 

 

[HarvSFC]

They tried to run before they could walk. After purchasing Southampton, they then went out and purchased Goztepe soon after and were linked with the purchase of a number of other clubs, I particularly recall one from France. However, they needed to put all their resources into establishing their supposed "anchor club" before looking to branch out elsewhere. We're copying the Man City group model and despite their unlimited wealth, they didn't start branching out until 2013, following their 2008 takeover. 5 years, an FA Cup and a Premier League title before they started expanding to other clubs.

But, given what we've learned of Rasmus Ankersen in the last year and his ego, you can tell why he's moving at 2000mph. He has that crappy little book and believes everything he touches turns to gold. He believed he cracked life and cracked football in particular. He spent a lot of Solak's money with little care, know how, or diligence, because he believed his own hype and believed he could not make any mistakes. The Premier League ended up being an entirely different level to what he expected, hopefully it's humbled him a bit, although I doubt it. We spent approximately £140m across 13 players over both windows. We could've spent £28m on five individuals for the problem positions - Goalkeeper, centre-back, centre-midfield, number 10 and striker and we'd have looked a much better team while spending the same money. But, again, Rasmus thought he knew it all and a £12m kid from Man City was going to sort all our goalkeeping issues, while splashing the rest of the money on squad fillers, only striking some gold in Lavia and ABK. 

The worrying thing is, that given all the mistakes and wrong personnel Ankersen has appointed this season, there's nothing to say that Jason Wilcox won't be completely out of his depth here either.

[Daft Kerplunk]

2 hours ago, SotonianWill said:

under gao we knew our limitations, we knew the plan of who did what and it was respectable. we also tried to build an identity of good football. 

Under Gao, we would have eventually been in this position as so much damage was done under his reign.  Remember that he allowed the board to get on with what they did, and largely, those same people were in charge whilst we nosedived in the second half of last season.  Momentum is a big thing.  Performances like the other night were like stagnant pool of piss-ridden water that hasn't moved forward for some time.  

There's a comment about Man City above saying they didn't expand their model until they got it right.  I think SR bought the bullshit of Semmens that suggested we were already steps ahead, when the reality was that we were becoming relegation fodder.  SR need to go back to the drawing board, become leaner and probably meaner on the football side (no long contracts to 19 year olds who'll likely never make it), and produce a model that works.  

So many people have wanked off over Moneyball but what none of them seemed to grasp was that Oakland A's were always maintaining a very tight budget and were brutal with players who didn't fit the system, unlike us who have tons of players who aren't good enough.  Baseball is also a game largely of individual v individual, team spirit is important but apart from fielding, players don't interact in anywhere near the same frequency as football and that makes it significantly different from an analytical perspective.

The club needs a major overhaul, big time.  

[The Kraken]

33 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

The worrying thing is, that given all the mistakes and wrong personnel Ankersen has appointed this season, there's nothing to say that Jason Wilcox won't be completely out of his depth here either.

This is indeed a worry. It’s not as if we went out and recruited someone with a track record as a director of football, he was an Academy director up to then. Ok, his role as DoF with us is only likely to oversee player recruitment (amongst various other things) rather than get into the day to say nuts and bolts of scouting, but let’s just say he’s got everything to prove and little to yet back it up with.