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49 minutes ago, manji said:

Typical ignorant comment. One of the reasons Dragan is always fighting the Serbian government is because its pro Russian stance.

Serbia has historically been pro Russian ( read Tolstoys Anna Karenina 1878 ) Serbia was one of the only countries in Eastern Europe that didn’t side with Hitler.

Dragan wants to move to a free market stance.

Odd that you seem to like him so much then, given your bat shit mental posts on the Russia thread....

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1 hour ago, manji said:

Semmens will be leaving and for the hundredth time Jason Wilcox is the new director of football https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2023-01-20/announcement-jason-wilcox-southampton-football-club-director-of-football-2023 Rasmus will move back to overseeing the Sports Republic roster.

it wasnt SR plan to have Rasmus in charge of recruitment but Shields quitting for Chelsea dropped us in it. Still rate Rasmus long term but I think his success at Brentford made him overconfident. 
 

I know I’ve been accused of being an SR stooge but SR have a long term plan which all good businesses should have.

I do wonder if some of this is too complicated for some of our fans. When I mentioned there is a new stadium in the pipeline I was met with derision.

FFS I didn’t mean next season. The SR project is long term.

If anyone investigates the history of Dragan its unrelenting success there’s loads to read and watch online. I even get it translated. Dragan takes on the Serbian Government successfully on a regular basis. He is the richest man in Serbia about £ 1.5 billion.

Hes a big headed/proud man there’s absolutely no way he’s going to let this project fail.

ironically long term the clubs that will be in trouble are the Oil City clubs.

To back end things I’ve been housebound for a couple of months so I have the time to investigate quite thoroughly.

 

 

 

 


I remember when the Venky’s bought Blackburn. They had lots of money and “amazing long term plans”. 
 

Same with Everton’s owners, and countless others. 
 

It’s all well and good having money, but if you spend it with as little intelligence as SR have shown, you are fucked. It’s all good wanking off about grand plans, but their decision making has been appalling. I wouldn’t trust them to run a bath let alone a football club. 

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2 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

 

Well that's a load of absolute bollocks for a start, isn't it.

In the squad on first day of the season only 3 players were under 24. That's not a 'bunch of children'. And Theo wasn't even in the squad. 

Squad vs. Spurs: 

Bazunu - 21

Walker-Peters - 26

Valery - 24

Bednarek - 27

Salisu - 24

Djenepo - 24

Ward-Prowse - 28

Lavia - 19

Romeu - 31

Aribo - 26

A Armstrong - 26

Subs:

McCarthy - 33

Stephens - 29

Adams - 26

Redmond - 29

Perraud - 25

S Armstrong - 31

Elyounoussi - 28

Diallo - 24

Bella-Kotchap - 21

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1 hour ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

This is why I’m confident that they will continue to invest and get us back into the big time. The next explosion is going to be The Premier league broadcasting it’s own content, followed by clubs streaming their own games. The money they’ll make will be eye watering, far in excess of what we’re seeing now. 

Finally someone that can see the picture. I’ve followed Saints since I was 5 handily my gran lived in Archers Court. She used to run a pub annoyingly can’t remember the name of it. When we were in the Third Division the players used to drink in there before the game. 
umm things have changed beyond imagination.

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1 hour ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Odd that you seem to like him so much then, given your bat shit mental posts on the Russia thread....

I like him from a Saints perspective. I’ve havnt posted on the Russia thread for ages because it’s moronic regurgitated NATO pap.

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2 hours ago, manji said:

Finally someone that can see the picture. I’ve followed Saints since I was 5 handily my gran lived in Archers Court. She used to run a pub annoyingly can’t remember the name of it. When we were in the Third Division the players used to drink in there before the game. 
umm things have changed beyond imagination.

 

4 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

This is why I’m confident that they will continue to invest and get us back into the big time. The next explosion is going to be The Premier league broadcasting it’s own content, followed by clubs streaming their own games. The money they’ll make will be eye watering, far in excess of what we’re seeing now. 

 

"There's loads of money to be made in the Premier League" is not the red-hot business insight you think it is, lads.

Every one already knows it.

It's just this current regime who have delivered in one go our worst ever Premier League season in history. Ever.

Let's not pretend this is some master plan only you understand.

Edited by CB Fry
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1 hour ago, Midfield_General said:

Well that's a load of absolute bollocks for a start, isn't it.

In the squad on first day of the season only 3 players were under 24. That's not a 'bunch of children'. And Theo wasn't even in the squad. 

Squad vs. Spurs: 

Bazunu - 21

Walker-Peters - 26

Valery - 24

Bednarek - 27

Salisu - 24

Djenepo - 24

Ward-Prowse - 28

Lavia - 19

Romeu - 31

Aribo - 26

A Armstrong - 26

Subs:

McCarthy - 33

Stephens - 29

Adams - 26

Redmond - 29

Perraud - 25

S Armstrong - 31

Elyounoussi - 28

Diallo - 24

Bella-Kotchap - 21

By the time the transfer window closed, 4 of the senior players had gone, Romeu, Stephens, Redmond and Bednarek. 

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6 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

By the time the transfer window closed, 4 of the senior players had gone, Romeu, Stephens, Redmond and Bednarek. 

......and how many people on here were glad to see the back of three of them....??

Edited by miserableoldgit
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22 minutes ago, miserableoldgit said:

......and how many people on here were glad to see the back of three of them....??

Anyone who thinks bednarek and Stephens being sent out on loan being a major issue are bonkers. Both are utterly woeful. Ok, our other defenders no better but let's not pretend we would have stayed up with those two being our preferred pairing. 

 

 

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32 minutes ago, The Curse of St Mary's said:

Anyone who thinks bednarek and Stephens being sent out on loan being a major issue are bonkers. Both are utterly woeful. Ok, our other defenders no better but let's not pretend we would have stayed up with those two being our preferred pairing. 

 

 

Yep... 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing....

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1 hour ago, VectisSaint said:

By the time the transfer window closed, 4 of the senior players had gone, Romeu, Stephens, Redmond and Bednarek. 

“In the words of one member of staff, Southampton started the season with a team that was ‘basically Prowsey, Theo and a bunch of children’

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1 hour ago, CB Fry said:

 

 

"There's loads of money to be made in the Premier League" is not the red-hot business insight you think it is, lads.

Every one already knows it.

It's just this current regime who have delivered in one go our worst ever Premier League season in history. Ever.

Let's not pretend this is some master plan only you understand.

Don't you get it? The plan is just too complicated for the likes of you and me to 'understand'

Edited by AlexLaw76
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People are looking way too much into this.

I’ve seen people on this forum and on social media claim it’s all a plan to get relegated. Have a fucking day off. 🤣

The rumour mill will be churning for ages. They released that statement because they had to. 

What they do next will speak volumes as to whether they’re backing their statement or whether they’re trying to blag it. 
They’ve fucked it up big time this season. No point getting wound up about it now it’s happened.

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16 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

I’ve seen people on this forum and on social media claim it’s all a plan to get relegated. Have a fucking day off. 🤣

I'm still convinced that my own conspiracy theory is water-tight, i.e. that Dragan is secretly a Pompey fan looking to sabotage the club... 

image-1.png

Edited by trousers
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There's no point talking about anyone "ditching" Ankerson. He's not an employee, he's a co-founder of the company of which Solak is the main investor. Solak could probably force him out/buy him out if it came to it, but that's a lot more complicated than just firing an employee.

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2 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

“In the words of one member of staff, Southampton started the season with a team that was ‘basically Prowsey, Theo and a bunch of children’

A member of staff 🙄

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3 hours ago, miserableoldgit said:

......and how many people on here were glad to see the back of three of them....??

And 

 

1 hour ago, Convict Colony said:

wait there is a russia thread - fuck not been in the other forums for a bit.

Don’t whatever your opinion it’s just rammed full of Call Of Duty twats repeating Guardian and Daily Mail articles.

I never thought I’d say this by the only accurate paper is The Financial Times.

Come to think of it most of the posters on here think football business is the same as Football Manager 🤭

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3 hours ago, VectisSaint said:

By the time the transfer window closed, 4 of the senior players had gone, Romeu, Stephens, Redmond and Bednarek. 

Romeu only left because he wanted to get back to his family. The board realised what a faithful servant he was to the club and respected his wishes.

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1 minute ago, manji said:

Romeu only left because he wanted to get back to his family. The board realised what a faithful servant he was to the club and respected his wishes.

Which is all well and good, but they didn't replace his experience. It left a void and they called that wrong.

I doubt Girona's interest came up in the final 24 hrs, it would have been there in the background for a few weeks, so we had plenty of time to sort out a replacement for him - but we were nieve and thought JWP, Lavia and Diallo were enough. They weren't.

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1 hour ago, manji said:

And 

 

Don’t whatever your opinion it’s just rammed full of Call Of Duty twats repeating Guardian and Daily Mail articles.

I never thought I’d say this by the only accurate paper is The Financial Times.

Come to think of it most of the posters on here think football business is the same as Football Manager 🤭

Error....why am I quoted on here???🤔

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8 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

What a patronising post.

Guess what, nearly all professional sports clubs have a long term plan.

How is ours going so far?

Sports Republic have proved to be not just bad owners, but fucking awful owners

I’m not really sure its all that patronising, but he does have a point that there are quite a few posters on here that like to flap around without actually looking at things objectively.

SR are committed to the long term viability of Southampton FC and this new multi club model they are attempting to build, whether you think all ‘owners’ have long term visions or not is largely irrelevant to the point Manji is looking to make

Do I think SR are bad owners ? No, but I do think they’ve madd some very very poor decisions that, all things considered are obviously their fault but to an extent can be attributed to the fact that their incoming senior recruitment’s left them in the shit.

The backroom definitely needed a refresh, in many areas, they had a divided boardroom and a number of senior heads of departments that weren’t pulling in the same direction but SRs attempted transitions have been handled poorly.

My hope is that we can now move forward with the backroom/senior refresh out of the season and move into the championship with a club undivided and ready to tackle the next step in this football clubs future

We have an owner that is committed, wealthy and driven to see us succeed. I do believe that Rasmus could potentially be an asset but he needs to be checked by those that have significant experience in the English game. And so, I do think, we are well placed, under these owners, to be able to bounce back, we are certainly in a better position now then we would have been under Gao IMO

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46 minutes ago, Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd said:

Over here in the Netherlands there is a problem with football fans and their behavior within the stadium. At Groningen a player was punched in recent weeks and Ajax player Davy Klaassen was hit by a battery thrown from the stands. 

Recently Feyenoord wanted to appoint a new board member, problem was the fans didn’t like him and want him. So one day loads of fans turned up at house wearing balaclavas. The guy decided it was best not to join the Feyenoord board. 

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24 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Call of duty twat?

Now I am confused! I just commented on the fact that someone posted that four experienced players were let go. Three of them people were glad to see the back of at the time. Can't see the connection.....oh well, I've got a yoghurt in the fridge going out of date...

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10 hours ago, Smirking_Saint said:

I’m not really sure its all that patronising, but he does have a point that there are quite a few posters on here that like to flap around without actually looking at things objectively.

SR are committed to the long term viability of Southampton FC and this new multi club model they are attempting to build, whether you think all ‘owners’ have long term visions or not is largely irrelevant to the point Manji is looking to make

Do I think SR are bad owners ? No, but I do think they’ve madd some very very poor decisions that, all things considered are obviously their fault but to an extent can be attributed to the fact that their incoming senior recruitment’s left them in the shit.

The backroom definitely needed a refresh, in many areas, they had a divided boardroom and a number of senior heads of departments that weren’t pulling in the same direction but SRs attempted transitions have been handled poorly.

My hope is that we can now move forward with the backroom/senior refresh out of the season and move into the championship with a club undivided and ready to tackle the next step in this football clubs future

We have an owner that is committed, wealthy and driven to see us succeed. I do believe that Rasmus could potentially be an asset but he needs to be checked by those that have significant experience in the English game. And so, I do think, we are well placed, under these owners, to be able to bounce back, we are certainly in a better position now then we would have been under Gao IMO

We have owners that have been nothing but appalling since almost day 1.  Spending a bit of money does not change that (just look at the table), whilst we continue to empty the staff-list at the club.

The talk of new stadiums etc is pure fantasy.  Cortese and many others around football speak like this, means almost nothing.

We have owners like Venkys (who also had grand plans) and nothing else. 

https://m.allfootballapp.com/news/EPL/Ten-years-after-the-Venkys-took-over-at-Blackburn---the-Rao-brothers-are-finally-getting-it-right/2498550

Edited by AlexLaw76
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7 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

We have owners that have been nothing but appalling since almost day 1.  Spending a bit of money does not change that (just look at the table), whilst we continue to empty the staff-list at the club.

The talk of new stadiums etc is pure fantasy.  Cortese and many others around football speak like this, means almost nothing.

We have owners like Venkys (who also had grand plans) and nothing else. 

https://m.allfootballapp.com/news/EPL/Ten-years-after-the-Venkys-took-over-at-Blackburn---the-Rao-brothers-are-finally-getting-it-right/2498550

Im not entirely sure why you keep mentioning Venky’s as a parallel to our ownership model really, other than attempting to find another set of owners you deem irresponsible.

Venky’s bought Blackburn in 2011 (?) and from memory have done very little other than put money in to keep them afloat, they were almost more akin to Gao then SR, rarely funding player recruitment but attempting to keep their investment in the black where possible.

SR have made terrible decisions but I don’t think there is anything but an intention to do right by Southampton FC, their first full year has been a disaster, partly due to the state of decay we were in under the Gao years but agreed certainly because of, what the thought were meaningful decisions that ended up executed badly

My understanding is Rasmus has already stood back and we are in the process of remodeling the backroom staff to enable us to move forward, not exactly how I would assume owners with a lack of conviction would act

Again I’m not saying SR have done well this year, clearly they have not, but we could very well have worse owners

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I mention Venkys as they spring to mind as coming in with 'grand plans', but delivering shite.

The only success for SR is a return to the premier league, probably within the next 2 years ,as we hold the upper hand on most of the league with parachute payments.

 

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Just now, AlexLaw76 said:

I mention Venkys as they spring to mind as coming in with 'grand plans', but delivering shite.

The only success for SR is a return to the premier league, probably within the next 2 years ,as we hold the upper hand on most of the league with parachute payments.

 

It’ll be difficult, in fact the Championship looks like it could be as competitive as I ever remember it next year but from what I hear around the club the motivation is to attempt to spring back on the first attempt, so I don’t necessarily expect any firesales or cost cutting to an extent yet

SR aren’t Venky’s… I think Rasmus was pushed into a position that he didn’t fit and was probably arrogant enough to think he could achieve what he needed but with a club that had very little joined up thinking we got what we got really

The old guard wanted the ‘SFC playbook’, SR followed their metrics and we had a window that tried to appease both but achieved very little

What we need now, is whats coming, a clear out and a club that is following a single vision, now whether that ‘vision’ is correct or not we will see but at the very least it will be consistent 

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24 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

I mention Venkys as they spring to mind as coming in with 'grand plans', but delivering shite.

The only success for SR is a return to the premier league, probably within the next 2 years ,as we hold the upper hand on most of the league with parachute payments.

 

We do, but that money needs to be spent wisely, which has not been the case so far.

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10 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

We do, but that money needs to be spent wisely, which has not been the case so far.

I don’t want to sound like some sort of SR luvvie… because Im not, but I’m trying to provide a bit of balance

The money could of been spent worse, I don’t have a huge issue on spending on youth because they do provide less risk, for instance we aren’t really going to lose, and will likely make on our under 24 yr old buys

Our issue is when we attempted to buy players that could/should of made a difference now then we just got it wrong but Id say its likely a long term issue with scouting as much as anything;

Onuachu, Orsic, DCC, Bree, Aribo were all terrible buys but realistically previous to that Adam Armstrong, Lyanco, Diallo, Elyonoussi and even Che Adams haven’t really had the required impact 

Our youth scouting seems to be pretty good, but our ability to pick a player that is able to actively impact this team has been woeful

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2 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

I don’t want to sound like some sort of SR luvvie… because Im not, but I’m trying to provide a bit of balance

The money could of been spent worse, I don’t have a huge issue on spending on youth because they do provide less risk, for instance we aren’t really going to lose, and will likely make on our under 24 yr old buys

Our issue is when we attempted to buy players that could/should of made a difference now then we just got it wrong but Id say its likely a long term issue with scouting as much as anything;

Onuachu, Orsic, DCC, Bree, Aribo were all terrible buys but realistically previous to that Adam Armstrong, Lyanco, Diallo, Elyonoussi and even Che Adams haven’t really had the required impact 

Our youth scouting seems to be pretty good, but our ability to pick a player that is able to actively impact this team has been woeful

It's true and definitely the other part of the argument which needs to be heard. It's easy to call out the scouting as being 'crap' for every single instance, but it hasn't.

They've picked up ABK, Lavia, Alcaraz - and I've always felt it's too soon to judge Mara, Edozie, Larios etc. Using an example of recruitment in the u18's, we scouted and picked up Sam Amo-Ameyaw who has the potential to be a bit of a player.

It's not all as bad as has been made out, for an Orsic there is an Alcaraz. 

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1 hour ago, Smirking_Saint said:

It’ll be difficult, in fact the Championship looks like it could be as competitive as I ever remember it next year but from what I hear around the club the motivation is to attempt to spring back on the first attempt, so I don’t necessarily expect any firesales or cost cutting to an extent yet

SR aren’t Venky’s… I think Rasmus was pushed into a position that he didn’t fit and was probably arrogant enough to think he could achieve what he needed but with a club that had very little joined up thinking we got what we got really

The old guard wanted the ‘SFC playbook’, SR followed their metrics and we had a window that tried to appease both but achieved very little

What we need now, is whats coming, a clear out and a club that is following a single vision, now whether that ‘vision’ is correct or not we will see but at the very least it will be consistent 

So which position does suit Ankersen? My guess is there isn't one that suits him as he's a slick talker but a bit of a fraud.

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36 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

It's true and definitely the other part of the argument which needs to be heard. It's easy to call out the scouting as being 'crap' for every single instance, but it hasn't.

They've picked up ABK, Lavia, Alcaraz - and I've always felt it's too soon to judge Mara, Edozie, Larios etc. Using an example of recruitment in the u18's, we scouted and picked up Sam Amo-Ameyaw who has the potential to be a bit of a player.

It's not all as bad as has been made out, for an Orsic there is an Alcaraz. 

Exactly… but, in balance to that when we’re attempting to buy players that can impact now ? Its been pretty much universally terrible, and a lot of that is, imo down to what was the scouting set up at the club (now being remodelled) but equally… in the likes of Onuachu, Bree, Orsic… I fail to see how these weren’t signed regardless of scouting because if I can see they don’t ultimately fit our tactics then a seasoned professional should do

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4 minutes ago, saintant said:

So which position does suit Ankersen? My guess is there isn't one that suits him as he's a slick talker but a bit of a fraud.

You don’t have the career he has had without having a level of talent, I think his is, looking at it, at helping to mould businesses and obviously has his feet deep in analytics

He was a DoF effectively at Midtjylland but the club sizes are vastly different 

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Just now, Smirking_Saint said:

Exactly… but, in balance to that when we’re attempting to buy players that can impact now ? Its been pretty much universally terrible, and a lot of that is, imo down to what was the scouting set up at the club (now being remodelled) but equally… in the likes of Onuachu, Bree, Orsic… I fail to see how these weren’t signed regardless of scouting because if I can see they don’t ultimately fit our tactics then a seasoned professional should do

The experienced signings have been poor, but if you look at our scouting setup (and equally when Shields was with us), their expertise was youth...so you'd kind of expect them to have better results from young players rather than 'pro's'. We need more balance in the recruitment department, as like you say it's all well and good looking to the future but we also need to think about 'now' - and we didn't, hence why we were relegated.

Aribo, DCC, Bree, Orsic, Onuachu. AMN. But that's not just exclusive to this year either, look at last summer - Theo, Lyanco, Armstrong. The season before that...Diallo, Minamino etc. All the proven players we sign are either incapable of playing in this league or washed up.

This goes back quite some time, so I'm in support of what SR are trying to do in terms of ripping up our scouting dept - it hasn't been right for years and needs a reset.

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4 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

The DoF?

 

He’s only just got his foot in the door though, tbh I expect its just tabloid sensationalism

Id fully expect Rasmus to be involved, likely heavily, alongside the likes of Wilcox because frankly there isn’t anybody else left 😂

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Just now, Smirking_Saint said:

He’s only just got his foot in the door though, tbh I expect its just tabloid sensationalism

Id fully expect Rasmus to be involved, likely heavily, alongside the likes of Wilcox because frankly there isn’t anybody else left 😂

so, no back seat for Ankerson then. Not in the short term at least. 

Quote

My understanding is Rasmus has already stood back 

That is exactly what the club needs, more Ankerson. 😆

 

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1 minute ago, AlexLaw76 said:

so, no back seat for Ankerson then. Not in the short term at least. 

That is exactly what the club needs, more Ankerson. 😆

 

My understanding was and still is that he isn’t necessarily taking the lead in a similar vein to how he did in January

But that isn’t to say he isn’t going to be involved in the short term, we need a new manager, we effectively have a scouting team thats all over the place and Wilcox thats just coming in, Im not even sure when his start date is

I tend to find thinking about realities before coming to conclusions works well my friend

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