Sport Republic

[CB Fry]

2 minutes ago, ecurnew02 said:

 

Anything other than 100 points and they've utterly failed.

[miserableoldgit]

Just now, CB Fry said:

Anything other than 100 points and they've utterly failed.

Are you Saint Lard??

[JRM]

“We wanted a change and we didn’t think that another long-serving manager of the Premier League was a change. What I saw in Nathan was pure energy that we needed, aggression and a guy that would make pitbulls out of our players.

“He proved he could do this in Luton but he could not turn our squad that way, maybe it was the players he just didn’t get across and his system didn’t work. He was inexperienced as a manager in the Premier League, and maybe the pressure is at a different level and can break many people who are not used to that.

“If I could not do it, I would – I would be the happiest guy if Nathan would actually be the hero of Luton Town, got his promotion to the Premiership and actually became a Premier League manager by promotion.

“Having to sit at home and watch the team he practically created get promotion to the Premier League, it’s unbelievable. You can make a very emotional movie out of that. I feel very sorry in part for not enhancing his career, he is a good guy and an honest guy but perhaps wasn’t the right fit.”

[hypochondriac]

Nathan Jones was almost certainly a narcissist and narcissists are by definition not good guys. He was certainly honest though, that's true he always said what he thought. I was hoping we'd never have to talk about him ever again. Worst manager in my lifetime for sure. 

[hypochondriac]

At least they've cottoned on that they had to ditch the just lucky to be here talk. I'll be interested to see if we have some changes now you've got the money men keeping a closer eye on things. That coukd result in some positive changes or it could get even more ridiculous if Dragan wants to interfere. 

[S-Clarke]

 

Key takeaways from me:

- They accept responsibility. They admit mistakes in the recruitment makeup and they admit they weren't as involved as they should have been, all very honest and candid and holding their hands up. 

- They are engaged, they're doing the opposite of what I think a lot of fans thought they'd do - committing and reinforcing their intentions for us, they're not stepping back and regretting the purchase and looking to flog us. Far from it

- The ambition is there, seeing the words ''want to win'' is something I haven't seen a director of this club say for many years. That's the sort of narrative the club needs to feed off of. I haven't heard that since Cortese was here.

- As I've said all along, these guys (especially Dragan) have the right intentions, they're not doing this to destroy us and they're not as silly as this season has made them out to be in my opinion.

- The statement about this situation brewing for years was correct, we've circled the drain for years with minimal investment. It was inevitable that it would happen eventually without the correct decisions. You cannot deny we had the investment, but the decisions and execution of that was all wrong - which they've openly accepted the blame for.

- Dragan having a big say in Jones and trying to stick up for him. He does admit his press conferences didn't help the situation, but I do struggle to understand what on earth they saw in him via an interview which would have suggested he could handle the pressure he was about to endure. 

So far nothing hugely ground-breaking, a lot of ''yep, well we know that'' mixed into it - but they've not hid away from the mistakes and they've held their hands up. Dragan for example could have totally distanced himself from the Jones debacle, but he seemed to own that decision in the interview which is refreshing. I think they're an honest bunch and as I said they have the right intentions. 

I've never agreed with all the vitriol throw their way, as this situation has been brewing for quite some time. Now we have a clean slate and their closer involvement I hope everything aligns a bit better, I get the impression that there was a lot of infighting and clashing behind the scenes last year - but this club will now be full of their people on their terms. Success in football comes from alignment, from the top right down to the playing squad - hopefully we get that now.

Edited 30 May, 2023 by S-Clarke

[CSA96]

I think the NJ questions are pretty impossible for them to answer, really. Everyone knows it was a clusterfuck at this point.

If they get a press officer to shut down questions = media get to use a 'Sport Republic refused to comment' and they get piled on
If they talk about him but only to say they won't be talking about it further = they get piled on for dodging questions about their failure
If they talk about him but don't hammer him = they get piled on for not hammering him, because he was a disaster

Ultimately, it is bad for business to go out and hammer a LMA member in public. They're not going to do it, nor should they. Especially when he's their one and only permanent hire

I thought they were relatively fair in offering an explanation of what led them to NJ, and I also thought Dragan was relatively fair in his appraisal of Jones being unable to handle the scrutiny of being a PL manager.

That said, he was a complete fucking lunatic narcissist and should never have been brought within a mile of St. Mary's because all of this information was obvious with some solid background checks.

[Saint86]

“When we appointed Nathan it was based on what we needed to improve to stay in the Premier League,” Ankersen says.

Worries me slightly as it shows an underlying lack of footballing understanding, I don't think there is any serious metric where he was an upgrade on Ralph? But saying that, they have put more footballing people in place. 

Credit to them for being open and accessible to the fans again with this peice (even if cynically some positive PR is needed). I don't think anyone can say they haven't at least invested in the club, so we just have to hope they get it right... There is a lot of damage to repair sadly. 

Edited 30 May, 2023 by Saint86

[Saint Garrett]

Re Jones they mentioned back in January/Feb they signed him because he was high on the “aggression” metrics, (I’m guessing this is stuff like closing down, intensity, tackles, pressing etc) and was very good at getting the best out of set pieces. There is no doubt he was absolutely useless for us though. The worst manager I’ve ever experienced 

[Saint86]

29 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I've never agreed with all the vitriol throw their way, as this situation has been brewing for quite some time. Now we have a clean slate and their closer involvement I hope everything aligns a bit better, I get the impression that there was a lot of infighting and clashing behind the scenes last year - but this club will now be full of their people on their terms. Success in football comes from alignment, from the top right down to the playing squad - hopefully we get that now.

It wasn't brewing for some time. They had £160M and failed to buy a striker, and then sold romeu and got no back up cdm. Not only did we fail to address that, but we've also set about rapid change at all levels and disrupted seemingly all parts of the club!

A lot of that was uneccessary or done to hastily. So I would say that this year's relegation was  avoidable - and SR shouldn't hide / be excused from that (they aren't trying to dodge it tbf). 

And at least they're committed and seemingly have ambition - that Immediatley sets them above any CEO/ownership since the cortese/Marcus days. They have the right to try and fix the mess we're in this summer and be supported by the fans - provided they do follow up with investment and sound decisions at least. But another year like last and we'll surely see a huge turning against them from the fans?! 

Edited 30 May, 2023 by Saint86

[Hodgey]

Load of excuses really, I’d rather not hear from them about football at all - just ‘we made mistakes - now we will let people who understand football make football decisions and we’ll make life easy for them through funding’. 
I don’t really want to hear their opinions on football as I’ve seen for myself what happens when they get involved - I’m actually slightly worried hearing things like they will get closer.

Good that they are still committed and I guess at least they are talking to the press about mistakes, but it’s odd timing to say the least when everyone is expecting a manager announcement.

[Bad Wolf]

It's just dawned on me that I have never once heard the word "infrastructure" used outside Saints' PR stuff.

If I didn't support this club, I wouldn't even know it was actually a word.

[pimpin4rizeal]

3 hours ago, Saint Garrett said:

Re Jones they mentioned back in January/Feb they signed him because he was high on the “aggression” metrics, (I’m guessing this is stuff like closing down, intensity, tackles, pressing etc) and was very good at getting the best out of set pieces. There is no doubt he was absolutely useless for us though. The worst manager I’ve ever experienced 

For me selles was much worse .

im in the one percent minority that didn’t mind jones.. at least he was trying different things, changing formations.. probably getting close to playing ourbest 11 in a 4231 near the end at least he was trying to change it 

we were not in the best shape when he took over so results not going to plan isn’t a total shock by the time we had got the reinforcements at the end of January he gets sacked and then the whole window was completely wasted 

The hate from the fans realky got to jones which made him kinda dig his own grave with the press conferences .. the ironic thing is most of the hate came because fans thought we were above hiring the manager of little Luton .. now they are in the premiership while we go down . You couldn’t make it up 

Edited 31 May, 2023 by pimpin4rizeal

[Nolan]

5 hours ago, Bad Wolf said:

It's just dawned on me that I have never once heard the word "infrastructure" used outside Saints' PR stuff.

If I didn't support this club, I wouldn't even know it was actually a word.

seriously? its really is quite a commonplace word throughout a lot of industries.

[Bad Wolf]

28 minutes ago, Nolan said:

seriously? its really is quite a commonplace word throughout a lot of industries.

My comment was tongue in cheek; How much various regimes at the club have hidden behind that word in order to avoid the issues.

[Suhari]

7 hours ago, ecurnew02 said:

 

This is my favourite quote to come out of the club in years.

Clear ambition.

Let's get it done guys.

[Weston Super Saint]

9 hours ago, Miltonaggro said:

 

Meh. Chickenfeed compared to last week.

[Fitzhugh Fella]

4 hours ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

For me selles was much worse .

im in the one percent minority that didn’t mind jones.. at least he was trying different things, changing formations.. probably getting close to playing ourbest 11 in a 4231 near the end at least he was trying to change it 

we were not in the best shape when he took over so results not going to plan isn’t a total shock by the time we had got the reinforcements at the end of January he gets sacked and then the whole window was completely wasted 

The hate from the fans realky got to jones which made him kinda dig his own grave with the press conferences .. the ironic thing is most of the hate came because fans thought we were above hiring the manager of little Luton .. now they are in the premiership while we go down . You couldn’t make it up 

In hindsight I do think we would have been better off keeping Jones. If only he had kept his mouth shut I think eventually he would have got more out of the players than Selles, but his personality was so horrendously wrong I am still at a loss how SR couldn’t see it.

This interview (the part that I’ve seen anyway) hasn’t particularly impressed me and the fact some of it is behind a paywall on a dire website is not really the best way to communicate with the fans. 
They’ve attempted to explain this car crash of a season with a lot of words but very little substance and the word “sorry” is nowhere to be seen. Ankersen in particular has some explaining to do. Why does he attend so few matches etc? 
We needed a hard hitting journalist (if there are any still around) to ask some probing direct questions instead we are offered a  anodyne cosy chat at Staplewood that you have to pay two quid to read if you can fight your way through the pop up adverts. Poor show all around. This summer starting with the managerial appointment is massively important and I am not sure the three members of SR have the necessary football intelligence to oversee a serious stab at going back up a la Burnley. Anyone who can make a blunder as big as Jones has to be seriously flawed. 

[hypochondriac]

39 minutes ago, Suhari said:

This is my favourite quote to come out of the club in years.

Clear ambition.

Let's get it done guys.

Yes that is the one bit that you can clearly applaud. They've publically set themselves a target now and the pressure will be on to deliver. 

[CB Fry]

50 minutes ago, Suhari said:

This is my favourite quote to come out of the club in years.

Clear ambition.

Let's get it done guys.

Rupert Lowe used to say that the aim at the beginning of every season was to win the league.

It's a pretty meaningless statement, especially as we'd all* take promotion however it comes.

 

Edited 31 May, 2023 by CB Fry
*with one exception but he's a weirdo.

[hypochondriac]

That's true but at least there is now something on the record that they can be judged by. I'd far rather hear noises like this which suggests they will have to back it up than what Semmens was spouting. 

4 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Rupert Lowe used to say that the aim at the beginning of every season was to win the league.

It's a pretty meaningless statement, especially as we'd all* take promotion however it comes.

 

 

[Weston Super Saint]

56 minutes ago, Suhari said:

This is my favourite quote to come out of the club in years.

Clear ambition.

Let's get it done guys.

Does this mean we'll be looking at the league table this year?

[FarehamSaintJames]

I wouldn’t say anything from that interview was groundbreaking.

Lots of acknowledgement from Dragon Solak about mistakes made and not being close enough. I’d say that says a lot more about Henrik Kraft and Rasmus Ankersen.

Nonreal apology at the monumental fuck ups.

It’s a bit wishy-washy and bland.

That said, they do say they won’t shy away and they are putting footballing people in charge of the running of the club.

But they need to get a lot of the next factors right.

They won’t be able to shift out 25 odd players in a transfer window and being 20 or so in.
The coming weeks will be interesting, the business needs to get done early.

[beatlesaint]

I’m pleased to see the admission in the Echo interview that “maybe” the balance between youth and experience wasn’t right.

Hopeful that indicates some battle hardened players who know the Championship will come in during the summer.

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

SR were like a kid in a candy shop. They had a load of cash to spend, went crazy, got the sugar rush and threw up. Does it now spend a load more cash because the last lot went down the toilet or slow down and take remedial measures? Get a manager in who can help build a spine to the club. Dragan, Ankersen with his pie charts or whatever statistical analysis he's using - not sure they know how to take us in the right direction.

[Pamplemousse]

If Dragan thought Jones would be a decent manager, perhaps that explains why he is keeping his faith in Ankersen, who has completely failed so far.

[Turkish]

7 hours ago, Bad Wolf said:

It's just dawned on me that I have never once heard the word "infrastructure" used outside Saints' PR stuff.

If I didn't support this club, I wouldn't even know it was actually a word.

I suppose you don’t need to do much in the way of infrastructure on football manager do you.

[John B]

A bit of arrogant bullshit does not convince me that they know much about running a PL Football Club

 

Most on here would have done better than SR have done in the last 18 months last season was pure incompetence.

 

I would be surprised if a new team can be built to challenge for promotion if we lose most of our better players it just takes time it took Ted Bates longer than he thought even with Paine Chivers and Sydenham

[Mr X]

The most worrying bit is dragan says "I know nothing about football" but then goes onto say he had a part in appointing Nathan Jones! How can that ever happen???

[David Strover]

Dragan having a big say in Jones and trying to stick up for him. He does admit his press conferences didn't help the situation, but I do struggle to understand what on earth they saw in him via an interview which would have suggested he could handle the pressure he was about to endure. 

It Nathan Jones and Ruben Selles is their track record in employment and examples of how the get the right people for jobs, how are they even a little bit successful and we are probably doomed.

Hubris, there was a lot of disguised hubris in that interview.

[richardc]

They talk about becoming more involved but the reason we went down is from the decisions they made (no striker and NJ)

They appointed NJ as we were not aggressive and front footed enough so they are about to point a manager that likes slow pedestrian possession football

'NJ would have been here longer if he knew how to manage a press interview' - nothing to do with his complete disaster of football he served

Everything they have done has been a leftfield gamble - I really hope it pays off but very little if anything has worked so far

Lets hope they do leave things to Wilcox and lets really hope Wilcox knows what he's doing 

[Doctoroncall]

14 minutes ago, Mr X said:

The most worrying bit is dragan says "I know nothing about football" but then goes onto say he had a part in appointing Nathan Jones! How can that ever happen???

There is more to a manager/coaching position than technical ability which someone else can cover in the interview process. Which actually makes the appointment worse as it was his non footballing attributes which caused the horror show. 

[miserableoldgit]

Saints fans really are a "special" breed. Nothing that anybody does is good enough. SR have admitted that they made mistakes, explained what they thought that they saw in the "Mad Welshman", have started clearing out the "deadwood" at Board level and basically "promised" promotion next year....but that is not enough. I suppose a procession through the Bargate in sackcloth and ashes is what is required....

Edited 31 May, 2023 by miserableoldgit

[sadoldgit]

6 minutes ago, Doctoroncall said:

There is more to a manager/coaching position than technical ability which someone else can cover in the interview process. Which actually makes the appointment worse as it was his non footballing attributes which caused the horror show. 

Senior managers often know little about what goes on at ground level and take advice from those who do. He would have to sign off on the appointment and probably did so on advisement. It is good that he is prepared to share some of the responsibility rather than throw others under the bus.

[Turkish]

Just now, miserableoldgit said:

Saints fans really are a "special" breed. Nothing that anybody does is good enough. SR have admitted that they made mistakes, explained what they thought that they saw in the "Mad Welshman", have started clearing out the "deadwood" at Board level and basically "promised" promotio next year....but that is not enough. I suppose a procession through the Bargate in sackcloth and ashes is what is required....

It's quite simple. Saints probably have about 100,000 fans. The board need to release a statement which satisfies the requirements of every single fan exactly it needs to be said in the exact way they would want the statement to be made. 

[Turkish]

3 minutes ago, sadoldgit said:

Senior managers often know little about what goes on at ground level and take advice from those who do. He would have to sign off on the appointment and probably did so on advisement. It is good that he is prepared to share some of the responsibility rather than throw others under the bus.

A manager of a premier league football club is hardly "ground level" it's a very senior position, probably the most important role in the club a senior manager would absolutely be involved in the recruitment of that position. It's not like they're hiring an administration manager to oversea a group of teenage girl filing clerks.

[DT]

My irony meter has just exploded:

 

SaintsExtra

@SaintsExtra

Dragan: "When we were relegated, I thought it was important we showed the people at the club and the supporters that we are going nowhere." #saintsfc

@TimesSport

[goodymatt]

I’ll take back my earlier comment on Leicester’s statement being more encouraging for their fans. It’s very early days to judge the actions of the relegated teams owners.

The same applies for the latest words coming out from Sports Republic. I did however appreciate them taking responsibility and trying to explain why (in their mind) they felt the decisions made last season were right at the time. The target of winning the league next season is the obvious one. We need to see how everything shapes up during the close season to have any belief.

I think Nathan Jones is a better manager than Selles, he has achievements in his career that are respectable. Selles just copied Ralph and hoped for the best, getting the odd unexpected point against bigger teams who had no respect for us. Jones wasn’t able to get buy in from our ‘PL’ players, resulting in ‘what would you like to do’ tactics, press meltdowns and indecision. All of which happened at Stoke and that was all we needed to know to stay well clear! Im sure he’ll join a championship underdog again and do well. Both are horrendous mistakes and the next one has to be right.

Edited 31 May, 2023 by goodymatt

[malcolm waldron]

10 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

Nathan Jones was almost certainly a narcissist and narcissists are by definition not good guys. He was certainly honest though, that's true he always said what he thought. I was hoping we'd never have to talk about him ever again. Worst manager in my lifetime for sure. 

Did we ever find out what 'Romeo done" meant - or is that one for the kidz?

[Fitzhugh Fella]

37 minutes ago, miserableoldgit said:

Saints fans really are a "special" breed. Nothing that anybody does is good enough. SR have admitted that they made mistakes, explained what they thought that they saw in the "Mad Welshman", have started clearing out the "deadwood" at Board level and basically "promised" promotion next year....but that is not enough. I suppose a procession through the Bargate in sackcloth and ashes is what is required....

I think you find they are saying they “probably” got things wrong. 10 points from being safe and the word they use is probably 

[Nolan]

5 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

I think you find they are saying they “probably” got things wrong. 10 points from being safe and the word they use is probably 

 

Probably a good use of the English language.

[Miltonaggro]

34 minutes ago, DT said:

My irony meter has just exploded:

 

SaintsExtra

@SaintsExtra

Dragan: "When we were relegated, I thought it was important we showed the people at the club and the supporters that we are going nowhere." #saintsfc

@TimesSport

At last some self-awareness!

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Have they found Ralph Kreuger's pledges yet?

[capitalsaint]

16 minutes ago, malcolm waldron said:

Did we ever find out what 'Romeo done" meant - or is that one for the kidz?

I always took it to be Romeo Dunn, he of So Solid Crew fame. Not so much one for the kids and a pretty obscure bit of rhyming slang even for those who remember the group.
 

Maybe I’m wrong though!

[MarkSFC]

Damned if you do; damned if you don't. 

SR as a whole and the individuals concerned won't win with many on here, at least not for a while because lots of us are still hurting from this season and the relegation.

I'm happy with these words from Dragan particularly. He is acting like a strong leader. Admitted the mistakes and is taking strong action. But right now whatever they so will not be ok because of the pain some are feeling.

I like the "look and feel" of what they are doing in terms of structure and personell but as ever the one that matters most to results on the pitch is the next manager. 

I'm not sure Russell Martin is the guy (but then I don't know loads about him) but then I'm not really sure who is.

I do think we need a "name", someone to inspire confidence and hope in the fan base and attract players because of who he is to some extent. But whoever it is, it ONLY matters that we win lots and go back up. 

I'm feeling positive that we will have a very energetic and fairly skillfully side next year with the younger players we have who can show quick development over the next 12 months. 

Having good experience at the heart of the defence and one at CM is key I feel so one or two important signings to make there probably. 

In Wilcox I think we have someone who understands what success is and how to achieve it. He's spent most of his career achieving it and subsequently after playing within a culture that only accepts success. I expect him to drive the culture change needed. 

It's going to be an interesting summer but it sounds like the owners and directors are motivated and focused on getting it done. 

[Dman]

I think the appointment of Jones just reinforces the point that 'stats' should supplement scouting, not dictate it. 

Based on spreadsheets alone, Jones probably stood out as a solid candidate, despite his failure at Stoke, he came back to be Championship manager of the season and done a great job over performing with Luton. But anyone who watches football could tell you that it was a recipe for disaster. 

Whilst his luton side may have provided the 'metrics' we were looking for, it was clear that we didn't have the squad to replicate that.

I know they're now a PL side, but in reality, they're a group of L1/L2 players who play at a tight non league style ground and play a non league style of football. Backs against the walls, winning first and second knock type stuff.

We're starting to see more of these academic nerds, who seem to think they're some kind of football genius, because they have an interest in looking at opta stats. We've had a few idiots on here who were the same, who time and time again get proven to be fools - Adam Armstong being better than Broja and all that shite.   

[Saint Gifford]

I’m just checking Jamie Oliver’s version of boiling a frog. I’m sure that will turn out much better. 

[miserableoldgit]

25 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

I think you find they are saying they “probably” got things wrong. 10 points from being safe and the word they use is probably 

https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/60297/

[Saint Garrett]

7 hours ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

For me selles was much worse .

im in the one percent minority that didn’t mind jones.. at least he was trying different things, changing formations.. probably getting close to playing ourbest 11 in a 4231 near the end at least he was trying to change it 

we were not in the best shape when he took over so results not going to plan isn’t a total shock by the time we had got the reinforcements at the end of January he gets sacked and then the whole window was completely wasted 

The hate from the fans realky got to jones which made him kinda dig his own grave with the press conferences .. the ironic thing is most of the hate came because fans thought we were above hiring the manager of little Luton .. now they are in the premiership while we go down . You couldn’t make it up 

Matter of opinion. I saw a bloke take on a team that although was low on confidence, they had only just gone into the relegation zone. Jones sucked the life out of the club in the following 3 months. What manager is lucky enough to have a mini pre season, and a transfer window pretty much straight away. He lost 7 out of 8 games playing some of the worst football I've ever watched, and being a complete dislikeable lunatic. 

I remember being at the cup game, first game back from the world cup, and watching us get completely outplayed by Lincoln City.  We only started playing once Walcott came on.  Going to Fulham on NYE, changing the system to a 4 at the back at HT and we were the better team comfortably. He then went back to a 5 at the back, we sat on the edge of our box and ended up losing. We should have won that game.That Forest game in January was absolutely appalling, and I think it was still Forest's only away win of the season? We didn't trouble their goal at all, just played aimless long balls to no-one. That was when he should have been sacked IMO.  He was kept on because they let him buy Onuachu, who is absolutely shit.  He was given a relatively "easy" run of games, 

Selles was an assistant manager, in his first job, with a team on the floor.  Battered and bruised having just lost 7 of the last 8, including one against 10 men after being 1-0 up!  He got a few wins against Chelsea and Leicester, and a few battling draws against Man Utd, Arsenal, Spurs, and Liverpool.  There is no doubt we didn't perform against the shitter teams but at least we showed a bit of fight. 

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for me, it's not comparable really. Ultimately neither were good enough, but for me Jones was a huge part in us being relegated. And ultimately the team wasn't either, but we should never have been cut adrift by as many points as we were in the end IMO.

[Bad Wolf]

2 hours ago, Turkish said:

I suppose you don’t need to do much in the way of infrastructure on football manager do you.

You haven't played it for a while have you...?