Joe Shields leaving? What the hell is happening???

[Convict Colony]

Ok who plays football manager here and thinks they can do the job.

 

[SaintsLoyal]

All a bit suspect that this fella only had a one year contract ?

He didnt want to upset anyone at city and thought he would go to chelsea via us ?

[Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan]

12 hours ago, SNSUN said:

We need to recruit someone that can recruit some triffic lads for the future.

 

Trying to think how he would handle the current squad.

Sold Beattie, loaned out Blackstock, Best and Dodd to make room for Redknapp, Quashie, Bernard and Camara. So i make that selling our best player from the previous seasons, two promising attackers and a good club servant, for an old midfielder, crap club captain, pensioner and championship striker who is also an international. 

My guess would be coming in, selling JWP, loaning out Ballard, Morgan and Walcott so we can sign Andros Townsend, Tom Cairney, Seamus Coleman and Josh Sargent

Thankfully this now doesn't need to happen and we can all rest easily knowing that SR might be struggling at the moment, but they're not Rupert Lowe and Clive Woodward running the club into the ground hiring other slimey twats

[LaptopSaint]

What’s the big deal? Bloke we’d never heard of six months ago buggers off after raiding the only club he had inside knowledge of and getting us a £10m player we can probably sell for £60m in a year or two. Might even be enough profit to buy a decent striker. 
 

 

[trousers]

11 minutes ago, LaptopSaint said:

What’s the big deal?

We can only answer that question if we know first-hand the reason(s) why he's quitting. If the reason is that he's a bit of an un-loyal job-tart twat then, yep, no big deal... But... IF (for example) he's seen significant flaws with the way the club is being run and he can see a car crash ahead then maybe, just maybe, it is a "big deal"...

[LaptopSaint]

13 minutes ago, trousers said:

We can only answer that question if we know first-hand the reason(s) why he's quitting. If the reason is that he's a bit of an un-loyal job-tart twat then, yep, no big deal... But... IF (for example) he's seen significant flaws with the way the club is being run and he can see a car crash ahead then maybe, just maybe, it is a "big deal"...

Because it’s football, and we’re emotionally involved, there’s always huge overthinking going on when these things happen. 
Chelsea are going to be offering to double maybe treble his salary. If a bigger firm offered you a bigger job for three times the money, what would you do? 

[trousers]

1 hour ago, LaptopSaint said:

Because it’s football, and we’re emotionally involved, there’s always huge overthinking going on when these things happen. 
Chelsea are going to be offering to double maybe treble his salary. If a bigger firm offered you a bigger job for three times the money, what would you do? 

If he's "only going for the money" then, of course, it's understandable and "no big deal". However, I've no idea whether this is his only motivation or if there are other factors at play here so, again, I'll reserve overall judgement until I know all the facts (call me old fashioned)

Edited 13 October, 2022 by trousers

[saintant]

4 hours ago, Saint Billy said:

Football, don't you just love it. 

As soon as you bring anyone with promise in, be it players/staff, in an attempt to improve the team, they are all ready having their heads turned by bigger clubs and having one eye on leaving. 

Football has become a mockery governed solely by money. You are only any good as a side if you can buy success. 

My passion for football is dying by the day. 

Agree with this 100%

[saintant]

2 hours ago, rallyboy said:

As he appeared to be our best signing of recent years, Shields deciding to abandon ship so soon must raise some worrying questions about the whole project.

For me, his departure would set off the few remaining alarm bells that aren't already ringing.

Who is steering the ship and why are we so far off course right now?

I think now would be a good time for SR to make a statement to clear the air and let everyone know the current situation at the club. There is obviously unrest among fans about the manager and we have lost two new recruits who've stayed only a short time.  Results and performances are poor so what is being done to resolve this? It's high time we heard something from SR. I get they don't want to make public all their plans and thoughts but right now fans would like to know a bit more than is being revealed.

[Singapore Saint]

Tyler Dibling should have a word with him.

[Ivan Katalinic's 'tache]

6 hours ago, capitalsaint said:

As others have said, it was originally reported that we beat Chelsea to his signature.

Something has clearly changed- either they’ve offered a significantly better package to him than they did before or something has happened here that has made him want to get out early.

Unusual.

I wonder if it's been the change of management at Chelsea which has changed his mind. Maybe working with Graham Potter's management team is more to his liking and/or he had the sense Tuchel would be on his way eventually?

[manji]

I’m not getting the “ it’s an offer Joe Shields can’t refuse “ he was at Man City for Chris sakes

[S-Clarke]

4 hours ago, Saint Billy said:

Football, don't you just love it. 

As soon as you bring anyone with promise in, be it players/staff, in an attempt to improve the team, they are all ready having their heads turned by bigger clubs and having one eye on leaving. 

Football has become a mockery governed solely by money. You are only any good as a side if you can buy success. 

My passion for football is dying by the day. 

I do feel the same, I find myself not really bothering with European football, other PL games or even internationals nowadays. Football just feels a little dead to me.

Whilst it's 'fun' to potentially see players like Haaland trash records, he is being paid 900k per week for the privilege which is just obscene and shouldn't be allowed. Then you've got Barca, on the brink financially, yet spending more than anyone else in Spain and now on the 'brink' financially again after they failed to qualify for the next rounds of the CL. It shouldn't be allowed to happen.

Meanwhile clubs like ourselves, who want to do it properly and within our means, are just constantly beaten up against a wall by these clubs who hold no regard for anything.

Todd Boehly at Chelsea is just playing Football Manager, it's as simple as that. It's what I do when I get the job at a club with some money. You go and poach the biggest and best coaches, physios, DoF's, players and then change it again when it hasn't brought desired results in a few months. Money doesn't seem to be an object for these clubs and it's so wrong. It's hard for 'everyday folk' to be aligned with football anymore, most of the general public are on their arses financially, trying to skrimp together the loose change they have, yet you have clubs writing off millions on 'mistakes' at a whim with no care in the world. How can the normal fan relate to football these days?

I know a counter argument to these feelings will be ''well, it's only because we're not doing well that we feel this way'' - maybe there is a tiny element to that, but you also have to look at it and say what chance do we have to ever 'do well' in the current climate? Unless we have owners willing to gamble with their own money then we're just fodder, as per most clubs in this league.

The model of selling to buy and being a 'showcase club' is pretty much all we can be, ditto most clubs in this league. Gone are the days when you can build a genuine connection with a team, as we did in L1/Champ. It feels like it's almost illegal for us to be allowed to keep 'good players' for more than a couple of years, and you'll start to see that reduce even more in the future.

There are some genuine plus points to a split away league. Let all those morons go and play in their own playground.

[SotonianWill]

1 minute ago, manji said:

I’m not getting the “ it’s an offer Joe Shields can’t refuse “ he was at Man City for Chris sakes

Difference being he was head of academy recruitment at city, from what I understand it’s head of all recruitment at Chelsea 

[saintant]

3 minutes ago, Ivan Katalinic's 'tache said:

I wonder if it's been the change of management at Chelsea which has changed his mind. Maybe working with Graham Potter's management team is more to his liking and/or he had the sense Tuchel would be on his way eventually?

I think it's more likely that, if he was offered anything by Chelsea at the time we got him it was either not the role he wanted or not enough money. Chelsea's new owner is not shy at splashing cash so they've probably now decided to offer him a lot more money plus a more senior role than first time round.  We've all got our own take on this and I guess we'll probably never know the truth.

[saintant]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

I do feel the same, I find myself not really bothering with European football, other PL games or even internationals nowadays. Football just feels a little dead to me.

Whilst it's 'fun' to potentially see players like Haaland trash records, he is being paid 900k per week for the privilege which is just obscene and shouldn't be allowed. Then you've got Barca, on the brink financially, yet spending more than anyone else in Spain and now on the 'brink' financially again after they failed to qualify for the next rounds of the CL. It shouldn't be allowed to happen.

Meanwhile clubs like ourselves, who want to do it properly and within our means, are just constantly beaten up against a wall by these clubs who hold no regard for anything.

Todd Boehly at Chelsea is just playing Football Manager, it's as simple as that. It's what I do when I get the job at a club with some money. You go and poach the biggest and best coaches, physios, DoF's, players and then change it again when it hasn't brought desired results in a few months. Money doesn't seem to be an object for these clubs and it's so wrong. It's hard for 'everyday folk' to be aligned with football anymore, most of the general public are on their arses financially, trying to skrimp together the loose change they have, yet you have clubs writing off millions on 'mistakes' at a whim with no care in the world. How can the normal fan relate to football these days?

I know a counter argument to these feelings will be ''well, it's only because we're not doing well that we feel this way'' - maybe there is a tiny element to that, but you also have to look at it and say what chance do we have to ever 'do well' in the current climate? Unless we have owners willing to gamble with their own money then we're just fodder, as per most clubs in this league.

The model of selling to buy and being a 'showcase club' is pretty much all we can be, ditto most clubs in this league. Gone are the days when you can build a genuine connection with a team, as we did in L1/Champ. It feels like it's almost illegal for us to be allowed to keep 'good players' for more than a couple of years, and you'll start to see that reduce even more in the future.

There are some genuine plus points to a split away league. Let all those morons go and play in their own playground.

Very good post with many excellent points. Football is running the risk of turning the average fan off unless your club has a mega rich owner where money is no object. It will not end well and I can see a time which may not be far off when many lower league clubs fold and there could be a domino affect that ripples upwards - no lower league clubs will strip away a lot of what football is about. It's all about greed and instant success bought by big money much of which is from regimes with dodgy backgrounds. It's getting more and more expensive to go and eventually fans will get sick of being ripped off while players like Haaland earn 900k per week - obscene. I think it was baseball in America that imploded and had to reset - maybe football is heading the same way.

Edited 13 October, 2022 by saintant

[trousers]

48 minutes ago, saintant said:

It's high time we heard something from SR.

I've been thinking for a while that SR have been just as quiet as Gao was. Expected them to be a bit more visible and communicative than they have been, although still early days in relative terms I guess. 

[Charlie Wayman]

18 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

I'm starting to think we will be going down his year now. Lots of things falling apart at once. 

Probably why RH is still here, the club would be in an even worse mess with a mass exodus to deal with.

[Charlie Wayman]

16 hours ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

Brownnose chiming in with his usual vacuous trash, has he become the official spokesperson for the secretive regime at Britannia Road

[Charlie Wayman]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

I do feel the same, I find myself not really bothering with European football, other PL games or even internationals nowadays. Football just feels a little dead to me.

Whilst it's 'fun' to potentially see players like Haaland trash records, he is being paid 900k per week for the privilege which is just obscene and shouldn't be allowed. Then you've got Barca, on the brink financially, yet spending more than anyone else in Spain and now on the 'brink' financially again after they failed to qualify for the next rounds of the CL. It shouldn't be allowed to happen.

Meanwhile clubs like ourselves, who want to do it properly and within our means, are just constantly beaten up against a wall by these clubs who hold no regard for anything.

Todd Boehly at Chelsea is just playing Football Manager, it's as simple as that. It's what I do when I get the job at a club with some money. You go and poach the biggest and best coaches, physios, DoF's, players and then change it again when it hasn't brought desired results in a few months. Money doesn't seem to be an object for these clubs and it's so wrong. It's hard for 'everyday folk' to be aligned with football anymore, most of the general public are on their arses financially, trying to skrimp together the loose change they have, yet you have clubs writing off millions on 'mistakes' at a whim with no care in the world. How can the normal fan relate to football these days?

I know a counter argument to these feelings will be ''well, it's only because we're not doing well that we feel this way'' - maybe there is a tiny element to that, but you also have to look at it and say what chance do we have to ever 'do well' in the current climate? Unless we have owners willing to gamble with their own money then we're just fodder, as per most clubs in this league.

The model of selling to buy and being a 'showcase club' is pretty much all we can be, ditto most clubs in this league. Gone are the days when you can build a genuine connection with a team, as we did in L1/Champ. It feels like it's almost illegal for us to be allowed to keep 'good players' for more than a couple of years, and you'll start to see that reduce even more in the future.

There are some genuine plus points to a split away league. Let all those morons go and play in their own playground.

Then vote with your feet and your chequebook!

[Doctoroncall]

1 hour ago, trousers said:

If he's "only going for the money" then, of course, it's understandable and "no big deal". I've no idea whether this is his only motivation or if there are other factors at play here so, again, I'll reserve overall judgement until I know all the facts (call me old fashioned)

It’s knowing the why rather than what was on offer which will gives us a clue to what is happening at SFC. 

[FarehamSaintJames]

3 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

Ok who plays football manager here and thinks they can do the job.

 

Yep and FIFA. And if it really starts to kick off - Warzone - which seems appropriate right now. 🤣

[Dman]

1 hour ago, manji said:

I’m not getting the “ it’s an offer Joe Shields can’t refuse “ he was at Man City for Chris sakes

I think the real question you should be asking here, Manji, is was Shields ever at City or was it all just made up by the western media… you mugs will believe anything. 

Edited 13 October, 2022 by Dman

[manji]

1 hour ago, SotonianWill said:

Difference being he was head of academy recruitment at city, from what I understand it’s head of all recruitment at Chelsea 

Missed that bit 🫣😳

[Miltonaggro]

43 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Brownnose chiming in with his usual vacuous trash, has he become the official spokesperson for the secretive regime at Britannia Road

Indeed time to rechristen chunky as Adam Brownmore. 

[tdmickey3]

What is point of keeping him here for the 6 months, he`s hardly going to work to hard on our recruitment is he?

He eyes will firmly be on what he can do for his new paymasters 

[wild-saint]

3 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

What is point of keeping him here for the 6 months, he`s hardly going to work to hard on our recruitment is he?

He eyes will firmly be on what he can do for his new paymasters 

I would imagine it will be garden leave. 

[miserableoldgit]

To be honest, back in the day, I went through a period of 3 or 4 years when I changed jobs every 6/9 months because there was a shortage of good Site Managers and I kept getting phone calls out of the blue offering a few thousand more if I moved. Over that period of time my salary shot up ridiculously because of this situation. I suspect that this is more to do with the Joe Shields situation than any internal strife.....but internal strife makes a better story/something to moan about.

[Miltonaggro]

As other posters have alluded to, having thought this over this looks like Saints may well have been played.  Something of a set up to avoid Man City the embarrassment of feeding a direct rival in Chelsea, and a possible explanation behind their weird last minute approach for Lavia.  To be honest the only concern I would have is if we have done the bulk of our season's transfer budget on a trio of promising but green youngsters recommended by a senior figure now rapidly exiting stage left.  If Shields wants away then bollocks to him, but pray that his prodigies come good for Saints and that his decision (which has left Saints 'very angry' according to Brownmore) means Sport Republic commit to their root and branch reshuffle sooner rather than later.  

[tdmickey3]

18 minutes ago, wild-saint said:

I would imagine it will be garden leave. 

Perhaps but this stops us recruiting for the position for the duration, sack him off now with zero pay and spend it on new comer

[EBS1980]

I assume they mean at end of notice period rather than contract? Wouldn’t imagine we brought him in on a 1yr contract?!

[jasonb]

8 minutes ago, miserableoldgit said:

To be honest, back in the day, I went through a period of 3 or 4 years when I changed jobs every 6/9 months because there was a shortage of good Site Managers and I kept getting phone calls out of the blue offering a few thousand more if I moved. Over that period of time my salary shot up ridiculously because of this situation. I suspect that this is more to do with the Joe Shields situation than any internal strife.....but internal strife makes a better story/something to moan about.

Happens a lot in my industry too. Good people are always in demand and people will pay to get them no matter how long someone has been at a company. 

Great position to be in as you say and in some cases a lack of loyalty is actually rewarded more than someone who puts in 10 years+. A fine balancing act of course. 

[Chez]

On reflection, it's less of `meh' from me and more of a `this could be good news'. Yeah, its a bit of a stretch but give me some rope....

Think of it like this. Would we have signed all those City lads if he hadn't come? Probably not. He joins us and those youngster feel happy to come to Saints. The flip side is, would have City sold all those players if they hadn't allowed Shields to come to us? By the same accord, now we have let Shields join Chelsea, we are now maybe able to make a small fortune selling our talent on to Chelsea. That is our philosophy after all, buy young talent, improve and sell on to allow reinvestment in more young talent. Our players are more likely to be recommended by Shields and those players will be even more happy to go there if Shields is the one asking.

Now, if our City youngsters turn out to not be good enough for Chelsea, then maybe Shields bought the wrong ones...only time will tell on that one...and thus did we want him bringing in more players anyway?

Yeah, I said it was a stretch, but no more so than the thought that he is departing because the club is rotten. He's going because he go the job he wanted at a CL winner. It's a no brainer. 

[Bad Wolf]

18 hours ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

No I’m saying we’re a stepping stone club. The overreaction from people about him leaving is remarkable. 😅

Absolutely. We're a stepping stone and long may it continue. The last player/manager I want us to have is someone that thinks they'll never do any better. I want players who have aspirations of playing for the biggest clubs in the world because they'll have to do damn well with us!

[Dorchester Saint]

3 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

I do feel the same, I find myself not really bothering with European football, other PL games or even internationals nowadays. Football just feels a little dead to me.

Whilst it's 'fun' to potentially see players like Haaland trash records, he is being paid 900k per week for the privilege which is just obscene and shouldn't be allowed. Then you've got Barca, on the brink financially, yet spending more than anyone else in Spain and now on the 'brink' financially again after they failed to qualify for the next rounds of the CL. It shouldn't be allowed to happen.

Meanwhile clubs like ourselves, who want to do it properly and within our means, are just constantly beaten up against a wall by these clubs who hold no regard for anything.

Todd Boehly at Chelsea is just playing Football Manager, it's as simple as that. It's what I do when I get the job at a club with some money. You go and poach the biggest and best coaches, physios, DoF's, players and then change it again when it hasn't brought desired results in a few months. Money doesn't seem to be an object for these clubs and it's so wrong. It's hard for 'everyday folk' to be aligned with football anymore, most of the general public are on their arses financially, trying to skrimp together the loose change they have, yet you have clubs writing off millions on 'mistakes' at a whim with no care in the world. How can the normal fan relate to football these days?

I know a counter argument to these feelings will be ''well, it's only because we're not doing well that we feel this way'' - maybe there is a tiny element to that, but you also have to look at it and say what chance do we have to ever 'do well' in the current climate? Unless we have owners willing to gamble with their own money then we're just fodder, as per most clubs in this league.

The model of selling to buy and being a 'showcase club' is pretty much all we can be, ditto most clubs in this league. Gone are the days when you can build a genuine connection with a team, as we did in L1/Champ. It feels like it's almost illegal for us to be allowed to keep 'good players' for more than a couple of years, and you'll start to see that reduce even more in the future.

There are some genuine plus points to a split away league. Let all those morons go and play in their own playground.

U ok hun? 

[washsaint]

Honestly, if this fella does not have the integrity to work with the Club re. his leaving and goes 'rogue' announcing it before telling the club - good riddance.

Not sure how this can be spun as the club's fault.  I do have to say that Adam Blackmore  may have had a point: if this forum is representative (don't believe it is) some of our fanbase do have higher expectations than we can realistically attain and are constantly looking for scapegoats.

That being said, this is also an entertainment business and there has been very little entertainment over the last 18-24 months.

 

[whelk]

5 hours ago, SotonianWill said:

Difference being he was head of academy recruitment at city, from what I understand it’s head of all recruitment at Chelsea 

The job here was a step up for him. Not sure he is all that anyway. What the fuck has done other than signed some City lads he knew. Chelsea could easily spew him out 

[Christophenburg]

I was pretty animated about this news when it first broke yesterday but after listening and reflecting I'm more indifferent now, even a little pleased. Seems Shields is a pretty toxic - unprofessional interactions on social media, leaking like a sieve, and the fact that he told the press about the Chelsea offer before the club, says all you need to know. Even if it looks a little embarrassing that our head of recruitment is leaving after just 4 months despite being sold a project, I think it could end up being a blessing in disguise

[OldNick]

20 hours ago, Dman said:

All part of the Chelsea’s master plan to get Lavia. 
 

City would never sell him to chelsea. Get this little bald midget to come to us, convince City to sell them, then fuck off to chelsea and take him with ya… 

 

Sneaky bastards. Would never have happened under Cortese. The bald fella’s head would be outside St Mary’s just at the thought of using us like that. 

Of course his role in getting Lavia here to sell to Chelsea is a masterstroke......ohhhh City have a £40m buy back clause

[OldNick]

If he is this disloyal it may be best he's gone. I recall Harry saying that while managing Saints he told Spurs to buy Curtis Davies (he was very young at the time) as he had massive potential. 

Also when Pep was talking about him, he didnt seem to actually know who he was, well that was my impression when listening

Edited 13 October, 2022 by OldNick

[trousers]

7 minutes ago, Christophenburg said:

I was pretty animated about this news when it first broke yesterday but after listening and reflecting I'm more indifferent now, even a little pleased. Seems Shields is a pretty toxic - unprofessional interactions on social media, leaking like a sieve, and the fact that he told the press about the Chelsea offer before the club, says all you need to know. Even if it looks a little embarrassing that our head of recruitment is leaving after just 4 months despite being sold a project, I think it could end up being a blessing in disguise

Inclined to agree that it seems we are well shot of him, but maybe it exposes a weakness in our senior management recruitment process if we can't identify what appears to be an obvious a bad egg before we offer them a job...? 

[charliemiller]

He needs to go NOW not in six months , go and have gardening leave , the last thing we need currently is a bad smell round the club we have enough issues already with disgrunted players and staff etc .

[SuperSAINT]

 

[JRM]

21 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

Take Broja on loan as compensation 

[Convict Colony]

29 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

 

Looks like he has already started

 

Edited 13 October, 2022 by Convict Colony
fixed initials

[HarvSFC]

He's deleted his Instagram account, so he may miss out on any Goncalo Ramos updates.

[DT]

25 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

His head is on upside down

[Saint Fan CaM]

Stinks a bit this one - we’ll never know, but with just one years contract and now he’s off there’s been some skullduggery going on. Perhaps stretching it, but I wonder if he had an adverse hand in Broja not coming back here?

But now the damage has been done with a less than completely successful summer window thanks to this charlatan, the critical future for the club lies not in the recruitment department right now but in the results on the pitch. We’re truly at a crisis point and I suspect there are some very squeaky bums around the Saints Boardroom and beyond right now as the master plan for the first team appears to have been written on dissolvable bog roll.

[Dusic]

Massive transfer window approaching so whatever way you look at it the fact we are less than 3 months from that (and loads of stuff we get unofficially done during the WC anyway) and our head of recruitment is essentially banned from the club is pretty worrying.

Recruitment is Ankersen's specialism so perhaps he will get more hands on, at least in the interim.

[miserableoldgit]

7 hours ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Brownnose chiming in with his usual vacuous trash, has he become the official spokesperson for the secretive regime at Britannia Road

It amazes me how toxic this place is at times. People that have been looked upon favourably (Semmons, Steel Blackmore etc) suddenly become villains and to blame for all ills. Can I be the first to blame all the problems on Jim the Kitman and Pete the Groundsman.....and DO NOT get me started on Doris the Tealady!! Anyone I've missed?? Cue the "I've always said......" brigade ..