Russell Martin

[Saint NL]

Interesting to see Leicesters owners take a gamble, while we sit on our hands.

 

Fwiw, I don't rate Ruud as a manager. He *might* turn out to be decent, unlike Martin who is never going to be a PL standard manager. Better to gamble and lose than just do nothing and set new records....

[Doctoroncall]

18 minutes ago, Dr. Kucho said:

I cannot decide if Martin is doing a good job for Sports Republic or they don’t have the funds to remove him.

In a good job I mean that Sport Republic want to make money and care less about our club. So far they are on course to make huge profits on Dibling, Harwood-Bellis and Fernandes, and that’s their main goal. So, in their perspective, who cares about the league table and let’s make money. Then at the end of the season drop down a league and buy or intro new talent. Being in the Championship means players are cheaper and all they have to do is get promoted within 2 seasons. All Martin has to do is play City football and shop potential buyers that our players can play their brand of football. 

Just buy/retain a group of players who are top Championship players like Fraser, Armstrong, Stephens etc and have young talent making up the numbers and hope they are good enough to make a healthy profit on. The good championship players will make sure you end up near the top of that league and then it’s simply one, maybe more if we are lucky, seasons in the Premier League shop window for the talented young players to show their talent and be sold.

Apologies this must sound far fetched but I just don’t have a clue what Sport Republic want and their main goal is (except making money).

Apparently (or allegedly) they have a ten year plan. Whether it’s fictional like the Five Pledges or real, no one knows or has any details. Your suggestion could well be it considering SRs track record on football club management. 

[Weston Super Saint]

31 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

You’re right I didn’t read them but there’s a difference between that plan and this which I did spot from Farmer which seems a perfectly valid business plan. 
 

‘But where the strategy seems to be that we covered our bases financially to mean relegation doesn't matter, I guess we'll just have to suffer longer.’

We didn't need to spend a single penny in the summer for the first plan (relegation) to happen.

Farmer Giles's cunning plan is therefore nonsense as we didn't need to 'cut our cloth accordingly' as we didn't need to cut it all.

I'll add the @trousers klaxon here as well as no doubt our Walter Mitty Farmer will come back with his usual bollocks about spending millions of pounds on next year's championship players as there definitely wont be any others any better next summer that we could have bought - some of them even with just the interest gained on banking 120+ million for a year, let alone spending a year's wages completely unnecessarily.

[saintant]

5 minutes ago, Doctoroncall said:

Apparently (or allegedly) they have a ten year plan. Whether it’s fictional like the Five Pledges or real, no one knows or has any details. Your suggestion could well be it considering SRs track record on football club management. 

Nobody with any nous sets a 10 year plan as it's far too long a time period which is going to result in many imponderables leading to the plan having to be torn up and changed. Might sound clever and indicate SR know what they are doing but quite clearly they don't have a clue and are simply floundering around.

[notnowcato]

10 hours ago, Zorba said:

Ok, you refer to relegated managers (not the “titans”) that have bounced back, inferring that sticking with RM might be beneficial in the right circumstances. This worked for Bagpuss and Dyche because they knew how to adapt to win games. In contrast, RM always reverts back to his possession obsession ideology and it has failed consistently this level. 

I don’t have a personal vendetta against RM. I wish he would adapt his game to suit our players. Not try to adapt our players to suit his game. If our players were capable of that, they’d already be playing for Pep.

 

You say that as if you know exactly how Redknapp and Dyche adapted AND you know the type of manager Martin will be in a years time, truth is no one does know.  You can make an assumption based on what's happened thus far but to say that's how things will always be is a stretch.

[tdmickey3]

6 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

You say that as if you know exactly how Redknapp and Dyche adapted AND you know the type of manager Martin will be in a years time, truth is no one does know.  You can make an assumption based on what's happened thus far but to say that's how things will always be is a stretch.

He played the same at MK Dons and the team conceded lots of goals, he played the same at Swansea and the team conceded lots of goals, he played the same last season with us and the team conceded lots of goals and guess what?, he`s playing the same way this season and we are conceding lots of goals.

Its not a stretch at all to say it will be the same every time.

He has no intention of changing and has said so multiple times....and that`s why he needed to go a long time ago

[Harry_SFC]

29 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

You say that as if you know exactly how Redknapp and Dyche adapted AND you know the type of manager Martin will be in a years time, truth is no one does know.  You can make an assumption based on what's happened thus far but to say that's how things will always be is a stretch.

Martin has insisted many times he will never change. So no, it's not a stretch. 

[beatlesaint]

2 hours ago, Charlie Wayman said:

How many times must we have this same old discussion this season, we go round and round in circles just frustrating ourselves and getting nowhere, just like Martin and his troup of circus clowns.

Folk should just disconnect, stop going to matches and let the idiots upstairs at SMS just get on with it. They clearly regard it is as their club and not ours so why should we worry? Being a loyal supporter for 40, 50, 60 or 70 years proves only what gullible fools we have been.

It's hard to quit but it's proving even harder to stomach this insanity.

Its pretty bad when I find myself agreeing with Charlie 😏

[notnowcato]

5 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

Martin has insisted many times he will never change. So no, it's not a stretch. 

There's a difference between change and tweaking and adapting.  I could be wrong but I read change as being wholesale, in this instance a move away from dominating the ball.  You can still have the principle of retaining possession and dominating the ball whilst tweaking and adapting within that philosophy - hopefully with the effect of becoming a lot bloody better at it.  Semantics, I know, and I'm also guessing but so is everyone else when it comes to predicting the future.

Edited November 28 by notnowcato
repetition

[Farmer Saint]

1 hour ago, Fabrice29 said:

You’re right I didn’t read them but there’s a difference between that plan and this which I did spot from Farmer which seems a perfectly valid business plan. 
 

‘But where the strategy seems to be that we covered our bases financially to mean relegation doesn't matter, I guess we'll just have to suffer longer.’

Yeah, he's always been unable to understand what I'm saying - I assume he does it on purpose and thinks it makes him seem clever. It doesn't. He's trying to copy CB Fry's posting style, but he's just not very good at it.

The plan is not to get relegated. The plan is to make sure relegation is not a financial disaster like last time and minimising the players we have to sell, whilst (in their minds anyway) giving us enough players to have a stab at staying up. It's a risk spreading strategy which is really quite sensible considering we were favourites for relegation and we had to spend £50m this Summer just to have as good a team as we had in the Championship last season.

[Farmer Saint]

12 hours ago, CB Fry said:

Someone's been on the Scrumpy.

Yep, and she asked to tell you that "...his dinners in the fridge".

Edited November 28 by Farmer Saint

[Whitey Grandad]

10 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

Yep, and she asked to tell you that "...his dinners in the fridge".

“In the cat” more likely.

[trousers]

15 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

I'm also guessing but so is everyone else when it comes to predicting the future

Sometimes its quite easy to predict what's going to happen in the future....

 

 

(and before you come back to me with your pesky cleverness, yes, I know Phil Connors eventually changed the course of history, so perhaps there's hope forMartin yet... ) 

 

 

Edited November 28 by trousers

[beatlesaint]

23 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

There's a difference between change and tweaking and adapting.  I could be wrong but I read change as being wholesale, in this instance a move away from dominating the ball.  You can still have the principle of retaining possession and dominating the ball whilst tweaking and adapting within that philosophy - hopefully with the effect of becoming a lot bloody better at it.  Semantics, I know, and I'm also guessing but so is everyone else when it comes to predicting the future.

Absolutely, the main tweak is to play the retaining the ball style of football (tappy tappy to some) further up the pitch, in and around the centre circle would be a good start. Move the element of risk further away from the goal which enables you to have defenders well behind the ball if/when you lose it. Its really not difficult and i cannot for the life of me work out why RM hasnt made that change. 

Edited November 28 by beatlesaint

[Whitey Grandad]

1 minute ago, beatlesaint said:

Absolutely, the main tweak is to play the retaining the ball style of football (tappy tappy to some) further up the pitch, in and around the centre circle would be a good start. Move the element of risk further away from the goal which enables you to have defenders well behind the ball if/when you lose it. Its really not difficult and i cannot for the life of me work out why RM hasnt made that change. 

Because he enjoys the risk element. He gets a buzz out of it. It’s effectively a gambler’s high.

[Hemp]

Genuine question. What happens if the next 12 pan out like the first 12 ?

Is 8 points from 72 acceptable to the pro martins.  At what point do SR say enough is enough.

Its clear as day, if Martin wont change our results wont change. We will not suddenly just get better. Moral in the team will surely get lower and lower and even the most positive happy clappers will find a Saturday afternoon watching us concede our 60th,70th goal of the season wearing a bit thin.

I never thought id see the day where my main expectation and hope for the season is to not be worse than Derby were all those years ago.

Martin needs to go, it should of happened 6 or 7 games ago.

[pimpin4rizeal]

1 hour ago, tdmickey3 said:

He played the same at MK Dons and the team conceded lots of goals, he played the same at Swansea and the team conceded lots of goals, he played the same last season with us and the team conceded lots of goals and guess what?, he`s playing the same way this season and we are conceding lots of goals.

Its not a stretch at all to say it will be the same every time.

He has no intention of changing and has said so multiple times....and that`s why he needed to go a long time ago

Absolutely.. Swansea fans views on him was  absolutely laser accurate .. including being more interested in his own philosophy and possession stats then the results .. he won’t change he’s modelled and promoted himself in this way and unfortunately for us That’s what landed him this gig with our naive board ..

martin is probably one of  the most predictable managers ever does exactly what you would expect week in week out 

[lambtiss]

1 hour ago, notnowcato said:

You say that as if you know exactly how Redknapp and Dyche adapted AND you know the type of manager Martin will be in a years time, truth is no one does know.  You can make an assumption based on what's happened thus far but to say that's how things will always be is a stretch.

You say that as if what type of manager Martin will be in a year's time is relevant. All that we need to know is that what he is currently like; which is a poor, underperforming, inflexible manager whose tactics are currently taking us towards certain relegation with the lowest ever points total in PL history.

[coalman]

1 hour ago, saintant said:

Nobody with any nous sets a 10 year plan as it's far too long a time period which is going to result in many imponderables leading to the plan having to be torn up and changed. Might sound clever and indicate SR know what they are doing but quite clearly they don't have a clue and are simply floundering around.

Ten year plans are usually a work of fiction. But, if you are going with a 10 year plan then you would have a clear idea of whether you're on track after 1, 2, 3 years or even after 6 months. In fairness to Martin year 1 was probably "get promoted back to the Premier League" so a tick for that. At the end of year 2 I doubt the plan said "be back in the Championship with a demoralised squad". Just because you've hit the first milestone doesn't mean the whole plan is good.

Within that you'd also have intra year checkpoints to see how you were doing. And again, I would suggest the checkpoint wouldn't be get to the end of November with 4 points on the board (yes, I know we might get points at Brighton before the month is up). At the very least you'd want to feel like you should have won more games (based on Rasmus's pet metric of xG that really isn't the case). In any sane environment you'd look to take remedial action if you were significantly behind your next objective towards the ten year plan. Doing nothing and hoping that it will just get itself back on track is the province of lunatics. At the very least you should have some hypotheses about your plan that you've either proven or disproven in that kind of timescale so that you can adapt and do better.

All plans are subject to change because no plan over any non trivial timescale is worth a damn past writing it. As Eisenhower said "plans are useless, planning is indispensable". Success in any field is about how you adapt when it becomes clear that reality doesn't match your plan. Anyone who says "this is just part of a ten year plan" is effectively saying "fuck off and stop questioning me".

[Fitzhugh Fella]

At the end of the day why would any prospective owner, be it Marcus or Dragan or Gao buy Southampton FC? None of them had posters of Mick Channon etc on their wall while there were growing up and none of them had stepped inside St Mary's before expressing an interest to buy, so the answer is they purchased SFC with the primary intent of making money. I think Markus got a kick out of it (we all saw that with his camera at the JPT final) and Kat (mainly because of her father's legacy and the interest shown by her son) was keen for the club to prosper. Gao couldn't give two hoots and now we have Dragan who has "become" a supporter but remains first and foremost a businessman who one day will be looking to sell on for a profit.

All this means the fans, whose main desires are to see a bit of success and some decent football are inevitably going to be at odds with whoever purchases us, unless we suddenly find a very wealthy Saints fan/owner out there (a la Stoke or Brighton). Unfortunately that is very unlikely unless Steve Grant becomes the new Elon Musk in 10 years.

So, the day we became a limited company via a dodgy reverse takeover, was the first step into "losing" our club and then when the private owner era took over we lost it completely. Sad but inevitable the way football is going and has gone. We can all shout and scream (and I am shouting and am as frustrated as the next guy) but at the end of the day the fans no longer have the clout we once had. The days of the Board heeding terrace unrest disappeared the afternoon Ian Branfoot packed his bags.

[Turkish]

2 hours ago, Doctoroncall said:

Apparently (or allegedly) they have a ten year plan. Whether it’s fictional like the Five Pledges or real, no one knows or has any details. Your suggestion could well be it considering SRs track record on football club management. 

the elusive five pledges were not fictional, they were on Krugers desk waiting to be approved. i have every faith that SR will guide us into heights we never dreamed. With the inspirational leader Rasmus Ankersen steering the ship and football genius Russell Martin holding the compass the good ship Southampton is navigating the current stormy waters to take us to the promised land. 

[trousers]

9 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

unless we suddenly find a very wealthy Saints fan/owner out there (a la Stoke or Brighton). Unfortunately that is very unlikely

*ahem*

 

 😂

[Osvaldorama]

7 minutes ago, Turkish said:

the elusive five pledges were not fictional, they were on Krugers desk waiting to be approved. i have every faith that SR will guide us into heights we never dreamed. With the inspirational leader Rasmus Ankersen steering the ship and football genius Russell Martin holding the compass the good ship Southampton is navigating the current stormy waters to take us to the promised land. 

We are building a footballing dynasty. 
 

10 losses in 12 is the start of an incredible footballing legacy. You small minded folk will never understand.

People will sing songs and tell tales of Russell Martin and Sports Republic’s footballing heritage 

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

We are building a footballing dynasty. 
 

10 losses in 12 is the start of an incredible footballing legacy. You small minded folk will never understand.

People will sing songs and tell tales of Russell Martin and Sports Republic’s footballing heritage 

We are currently as Rasmus famous "break it" stage. It's like when you join the special forces, they break you down and test every fibre of your being so they can rebuild you as an elite warrior, that's exactly what is happening here. By the time Rasmus has finished we will be the footballing version of the SBS. They will write books and make films about how the Rassell double act created a footballing dynasty that reinvented football as we know it. We never lose, we win or we learn. We are learning an awful lot at the moment which will hold us in great stead as we move into the mid term of the 10 year plan.

[saintant]

1 hour ago, coalman said:

Ten year plans are usually a work of fiction. But, if you are going with a 10 year plan then you would have a clear idea of whether you're on track after 1, 2, 3 years or even after 6 months. In fairness to Martin year 1 was probably "get promoted back to the Premier League" so a tick for that. At the end of year 2 I doubt the plan said "be back in the Championship with a demoralised squad". Just because you've hit the first milestone doesn't mean the whole plan is good.

Within that you'd also have intra year checkpoints to see how you were doing. And again, I would suggest the checkpoint wouldn't be get to the end of November with 4 points on the board (yes, I know we might get points at Brighton before the month is up). At the very least you'd want to feel like you should have won more games (based on Rasmus's pet metric of xG that really isn't the case). In any sane environment you'd look to take remedial action if you were significantly behind your next objective towards the ten year plan. Doing nothing and hoping that it will just get itself back on track is the province of lunatics. At the very least you should have some hypotheses about your plan that you've either proven or disproven in that kind of timescale so that you can adapt and do better.

All plans are subject to change because no plan over any non trivial timescale is worth a damn past writing it. As Eisenhower said "plans are useless, planning is indispensable". Success in any field is about how you adapt when it becomes clear that reality doesn't match your plan. Anyone who says "this is just part of a ten year plan" is effectively saying "fuck off and stop questioning me".

It seems you agree with me and have added substance to prove that, having a ten year plan, is something only fools would dream up.

[CB Fry]

12 minutes ago, saintant said:

It seems you agree with me and have added substance to prove that, having a ten year plan, is something only fools would dream up.

Any 3 year 5 year or 10 year plans are rolling anyway. It's not some static thing.

I've never been in a business that doesn't revisit those sorts of plans every year (10 year one maybe every couple of years but that's generally the stuff you want to pretend you want to do but hope the next guy does it not you).

[coalman]

15 minutes ago, saintant said:

It seems you agree with me and have added substance to prove that, having a ten year plan, is something only fools would dream up.

People have asked me for ten year plans before. I usually make up something in the least amount of time possible and try and refocus them on where we'll be in six months time while cursing their existence via my inner monologue. Or sometimes it spills out and I just start laughing at them 😉

[CB Fry]

The plan they have deployed on promotion seems 100% spend as little as possible, probably get relegated then be the richest club in the Championship. And go back up.

It's a shit plan because even if it works the team that "goes back up" is no further along than this team. So we'd be favourites to go down again and the same happy clappers as now will give it the "what do you expect be realistic" routine. Brilliant.

[St Louis]

1 hour ago, trousers said:

*ahem*

 

 😂

Rishi's wealth (even when combined with the very wealthy Mrs Sunak) is apparently £650m, Dragan Šolak's net worth is listed as £1 Billion.
So sadly not the knight in shining armour we need

[SaintLondon]

It's really good of the ownership to make our return to the PL so miserable. Great work. I'm not even sure that sacking Russell helps our plight, our squad ain't great but it's the fact that we've seemingly just accepted it and we move on. Even Russell doesn't believe we'll stay up now - he was punchy 5 games ago with press, of course we can stay up, we're 6 games in etc. Now he has 'belief'

Boring. Watch Brighton smash us tomorrow and Russell will say the lads were brave and were great with the ball but not quite at it in the final third. Couldn't quite find the final pass. Rinse and repeat. 

[beatlesaint]

6 minutes ago, St Louis said:

Rishi's wealth (even when combined with the very wealthy Mrs Sunak) is apparently £650m, Dragan Šolak's net worth is listed as £1 Billion.
So sadly not the knight in shining armour we need

No, quite.......although if we are all around long enough come back in about 20 years and I wouldnt be at all surprised to see him own the club, i think he jokingly half mentioned it himself a couple ofyears ago. 

Christ knows what league we'll be in by then mind you ! 

[Oldandtired]

5 hours ago, Turkish said:

If he fails in the premier league he’s more likely to succeed next time

What do you base that on? He said countless times he won't change his style, it's failing miserably now, it will fail miserably next time, if indeed there is a next time with this manager in charge.

Sorry but that's absolute nonsense.

[Miltonaggro]

1 hour ago, Osvaldorama said:

We are building a footballing dynasty. 
 

10 losses in 12 is the start of an incredible footballing legacy. You small minded folk will never understand.

People will sing songs and tell tales of Russell Martin and Sports Republic’s footballing heritage 

I think you're spot on with the last sentence, very soon people will be singing songs about Russell Martin and Sport Republic's footballing heritage. Perhaps full-time at the Brighton game.

[East Kent Saint]

24 minutes ago, St Louis said:

Rishi's wealth (even when combined with the very wealthy Mrs Sunak) is apparently £650m, Dragan Šolak's net worth is listed as £1 Billion.
So sadly not the knight in shining armour we need

But her Dad could be 😄

[Football Special]

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1862128930213249462?t=jyfd-buOSImUnk_N0ldFBw&s=19

Come on then,  who was it that gave Russ this positive feedback? Could have been a skate? 

 

Edited November 28 by Football Special

[trousers]

1 minute ago, Football Special said:

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1862128930213249462?t=jyfd-buOSImUnk_N0ldFBw&s=19

Come on then,  who was it that gave Russ this positive feedback? 

Ha... Not guilty m'lud...

He also said he relies on Jordan Sibley's feedback for what fans are saying on social media etc.... so, what's Jordan's user name on here then... @gio1saints or @Fabrice29...?

[S-Clarke]

8 minutes ago, Football Special said:

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1862128930213249462?t=jyfd-buOSImUnk_N0ldFBw&s=19

Come on then,  who was it that gave Russ this positive feedback? Could have been a skate? 

 

I reckon it was Gio, or Fabrice.

[tdmickey3]

11 minutes ago, Football Special said:

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1862128930213249462?t=jyfd-buOSImUnk_N0ldFBw&s=19

Come on then,  who was it that gave Russ this positive feedback? Could have been a skate? 

 

Was it this bloke 

[tdmickey3]

20 minutes ago, Oldandtired said:

What do you base that on? He said countless times he won't change his style, it's failing miserably now, it will fail miserably next time, if indeed there is a next time with this manager in charge.

Sorry but that's absolute nonsense.

Whoosh...

[Wade Garrett]

6 hours ago, Charlie Wayman said:

How many times must we have this same old discussion this season, we go round and round in circles just frustrating ourselves and getting nowhere, just like Martin and his troup of circus clowns.

Folk should just disconnect, stop going to matches and let the idiots upstairs at SMS just get on with it. They clearly regard it is as their club and not ours so why should we worry? Being a loyal supporter for 40, 50, 60 or 70 years proves only what gullible fools we have been.

It's hard to quit but it's proving even harder to stomach this insanity.

Encapsulates exactly how I feel.

[Miltonaggro]

23 minutes ago, Football Special said:

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1862128930213249462?t=jyfd-buOSImUnk_N0ldFBw&s=19

Come on then,  who was it that gave Russ this positive feedback? Could have been a skate? 

 

Could feasibly have been one of about four on here, pom poms a go go...

 

[Turkish]

25 minutes ago, Football Special said:

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1862128930213249462?t=jyfd-buOSImUnk_N0ldFBw&s=19

Come on then,  who was it that gave Russ this positive feedback? Could have been a skate? 

 

a mystery unnamed person who Russ bumped into who backed up his view unequivocally. hmmmm........

[Turkish]

16 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I reckon it was Gio, or Fabrice.

couldn't have been Gio, he'd still be there now.

[Doctoroncall]

33 minutes ago, Oldandtired said:

What do you base that on? He said countless times he won't change his style, it's failing miserably now, it will fail miserably next time, if indeed there is a next time with this manager in charge.

Sorry but that's absolute nonsense.

[Harry_SFC]

RM yet again saying how much he is enjoying managing in the premier league. 

[miserableoldgit]

3 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

RM yet again saying how much he is enjoying managing in the premier league. 

He must love these PC's. Some real soft questions about Brighton as a city, how do you get away from the pressure and his running........

[trousers]

3 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

RM yet again saying how much he is enjoying managing in the premier league. 

And after extolling the virtues of how brilliantly Brighton have gone about things the last few years, the journo asked him if Southampton were following that model, and Russ replied: "No, we're doing things very differently... we're doing things our way".... (paraphrased)

Yeah, what a bizarre question from the journo there... why on Earth would we want to emululate the way a successful club does stuff? Utter madness...   

[trousers]

7 minutes ago, miserableoldgit said:

He must love these PC's. Some real soft questions about Brighton as a city, how do you get away from the pressure and his running........

Indeed... it's so obvious that the journos in the room are wary about asking Russ 'tough' questions to avoid rattling the cage, and end up going for the 'safe' option instead....

Edited November 28 by trousers

[Turkish]

6 minutes ago, trousers said:

And after extolling the virtues of how brilliantly Brighton have gone about things the last few years, the journo asked him if Southampton were following that model, and Russ replied: "No, we're doing things very differently... we're doing things our way".... (paraphrased)

Yeah, what a bizarre question from the journo there... why on Earth would we want to emululate the way a successful club does stuff? Utter madness...   

indeed, look what happened when another club copied us a while back

Leicester have copied the Southampton model - Les Reed - iSportConnect

 

[gio1saints]

Anybody know how much profit the average EPL club makes? 

Don’t worry it’s not a trick question. 

The average EPL club does NOT make a profit. 

There are many ways to lose money owning a football club. Buying the club is the first and best way! There are Teams that are much higher up, play much better - or more effective - football and have way more points than us. And they don’t faff around playing kamikaze football in the penalty area either, usually. 

These Teams also have prestige trophies medals superstars history big stadia and more supporters than us. 

Many - most - Saints supporters want us to be like them -  trying to win in a rigged system, somehow.
 

Not many people come out and call it for what it is - a massive con - a gobsmackingly huge game of bait and switch.

The bait is the “ glory” - the bait is “ shirt sales” “image rights” “ transfer fees” “ Premier league money”  and most of all “ global prestige/ media love-in and sport-washing.
 

The switch happens when you look see under the bonnet after you bought one of these clubs. I see clubs carrying debt debt debt and shifting it around like some mental Ponzi scheme. And the clubs who are the cleverest at carrying and shifting carrying and shifting lots of debt usually win the medals the trophies have the superstars and supporters the prestige and the sportwashing also. 
 

It’s not even an English thing. Most the powerhouse euro clubs are have ridiculous debt. 
 

I don’t think SR have much “feeling” for that way of playing the game of football club ownership. Saints fans are right. They don’t know how to do proper football ownership. They haven’t even sacked RM yet when that’s what you are supposed to do. Get a bunch more debt on board like everyone else and get with the programme SR! 
 

No, that’s not my personal advice. My personal advice is stick two fingers up at the programme and defy the prevailing paradigm - and make money doing so. Unlike the rest of the clubs. RM is perfect in that context and despite not getting any points to date if god forbid we should actually make money AND win games then there’s going to be a revolution. But I don’t think the system will like that so the quicker they shut RM and this way of doing it down, the better. Too much money at stake to be allowed to prevail.