New manager

[Gloucester Saint]

5 hours ago, ExtraMan said:

I was on the old East Terrace at Charlton in 1976, not to watch football but to see The Who, supported by the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. Absolutely massive high terrace (built on a hillside) all the way along the side of the pitch, absolutely packed out in the sun, and the perfect viewing platform to see the stage on the opposite side of the ground. 

Some pictures from the 1976 gig you and Soggy attended https://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/25102/the-who-at-the-valley-in-1976

https://bangnzdrum.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-who-put-boot-in-at-charlton-fc-1976.html

The Who also did a gig there in 1974 - amazing picture from the East Terrace https://michaelputland.com/summer-of-74-at-charlton-athletic/

[Cascadia Saint]

I think it’s safe to say the Juric is still out on this appointment.

[bugenhagen]

6 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

My best mate Slobodan is a fanatical Mantova supporter.  He reckons Juric is a football genius and hard as fuck.

That is a brilliant combination in my book.

The Balkan Chris Marsden?

[Saint_clark]

41 minutes ago, Cascadia Saint said:

I think it’s safe to say the Juric is still out on this appointment.

Ivan to say that was terrible but I did chuckle.

[Dark Munster]

14 hours ago, CSA96 said:

He kind of has signed an 18 month contract. It's 6 months with a further 12 optional on survival. So a get-out clause for both parties upon relegation. SR have made a lot of braindead decisions on the football front but I really don't believe this is one. This is sensible

Glad they listened to me about the contract. About bloody time. 😉

On 13/12/2024 at 16:46, Dark Munster said:

Offer Potter something like £2m for the rest of the season, with a £8m bonus if he keeps us up, along with an automatic pay raise and contract extension. If we go down the contract ends and he's free to walk (with his reputation intact giving the shit we're in), unless both parties agree to an extension (e.g. if we fall just short after a good second half of the season).

I'm sure the contract for Juric also has a big survival bonus as described above.  They couldn't get Potter, but did get someone with a top flight experience. Definitely not another Ankersen brain dead moronic choice. I approve of Juric. It may not work out, but if it doesn't I won't blame SR/Ankersen this time (but of course will continue to blame them for the absolute shit decisions prior).

[Kermitzasaint]

I don't pretend to know anything about Ivan but if he is what he is described to be then I'm all in. Russell Martin was exactly what we were told he was and I never ever liked him. 

Suddenly my apathy for the club is fading. Things may actually start to get interesting now. 

[Saint86]

Lampard currently giving a masterclass in how bad a manger he is 😂🤣 

Pompeys top scorer has basically doubled his tally for the season in less than 45min, Coventry looking utterly clueless and lost trying to play passing football, but with no intensity and they keep just giving it away. 

Edited Saturday at 13:50 by Saint86

[Lighthouse]

16 hours ago, bugenhagen said:

The Balkan Chris Marsden?

The Dalmatian Joe Jordan.

[coalman]

I think the biggest thing is the directors didn't go out, get shit faced at the Christmas party then appoint Lampard the morning after.

[Number9]

On 20/12/2024 at 08:09, Number9 said:

Uninspiring, the JURIC is out.

The JURIC is back in.

Verdict: I'll stick my neck out on this one but this appointment has the hallmarks of being a very good one and IJ will instill some pride back into our play even if we do get relegated.

Contractually, it's a win win situation for both parties in the Summer but my gut instinct is that IJ will stick around to easily get us (re)promoted and rebuild us as a mid-table EPL side.

IJ's stock will dramatically increase and he'll eventually move on to a bigger club.

 

 

 

[SW5 SAINT]

4 hours ago, coalman said:

I think the biggest thing is the directors didn't go out, get shit faced at the Christmas party then appoint Lampard the morning after.

At least with Juric, it would be almost impossible to get worse. Whilst Lampard will probably take Coventry from mid table to relegation…..!

[Badger]

On 20/12/2024 at 13:35, Toadhall Saint said:

Wasn’t the spion kop one if the biggest terraces in the country before they covered it? It certainly looked it.

 

On 20/12/2024 at 13:41, Gloucester Saint said:

Good photo from the 1970s by S36 Owl https://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/topic/180785-old-pics-of-hillsborough/page/4/

I think the Holte End might have beaten it for capacity, although that was a more conventional shape. Biggest terrace of the lot was at Charlton with their huge side East Terrace https://www.followfollow.com/forum/threads/picture-of-charltons-ground-they-valley-when-it-was-abandonded.105108/

Did anyone on here see those terraces in the 1960s/70s? I’ve seen Saints a few times at both grounds but after the Kop was covered and Valley had closed/re-opened. 

Went to Hillsborough in the 80’s and thought that end of the ground huge. Sheff Weds fan I met at Uni said the only time it was given to away fans was Man Utd in their 2nd Division season c1974 who filled it.

On subject of large terraces, I was told the largest was the Wolves north bank in 1960/70’s holding about 22,000 in its heyday. 
 

(But nothing compares with the Chocolate Boxes of Milton Road of course). 

[Gloucester Saint]

31 minutes ago, Badger said:

 

Went to Hillsborough in the 80’s and thought that end of the ground huge. Sheff Weds fan I met at Uni said the only time it was given to away fans was Man Utd in their 2nd Division season c1974 who filled it.

On subject of large terraces, I was told the largest was the Wolves north bank in 1960/70’s holding about 22,000 in its heyday. 
 

(But nothing compares with the Chocolate Boxes of Milton Road of course). 

Some superb pictures of that Kop End in both the 1970s and different stages of the 1980s. Was it covered when you went? Looks superb both covered and uncovered https://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/topic/180785-old-pics-of-hillsborough/

You could be right though about Wolves South Bank - looks enormous https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/wolverhampton-wanderers-fc/2023/04/27/south-banks-last-stand/

Could hold 30000 although the much smaller North Bank was the home end until deemed unsafe in 1985 and South Bank took over. South Bank was so big it also housed away fans. Another photo here https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=905990090973453&id=100046874121074&set=a.550130929892706&locale=bg_BG and https://www.molineuxmix.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/old-molineux-photos.217220/ and https://www.facebook.com/SouthBankMol/posts/southbank-1988/10161833635620487/

Holte End ran it close with 28000 capacity in Villa’s early 1980s peak http://jimmysirrelslovechild.co.uk/classic-games/villa-v-manchester-united

 

Edited Saturday at 22:42 by Gloucester Saint

[Badger]

1 minute ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Some superb pictures of that Kop End in both the 1970s and different stages of the 1980s. Was it covered when you went? Looks superb both covered and uncovered.

You could be right though about Wolves South Bank - looks enormous https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/wolverhampton-wanderers-fc/2023/04/27/south-banks-last-stand/

Could hold 30000 although the much smaller North Bank was the home end until deemed unsafe in 1985 and South Bank took over. South Bank was so big it also housed away fans. Another photo here https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=905990090973453&id=100046874121074&set=a.550130929892706&locale=bg_BG and https://www.molineuxmix.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/old-molineux-photos.217220/ and https://www.facebook.com/SouthBankMol/posts/southbank-1988/10161833635620487/

Holte End ran it close with 28000 capacity in Villa’s early 1980s peak http://jimmysirrelslovechild.co.uk/classic-games/villa-v-manchester-united

 

Think I might have confused the north and south bank at Moulineux. 
 

I don’t think the Hillsborough end was covered when I went there (1984 for the Saints FA Cup QF match). But not certain - a lot of beer pre-match in those days. 

[Badger]

Now checked, the end was still open in 1984.

 

What a glaring miss by Worthington for Saints, something Long or Adams would have been crucified in here for. 

[Toadhall Saint]

7 hours ago, Badger said:

Now checked, the end was still open in 1984.

 

What a glaring miss by Worthington for Saints, something Long or Adams would have been crucified in here for. 

It was and a very good awayday was had. A Sunday if I remember correctly.

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

7 minutes ago, Toadhall Saint said:

It was and a very good awayday was had. A Sunday if I remember correctly.

Yep, we did every away game in the cup that year, everyone was a cracker (even the semi was a good day out other than the result - even got to have a run around on the hallowed Highbury turf!). That traffic to Hillsborough though, took an eternity just to get past the Hockley lights!

[Stud mark of doom]

From memory, that week we were on TV live twice - the sheff Weds cup game on the Sunday and then the Saints 2 (Wallace 2) Liverpool 0league game on the following Friday (the eventual top 2 in the league). 
 

And that meant live for the nation with only 3 other channels to watch, so would have had a huge audience. 
 

Getting into more suspect territory here but I think we might only have been on live TV twice before that ever - the FA cup final of 76, obviously, and the previous round of the FA cup v Blackburn in 84.  (If this is right - we didn’t concede a goal in a live TV match in any of the first four games, despite only one at home.)

Edited Sunday at 07:57 by Stud mark of doom

[Nordic Saint]

On 20/12/2024 at 21:27, Saint_clark said:

Ivan to say that was terrible but I did chuckle.

Ivan the not so Terrible?

[mikee]

14 hours ago, Badger said:

Now checked, the end was still open in 1984.

 

What a glaring miss by Worthington for Saints, something Long or Adams would have been crucified in here for. 

yeah, but at least we then got the amazing 5-1 replay. I seem to remember Steve Williams scoring an amazing goal. Not sure, but I think we even went 0-1 down early in the game.

[pimpin4rizeal]

On 20/12/2024 at 10:04, Fitzhugh Fella said:

18 months would have been a good option. How are we going to judge him? If we get relegated will he be a failure? This is the board deferring the problem until the summer imo. I would have preferred something a little more long sighted but we all know what happens when we go down that road. As it is we will have a manager who almost certainly wont be here next Christmas.

We judge him on how he performs until the end of season , his results win ratio and if he’s improving us.  If he’s not much better then russ or nj we let go .. if on the other hand he manages to turn us round and gets 20-30 points until the end of the season it at least shows we have a decent option who is prem proven and can try and keep hold of him.

the downside could be if he comes in fails to keep us up but does a cracking job and uses that to move elsewhere ..I think too much is being made of no manager wanting a relegation on their cv. This job is super low expectation and it shouldn’t be too hard to look good after Russel Martin  no one is gonna lay the relegation at jurics door .. any future employers will do their homework  as long as Juric improves us a fair bit he can walk away from this fine 

Edited Sunday at 19:44 by pimpin4rizeal

[kitch]

On 20/12/2024 at 09:19, kitch said:

This fucking board, I swear!

Man has only one club he's acheived better than a 40% win ratio at, and that was a Serie C club. He lasted no time at Roma - in fact, this is the Wiki entry:

"Jurić failed to turn the team's fortunes and was regularly criticized for his management style and poor results; he was eventually dismissed on 10 November 2024, after a 2–3 home loss to Bologna that left Roma 20th in the Europa League table and only four points ahead of the relegation zone in Serie A."

He was at Roma for less than TWO months. His record at previous clubs is better, admittedly, but still doesn't scream "Leave this to me guys, I've got this!"

Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but it doesn't inspire confidence (probably because I've got no confidence in the board to get the appointment right). The thing we need is experience, and knowledge of the league. This guy has never managed outside Italy, let alone the UK. They're too 'hip' to go for someone like Moyes, clearly.

If it comes off then I hope he proves me completely wrong.

Forgot I wrote this, just saw a notification in an email, but having read it back I felt bad. Was having a bad day! Whoever inherits this has a hell of a task on their hands, and I know most Saints fans are behind the man - we all should be, myself included. 

In light of the info regarding the kind of deal he's on, SR have played a sensible hand. I really hope it works out for him and the club. He certainly doesn't seem like a 'hipster' appointment.

It probably comes across a bit weird to write this, but I just felt like I owed an apology to some people running a football club who don't know I exist 😄

[Matthew Le God]

Might explain why a move for him didn't go any further...

https://x.com/NicoSchira/status/1871305356560699598?t=hh-YhfLoEam0zI6NPeDAcA&s=19

 

[CB Fry]

Russell Martin and Lucy Pinder currently discussing what the commute is like between Winchester and the Black Country.