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Matthew Le God

By Matthew Le God
in The Saints

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Daft Kerplunk

Daft Kerplunk

Posted
Posted
  On 25/03/2025 at 11:44, saint michael said:

I find his recent statements concerning. His focus is on youth development and pathways is great, but to talk about this at a time where we have the worst first team and very little ability in the basics of professional football I find bizarre. 
 

He talks about selling our best players to the top 5/6 being the target and success for saints being able to hold onto these players rather than moving to the teams who we should be seen as our competitors. If he means Bournemouth and Brighton how does he think he will get us close to them. What does he think the steps are from this low point we are in…

he makes no real mention of our ambitions of us a professional football team. Am I missing something. I know we’ve always been great for development and moving players on but is that the total strategy now and the football is a byproduct of this. 

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Absolutely. To develop truly good players, you need to develop a winning and high achieving culture.  A focus on youth and pathways needs a sharp end that is setting a goal for excellence in the first team.  That way you can attract and retain better quality, you win more and lose less, and when those players who have developed join the first team, their value will be higher so the rewards are there for the money men, but the football side is also in better health, and the fans are also on side because they see the football purpose.  A football club should have two motivations; having the best possible football team over the long-term and a great fan experience that sees fans fully connected to the club, not just customers to rinse.

  • Like 1
leesaint88

leesaint88

Posted
Posted
  On 15/03/2025 at 22:55, Pamplemousse said:

I'd get Steve Cooper in - he'd get a couple of wins this season (especially at Leciester) and would take us up easily. He's great with young players, he'd be the perfect fit for us.

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He was on the original SR hit list back in 2022, Jones has been and gone, Juric is stinking the place out now...third time lucky with Cooper!?

  • Like 3
Turkish

Turkish

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 25/03/2025 at 12:49, Daft Kerplunk said:

Absolutely. To develop truly good players, you need to develop a winning and high achieving culture.  A focus on youth and pathways needs a sharp end that is setting a goal for excellence in the first team.  That way you can attract and retain better quality, you win more and lose less, and when those players who have developed join the first team, their value will be higher so the rewards are there for the money men, but the football side is also in better health, and the fans are also on side because they see the football purpose.  A football club should have two motivations; having the best possible football team over the long-term and a great fan experience that sees fans fully connected to the club, not just customers to rinse.

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Theres your problem. We are a self titled player trading club. Our objective is to make money from player sales.

Now in the real world is the top 5-6 clubs will get all the best talent, it's how it is. When we were at our best we were a shop window club, bringing in top youngish talent and letting them showcase themselves in the premier league before getting a big move. There is no shame in that, Dortmund have that model and are masters at it. Our problems started when we thought we'd cracked the code and tried to do it with every player. Rather than having a good core of players like we did with Davis, Bertrand, Pelle, Fonte, etc and adding in 4-5 YHGTIers around them we tried to build an entire team based on what we could sell them for and it backfired. 

We also tried to keep signing players for 10-15m when the value of that sort of player had gone up. So we ended up with a 2-3 players for one position none of which were good enough and we couldn't sell. This cost us more than actually buying 1 decent player per position and was the reason for our decline. 

If we sell a player for 60m+ to a top club brilliant bring it on, bigger clubs than us do it. But lets not then replace them with 2 players for 15m and hope one of them comes good, otherwise you end up right where we are now. Screwed. 

Edited by Turkish
  • Like 18
trousers

trousers

Posted
Posted
  On 25/03/2025 at 13:45, Turkish said:

Theres your problem. We are a self titled player trading club. Our objective is to make money from player sales.

Now in the real world is the top 5-6 clubs will get all the best talent, it's how it is. When we were at our best we were a shop window club, bringing in top youngish talent and letting them showcase themselves in the premier league before getting a big move. There is no shame in that, Dortmund have that model and are masters at it. Our problems started when we thought we'd cracked the code and tried to do it with every player. Rather than having a good core of players like we did with Davis, Bertrand, Pelle, Fonte, etc and adding in 4-5 YHGTIers around them we tried to build an entire team based on what we could sell them for and it backfired. 

We also tried to keep signing players for 10-15m when the value of that sort of player had gone up. So we ended up with a 2-3 players for one position none of which were good enough and we couldn't sell. This cost us more than actually buying 1 decent player per position and was the reason for our decline. 

If we sell a player for 60m+ to a top club brilliant bring it on, bigger clubs than us do it. But lets not then replace them with 2 players for 15m and hope one of them comes good, otherwise you end up right where we are now. Screwed. 

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nutshell_115700821 (5).jpg

  • Like 1
ApprenticeBillionaire

ApprenticeBillionaire

Posted
Posted
  On 25/03/2025 at 19:46, saints-til-i-die said:

Perhaps give the man a chance? He seems to pick good managers and players from what I can see. Just a thought. 

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I'd be willing to give anyone a chance under normal circumstances.

But SportsRepublic have demonstrated they haven't got a fucking clue what they are doing.

Even Wilcox walked.

Granted it was Man United, but they're more of a basket case than us.

 

  • Like 1
hypochondriac

hypochondriac

Posted
Posted
  On 25/03/2025 at 22:31, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

I'd be willing to give anyone a chance under normal circumstances.

But SportsRepublic have demonstrated they haven't got a fucking clue what they are doing.

Even Wilcox walked.

Granted it was Man United, but they're more of a basket case than us.

 

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Not sure you can blame the club for Wilcox leaving. 

Willo of Whiteley

Willo of Whiteley

Posted
Posted

Having watched his first interview, he talks a good game, but he needs to gets fans onside and the footballing operation united pretty quickly.

This is arguably a worse time than relegation two years ago, because in theory you’d have expected SR to have learnt from their mistakes.

They’ll be under more pressure this time, and for now that pressure will be on Spors.

Really hope it works out.

Really hoping his first decision - the manager - is a success. It cannot be Ivan Juric, these past few months are evidence that he is not the man to continue.

  • Like 3
Pamplemousse

Pamplemousse

Posted
Posted
  On 26/03/2025 at 18:24, Willo of Whiteley said:

Having watched his first interview, he talks a good game, but he needs to gets fans onside and the footballing operation united pretty quickly.

This is arguably a worse time than relegation two years ago, because in theory you’d have expected SR to have learnt from their mistakes.

They’ll be under more pressure this time, and for now that pressure will be on Spors.

Really hope it works out.

Really hoping his first decision - the manager - is a success. It cannot be Ivan Juric, these past few months are evidence that he is not the man to continue.

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Hopefully SR have realised that they are the mistake and should leave Spors to it.

  • Like 3
ApprenticeBillionaire

ApprenticeBillionaire

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 26/03/2025 at 18:24, Willo of Whiteley said:

 

They’ll be under more pressure this time, and for now that pressure will be on Spors.

Really hope it works out.

Really hoping his first decision - the manager - is a success. It cannot be Ivan Juric, these past few months are evidence that he is not the man to continue.

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SportsRepublic don't give a shit about us.

We were/are just a vehicle for their multi club model.

Edit: in fact, they're on record more or less saying that.

Edited by ApprenticeBillionaire
Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
  On 26/03/2025 at 21:23, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

It was an abrupt exit, imo.

Especially after all that work signing half of Man city's reserves to then just up and leave.

United must have been tipped off about something.

SportsRepublic are still absolute clowns.

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I thought Wilcox was recruited by someone he’d previously worked with at City. Don’t see what Utd could have been tipped off about, Wilcox was clearly known to them. 

miserableoldgit

miserableoldgit

Posted
Posted
  On 27/03/2025 at 11:43, Toussaint said:

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/25041185.every-word-southamptons-technical-director-spors-said-lengthy-talk/

 

He comes across very well in this interview, it has given me some confidence those at the top have recognised the issues and have a plan in place and are now getting the right people in place to implement the plan.

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"Subscribe to Read Article"....... Can anyone post what was said?

Turkish

Turkish

Posted
Posted
  On 26/03/2025 at 21:25, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

SportsRepublic don't give a shit about us.

We were/are just a vehicle for their multi club model.

Edit: in fact, they're on record more or less saying that.

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They need us to be in the premier league to enable them to get Premier League money to support the other clubs, but i would imagine the idea would be to stay there spending as little as possible whilst trying to flog players for huge profits.

  • Like 2
Matthew Le God

Matthew Le God

Posted
  • Author
Posted
  On 26/03/2025 at 21:25, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

SportsRepublic don't give a shit about us.

We were/are just a vehicle for their multi club model.

Edit: in fact, they're on record more or less saying that.

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Utter nonsense

1) They have not said anything remotely close to that.

2) Of course they care. They have put large amounts of money into the club. Why would they not care about what happens to that money?

 

  • Like 1
  • Confused 1
Weston Super Saint

Weston Super Saint

Posted
Posted
  On 27/03/2025 at 17:01, Matthew Le God said:

Utter nonsense

1) They have not said anything remotely close to that.

2) Of course they care. They have put large amounts of money into the club. Why would they not care about what happens to that money?

 

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1. As if they would.

2. They've also received a lot of money into the club. I imagine they care greatly about that.

StrangelyBrown

StrangelyBrown

Posted
Posted
  On 26/03/2025 at 21:25, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

SportsRepublic don't give a shit about us.

We were/are just a vehicle for their multi club model.

Edit: in fact, they're on record more or less saying that.

Expand  

I'm not sure that's how multi club models work.... I always thought the club at the top of the pyramid benefits from the other clubs lower down...

But maybe I'm wrong and Man City only exists to fuel the rest of the city group 🤯 

Weston Super Saint

Weston Super Saint

Posted
Posted
  On 27/03/2025 at 19:04, StrangelyBrown said:

I'm not sure that's how multi club models work.... I always thought the club at the top of the pyramid benefits from the other clubs lower down...

But maybe I'm wrong and Man City only exists to fuel the rest of the city group 🤯 

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We do things our own way!

#traiblazers

  • Haha 4
pimpin4rizeal

pimpin4rizeal

Posted
Posted (edited)

Too early to get excited but if spors first big decision is putting a 100 m price tag on tyler He’s winning me over already . Be good if we also put stupid price tags on ramsdale and fernandes too .. we should be looking at what makes us stronger on the pitch rather then does the player want to leave .. for example ramsdale would be a massive difference maker for us next season .. us taking 20 m for him and  ending up with bazunu back in goal weakens us dramatically . 
 

wiukd be great if we put huge prices on players like this either pay silly money or we keep the player 

Edited by pimpin4rizeal
  • Like 2
LeG

LeG

Posted
Posted

A few snippets from inside the club

Despite this season being an absolute joke / write off, there's a surprising amount of positivity going into next season. We are in a much better position than when we went down last time.

Lots of investment to come...land...stadium...talent

Dragan has started to place talented people into crucial positions eg Spors His investment will now be looked after by people who know the game.

Planning is well underway.

 

 

 

 

  • Like 23
trousers

trousers

Posted
Posted
  On 28/03/2025 at 08:28, LeG said:

A few snippets from inside the club

Despite this season being an absolute joke / write off, there's a surprising amount of positivity going into next season. We are in a much better position than when we went down last time.

Lots of investment to come...land...stadium...talent

Dragan has started to place talented people into crucial positions eg Spors His investment will now be looked after by people who know the game.

Planning is well underway.

 

 

 

 

Expand  

Thanks for the insights LeG, but one does have to question why it's taken a businessman as successful as Dragan 3 years to work out the bleedin' obvious... 

  • Like 6
Lighthouse

Lighthouse

Posted
Posted
  On 28/03/2025 at 00:00, pimpin4rizeal said:

Too early to get excited but if spors first big decision is putting a 100 m price tag on tyler He’s winning me over already . Be good if we also put stupid price tags on ramsdale and fernandes too .. we should be looking at what makes us stronger on the pitch rather then does the player want to leave .. for example ramsdale would be a massive difference maker for us next season .. us taking 20 m for him and  ending up with bazunu back in goal weakens us dramatically . 
 

wiukd be great if we put huge prices on players like this either pay silly money or we keep the player 

Expand  

Leaking a massive price tag to journalists is a bog standard move for any player who has interest from other clubs. In reality we’ll get nowhere near £100m. We’ll also sell Ramsdale if we get offered anything north of £20m, partly for the fee and partly for the wages. There’ll be a need to balance the books and AR won’t want to hang around. Fernandes who knows, but I’d have thought we’d get £30-40m based on his age and ability.

  • Like 1
miserableoldgit

miserableoldgit

Posted
Posted
  On 28/03/2025 at 08:33, trousers said:

Thanks for the insights LeG, but one does have to question why it's taken a businessman as successful as Dragan 3 years to work out the bleedin' obvious... 

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Probably down to listening too much to the glib-tongued, self-important charlatans that he surrounded himself with.

  • Like 4
Convict Colony

Convict Colony

Posted
Posted
  On 28/03/2025 at 08:28, LeG said:

A few snippets from inside the club

Despite this season being an absolute joke / write off, there's a surprising amount of positivity going into next season. We are in a much better position than when we went down last time.

Lots of investment to come...land...stadium...talent

Dragan has started to place talented people into crucial positions eg Spors His investment will now be looked after by people who know the game.

Planning is well underway.

 

 

 

 

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I need us to be relegated to give me a reason to be positive about us again.

Key part is manager, i prefer Rohl, wonderful hair, great coaching pedigree, worked with Spors before.  I think if Leciester go down then they are in big trouble, Ipswich will be ok but will be interesting who they lose, I'd prefer someone relegated who hasnt been for a while and is not prepared.

Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
  On 28/03/2025 at 09:27, Convict Colony said:

I need us to be relegated to give me a reason to be positive about us again.

Key part is manager, i prefer Rohl, wonderful hair, great coaching pedigree, worked with Spors before.  I think if Leciester go down then they are in big trouble, Ipswich will be ok but will be interesting who they lose, I'd prefer someone relegated who hasnt been for a while and is not prepared.

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Depending on the outcome of the review, Man City perhaps ? 

(would be shit luck if we find them in the Championship next season)

pimpin4rizeal

pimpin4rizeal

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 28/03/2025 at 08:48, Lighthouse said:

Leaking a massive price tag to journalists is a bog standard move for any player who has interest from other clubs. In reality we’ll get nowhere near £100m. We’ll also sell Ramsdale if we get offered anything north of £20m, partly for the fee and partly for the wages. There’ll be a need to balance the books and AR won’t want to hang around. Fernandes who knows, but I’d have thought we’d get £30-40m based on his age and ability.

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For me when you look at squad balance ramsdale will be the most difficult to replace. As I said in the other thread you could play Adam Armstrong in diblings position and it’s very very possible Armstrong will have more goal/assist  contributions  then dibling ..so that sale wouldn’t really hurt us  

Ramsdale on the other hand we go from having a international level keeper who could be the difference between promotion of not to someone like bazunu or McCarthy his value is worth a lot more to our success next year then a average 20 million transfer fee we will be totally weaker for it .. for me I’d like to see us put a stupid 50m price tag on him we shouldn’t sell just at a average price to please him we should think what’s best for us 

Edited by pimpin4rizeal
  • Like 4
Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
  On 28/03/2025 at 11:10, pimpin4rizeal said:

For me when you look at squad balance ramsdale will be the most difficult to replace. As I said in the other thread you could play Adam Armstrong in diblings position and it’s very very possible Armstrong will have more goal/assist  continuations then dibling ..so that sale wouldn’t really hurt us  

Ramsdale on the other hand we go from having a international level keeper who could be the difference between promotion of not to someone like bazunu or McCarthy his value is worth a lot more to our success next year then a average 20 million transfer fee we will be totally weaker for it .. for me I’d like to see us put a stupid 50m price tag on him we shouldn’t sell just at a average price to please him we should think what’s best for us 

Expand  

Agree with you, but fear his contract may stipulate we'll sell him if relegated, possibly even naming the price.

  • Like 3
notnowcato

notnowcato

Posted
Posted
  On 28/03/2025 at 08:33, trousers said:

Thanks for the insights LeG, but one does have to question why it's taken a businessman as successful as Dragan 3 years to work out the bleedin' obvious... 

Expand  

To be fair all the previous DoFs have fucked off at the first sniff of a bigger club being interested.  Not replacing JW was a definite error, one they've hopefully corrected for the better.

  • Like 1
Fabrice29

Fabrice29

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 28/03/2025 at 08:33, trousers said:

Thanks for the insights LeG, but one does have to question why it's taken a businessman as successful as Dragan 3 years to work out the bleedin' obvious... 

Expand  

There’s nothing in that post that we weren’t doing last year. The problem is the moment the head of everything left all the joined up thinking seem to dissipate and never replaced the head ‘talented person’ (Wilcox). Not sure 3 years is fair in that sense. 

Challenge now is to get back to where we were at the end of last season and do the equivalent of this season better with more clarity, more structure and more joined up thinking…when we get there. 

Edited by Fabrice29
Football Special

Football Special

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 28/03/2025 at 08:28, LeG said:

A few snippets from inside the club

Despite this season being an absolute joke / write off, there's a surprising amount of positivity going into next season. We are in a much better position than when we went down last time.

Lots of investment to come...land...stadium...talent

Dragan has started to place talented people into crucial positions eg Spors His investment will now be looked after by people who know the game.

Planning is well underway.

 

 

 

 

Expand  

Sauce? 

Hopefully Talent, Stadium, Land in that order . 

 

Edited by Football Special
Dark Munster

Dark Munster

Posted
Posted
  On 28/03/2025 at 11:18, Badger said:

Agree with you, but fear his contract may stipulate we'll sell him if relegated, possibly even naming the price.

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I think that’s almost certainly true. I can’t imagine him signing for us otherwise. 

wild-saint

wild-saint

Posted
Posted
  On 28/03/2025 at 09:27, Convict Colony said:

I need us to be relegated to give me a reason to be positive about us again.

Key part is manager, i prefer Rohl, wonderful hair, great coaching pedigree, worked with Spors before.  I think if Leciester go down then they are in big trouble, Ipswich will be ok but will be interesting who they lose, I'd prefer someone relegated who hasnt been for a while and is not prepared.

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Eh? So you wouldn’t think it was positive if we managed to stay up and Keep the better players and have money to build. Odd view

CB Fry

CB Fry

Posted
Posted
  On 28/03/2025 at 08:28, LeG said:

A few snippets from inside the club

Despite this season being an absolute joke / write off, there's a surprising amount of positivity going into next season. We are in a much better position than when we went down last time.

Lots of investment to come...land...stadium...talent

Dragan has started to place talented people into crucial positions eg Spors His investment will now be looked after by people who know the game.

Planning is well underway.

 

 

 

 

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This is truly the greatest era in our history.

  • Haha 3
OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

Posted
Posted
  On 28/03/2025 at 08:48, Lighthouse said:

Leaking a massive price tag to journalists is a bog standard move for any player who has interest from other clubs. In reality we’ll get nowhere near £100m. We’ll also sell Ramsdale if we get offered anything north of £20m, partly for the fee and partly for the wages. There’ll be a need to balance the books and AR won’t want to hang around. Fernandes who knows, but I’d have thought we’d get £30-40m based on his age and ability.

Expand  

Financially, we're ok at present, so what we get for Fernandes could be used for player investment. I would also think £30-40m for Fernandes sounds about right, and that should get us a couple of top championship players. But if they're putting a £100m tag on Dibling, crikey, they should be asking £150m for Fernandes!

 

  • Like 1
skintsaint

skintsaint

Posted
Posted
  On 27/03/2025 at 18:18, Turkish said:

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/24844783.southampton-complete-signing-french-youth-captain-valenciennes/

5m for an 18 year old from the French 3rd tier. No evidence at all 😂

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5m euros is roughly 4m quid, plus I doubt paid up in full. When you see other u21 players trading between PL clubs for £15m+ it isn't really as big a deal as you think. 

  • Like 1
Gloucester Saint

Gloucester Saint

Posted
Posted
  On 29/03/2025 at 21:16, skintsaint said:

5m euros is roughly 4m quid, plus I doubt paid up in full. When you see other u21 players trading between PL clubs for £15m+ it isn't really as big a deal as you think. 

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The phrase ‘between PL clubs’ is the key one there. This is the equivalent of buying Bromley, Cheltenham or Harrogate’s star player for that fee, which makes the context quite different.

Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
  On 30/03/2025 at 08:59, Gloucester Saint said:

The phrase ‘between PL clubs’ is the key one there. This is the equivalent of buying Bromley, Cheltenham or Harrogate’s star player for that fee, which makes the context quite different.

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Have Bromley or Harrogate’s star player captained the French U19 team at international level? I know Cheltenham’s hasn’t.

That might offer a little more context, and pains me to admit it but the French have produced some great players.

I’d have been more excited about the signing if I’d read PSG we’re also after him, perhaps we just got in ahead of the crowd.

Of course he might sink without trace but there appears some semblance of reasoning behind the signing. Hope it proves to be something better than  moving some money around the clubs. 

  • Like 1
Gloucester Saint

Gloucester Saint

Posted
Posted
  On 30/03/2025 at 10:05, Badger said:

Have Bromley or Harrogate’s star player captained the French U19 team at international level? I know Cheltenham’s hasn’t.

That might offer a little more context, and pains me to admit it but the French have produced some great players.

I’d have been more excited about the signing if I’d read PSG we’re also after him, perhaps we just got in ahead of the crowd.

Of course he might sink without trace but there appears some semblance of reasoning behind the signing. Hope it proves to be something better than  moving some money around the clubs. 

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Yoann Folly had though, promising cameo, then vanished via a spell at Plymouth.

Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted

Felt when we signed Diallo, Les had just thrown the random words, ‘French’,‘short’ ,’black bloke’,’midfield’ into the signing generator to see what name came up. 

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