Johannes Spors

[Daft Kerplunk]

57 minutes ago, 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. 

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.

[leesaint88]

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.

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!?

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, 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.

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 23 hours ago by Turkish

[trousers]

1 hour ago, 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. 

 

[saints-til-i-die]

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

[ApprenticeBillionaire]

2 hours ago, 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. 

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.

 

[hypochondriac]

15 hours ago, 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.

 

Not sure you can blame the club for Wilcox leaving.