saint michael

I’ve got this horrible feeling it will be Scott Parker with his woolly jumper

This weakness all goes back to our defensive tactics and quality at the back. How many times to we see our defenders having to dive in because of weak defence positioning. It always looks like a last ditch throwing themselves at it. This is then compounded by not having the skill at this level. Keeper is 3 years off being a prem keeper if he develops well. Bednarek proven not to have the quality. Salisu not been coached raw and has brain farts Lyanco chicken with his head cut off. Put that lot together and you really have a clusterfuck. Not surprising we need to score 2+ goals every time

I think you may be underestimating their ego and arrogance. I think we see more people in power using the ethos that bullshit baffles brains. Whatever the question, say what you want to say, and say it like it’s a fact. Don’t worry that others may say the opposite. I don’t believe they really care what the fans believe. This is a PR stunt. Ticking a box. When they decide they’ve had enough of Jones they will make the decision…clearly not there yet. somebody mentioned that they have been a fan for 10s of years, me too and I’ve never felt more distant from our club. Don’t feel like saints anymore other than name. Rich mans plaything

If you listen to the recent broadcast to Adam Blackmore it will be restating the same points. Jones not a popular choice but was the manager of the year in 6th biggest league in the world. Will take time to stamp his style on team. Good young side will develop blah blah blah

The purpose of this forum is for them to put their political views forward to justify their past action and what their strategy is and why they will continue to do what they are doing. It’s not to answer the fans questions. All answers will have their spin. If you take a look at prime ministers questions, its their version of this.

I think I now understand the problem 1. we have a keeper that can’t make saves 2. we have a defence that can’t defend 3 we have a midfield that can’t pass 4 we have an attack that can’t score. 5 we have a manager that can’t manage 6 we have coaching staff that can’t coach.

There seems to be a sympathy for Ralph now that he didn’t get the experienced striker in. Didn’t he say at the forum that he didn’t rate experience and it was more about attitude and application? I don’t think we are going to shell out now for experience. More likely to be someone along the lines of Bree that Jones knows and buys into or another in the more expensive version of Mara who will be a long shot of being any better than we have. I think it feels so late again that whoever it might be will be underwhelming and almost certainly not the answer to the problem we have.

Even if things were going brilliantly before he came in he would be the wrong appointment. Long ball football doesn’t work in this league and 3 at the back hasn’t worked at home either. So his fundamental beliefs and style is just wrong. You then add on that he feels unable to influence how we defend and outcomes we have a complete cluster fuck on our hands. Owners will suffer if relegated. So very high risk strategy to just stand by and watch this car crash happening. Stupidity or arrogance or both

I think some leaders are good in turnaround like when he came in after Hughes and some are good taking it on to transform a club. I think he did good job rallying and getting people together at start but it is way beyond his capability and has been for a very long time. concern now is the combination of the amount of change needed and the young players ability to deliver it. Just feels too little to late to me. Whoever comes in has an almighty challenge. Think we should not be surprised how difficult they will find it…. Whoever it is

Good piece Turkish and understand what you say. Just not sure what our patience is in service of. Isn’t the business model the same and only luck in purchases going to make it different. I wonder what their true ambition is.

It’s really sad because it feels it’s gone on longer than it should. You just feel like we have lost our identity as a club. Team needing to gel, team performances so poor and looking lost, rumours of player and manager fallouts, club making poor decisions on how they deal with issues in stadium whether right or wrong, paying below living wage etc etc the list goes on. Something drastic needs to happen to start a new positive direction and era.. it’s not going to be easy and without further fallout but goodness we need to start the new journey now

Agreed but he’s suffering from a stiff neck watching the ball be walloped over his head by keeper. The number of times he came short today only to see this happen. Think you are right though trying to fill gap left by Romeu

Last season I kept thinking he can’t survive another loss and he did. I thought they would pull the trigger at the end of the season. They didn’t. They have now bought a lot of young players in who clearly are going to take time to find their feet. I thought interestingly a comment made by Semmens aboutRalph was that Ralph didn’t rate experience, and that talent beats experience [paraphrasing). now this could be him saying that the players brought in are Ralph’s choice. Young with raw talent that needs developing. if they believe this Ralph stays in the belief he will ride the storm and the team will start performing. My biggest concern is that I have seen no evidence that Ralph knows how to develop and organise a defence. He believes defence is solved by formation not experience one thing is certain to stop this misfiring machine he needs consistency of structure, approach and team to embed a team. I’ve never seen great team building where there is little consistency in the people in the team, and too much change not being managed well.

I got the impression he is doing what he believes in, high press, working with people he believes in. Came across strongly that it’s about being in this league then doing best possible from there… so seems clear on the “what”. I didn’t walk away with any more confidence in the “how”. He was as clearly shocked by the poor run as we are but also not able to influence a change in that run..interesting that he mentioned Broja and younger ones looking around after having a few good games and mentioned their values. All in all my view hasn’t dramatically changed that he seems like a nice bloke doing what he believes to be the best…I’m just not sure I believe he is the right man to make a sustainable change to make this group good enough and organised enough to cope with prem league.

New striker Probably announced tomorrow before fans forum to stop any awkward questions. 12 year old world class striker on 8 year contract going to be worth fortune when we sell him in 6 years time.

Until the owners and Board think the premier position is in jeopardy he stays. If they were not going to back him they would have got rid in summer. Don’t forget success for them is survival so they will be delighted by what he has done so far. Whether we play well or not on top of this is a bonus. I think they will give him a lot longer than any of us believe at this time. They are not going to tell us they are happy with form or it will affect supporter behaviour, support / income. I think we are in for a rough ride to come yet. I only hope we can keep these youngsters heads up.

Any Striker we sign is going to need to be amazing to compensate for this defence and organisation . Sorting out structure, tactics, a defence along with goals essential. Another couple of big losses and the youngsters are going to struggle. I cant see how a good striker is going to score more than we let in. i cant see us letting in less than 2 a game

There was a lot more honesty that they were shit days… the overdrive today of spin where everything is going in the right direction when the football is complete shit. We’ve also got fans believing it…. Are you one of those?

I don’t feel angry I feel sad. First game in 67. I feel I have lost my club. Ralph is a real Charlatan. All bullshit now with prem and Ralph who is fi ing clueless. I would seriously be in any league with a set up that I can connect to than this shit

Could be good signing. Let’s hope so. not sure of our business model value sell on unless he truly is world class and we sell him after 2 years. 5 year contract. 3 years experience with us. Runs down contract. Sell him with 1 year to go to get value or he runs it down to go for free world class we sell him early. Turns out awful we have 5 years of him on high contract. clearly players running down contracts challenges our business model. Also great young players hoovered up as bit of a punt by big clubs and not so big clubs with more money.

I would only want him if he’s good at passing sideways and backwards. I think if we can keep the ball for 90mins we are in with a shout

So Ralph didn’t instruct them on what they should be training the players in and after all this time here has decided they are the issue and don’t have the skill to do it …….hmmm. I wonder what he is accountable for

I think the team are badly organised and don’t have individual skill to play the way they are being asked to. We see a lot of individual errors at critical times particularly defensively when they just can’t do what they need to. This means that they are not playing to their strengths as individuals and as a team. I think the form comes with their confidence, when they have had a period of low errors. As soon as they start to happen again the whole team seems to lose belief. They then don’t know what to do to regain it and Ralph just getting them to continue to do the same things in the hope it all starts to click again doesn’t help. This is where I think another manager would make a difference. I don’t think we are ever going to have the team with individual skills to do what he wants them to do and his reluctance to change style and tactics gives an inevitable outcome. It’s painful watching the slow and inevitable death happen.

Saints Board will be looking at this season as incredibly successful. They have remained in the money league. So from business level tick. They will look at what little they could spend that would make a difference to deliver the same result or better next season. the big question is what does that need to be in terms of spend, what does that mean in terms of player turnover and how to reduce the balance of risk and to give assurance of return. I think the Board see changing him would be in the high risk category so don’t see it happening. I can’t stand watching saints at the moment and the set up around the team. Can we stop not blaming Ralph please. If he can’t make a difference on players by coaching and tactics etc. he shouldn’t be here. As stated a lot of these players are his, or he has had enough time to change them by improving or moving on. What does he add?

Ralph said at the end of the bbc interview there was a lot of business to do. So he clearly thinks a lot will happen. WhIlst he delivers prem survival I think he will have a job regardless of what we want or think. The last 15 games have been like watching the bottom Side perform and him getting off with it from the board because of earlier form and consequence of change. I still don’t see enough tactical nouse or individual / team coaching to give me confidence he can improve. As somebody said earlier it’s hard to assess what could be done with this lot with a different approach. Running them into the ground clearly doesn’t work and I can’t believe there is a whole team of JWP’s level of effort who can be bought that could maintain that style. I find his behaviour on the line irritating like he’s not associated with what’s going on, on the pitch and his pre and post match comments ridiculous and even more irritating