InvictaSaint

I think you know what he was trying to say....clearly nobody wants him to reveal the exact game plan. But what he came out with didn't even come close to looking like he knew what to do / say other than the bland trite clichés that he trots out every time about "front-footed" and "aggression". He clearly has not a single clue.

This is absolutely spot on - and the biggest concern for me. Adam Blackmore names the entire Wolves midfield, referencing them as a threat and asking for information on how NJ plans to set Saints up to counter them. But you are right - it was just vague waffle that he repeated elsewhere. I am not convinced he even knows who Wolves midfielders are let alone how they play. Post Brentford was an absolute car crash, but you might give him half a chance if he showed today he had done his prep and was setting up with a specific game plan to beat Wolves. But the bloke doesn't have a clue.

To be fair, there are a lot of them also recognising voluntarily that a) he is abrasive and rubs people up the wrong way, b) works better with an older head around him and c) has absolutely stitched himself up with his ridiculous press conference last Saturday.

2-2

1-2 now.

Interesting second line - are some players training alone do you know?

To be honest if he hasn't been told this then SR need their collective heads examining. Leaving aside the jaw-dropping decision not to sack him yesterday after Saturday's debacle, it would be utter incompetence to keep a manager in post who has stated to the entire nation that he now "needs to do things his way" in order to succeed.....and then allow him to fail again.

I don't think I have spent a day feeling more depressed about Saints than today - and that includes the relegations in 2005 and 2008. It absolutely beggars belief that this man is being allowed to continue as the steward of our great football club. Utter, utter insanity. There is not a shred of doubt in any Saints supporter's mind - or indeed in the mind of anybody who likes football - that he is incapable of turning this around. The man is a fraud and a failure of epic proportions, and he needs getting rid of for all our sakes.

This is the most clinical, clear and damning bit for me….

You don’t come back from that. SR have no option but to pull the plug.

Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

Or just the club generally.

Willing to go on record saying that neither of the above will happen.

If anybody has a spare ticket (I know - glutton for punishment), please consider me first. 07515008001. Cheers.

Could he not have gone to church like everyone else?

One here please.

Ditto for Brentford please - DM me if you have one. Cheers.

Hi S-Clarke. Yes, I see where you're coming from....but at the same time, I suppose you could ask at what point does it become a similar sample? By definition the samples will never be exactly the same because they are different games played at different times under different managers, in different conditions with different players available. If you are doing it on a purely numerical basis, take the first 5 league games of the season for Ralph and compare with NJ's first 5. On this basis, Ralph still comes out better. That is not to say - to be absolutely clear! - that I believed Ralph didn't need to go; he most certainly did. However, even if you ignore the absence of the new manager 'bounce' that almost every other club seems to benefit from (!), NJ is hardly pulling up trees. Far, far from it. I get what you say about he's not going anywhere - at least not imminently - but if he continues as he's started, then it would be grossly negligent for SR not to look at his results and question whether or not they've made the right appointment. St. Louis (I think) referenced a few weeks ago that SR were actively discussing whether they had made a mistake in appointing NJ and while they will never openly admit as much, it must still be on their radar. If NJ gets us relegated on half a season's results, then that will be squarely on him....and by implication SR.

Bit like the first team.

Not saying we should. Just interested in people’s thoughts.

Me….or them?! 😳🤔

Afternoon All. Not trying to be defeatist or negative....but given our current position it would be naïve not to think about what happens to the club if Saints go down at the end of the season. I thought therefore that this section - which I have transcribed - of the recent BBC Solent interview between Adam Blackmore, Rasmus Ankersen and Martin Semmens is of particular relevance and importance. I've highlighted the bits I think are worthy of note....Thoughts welcome. MS: You’ve got to have a plan you’ve got to give Nathan the resources he needs. AB: How much is the reality of relegation a catalyst for everybody? What happens....how much do Sports Republic worry about relegation and the impact it has on the future of the club or do you think long-term the club will be okay anyway the club will recover if things don’t go well with the backing it’s got? MS: let me answer that and then Rasmus can answer from a Sports Republic point of view, but yes absolutely... so a football club in our position every year focuses 100% on staying in the league and winning games but there is a plan in the background if things you know do not go our way so there’s nothing different or complicated to that. The one thing I can say is that we are having a wonderful ownership group now who have an investment, that are committed to the long-term. It is not a short-term plan so we are in a very very good financial position for the league we are in and any league we’re in and any plan that we have in future so I can only really say that we’re in a stronger position than we’ve ever been. I know that sounds counterintuitive when we’re bottom of the league but from a club structural point of view and an ownership-investment point of view we are in the best position we’ve been in since I’ve been here. AB: Rasmus would you like to add anything to that? RA: Yeah I mean (laughs).... if you are in one of the bottom 12 clubs of the Premier League, you have a certain risk every year of relegation you know and it would be you know irresponsible not to take that into account, but this is the risk of being in the Premier League The risk in the investment. And we fully bought into that but what I can assure you is we are fully committed to the long term of Southampton Football Club. You know we really want to make this successful. We are working as hard....we are fighting as hard as we can and we hope we can get everybody behind us for the last 19 games of the Premier League and then I’m sure we’ll get there.

Listened to it again this morning and you’re spot on both of you. It’s Boss and Wilcox he’s referring to (before both were announced) as he referenced “the commercial side and the footballing side”. Neither of them is going to score the goals to keep us up.

They should certainly clean up.