InvictaSaint

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.

“Exciting and entertaining fan engagement solutions” 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️ How about just buying a striker?

There's a related French word - amortisseurs - for car shock absorbers. Makes sense. Cushions the blow, takes the force out of it. Which, if you've spent £90M odd on an unproven kid, is probably quite useful.... 😉

Yeeeeesssssss!!!!!

Very good post. 👍

To play devil's advocate....could one not also argue - particularly after last night's horror show - that keeping NJ is also a clear and obvious act of self-harm.....?

Worth reading the Echo article in full: 2 January 23More Sport > Southampton boss addresses January transfer plans and Bednarek/Tella By Alfie House @AlfieHouseEcho Digital Sport Reporter Southampton boss addresses January transfer plans and Bednarek/Tella NATHAN Jones admitted the January transfer window will not be “super busy” but insists Saints must improve their squad, whether that is “one, two, three or 10” signings. The Welshman has overseen three defeats from his first three Premier League games since being appointed as Ralph Hasenhuttl’s successor at the beginning of January. Saints are rock-bottom of the division and, although there are only five points between them and Leicester in 13th, only two teams have survived from this position at this time in the last 10 years. Jones was asked about his intentions for the January window, with Sport Republic buying 10 players in the summer alone, as well as select rumours that have emerged in recent weeks. One such was the potential return of Jan Bednarek from his loan spell at Aston Villa, where he is hardly getting a look in, to strengthen in defence. He responded: “There are certain positions we want to strengthen in because we need help and competition in those positions. “That is one position where we would like to strengthen in,” Jones admitted. “But I’m not going to say anything on names now because there is a lot going on. “It’s not going to be a super busy January but we would like to make sure the squad we come out of January with is better.” Another player who could return from a loan spell, but one who has a considerably larger degree of success, is academy graduate Nathan Tella. The 23-year-old has scored eight goals in 22 Championship matches for league-leaders Burnley, who look set for an instant return to the Premier League under Vincent Kompany. Asked about the forward, Jones said: “Every possibility is open but what we have to make sure we do is make sure the squad we go into the January window with is weaker than the one we come out of it with. “Whether that’s one, two, three or 10, we have to ensure we are in a better position by the end of the window to win games and have competition within the squad. We have to make sure we have a positive end to the season.” Jones has previously been honest in suggesting that he has not been able to play the way he and his coaches would desire due to the personnel and availability within his squad. But when asked again if he wants to play a three-at-the-back formation, after returning to it for the first half of the 2-1 defeat at Fulham, his frank response could suggest a more all-encompassing approach to transfer strategy. “I want to win games, I don’t care what shape we play, I really don’t, I just want to win footballmatches,” he insisted. “At the minute, we have played a back three because we’re not the biggest team in the world and when you come up against teams that are big, they’re good from set plays and we need to give ourselves a chance of being dominant in our own box and being a threat in the other. “That’s what we need to do so I don’t mind, throughout my manager career I have played a 4-2-3-1, I’ve played a diamond, throughout the promotions I played a back three and I got to the playoffs with a low-budget side, it’s the principles that are more important. "If we’re the side that can handle absolutely everything then I’d play a certain way.”