Miltonaggro

This is the reason why Solak's response is so baffling. The fighting talk and we are all in this together puff after the sanction and appeal was welcome, but our net spend recording a plus £10m profit in the summer window makes you think that Sport Republic don't realise the depth of shite the club will be in if the wheels come off this season.

If Eckert gets the book thrown at him and has to be removed Solak needs to do what he should have done in the summer and bin Parsons and entourage. I must admit I hadn't seen him interviewed before this clip and the man exudes rabbit in the headlights incompetence paired with a complete incapacity to hold a position of authority in a multi-million pound business. He seems to function on self-pity / preservation - not good attributes for a CEO. Any CEO. I am beginning to think that the club has been tipped off of the outcome after negotiations with the FA and what we are seeing with Ankersen stepping down and Parsons whining is the reactive, performative finale. In terms of Solak being an idiot, he certainly lacks judgement in personnel, is remarkably hands off, and appears incapable of learning from a series of costly decisions and mistakes. His post-appeal statement in the summer included the following nuggets: "I am sorry for how this season has ended. I am at the head of the football club and I must take responsibility for everything that happens here. It's important to apologise for how we handled the matters in the early stages of the process. We have to be better. Mistakes have been made and we will learn from them. Let me take this opportunity to reaffirm how committed I am to bringing success to St Mary's. I also like to thank Johannes [Spors] and Phil [Parsons] for their efforts during the difficult time. We all together will continue to work hard this summer to give you a team you can be proud of and a club that is growing every year. We will work with the FA in the coming weeks to make everything right and to put this whole situation behind us so we can focus on building the club and the team and the unity and the community of Saints that everybody can only be proud of. I promise you that we'll bring to you at the end of the summer the team that will take you out of your seats and excitement will run high against St Mary's." This was obvously pre-season ticket PR, but it is fucking daft if you don't deliver on it in the circumstances and bugger on as you have before. I don't think the EFL and FA treat us like this with Cortese (a litigious and committed hot head) or Reed (a known figure with FA circles) running the football side of the club. Solak needs to bear this in mind should he decide to replace the clowns.

I would actually contribute £100 to that plan.

Very deep pockets and both the EFL and FA could be tested in the civil courts, but I don’t think Solak has the stomach for it, allied to clueless advisors who think capitulation is decisive action.

With the soppy cunts running SFC I can actually see a worst scenario happening, whereby the FA (emboldened by Sport Republic terminal weakness v the EFL) gives TE a season ban causing the club to sack him, without any inkling of a suitable replacement sounded out and ready to come in. The entire experience of SR at SFC has been an expensive and costly work experience project.

Fuck me, I wouldn’t employ that gurning simpleton to run a bath.

100% this.

Tonda may need to ask Spors to have a look at the free agent list for a forward to bring in and get up to a reasonable level of fitness over this break. Otherwise, relying solely on Larin for the next 14 weeks could prove exceptionally costly. If he gets injured we will be fucked.

We are going to regret not buying an experienced centre forward to replace Stewart. Larin has given all but looks knackered.

FFS!

Get the fuck in JWP!

Marty Cane and Mr Messy 😊

Their bravery is improving. Fans probably cost them the win, unsettling the momentum.

0-4 or 1-4 against the comedy geniuses. COYR!

I was watching something in passing the other week with Bournemouth fans being asked about their percieved ‘rivalries’ - must have been something in the run up to their Euro debut against the Spanish giants Real Socio. Two of the Cherries ultras stated that their historical rivals were ‘Leeds United.’ I hope somebody tells Leeds so that can give the town a makeover again, it’s overdue to be honest.

Sad news, and awful for his family, no age at all these days. KM did well for us when he came out of retirement to cover Bart and Paul Smith, must have been in his late 30s. RIP.

He didn’t need to recruit a team of specialist lawyers, just have a semi-conscious crisis management plan for the multi-million pound sports organisation that pays him well to be a CEO.

Nail on the head here with fitness and literally hitting the ground running with the first touch goal. After his relative success at Betsiktas (83 games 31 goals), with various loans he had five clubs in three countries over four years prior to signing for Saints (132 games 26 goals), so the initial sceptism appeared justified. At the time it looked like we were getting a 30 year old journeyman, lacking in match fitness with a record of one goal in five games. Larin appears incredibly at home at SFC, has bonded with the fans and willing to give 110% for the jersey. Connection and commitment has always been a big factor with Saints supporters, and we've been starved of that in recent years.

They would if they lost.

Football regulators are no different from any other commercial regulator in terms of their powers, and exceeding their powers / appearing to act subjectively. A regulatory body is never above the law, so there is always recourse, a further independent level / test. Essentially, that's the key thing, commercial or reputational damage due to the regulator exceeding their powers, or applying their powers inconsistently.

I was surprised by the club's stance towards the EFL when the case broke. Admitting the accusation /causation, allowing two other counts, and then agreeing to an accelerated timescale for the hearing was an honourable if naive approach, certainly not what would have been expected of most of the clubs in our division in the mix for the mega money playoff on merit. I anticipated the crisis strategy would be deny, set up a lengthy internal investigation (pad out), internally mitigate with those accused, and then threaten litigation if the punishment set by the regulator was excessive (external scrutiny). Solak has repeat form for this in his business dealings. SFC only seemed to wake up to reality at the 11th hour in the appeal hearing with the desparate panic to mobilise David Pannick. Far too little far too late. My gut feeling is that this time around the response may be different, and there will have been discrete communication between the club and the FA that excessive punishment towards the manager won't be accepted without consequences. We will find out soon enough.

Clarke looked one hell of a player when he joined Saints in 1986, after starring for NI in the World Cup in Mexico (remember him scoring against Spain). Scored 20 in his first season then 16 second season in the top flight, before falling out of form and favour with Chris Nicholl. His record for Saints is essentially a goal every two games. Always felt a premature departure.

He joins when we go up, giving us the Hampshire equivelent of the Siegfried Line.

A peach. Cheered up a dull afternoon with an observed guffaw. Namaste Mr Fry!