The Kraken

Obviously sorry that three fellas have lost their jobs. Good luck to them all. But, from the club’s POV, this at least seems to be a positive step towards addressing our problems. I won’t claim to have an inside knowledge of our set up, so can’t comment on what Ralph was getting in terms of input from his coaches. But it definitely seems to me that Ralph needs people to support him and challenge his ideas. The whole Salisu long throw nonsense sums up where we were in terms of set piece invention. it will be interesting to see who comes in and where this leaves Ralph. If I were him, I’d definitely feel like I’d had my wings clipped.

We’re run like a B&B

We need @alpine_saintback to whinge and whinge and whinge that we haven’t made any signings before May is out.

You’ve got to have tray.

When Valetta FC sign on, we’ll have cracked it. How do you make a Maltese Cross? Poke him in the eye then tell him he can’t join the Sport Republic revolution.

If he actually has the option he should hold out for Liverpool. If he’s got any chance to go there he’d be a decent fit. Jordan Henderson on the wane, James Milner can’t go on forever. So, in answer to your question, Liverpool. That’s who he should hold out for. If he hasn’t got a chance of signing for them, Spurs are another slightly lower option that he might pursue also, but in footballing terms it’s Liverpool.

Brilliant news. The empire continues. Can’t wait.

It is a lot of money though. You’re talking about spending that sort of amount on getting all of the women to go pro. That’s even assuming all of them are on less then 25k a year in their day jobs and would take up this offer. Then you have the manager and coaches on their salaries, plus all other incidentals, total annual costs would probably be hitting close to the 1 million mark. The boys/mens academy feeds into the first team and so is directly funded by the fact that St Mary’s gets 19 games a season with 30,000 posting top whack to be in attendance. Plus the enormous Sky money on offer. That’s the incentive for funding all of the academy sides. The women’s team is separate. Without some hefty sponsorship it would be a loss maker with everyone on all pro contracts. I absolutely think that SFC should be expected to fund some losses over the next few years to get the womens team going, definitely. Expecting the club to prop up a million in costs per year with little revenues the other way is a big ask. Especially when the club is so heavily in debt. Walk before you can run IMO, generate continued interest in the women’s side, get the crowds up and the revenues increased, then the funding can increase. I imagine the club already have it in Mind that ongoing costs will go up after promotion. Going all pro so quickly is not something I’d expect the club to bear just yet.

It’s not ambitious at all, it’s a reflection on his past.

It’s not easy, no. Some of it is actually saving money by *not* signing ageing rubbish like Theo and Long. Neither of them deserved their contracts and they cost the club around £130k a week or £6m to £7m a year. Don’t do that, most fans said at the sign don’t do it. So there’s money to put towards it. If I pick one player off hand to show it, it’s Johnny Evans. Signed by Leicester in 2018 for £3.5m at 90 grand a week. It’s an outlay and you have to get it right. But you get a proper leader in your first team. Maybe Saints aren’t quite at that price bracket, but maybe we should be. And don’t sign a Djnepo if you need to offset it. It’s very hard to do. It’s also doable, even at our level. We don’t buy enough known quality, mostly because we can’t afford it but often because we choose not to.

Dave Brailsford’s marginal gains are a worldwide phenomenon. Good business practise.

As desperate as it seems now, to be fair, we’ve never really been involved in a relegation scrap under Ralph. I’m definitely nervous of our future under him, but as abject as our form is,,overall he’s actually done ok by comfortably keeping us in this division year after year.

No, my point was quite clear in itself. Though of course I want them to be better players as well, that should be pretty obvious.

Yes exactly that, well done. Youll forgive me if you think Shane Long and Theo Walcott are the equivalents of the names I posted.

Completely agree. The top sides definitely tend to sign and/or keep hold of 30+s in their senior positions: Gundogan and Fernandinho with Man City. Thiago, Henderson and now VvD with Liverpool. Thiago Silva, Azpi and Kante at Chelsea etc etc. Older, 30+ players who play leadership roles and/or in the spine of the team. With Saints we’ve got Oriel who has just tipped 30 then our other main experienced players are Armstrong, Theo, Long, and the two keepers. Maybe it’s just a numerical coincidence but I don’t think so. We all saw the benefit of having the likes of Keegan, Ball, Case here when they were in their thirties. Football has moved on since then but I don’t think the principle has.

Promising I suppose that he recognises a major part of our problem. It’s not just the defence though. We definitely lack decent defenders, we also lack a depth of defensive midfielders (Romeu is great when on it, awful when off it), and in McCarthy a keeper not good enough for a starting spot. A decent defensive midfield setup also allows us options of playing a strong 3 in the centre and mixing options up, as we weren’t able to do in the calamitous away performance to Liverpool.

Somewhat likely. I see Alex McCarthy being number one, I think we might actually prioritise a centre back. Then a promising young midfielder from the Austrian league, and a young loan striker from a PL club such as Delap.

Spine of the team. Decent first choice keeper. Leader of a centre back. Strong centre midfielder. Goal scoring striker. We won’t get most/all of them, and we need other reinforcements, but that’s how I see it.

Seems a strange user name to give oneself. Matthew le false deity.

On a separate note, I think we all agree that our end of season has been an abject disgrace. I had to remind myself just how bad our entire second half of the season was last season. From game 18 we played 21, won 4, drew 2, lost 15. Not quite as bad a points per game debacle as our current dreadful run from the Villa drubbing, but pretty awful nonetheless.

I don’t disagree that our coaching setup looks to be very weak. The problem with your solution is that a manager and coach need to be on the same sheet and fully working together and off each other. Would that happen if Ralph was forced to hire a coach? It needs a shake up for sure but we’re (unfortunately) locked into Ralph, so hands are tied a little.

He’s done it before, he walked away from RB Leipzig with a year left on his contract. Albeit he has two years left with us. He could come to an arrangement for a year’s salary as pay off and still do well financially. So it’s not impossible, though I think very unlikely. His contract is supposedly up to £6m a year but with that topped up from bonuses, one of which is to win the league, so perhaps £4m-£5m actual salary as a guess.

I’m holding out for a miracle here and an absolute master stroke of selection by Ralph. Im not holding very hard though. Bizarre lineup.

Oh right, not very much at all then…..

Is this viable? Or likely? Just having a look through the championship table, it seems like a few of the sides in that league are semi pro at best. The cost of going fully professional is, I’d imagine, very high and not going to be offset by revenues in. I think it’s fair to say the side is already currently well funded by SFC, not sure if going fully pro is even financially possible without massive backing (revenues aren’t suddenly going to skyrocket just for being in the Championship).