Midfield_General

I've actually just heard from a source who is usually spot on that Parsons is making a statement at 5pm tonight to reveal the All New Five Pledges, which I'm told are: 1. Serve the Public Trust 2. Protect the Innocent 3. Uphold the Law* 4. Play Three at the Back 5. Classified (* apparently this one "still needs a bit of work", according to Phil)

Personally I want Five Pledges from Parsons, and I want them now.

It would never have happened on Eric Black's watch, let me tell you

We're the only club in the world that could go from 'inoffensive, friendly family club and a bit of a soft touch' to 'evil incarnate and cheating so badly as to get thrown out of major competitions' in the blink of an eye. It reminds me of this timeline: 25th October 2019: Lose 0-9 at home in a league game. 9th November 2020: Go top of the Premier League. 2nd Feb 2021: Lose 9-0 in a league game. Never any middle ground with Saints. Absolutely mental club. Oh well, in theory it should mean that the pendulum will swing back the other way next season and new first team manager Adam Lallana will probably stumble across a global cure for Ebola or something.

Not quiet enough

I think it's pretty obvious by now that the club have absolutely no idea how to handle the media Fuck knows what Sibley's doing, it's literally his job. He's another one who should be feeling very nervous. As 'Group Head of Communications and PR' he has spectacularly failed to provide any sort of counter narrative in this whole sorry affair. Our PR has been as utterly appalling as every other aspect of how this has been handled.

Fair enough. We probably have very different views on it, but as you say, that's the point of a forum and life would be boring if we all agreed on everything... Personally I just want to see some sort of action from the club. Either come out swinging, back people, adopt a siege mentality and try and use it to our advantage somehow, or go scorched earth, start cleaning house and try to turn the page. This current radio silence and limbo is the worst of both worlds and isn't getting anyone anywhere. Get your act together Dragan (Although I do also suspect Dragan's probably waiting for the result of the FA investigation to see if he can sack Tonda/ the rest of those responsible without pay.)

Quite

You would also have to question just what exactly the the point of Dragan is, other than as an investor. Fair enough as the Chairman/ Owner you hand over day-to-day responsibility to your CEO, but when your CEO then fucks it up to the astonishing extent that Henry the Hoover has, you take control back pretty sharpish and get hands-on to steady the ship and protect your asset. I can only assume that Dragan came by his billions in, shall we say, 'alternative' ways, because he sure as hell doesn't appear to know how to run a successful business or put together a competent management team. The whole thing has been an absolute shambles from the moment he and his goons first arrived. He's a joke.

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Being thrown out of the play-offs, potentially losing £200m, getting a 4 point deduction, being found unanimously guilty by an independent panel, being found unanimously guilty by an appeal panel, having individuals investigated and almost certainly charged by the FA, being vilified in the world's media and it probably leading to the decimation of our management, coaching and playing staff would suggest that ‘but it’s not cheating!!!11!’ isn’t a view that’s widely shared. And ‘thorough and conscientious’ aren’t the words that spring to mind when I read the facts of how he and his crack team went about their brilliant plan, personally. Putting the rights and wrongs of it aside, the whole thing was staggeringly amateurish and inept from start to finish. He's a fucking moron, and so is everyone who enabled him.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DYjo8xFsFli/

It actually wasn't Jim White this time, it was someone on the afternoon show, but it could still have been fed into them that way and it seems that a few different sources have reported the same thing so yeah it's probably happening. It would be weirder if he didn't show his face to be honest, given everything that's gone on. No detail as to why he's there though. Could be because he wants to try and galvanise people, could be because he wants to do the firing face-to-face. If it was my potential £200m that had just been spunked and my business's reputation which had been decimated, I know which one I'd be doing, but let's see.

TalkShite (yes, I know) reporter saying that Dragan has called a 'big meeting' at Staplewood this afternoon and that Tonda has been told to be at it. No idea if true, no further details, just sharing what they just said

You forgot to add the one player we had who literally everyone thought was amazing, and who was Saints through and through, publicly losing his fucking marbles and becoming a laughing stock. You don't get to choose your club though, do you. Once you're in, that's it. There's no other option and the only way out is in a wooden box. It's like being in the mafia.

Careful now, you'll have that tinfoil nutter on here losing his marbles again. Actually on second thoughts, crack on, watching that meltdown was amazing entertainment

Staggering naivety and ineptitude. Someone whose strategic thinking and judgement is that mind-blowingly poor has absolutely no qualification to be in the position of CEO. He has to go, and go now.

He lost his gig at the Telegraph so now he's just another social media goon trying to whip up controversy for clicks, because clicks = his revenue stream. Used to be a respected broadsheet journalist, now he's just a posh Adrian Durham

"I've fucked this up, I'm sorry for letting you all down, and I've resigned" Would be my guess

Marvell's good too. Captain America - brilliant

Exactly. It's like William Blake said in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, his philosophical satire of 1790: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: Infinite. For man has closed himself up, 'til he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern." As you'll remember, Blake uses prose, poetry and vivid illustrations to challenge traditional morality, arguing that opposing forces — such as reason and energy, or good and evil — are both essential for human progress. Which I'm pretty sure is what Mark Dennis was alluding to in that video.

To build on your analogy if I may: When patrolman Alex Murphy had his arms and legs all shot off by Clarence Boddicker and his gang and was left in a pool of his own blood on the ground of an abandoned steel mill, did he give up? Did ambitious junior executive Bob Morton of OCP give up? No, they did not. They had Murphy's corpse converted into Robocop, a heavily armed cyborg with no memory of his former life, who went on to be hailed by the media for his brutally efficient campaign against crime. And if I know Dragan like I think I do, I think he will be taking some lessons from that. We're in safe hands, gentlemen. It's 4D chess. The long game. The club has been playing it all along. Matt Le Tissier knows. You just wait. You'll see.

Bev Priestman