saintant

As most of us said before the game we should not be playing 3 centre backs. If he doesn't change to a back 4 at half time he is bringing about his own sacking. Some suspect the 3 at the back decision comes from above - if so Still needs to come out and say this in no uncertain terms. This club is so rotten now it is headed for oblivion. The downward spiral will only continue until every last semblance of the poison that is SR has been extracted and we are run by people who have at least some idea what they are doing. Thanks to Martin Semmens for the legacy he left. Wonder how much he collected for overseeing the sale of our club to these charlatans.

If this is true he needs to have the balls to call out those at the club who are telling him what formation to play. Personally I think he's deciding on 3 centre halves but I have no idea why he's persisting with it.

No excuse for not ditching the failing 3 centre back system today. Should have gone 4231 and he'll have a lot of explaining to do if his line up doesn't pay off because the vast majority of us can see it doesn't work and are sick to the back teeth of it. He's making it very hard to back him and call for more time because he doesn't help himself.

Good interview from Scienza's view point. If only we had six or seven more with his passion and desire. I respected the bit where he said the players should go over to the fans at the end and take the booing if they have not performed. Maybe that would make them give more and put more of a shift in to make sure it doesn't keep happening.

He makes it very easy for me to suspect he is a bad apple that is rotting the rest of the group. I'd have got rid in the summer.

Pretty sure Downes is playing silly buggers - swinging the lead springs to mind.

Come on, it was a good header and led to us equalising. Credit where it's due cos there's precious little of it being earned when he plays in goal.

This keeps being quoted but he was actually their Young Player of the Season which is quite different.

Yeah so maybe better to play only 2 crap centre backs rather than 3 - possibly less cock-ups with less crap centre backs on the pitch. As he says, it's not rocket science but he doesn't half make it sound as though it is. Keep it simple Will and there's less that can go wrong.

He seems to be overthinking it to me and finding small reasons why we can't play 4231 rather than insisting we do it. The 3 at the back seems like a comfort blanket he clings to as though he's afraid we'll get cut open and lose big. Time to man up and play the system you clearly prefer even though the exact 11 players that suit it best may not all be available. Try something different Will because the 3 at the back is leading to confused centre backs, wing backs who aren't good enough to do the job and a weak midfield with not the number of bodies needed. The longer he leaves it the more game time is being wasted when it might be better used bedding in the 4231 system.

He'd be a better option than Downs that's for sure. Anyone imaging Downs powering in a header like that?

The word on the lectern says it all.

Right now the lunatics are running the asylum. Nothing changes until SR are gone.

Cheers and agree know-all Ankersson would be the prime candidate.

You missed out the biggest elephant in the room who presided over everything in your list - Sports Republic.

What did he say? Along with others I've long questioned Ankersson. The things he comes out with, the sort of clever (but not really) books he writes and his presentations ring every alarm bell going for me. He is the archetypal person who is nowhere near as clever as he thinks he is but somehow manages to convince enough people that he is some sort of guru. He'd be first in my firing line of incompetents to get shot of.

A good post. If this football club was any other business performing in the way it has with just 4 wins heads at the top would have rolled long ago. Someone, presumably Solak, has to say enough and take the drastic action needed to halt this debacle. Those handling the football side within SR are completely incompetent so, until they are stripped out and replaced with people who know what they are doing, things will only continue to get worse. You can call for SR to change the manager again (and Still does need to go) but that's just like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, the ship is still going down. With our weird club set up I'm not even sure how easy it is for Solak to act alone and make the culls in an effort to change things. Semmens has much to answer for in introducing these charlatans to our football club. He announced them with a fanfare of how much they would achieve but he's been proved to be the biggest charlatan of all. What a frigging mess.

So he can sack the idiots running the club? What's he waiting for.

Just read this on the internet; As of 2024, Southampton FC is owned by St Mary’s Football Group Ltd., which is 100% owned by Sport Republic (80%) and Katharina Liebherr (20%). Sport Republic acquired the club in January 2022, purchasing the 80% stake previously held by the Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng for approximately £100 million. So SR paid £100 million for 80% of the club and Katharina Liebherr owns the other 20%. That's quite straight forward but what share if any does Solak own? This is the confusion for me because he seems to put money in but doesn't seem to own any shares in the club.

But it was Martin Semmens who presided over the take over by SR surely?

This is the bit that I just can't get my head round - SR own the club but Solak puts the money in. How does that work as a business model if Solak gets pissed off at the way the owners are running the club he is financing? Can anyone explain it in laymen's terms because I can't make sense of it.

So 4 wins in what seems forever is no reason to boycott these charlatans just because money has been provided - and large chunks of it wasted I might add. If that isn't ammunition enough to warrant a boycott I don't know what is.

Maybe they'll gift us 2 or 3 goals like we seem to do every game. Not holding my breath. Today McCarthy should save that first goal with no trouble and sadly the young lad panicked and chested the ball down for them to score the second. So that's 5 gifted goals in two games. If I didn't know different I'd think some sort of betting scandal is going on.

Not sure on that point. As a business you'd think two relegations would prove disastrous but I suppose that's partly offset by parachute payments. They've also seriously fucked off the majority of the fanbase. Whichever way you look at it it's a mess and the future looks pretty unpalatable for us fans.

Yes but they own the club. It's their plaything so they don't want or need to give it up. If the fans don't like it I'm not sure what we do about it. That's my point. It's a closed shop. The only way I see anything happening is if Dragan states he's providing no more money and demands a way to get back some of what he's already put in. I'm scratching my head because it's a weird set up with Solak providing the money and SR making the decisions.