Gordon Mockles

I was defending her until recently (on here or elsewhere, I forget) but I decided by researching a little & chatting with some people I know and trust, she sold off an awful lot of inheritance extremely quickly. No crime in itself but it may reveal a little about her behaviour and what are her real motivations? I still believe that the good work she has overseen was part of a plan and will of her father. I’d be reticent to discount credit to her readily. Whilst I’m not irrationally spiteful towards her as is common place with some of the morons in this city, she’s overseen a record breaking demise and sold us to a dead duck who was flagged up by the Premier League fit and proper persons and she overturned that ruling by appeal. A huge mistake and for that, I hold her solely responsible. She was the custodian and she sold us out. No-one else did. I also remember the warning and words of NC prior to him leaving and if you look at the actions since, Les seizing power, the club selling all our top players, twice consecutively, it’s hard not to be resentful. The best card the club pulled was hiding behind the great wall of silence so we didn’t really know to whom to aim our frustrations. Who authorised selling all our best assets, twice. Everyone automatically assumed it was Les. Some assumed Kat. All that remains our the facts. We went from three top eight finishes to losing our arguably best ever manager. We recruited well and got in Koeman. Les then (allegedly) forced out RoKo for refusing to sign a longer contract abd compromise wasn’t one of autocratic Les’ strong points. Then it spiralled downhill. Les (or Ross) appointed rubbish. Poorer and poorer managers. A monumental waste of millions in paying off a series of inadequate managers and many more millions wasted in long player contracts and recruiting p*ss poor players. I think the crux of this situation was the football management were not managed or monitored well enough by Kat. She was inexperienced and never asked to own the club. All pointless conjecture but I suspect Les and many others may have taken advantage of the situation. I know Les had his son as an agent for many of the academy players. I’m unsure how a multi -millionaire heiress runs a football club but our management weren’t shy with splashing the cash, foolishly. Ultimately, Les was left at the helm and assumed too much power and was (I’m guessing) largely unmanaged & I assume left to run things. He seemed to p**s off a lot of players as we lost a whole load more and then Les may have gone crazy with someone else’s money and absolutely decimated the stability and finances and well being of our club. Don’t ever get me started on Kruger. All I know is, Kat took the reigns and someone in charge turned us into a feeder club. We lost all our best players over 2 1/2 years and we replaced them with lack lustre, sub-standard cr*p. Liverpool hoovered up many of our A-team. Liverpool have now won the Champions League and look set to win the Premier League this season. Saints were asset stripped and we sold all of our quality. Saints now sit Second from bottom in the Premier League with the joint worst goal difference, having recently recorded the league’s highest ever defeat to a club away from home. The club were universally condemned for one of the worst performances in PL history. Third time lucky for Saints in the relegation game and we look prime candidates to be relegated this season having back tracked on our club’s previous transfer reassurance back in late October. Saints rode their luck and barely survived under an out of his depth Pellegrino and a lack lustre & fairly useless Mark Hughes combined with a decreasing quality coaching set-up and an abjectly failing transfer policy. Buy lots of semi expensive cr*p rather than more expensive, more selective quality. Then overly rely on a non-producing academy purely out of desperation. Talk about not learning from your previous mistakes. Irrespective of blame. We may never know the world-class pitch Gao orchestrated. He may have just made a disinterested offer and Kat leapt at it. All we know is that sale made her one fat cat. Much to our detriment. The more time passes and the more I notice the club’s very different social media tactics, the more I dislike our owner and the dishonest & manipulative behaviour he brings. I will not buy any suggestions he is unaware of what is going on at our club. Then I look at his track record and corruption case and what he did to his business partners to save his own skin, I have grown a severe dislike to the man consorting this but galvanised by his inherent and total neglect to our club over the past 2 years. I want him gone. How do you know Kat has helped us this month? What are you alluding to? I’m interested to know more but would like some background. If she has, fair play to her. Guilty conscience perhaps?! Even so, remorse can be a wonderful thing. The best she can do is help fund a couple of decent defenders and a midfielder, whether permanent or loans. Otherwise, they look set to lose a lot of money. I’d love to believe the greater good but if she does put money in, I can’t help but feel this is protecting her investment but really, it’s incidental the reason. We desperately need funds and it’s a darn sight more than that f***in’ lying waster major shareholder has done.

You are not alone at all & it’s refreshing to read comments from a person with standards. The only leaders in the club’s recent history that seemed to get the picture was Markus & Cortese and that was tragically short lived. It seems our standards as a club are now so low, so many of our fans have forgotten what ambition is and berate anyone for wanting or expecting more, such is our forlorn mindset. We are all p*ssed off and we are all a little hurt but we don’t need to constantly bicker about it. Compete with the best (the top 5/6 clubs) & also compete with your closer level of competitor like Leicester, as you mention. Even our local rivals seem to have ever surpassed us. If you do fall short, at least you are trying and improving your standards. We - as a club - have consistently & systemically deteriorated. We have been deconstructed. Swapping quality for crap. Our club is akin to rebuilding a quality piece of well engineered (possibly Liebherr) industrial machinery and replacing the majority of the components with inferior and poorly built Chinese, counterfeit parts. Eventually, something will go pop because it’s not built for purpose and your multi million pound machinery will be destroyed through narrow minded & ill advised cost cutting. It’s a false and stupid economy. You get what you pay for in life. Ralph, I believe through no fault of his own, has been forced to keep the same defence (aside from the lanky totem pole that can’t jump) the club have endured for a third successive relegation battle. I can’t think of any Premier League clubs that has done that, not adding to the defence for 3 successive relegation battles but I am too lazy to check (does Danso count if he never plays & when he does, it’s out of position?!). It is stupid to continue to compete with clearly inadequate defenders plus the midfield has been neglected and gone to seed. You don’t keep running into a wall and hoping the bricks fall down. To have had such poor results for 3 consecutive seasons & having recorded the league record defeat followed by the worst GD in the league while sat at the foot of the table is depressing enough. To then constantly lie to your fans with hollow promises THEN intimate you will likely not strengthen the squad amidst traumatically pitiful displays of football is the epitome of disrespect and a massive middle finger to the fans. Our boardroom do not give a flying f**k about the fans in any way, shape or form. The donation of scarfs is almost the ultimate p**s take and shows how outrageously out of touch the board really are. They are absolutely clueless about this business, social grace and entirely devoid of intellect relating to English football. If we do not reinforce in January, we are gone. We may well be relegated anyway, even with decent additions to the squad. That’s the cold truth. Yes, it really is that bad. If I'm brutally honest, we do not deserve to stay up. The way our club has been run is humiliating. It’s quite a feat to undo a PL football club as badly as our board have done over the past 2-3 years. Decimated. Clubs need constant attention. Gao should hang his head in shame as he is an absolute joke and he is completely aware of what is going on. He just doesn’t give a f**k. God knows why he bought the club and why the state got involved but it was certainly not in the interests of the club and if they had good intentions, they would have said. Kat ruined her dad’s legacy and she should hang her head in shame for the speed in which she unravelled and destroyed so much success built carefully and lovingly over 3 or was it 4 years?! I will remember those happy times with Wembley and the huge smile on Markus’ face while he fumbled with his digital camera. Happier times. #GaoOut #SOS #BringAmbitionBack

We had been waiting over a year. No, now it is just the coaches that seem to be in that dept. I don't understand the point you are trying to make or where your obligatory sarcasm is aimed. Conversely, I fear we will not recruit in January now and this will be a huge mistake. I just hope Crocker is not the only backroom staff we appoint. We have massive problems throughout, that much is obvious. Academy managers, Assistant Manager to Ralph is desperately needed and first team coaches are dreadfully lacking and we have seen how the results and pressure is affecting Ralph. The poor guy is crumbling. As assistant should be our next priority if we now aren't spending in Jan as seems likely. If only to ease some of that pressure so Ralph doesn't go full Michael Douglas in Falling Down. Buvac would be superb but perhaps that is 3rd party paper talk to pander to the fans. I hope Steve Walsh is still a goer but what I do not want is this inherent reluctance to sign the big money commitments, the players. Running a PL club sadly requires this and you can't employ top coaches and succeed with p*ss poor, lack lustre players as his been proven in successive seasons. Otherwise we would be in the top 5 having written off the world record transfer sell on clause for our p*ss poor Spurs rejects who are now world beaters having been coached from obscurity into the football elite. Tommy "the Cat" Forecast in the sticks with Tomas "the machine Gun" Pekhart banging in hatricks every other game. Sadly, it doesn't work like that as that "power broker" doofus from the Cotswold discovered after sending us bankrupt. You have to recruit wisely and invest. Leicester being the best example. Everton the worst currently (but I thought they actually recruited well. What do I know!!)

Re-reading the angry article, it is very pessimistic but I don’t think it is 1,000,000 miles from the truth. Make of that what you will. It’s just a culmination of depleted patience and a lifelong Saints fan aiming all his frustrations at the seemingly calculating & deceitful owner(s). I can’t stand liars. They’re playing god with the hopes and dreams of so many honest and hard-working families. The twunts.

Re-reading the angry article, it is very pessimistic but I don’t think it is 1,000,000 miles from the truth. Make of that what you will. It’s just a culmination of depleted patience and a lifelong Saints fan aiming all his frustrations at the seemingly calculating & deceitful owner(s). I can’t stand liars. They’re playing god with the hopes and dreams of so many honest and hard-working families. The twunts.

Just read another of the club’s DOF articles but noticed they have slipped in a bombshell while fans ride high on the feel good sentiment of Crocker’s appointment. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/11/26/southampton-appoint-fa-development-chief-matt-crocker-asnew/amp/ Anyone who swallows the façade that the poor and unsuspecting Gao does not know everything that is going on with his investment is short sighted. I’m really pleased with Crocker - please don’t misunderstand me - but this latest article and the timing is very calculated. Make a u-turn on the transfer window on the same day - in the same article - of this announcement. That is very deliberate and consistent of this regime’s behaviour & undoes all my previous optimism and the brief feeling of goodwill. It has really struck a sour chord with me. Like Ralph, I suspect Crocker will be expected to perform miracles with little to no new resources. If this is true, he will end up burnt out and demoralised if Ralph is anything to go by. Chewed up & spat out or wise enough to move to pastures greener. Too much pressure can kill a once decent talent. Talent needs to be nurtured. I expect we may see the usual Chinese investment structure. Absolutely minimal (nominal) investment, a flurry of lies and half truths and the expectation of a maximum return & the accompanying massive pressure. How does this model ever succeed? In this case, it appears evident they are going for coaches and the long term feeder farm approach rather than improving a poor and woefully thin in depth and totally demoralised squad and they are ignoring the wider picture that even Klopp, Pep and Bielsa couldn’t make work: a lack lustre & bare bones team of inadequate players (our attacking squad aside, they are decent) can’t become world beaters overnight. I would love to be wrong. One decent performance and one point (2 points dropped) does not make a season but I appreciated the drive of encouragement Saturday. I don’t appreciate the way the club have twisted it to their agenda today. I quote the Telegraph article which slipped past my radar but we do have to earn a living (well noticed SuperSaint) “ Southampton are still also intending to appoint a specialist in player trading, although Ralph Hasenhuttl will be limited in his January budget and will largely need to turn Southampton’s season around with his existing squad. Despite an encouraging draw at Arsenal on Saturday, Southampton have yet to win at home in the Premier League this season and are currently second from bottom of the table ahead now of a sequence of fixtures against other struggling teams”. Define how Ralph will be “limited” and say what you really mean? No funds are available. After all, the word of the club and the trust from many fans (non forum) is pretty much non-existent. This reaction will certainly help boost the home team track record. Keep plugging away with the same squad of players who nearly got relegated twice under two different managers, now on their third manager. I think that directly proves the players aren’t up for it. They are not good enough. What frustrates me SOOOOO MUCH is 2/3 key players can make all the difference. If we can indeed attract anyone but if I have learnt anything in life, money talks. It is late and I’m tired and ground down and pessimistic in reaction to this one paragraph about January and I hope this is a massive overreaction. But I know how these c**** operate and this is exactly what I was expecting despite my naively optimistic post wanting to believe the better side of it earlier. If we don’t recruit in January (and it looks like they’re lining up a little or no action window YET AGAIN, I will go with the latter but they may gauge fan reaction), then I think that says it all. The only small satisfaction I will get from that is that Gao and Kat will lose substantial sums against their investment but I also fear that they are both so scrupulously tight, they will hold onto the club until they can recoup their money which could create a Lowe mark 2 situation. Sorry to be glum. I really hope the club would have taken the initiative. Now it seems it was just a wise appointment disguising an underlying deceit and they’re carrying on business as normal in the background. Baseless rumours & zero investment. So short sighted. The next 5 or 6 games will map out our future. Watford and Norwich at home. Chasing our first home win. Newcastle away. West Ham at home. Villa and Chelsea away. Our future will be decided before the new year, in late Dec. Incidentally, Crocker joins some weeks after in January. The club have made the usual hints and rumours about coaches but it’s looking likely this is just calculated fanfare to prevent protests and fans losing interest. Please bring in a strong assistant manager at the very least Gao. Don’t be a complete twunt. Learn by your continual bloody mistakes. FFS. What is it with this club continually walking towards a cliff edge? It’s like they have a deathwish. Talk about build you up and knock you down. I won’t expect any incoming players in January reading the subtext. On our day, we can beat all of the lower teams we are due to face now & throughout Dec but I just don’t trust these Southampton players. Their confidence is shot & they are so erratic. I expected a win against Everton. Everton can’t beat anyone. I’ve said it before, Silva will be gone by Xmas. Let’s hope Southampton’s premier league status doesn’t follow suit. #GaoOut #SaveOurSaints (sorry for posting so much) Please don’t peddle the newspaper rumour thing because it is Jeremy Wilson and the club have a direct line to him. He’s the first choice journalist for Saints and the club mouth piece for any serious articles they want to get out.

Just read another of the club’s DOF articles but noticed they have slipped in a bombshell while fans ride high on the feel good sentiment of Crocker’s appointment. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/11/26/southampton-appoint-fa-development-chief-matt-crocker-asnew/amp/ Anyone who swallows the façade that the poor and unsuspecting Gao does not know everything that is going on with his investment is short sighted. I’m really pleased with Crocker - please don’t misunderstand me - but this latest article and the timing is very calculated. Make a u-turn on the transfer window on the same day - in the same article - of this announcement. That is very deliberate and consistent of this regime’s behaviour & undoes all my previous optimism and the brief feeling of goodwill. It has really struck a sour chord with me. Like Ralph, I suspect Crocker will be expected to perform miracles with little to no new resources. If this is true, he will end up burnt out and demoralised if Ralph is anything to go by. Chewed up & spat out or wise enough to move to pastures greener. Too much pressure can kill a once decent talent. Talent needs to be nurtured. I expect we may see the usual Chinese investment structure. Absolutely minimal (nominal) investment, a flurry of lies and half truths and the expectation of a maximum return & the accompanying massive pressure. How does this model ever succeed? In this case, it appears evident they are going for coaches and the long term feeder farm approach rather than improving a poor and woefully thin in depth and totally demoralised squad and they are ignoring the wider picture that even Klopp, Pep and Bielsa couldn’t make work: a lack lustre & bare bones team of inadequate players (our attacking squad aside, they are decent) can’t become world beaters overnight. I would love to be wrong. One decent performance and one point (2 points dropped) does not make a season but I appreciated the drive of encouragement Saturday. I don’t appreciate the way the club have twisted it to their agenda today. I quote the Telegraph article which slipped past my radar but we do have to earn a living (well noticed SuperSaint) “ Southampton are still also intending to appoint a specialist in player trading, although Ralph Hasenhuttl will be limited in his January budget and will largely need to turn Southampton’s season around with his existing squad. Despite an encouraging draw at Arsenal on Saturday, Southampton have yet to win at home in the Premier League this season and are currently second from bottom of the table ahead now of a sequence of fixtures against other struggling teams”. Define how Ralph will be “limited” and say what you really mean? No funds are available. After all, the word of the club and the trust from many fans (non forum) is pretty much non-existent. This reaction will certainly help boost the home team track record. Keep plugging away with the same squad of players who nearly got relegated twice under two different managers, now on their third manager. I think that directly proves the players aren’t up for it. They are not good enough. What frustrates me SOOOOO MUCH is 2/3 key players can make all the difference. If we can indeed attract anyone but if I have learnt anything in life, money talks. It is late and I’m tired and ground down and pessimistic in reaction to this one paragraph about January and I hope this is a massive overreaction. But I know how these c**** operate and this is exactly what I was expecting despite my naively optimistic post wanting to believe the better side of it earlier. If we don’t recruit in January (and it looks like they’re lining up a little or no action window YET AGAIN, I will go with the latter but they may gauge fan reaction), then I think that says it all. The only small satisfaction I will get from that is that Gao and Kat will lose substantial sums against their investment but I also fear that they are both so scrupulously tight, they will hold onto the club until they can recoup their money which could create a Lowe mark 2 situation. Sorry to be glum. I really hope the club would have taken the initiative. Now it seems it was just a wise appointment disguising an underlying deceit and they’re carrying on business as normal in the background. Baseless rumours & zero investment. So short sighted. The next 5 or 6 games will map out our future. Watford and Norwich at home. Chasing our first home win. Newcastle away. West Ham at home. Villa and Chelsea away. Our future will be decided before the new year, in late Dec. Incidentally, Crocker joins some weeks after in January. The club have made the usual hints and rumours about coaches but it’s looking likely this is just calculated fanfare to prevent protests and fans losing interest. Please bring in a strong assistant manager at the very least Gao. Don’t be a complete twunt. Learn by your continual bloody mistakes. FFS. What is it with this club continually walking towards a cliff edge? It’s like they have a deathwish. Talk about build you up and knock you down. I won’t expect any incoming players in January reading the subtext. On our day, we can beat all of the lower teams we are due to face now & throughout Dec but I just don’t trust these Southampton players. Their confidence is shot & they are so erratic. I expected a win against Everton. Everton can’t beat anyone. I’ve said it before, Silva will be gone by Xmas. Let’s hope Southampton’s premier league status doesn’t follow suit. #GaoOut #SaveOurSaints (sorry for posting so much) Please don’t peddle the newspaper rumour thing because it is Jeremy Wilson and the club have a direct line to him. He’s the first choice journalist for Saints and the club mouth piece for any serious articles they want to get out.

Indeed it would with Walsh behind the recruitment side. That would show progression and a club finally addressing its missing infrastructure. A strong strong sign on intent. Better late than never but where does it leave us this season? Buvac is what we and Ralph are crying out for and that would really propel us forward. More so with a small handful of wisely selected additions in January but we do not want to get ahead of ourselves as this is only one delayed appointment & our crisis is immediate. It’s a step in the right direction. I am really pleased with this appointment and it's the first step forward but please don't do the usual Saints habits. I have a mild concern or insecurity (judging by recent history) that they may appoint people after January and make excuses over appointment delays. This is only a reservation and I hope I'm completely wrong because this would be suicidal and this appointment is hopefully a sign that the club have possibly woken up to addressing the neglect that has sent us to the foot of the table. Onwards and upwards. Just capitalise with the other support staff and use January wisely. That will make or break us. Choose wisely.

Indeed it would with Walsh behind the recruitment side. That would show progression and a club finally addressing its missing infrastructure. A strong strong sign on intent. Better late than never but where does it leave us this season? Buvac is what we and Ralph are crying out for and that would really propel us forward. More so with a small handful of wisely selected additions in January but we do not want to get ahead of ourselves as this is only one delayed appointment & our crisis is immediate. It’s a step in the right direction. I am really pleased with this appointment and it's the first step forward but please don't do the usual Saints habits. I have a mild concern or insecurity (judging by recent history) that they may appoint people after January and make excuses over appointment delays. This is only a reservation and I hope I'm completely wrong because this would be suicidal and this appointment is hopefully a sign that the club have possibly woken up to addressing the neglect that has sent us to the foot of the table. Onwards and upwards. Just capitalise with the other support staff and use January wisely. That will make or break us. Choose wisely.

Yes, Mr Hindsight. Today we have news and that's the first positive news relating to club management since Gao arrived aside from Ralph arriving. Yes, I have moaned at length about Gao. Remind me of all the points of praise I am unfairly holding back? Yes, Gao is a problem Mystic Meg and, on a Saints fan forum with a club sat at the foot of the table with one of the worst goal differences in the league, there is a danger of fans having a moan about the ownership and management of the club. Hell, there may even be a danger of a fan or two going off on one about it. Learn to deal with it or avoid social media. I'd much rather a forum of fans who vent an opinion, both good and bad, rather than a bunch of myopic fence sitters berating anyone with enough another passion to form an opinion different to their own. In case you hadn't noticed, Gao has contributed almost nothing to the well being of the club and has never even had the respect to address the fan base as to his intentions other than a series of meaningless platitudes orchestrated to pacify the more naive and gullible fans. That in itself is shameful. Patience only lasts so long. Crocker is a good appointment. Perhaps he'll be able to poach some further recruits departing the FA upon Reed's arrival. If we can also get Buvac, that will be tremendously positive. Running a club isn't rocket science. It just requires some competence, finance and attention.

Good work whoever did that. hahaha. Nice touch.

He is simply asking a question so get off your high horse and have a breather.

We don’t need attacking mid. I’d say that’s the one area we have a small amount of choice although both full backs and a stronger centre back is top priority as is a ball winning, box to box midfielder in the Lemina mould. A leader in the middle of the park where games are lost and won. Sadly, despite Saturday’s good performance, our midfield lack that bite, balling winning tenacity. That ability to charge down and then succeed a strong pass completion rate. We are constantly gifting the opposition possession which has lost us too many games. This also puts pressure on an already sub-standard, confidence lacking centre back pairing which is in a constant state of flux which must exasperate the situation. I’d like to see Danso have a game in his preferred position alongside a new addition. Sadly, I don’t think the platitudes which the club fed to The Independent were truthful in the slightest. It was merely pandering to the fans following a ritual humiliation on live TV but we’ve done that to death. I’d love to be wrong. The club may have missed their suggested timeframe for appointing a DOF & whilst I know, logically, my head tells me the defensive, high energy transfer suggestions made by the club were likely the last in a long list of brazen lies, a tiny part of me, likely my heart, want to believe we are waiting to announce all 3 senior appointments: Matt Crocker as Academy/DOF, Walsh as Recruitment Expert & Buvac as Assistant Manager (which Ralph is desperately crying out for, that support to take the undoubtedly huge amount of pressure he is enduring off his shoulders a little). Then we may recruit in January under their guidance and suggestion which may be already happening. That would be a hugely successful and massive coup/reshuffle but what a positive one. Obviously, we have more chance of a fattened pig (or Danish Center back) flying! Can’t link or think of any players because it feels too much of a pipe dream at this stage. We firstly need coaches and an assistant and DOF to guide this leaking ship wreck to port.

Thank you. There’s a fair few posters of that ilk sadly but that hostile intolerance is common place locally. I have a basis for my frustration and I don’t ask you to like it whereas a lot of these kids get mad at anyone with a different opinion to theirs. They’ll hopefully grow out of it and learn to fire their anger in a more focused manner, including a calmer, more patronising response. Lol

Shut up your weirdo. The club is in disarray, run by a bunch of prevaricating charlatans with no care for the club and contempt for the fan base (although not as bad as some of the weirdos on this website for reactions to dissident voices). I’ll treat that with the passion and contempt it deserves. It’s called caring and having standards and not tolerating idiots, like you for criticising someone for having an opinion. A proper fan won’t sit and passively accept it like some whimpering snowflake afraid to fade reality. Some people show emotion about it. Everyone is different. Of course, according to your bizarre mindset, the club probably need a high five. Change supporting your club because you’re unhappy with the management? Ridiculous suggestion. Grow up. Saints played well Saturday and they looked good attacking and Ralph got the tactics right with pacey wingers jumping right on Arsenal dawdling from the back but I’m more concerned about going into the January transfer window and yet another lie seeing our club slip further into the doldrums after yet another broken promise, the DOF being appointed by. I left a long time

That’s actually quite funny. I don’t like the un-necessary personal insults but she really is a fat cat now.

Interesting program on panorama tonight about China and how they operate. How to brainwash 1 million people. Shocking. Maybe that’s why the club have not uttered a single word of truth and Gao never bothered to address the fans since taking ownership, autocratic and oppressive tendencies. So, if Gao is looking to sell, good riddance. As a fan mentioned in an article back in April relating to Gao’s restructuring of the club’s ownership (Questions back in April that still not been answered to the EPL by Gao and his associates), you don’t really want an oppressive government part owning your football club. Let alone a charlatan chairman whom hasn’t invested a penny yet stripped us to the bare bones and neglected & mismanaged the entire club throughout his tenure to the point of relegation and risked us further misfortune (fines and points deductions) by restructuring the ownership which potentially could have sealed our relegation. Other than the dark lord show name I hate to mention, this joker may have been as bad for our club as that arrogant idiot from the Cotswolds whom thought he was brilliant at everything, despite being a ‘power broker’ of abject failure as his recent conduct in the West Midlands political world had proven.

I can’t abide this form of cowardly lying which seems on the increase in all facets of life. Saying what people want to hear with no intention of honouring your words (like so many obvious politicians). The club have operated in this disingenuous manner for too long now and the club really needs to work on winning the fan’s trust back. It’s hugely disrespectful. Krueger was a man of unintelligible talking b*llocks. Most laughable being his excuse for Gao’s contempt towards never addressing the fan base of his intentions being ‘cultural differences’. The club lie and prevaricate. Their words mean nothing and they have proven their contempt for the fans by the majority shareholder never ever engaging the fan base which says so much about his attitude. The club have lied for the past 3 years, consistently. The Promes façade and going back in for him in Aug, the rebuilding Ralph’s squad (I think this backtrack was the real reason Rohl left and realised they were sold a dead duck), excuses for not signing in various transfer windows (goal posts being constantly changed/moved to the next – i.e. Jan a bad time cos of Carillo meaning no signings can ever happen again to due to this one clusterf*ck y Reed, the club have to sell to buy (after being purged of all our best/most saleable assets), too many players on wages, agent fees, etc.), various staff replacements, Gao taking us forward, almost every single word Kruger uttered, DOF and Jan signings [yet to be realised]) 2019/2020, Reed replacement in Nov 2018, etc. etc. Someone's imagination I think ;o) PSV EindeSaints or Samsung Saints would feel strange. It wasn’t though was it. It was an interview from the club only they didn’t quote a source name as is a common place tactic with disingenuous pledges often used by politicians ‘on behalf of their party’. I.e. They have been instructed/coerced to bait the public/fans with false platitudes and when people are reticent to put their name to something they can’t honour (as they have an iota of integrity), the management tell them not use a source name so they can’t be held accountable and they can distance themselves. It is basically, lying for cowards. The Independent didn’t conjure the pledges from thin air and it isn’t a coincidence the prevaricating diatribe emanated directly after the Leicester leathering, to placate the fans. The club wanted to pacify the fans so they did what they do best and have done throughout Gao’s reign, they offered false platitudes. Why you dismiss this as pure rumour is beyond me. Having said that, wouldn’t it be great if we got Crocker as DOF/Academy boss, Walsh as head of recruitment and Buvac as assistant coach. More chance of Chinese pigs flying Deliveroos to your doorstep but the thought is nice!!!! It can’t stay bad forever, surely?!

Someone's imagination I think ;o)

The club are seemingly potless so I don’t know what funds you think can be raided. They have done that. They’ve asset stripped us to the carcass. They will not sign players in January if their actions to date are a strong signifier which I don’t doubt they are. I don’t know where this other conjecture comes from. How do you know Kat will hold out for the maximum? She may accept a sensible offer considering the alternative or she may sit tight and lose money alongside Gao when the club value plummets in the championship. The latter being the more likely scenario.

I think we’ve had enough of false promises and hollow words that never come true. I’d rather a magician who can magic a healthy transfer budget to overhaul our defence & midfield. Can’t the club do some deal with Beaulieu town planners? Allow Jim Ratcliffe to build his luxury home in exchange for him buying our club and transforming it into a proper club with ambition and intelligent management. Pipe dreams. I’d settle for a sensible owner who engages the community at the very least and forms an honest, transparent and respectable dialogue with the fans. Our standards are so low, anything is better that what we have.

You can use sponsorship wisely** I don’t seem to be able to edit posts.

Advertising is essential** (typo)

Good sentiment and one I agree with. More so when I look on websites like Instagram (after I left Facebook in 2017 for similar reasons accompanied by the pathetic, brittle popularity). A new, even more invasive form of advertising polluted every facet of social media but I resent them ruining Instagram as much as renamed sports franchises. It is testing to see friends changing usernames to accompany fashion or fitness tags and then narcissistically tout every sort of saleable cr* p imaginable. Companies cherry picking well connected people to do their dirty work for them. It’s a new and infuriating form of capitalism. I don’t begrudge people overly for wanting free products or trying to save or make a quick buck as modern life is a real struggle financially but have some credibility and integrity and bear in mind the companies benefit way more than the mark. I would always want Southampton Football Club to be Southampton Football Club and not anyone’s corporate b*tch. Matise and is essential but you don’t need to sell your soul. Can you sponsor ship wisely and still maintain your integrity. It’s called intelligent negotiation. You always have a cut-off and know when to walk away when the requirements of your investor don’t align with your goals. With our current owner acquiring the club, I now think the only goal was to get the money in the bank.

They’ve been learning from Russia. Even Trump and our UK politicians as far back as Cameron follow the same, contradicting ethos of social management. It’s infuriating and cowardly. No-one answerable. Shape shifting in the shadows. What a world!! https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/is-trumps-chaos-a-move-from-the-kremlins-playbook/amp