Gordon Mockles

No. We wouldn’t. His actions more than prove this. On the contrary, I quote San Wallace from the Telegraph : “The owner Gao leaves the club’s executive to run relatively independently with only occasional input on his part. His plan has always been that Saints are self-sustaining and no funds have been invested by the ownership in the operations of the club since they bought their shareholding from Liebherr in August 2017” Almost every report from the club since Gao took over has contradicted itself. Almost every forecast. The club completely and consistently contradicts everything it says. Even this week with the January window back peddle from Ralph said this BUT OF COURSE, they were Ralph’s own words & NOT the club or a script handed to Ralph by the club PR machine. Good god, the Echo articles are tedious. It wasn’t Ralph going against the wishes of the owners who have always been keen to spend *cough* Laughable how they insult our intelligence. For those blaming everything on Kat, I honestly think she thought they had good intentions and they could’ve put the best pledge imaginable. They have clearly proven to be totally full of sh*t but you can’t overly criticise her if she meant well. She couldn’t take us any further. She even had second thoughts and I’ll quote back to 2017: "It is not clear at the moment. The seller is having second thoughts about selling the club," Gao reportedly told Reuters on the sidelines of an event in Beijing. He declined to comment further on the deal. Liebherr remains committed to leading the club forward, but has indicated she is prepared to sell at least a significant stake of her ownership if the price is right, and the investors are able to take Saints forward in a way that she cannot. In a rare statement to fans, issued in January as the Lander talk intensified, she said: "Please understand that I can only make limited comments regarding this process but I can assure you that any steps we do take will be in the best interests of the club. A potential partnership would need to clear multiple approvals and fulfil strict criteria before being confirmed”. It appears Gao and Lander fooled us all. That includes us, Kat Liebherr and the PL approval board. Those deceitful, self-serving ****s!! It offers little consolation but at least the Gao’s investment will be worth much less next year. Words that sting and those I remember most and, understandably, p*ss me off most about Gao are the comments about being the person to take us forward and he would have known his intentions at the time of these interactions. I do not for one minute accept he blindly walked in, not knowing what was being said when you consider the array of misinformation and carrot dangling and intensive social media monitoring which is now evidently in place. Just look at our sponsor and the tech savvy nature of the Chinese. What a waste of 3 years. Longer really. Poor old Markus & Ted.

I think the club and media department are compulsive, strategic liars and nothing will happen. Just my instinctive belief based on history under this tenure. It goes from bad to worse to utter neglect. If we do appoint a DOF, I fear it will be so low key, small time & underwhelming, it would likely be a result of monitoring social media and doing anything to band aid the gushing artery which Gao’s neglect has caused. We are aiming high it seems. We are aiming to be like Brighton. What did Cortese know, competing with Chelsea for academy status?! As a side note, I’m struggling to understand why we aren’t having more academy prospects break through when you consider our catchment area. This underfunding seems to have permeated through every pore of the club. I guess that’s natural & logical. The scouting network, analysts, players, youth team and the coaching set-up which is particularly poor and I would feel a solid number 2 to Ralph, a permanent, quality replacement to Röhl is as important as the DOF. If not more important. Bin Kelvin. Bring in some quality. Instead, the club ignore the issue and offer the fans an abject, great wall of silence..... ...until our 9-0 defeat. Just to remind you what the CLUB said to the telegraph & the our fanbase: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/10/26/ralph-hasenhuttl-given-southampton-backing-board-decide-players/ I quote Southampton Football (via The Telegraph. The Club never seem to leave a source name. I’m guessing so they can’t be accountable for their fan pacifying, potless & pointless spin) “Southampton’s board and ownership have given their full backing to manager Ralph Hasenhuttl after the shattering 9-0 record-equalling Premier League defeat to Leicester City on Friday, pledging to rebuild the squad rather than remove their Austrian coach. The staff were told on Saturday morning that the club’s belief in the approach of Hasenhuttl is unshakeable and that there will be changes in the short-term as well as the long to players after two seasons of struggle. A new senior recruitment figure who will occupy a similar position to the departed director of football operations, Ross Wilson, will also arrive before the next international break. The club acknowledge that they have lost their way in recent years with mistakes in the transfer market but believe that there is a clear way forward with collegiate decisions being made on scouting intelligence to sign players. Currently in 18th place in January they will address the most pressing problems that they have at full-back and centre-back. There is an acceptance that the club do not have the right profile of player in every position to suit Hasenhuttl's pressing-style game.” “The club believe that Hasenhuttl’s high press model is the way forward and have made it clear to the squad that they will get rid of players before they sack their manager. In meetings at Staplewood, the Saints training ground, staff and players have been left in no doubt that the backing for Hasenhuttl is not simply cosmetic while a replacement has been found.” So, Ralph isn’t going anywhere (which is the right decision) and, in the club’s words, rebuilding the squad it is. A replacement DOF has been found. Let’s hope it is of a profile that will make a difference, as in an improved difference as the club don’t specify which. Let’s simply ignore ALL further words by the club and judge them purely by their actions from now on. That way, none of their string of hollow & broken promises will fool us.

I’m glad you bought that because that always struck a chord with me. Along with the never buying in January mantra. We use every excuse in the book only I’ve given up commenting on much of it as some bizarre members strangely defend the club against these transparent contradictions and feeble excuses because some on here prefer to shoot down anyone speaking a dissident opinion against this regime. Preferring to live in a perpetual state of optimism and deluded whimsy.

Anyone else keeping a key eye on this and holding Gao / the club to actually keep one promise? Unlikely given their track record and the fact Ralph has already been force fed an Echo script intimating Jan is not the time to buy, the quickest contradiction yet under Gao’s dynasty. They will monitor the fan reaction on social media and modify their propaganda accordingly. I wish the club put that much effort into the quality of coaching and running of the club and managing of senior staff as well as recognising their board room has zero football knowledge and insight. Let us see if they use the well worn Carillo diatribe when we don’t sign anyone (ie: we made a mistake under a notoriously incompetent former employee whom was left in charge and un-managed) due to one mistake meaning we can never sign a player in January ever again or the stadium will explode. Or, the favoured, we have to clear players out as our wage bill is at capacity which the club accountants on here may confirm or any other feeble excuse for Gao not to part with any money. For the record, I think it’s utter boll*cks and another convenient and overworked excuse by the massively disingenuous, prevaricating PR dept.

Yes it does but that doesn’t surprise me. Hold them to their word on this one and see if they can actually fulfil a promise despite promising the DOF thing over 12 months ago, considering Les was sacked in Nov 2018. Then the high energy players we desperately need in defence (I made a mistake in my earlier post berating the rebuild, I realised we signed attacking players but the emphasis was defence & I was unclear. Apologies). It’s laughable as Ralph has been force fed a new script to read this week intimating and contradicting signing in players in Jan I think Gao is getting social Engineering lessons from Vladislav Surkov. Feed the public conflicting information to leave them in a perpetual state of confusion so they make ill informed, illogical decisions and don’t know where to aim their discord. I do. At the door of our disinterested, disingenuous Chairman Gao. #GaoOut

Festooned on the rocks despite all the earlier warnings. We never learn because the owners aren’t interested. Now we are just waiting for the tide to come in.

Nope. But the thought is comforting.

Good to read this and things need to happen to get this joker out. Love what the French Lyon fans did. We need similar. Esp. on a televised match.

We need to make this happen. Box clever

This is brilliant and exactly what we need to do. Whilst the French may frustrate in many ways, they don’t put up with any sh*t and like to get their point across. It’s time we started making it clear that Gao isn’t liked or welcome down South if he intends to not invest and run us into the ground while pursuing his separate business needs.

Seems to me the cynics were right. Maybe they actually had a bit of foresight or instinctively knew a rejected person from the fit and proper persons test that sold out people to get executed while saving his own bacon was bad news from the outset.

Why are his views odd? Davis is out of his depth and the club is in a mess. I find it more alarming the people that can’t accept the state we are in and live in this deluded world of optimism and whimsy. We were in trouble at the start of the season and I got shot down for supporting that opinion as is a common response to criticism & reality in So’ton. I think it’s safe to say we have a sh*t squad. A small handful of people I would keep, the rest I would bin. Build a new coaching set up and leave no stone unturned in attention to detail. Ralph is desperate for a strong number 2. We need football knowledge desperately in the board room, chairmanship, directors and managing staff. Then and only then can we plant the seeds and begin to cultivate success. We are currently operating on fallow fields.

Why are you so sure we won’t go down? We have an abysmal club and the worst defence in the league. 3rd successive relegation battle suggests our owners are incompetent and don’t care. My biggest issue is with your comment about our “likeable board”. They are not likeable in the least. They have done nothing to address the fans and they have constantly misled and lied and dangle the carrot while their actions clearly shout, “we don’t give a flying f*ck” and they have little to no interest and won’t even employ a good calibre of staff to manage the operation for them. Incompetent throughout. Our boardroom is the rot in this club. It is being led by a bunch of self serving, incompetent liars who hold the fans in contempt. They run our club like politicians ru( I)n our country. Callous, deceitfully and self-serving with no genuine thought to the people they supposedly represent.

Not really but the problem lies in the defence. We’ve had about three players leave to one coming in so that’s a given. We need to field 11 players each Saturday.

If we buy a few key players that walk straight into the first team in January, then maybe. If, the likely scenario under this joke Chairman, we do nothing (despite the prevaricating nonsense in the Telegraph two weeks ago alluding to the opposite following the Leicester drubbing), then our PL status is likely over and that will all be down to Kat & Gao and the chronic under investment and asset stripping. We will deserve all we get but it’s the fans that will suffer #GaoOut

I will believe it when I see it. They were claiming to replace Reed a year ago and look where we are now. Gao doesn’t like paying for anything. Wouldn’t surprise me if he had just one member of staff running the whole show to cut costs. This current chairman so far has just perpetuated a wall of silence from a personal point of view or drip fed a series of broken promises to press reporters and chronic underinvestment and if they don’t buy in January in a big u-turn, contradicting the telegraph article (paper pacifying as people so astutely saw) a mere 2 weeks earlier, then that will be the main reason why we get relegated. I find it almost laughable that we haven’t got a big enough squad to drop the players involved in the 9-0 defeat. No wonder there is no spirit left in the club. Let’s see if they stick to their worthless word this time. Before the international break. If they do not, take them to task and ask why they are commenting in articles and consistently making and breaking promises. A year ago we lost our DOF & now, the club are still alluding to this appointment while our form slumps. This club consistently lies to the fans and dangles the carrot without any offer of direction or words of prosperity of utterance of ambition. We sit in abject silence. Insulted by intelligence insulting proverbial carrots dangled in the press, not one of which has been anywhere near the truth. Game over if we don’t buy in January and that will show Gao’s real intentions. What a summer of rebuilding. One loan player then doesn't start. We know the answer already. Gao has no interest outside of real estate. Time to force him out. Vote with your feet. #GaoOut

Yep. Likely because he realised he'd been sold a dead duck after the club failed to fulfil the rebuilding they constantly alluded to through the previously barren transfer windows of Jan 2018 and July 2017 and finally deferred to July 2019 and..........nothing happened other than last min Danso. They completely failed to deliver. Across the board imho.

Sadly, that would not surprise me such is our low level of ambition, non-existent investment and tremendous lack of foresight (or care) any remote football intelligence and insight.

We will do exactly what we did replacing Reed 12 months ago. Say nothing and do nothing and occasionally regurgitate the same “we are looking” cr*p many months later via The Echo mouthpiece to maintain turnstiles activity. The staff turnstiles at St Mary’s have only been set to one way, exit only.

Yes. The club has gone back on pretty much everything it says. The pre-season rebuilding of Ralph’s squad consisted of a low key, last min panic loan who can’t even get into the first 11 & has not improved our defence which was already kind of deferred for changing reasons. That has pretty much guaranteed our relegation & the board simply couldn’t give a f*^k. The replacement for Reed was alluded to 12 months ago. Still, nothing has happened. Gao investing from the outset. Transfer targets True kicking with no intention to buy like that Promes debacle. How much more prevaricating do you need? The club are full of sh*t. Under this regime more than any other. We are now f*cked. Any excuses made are purely lip service & spin to appease the fans. Gao is a waster who won’t invest & will drive us into the dust. He already has if I’m honest.

Having Davis as first team coach is surely scraping the barrel. Forgetting what was said about the conjecture about why Röhl left, it appears the concern was well founded. What bothers me most is, why hasn’t an adequate replacement been brought in? It’s mind boggling. Can the club not perform any kind of honest dialogue with the fanbase anymore?

Genuine question, how do you feel about the conjecture and response to the comments now?

That’s the only consistent thing the club have done under Gao. Lie bigger and more often. Break every promise and some keep buying it. It’s so transparent. This regime have treated the fans with utter contempt from the outset. The owner still hasn’t even outlined his plans which is nothing short of disgraceful contempt to the paying fan base. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46137489 Remember this a year ago? In a statement, Saints said: "The club believes the time is right to take constructive action and make a change that will provide new drive and direction to our football operations team and enable them to get results back on track." 12 months later, I think it’s fair to say, much like the continuously false transfer window spin, carrot dangling & moving of proverbial goalposts, the club were talking sh*t! Also, how are those improved results going boardroom? We were apparently appointing a DOF to replace Les Reed in Nov 2018. It’s only a year. We tend to shed staff under Gao (Rohl, Wilson, Reed, Krueger, etc. etc.) and never replace them or we force up cheap appointments already in situ (Kelvin Davis as first team coach says it all. Entirely out of his depth). Who exactly is Rohl’s replacement? Wasn’t someone forced up from ‪the Academy‬?! Another inadequate replacement & cost-cutting exercise no doubt. Are we ever going to appoint people of football brainpower rather than market strategists who have about as much influence on progression in sport as Paul Daniels. Still, at least the club can learn to manipulate & bullsh*t a lot better than they did before (or do currently). Gao clearly doesn’t like paying wages or money out to anyone outside of marketing and social media. That’s probably the only reason why Ralph is still here. To avoid the pay off and to get back at the players. Now read the lastest Echo article. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/17996253.southampton-plan-appoint-director-football-support-ralph-hasenhuttl/ Saying the same thing as a year ago. The club is run like a communist propaganda column. Saying what they think people want to hear but doing nothing of the sort. Then the club reneges on 3 transfer windows. Always moving the goal posts/going back on their word. Having too many players. We shed enough. Having to sell to buy. We sold some. Loaned out others. Then January is cited by the club as being a bad time. We wait for summer. Then the big window in July/August the club spin doctors alluded to allowing Ralph to rebuild the squad he wanted ending up being……………1 last min panic loan (Danso) who doesn’t play unless it’s out of position or a panic sub. That was the major rebuild our club deferred and lied their way through for 2-3 years. At least 3 successive windows. It begs the question, as others rightly highlight, why buy Danso if he is no improvement and can’t step straight into the first 11?! That was suicidal negligence as this season has proven. I even remember them going for Quincy Promes a few years back and the “club” saying we would go back end of season (which they didn’t, of course. Totally false, transfer tyre kicking to appease the fans and run down the window clock). This is what the club do now. Spin lies and deliver on nothing or treat the fans with abject silence and contempt. Unforgivable. I ignore any promises uttered by the club now. How gullible can our fans be? Actions, no more words. Of course, nothing will happen. We need a new squad. An overhaul. Apparently Ralph has lost the dressing room and players are trying to do what they did under Puel. Oust the manager. Unbelievable when you consider their performances and their inability to look inward. Unbelievable arrogance. This club is rotten from the core. So, will Gao dip into the January transfer market. Doubtful. He was bad news from the start. Generally, the Chinese in business like to make money. They do not like to spend it. Ideal. Thanks Kat. Years of good, patient work undone in a few short years of one idiot’s incompetent, utterly destructive & potentially divisive reign. Cortese has a point when he ranted on his departure. He knew what was ahead. I fear there is no recovery from this in the short term and we deserve all we get, sadly. Who will we attract in January if, by a small miracle, Gao did put his hand in his pocket? We need big or strong names in. A strong assistant coach to Ralph before we even consider players. A strong DOF. Someone like Wenger as DOF would be ambitious but that’s as likely as us recruiting Erik Stoffelshaus over Manchester United. Our standards as a club are so ridiculously low, any ambitious suggestions or sign of intent would get shot down by the fan base anyway. We have proven over a consistent time, we offer nothing to any prospective suitor. No ambition. No stability. No continuity. No intelligence. No care. No passion. No spirit. No transfer budget and, with it, no future in the Premier League. The board must’ve realised we had little hope at the beginning of the season when they did next to nothing to bolster the squad. If they didn’t, it just shows how far from a competent & functioning board they actually are. Utterly clueless. I’m sorry if that’s bleak but that’s the sad reality of the situation. Friday was so predictable.

I can't see it. Who we will attract in January? This should have all been sorted out in pre-season. Not left to the last min and a panic loan brought in. Unbearable negligence. How many times can the club go back on it's word also? This season was when Ralph was meant to build the squad he wanted. Instead, our main defensive signing, Danso (who should walk straight into the lineup if he was an improvement to the squad) rarely starts and then not in his favoured position. It begs the question, why sign him? Was this the extent of the fabled rebuilding? Will the club keep blaming Reed for Gao's chronic lack of under-investment?! Then we have the Telegraph article saying what the Echo said 12 months ago about appointing a DOF. Media pacifying as happens continually yet nothing ever happens to prove the words and promises genuine. More hollow words. When will people judge this dynasty by their actions? We will die nasty if things continue and I fear we have already gone too far. We will struggle to attract players of any worth in Jan IF we delve in the market. Gao will likely not invest and his model of self-sustaining is unsuitable. Unless he realises the loss (150 million) he may face from the lack of television revenue, etc. Bit late to shut the barn door after the horse has bolted mind!!

The worst man marker I have ever seen. Even on the rebound shot, he was nowhere near & it was the Leicester player first. As it was throughout the game.