Gordon Mockles

Exactly my thoughts. I got fed up of the majority shareholder & the clear zero lack of investment or ambition. Flawed from the outset. I thought, if I’ve nothing positive or worthwhile to contribute, not to bother until Semmens returns as I am sure things must improve. Remember the string of platitudes banded by the club l?! As it seems, this window is the crux of the matter. The postponed to the next window to the next window to this next window, to THIS window. Let’s hope it’s as exciting as the media department has alluded to and failed to deliver on countless windows. I’m confident we will now improve & we have little choice. We have shed so many. If we do recruit well in the transfer market, I think it may be down to the external investment rather than our ownership but I don’t wanna get embroiled in that tedious topic. I love a positive transfer window when they actually sign wisely. Remember them? 😉 Salisu is a good start. KWP also good but I would take Cash over him any day of the week. We had scintillating form & I like KWP but a short display while playing at an unprecedented peak time should not allow us to have our pants pulled down by Levy. Seems we may have actually learnt from a mistake by asking for isolated deals & standing firm with Højbjerg & Zahavi who has ruffled some feathers but no surprise. Reed will be an interesting addition. I just hope he is given a proper chance rather than left on the sidelines as Ralph can do, killing the confidence he has undoubtedly harvested at Fulham. He marshalls the midfield. Weston Mc Kennie is the ideal type of target / replacement we should be after to push on (if up to scratch) & not dilute the quality (it won’t dilute as I don’t rate Højbjerg at all) but I feel we won’t complete this transfer due to money IF we don’t get full expectation from Højbjerg sale. Perhaps sensible. I feel we may follow our old habit & end up with a cut price European squad midfield player hoping for potential which won’t significantly improve us as a squad but we will have Reed. I’m happy about that. It’s the defence that is our prime area of focus. Salisu & KWP I hope announced any day (or Matty Cash) and a replacement for Vestergaard will help. Does anyone know if our alluded American investment is propping up this window? I’m sure it’s not from our owner.

The forum stories about him were comical but what an absolute pr**k! Makes a mockery of our judicial system. “Yet in a pre-sentence report Barry Beardall said he “recently” inherited £25,000 and the judge wondered where that had come from and if it had been declared – adding the previous confiscation proceedings could be reopened and some of the inheritance money used to pay back more. But Mr Martin said his client had spent all but £2,500 of it...” Yeah. Seemingly spent on takeaways. The cowardly, divisive fat c**t!!

The club previously remained very tightlipped about transfers until the business is done. Hence all the hot air & false platitudes in recent windows & little action. It is unusual for the press or media sources to announce a transfer like Salisu is already done before the club announce it. It is everywhere. Does strike me as strange.

My friend is a f**cker and I hate him cos he was winding me up. He’s well connected and knows a lot of people in football hence I took him at his word but he totally got me. Glad I added the caveat (it could be a wind up) as it sounded a done deal for SFC and generally clubs and people don’t talk to the press unless it’s absolutely guaranteed, unless they’re idiots but our club does have a track record for idiocy (Carillo, Tommy Forecast, Pekhart). Having said that, if United did try to hijack the transfer, a club of their stature & paying power would always win. He got me. Quite funny really if I wasn’t the victim. The f**ker!! 😂😂

It concerns me Saints new media approach appears to be to link themselves with every player going but particularly with Salisu, as though it’s a done deal. I heard to the contrary. I had a worrying message from a friend tonight saying Salisu is in talks with Manchester United. I hope he is trying to wind me up. I was naively optimistic this window but remain hopeful (despite our track record under Gao). I feel we will be better under Semmens and I’m hoping we don’t do the old adage of waiting or quibbling with no proper intention of signing or placing solid, sensible offers. The 400K backup striker signing from Spanish second division & potential of Reed to replace Højbjerg seems more Gao’s style (I would be pleased to have Reed back). I really hope Salisu is signed by us and SFC are just waiting for a work permit to delay the announcement. If United hijack Salisu, I may lose confidence in our transfer strategy and the impression we have seen painted across social media. I hope Ralph is allowed to do a Nick Fury & assemble his crack squad. When I say “crack”, I mean it as a metaphor rather than a noun. We don’t want players going all “Clyne”.

I expect many fans are glad you’re not in charge with your chastising & ambition depleted post. We could list the numerous players that have left over recent windows, those inadequate failures loaned out and then explain how threadbare we are in the fact that to give our first choice defenders a rest, we played a p*ss poor and totally bewildered Højbjerg (or JWP) at RB which would have lost us the Brighton match. Luckily Ralph saw sense in noticing how glaringly bad that team selection was (in fairness, he had limited options due to having little depth in the squad defenders but he has to rest key players for Bournemouth) and he brought on KWP who transformed the ever p*ss poor Højbjerg and Obafemi was dreadful so Che was required as a band aid. Mc Carthy has been in good form but we do not need all 3 keepers. Sell Gunn or Forster. Or bring in Forster to compete with Mc Carthy. Mc Carthy did well but he still does not inspire the confidence in me of a real top, quality PL goalkeeper. Sorry Alex. You’ve been brilliant since lockdown but I would aim higher. Fortunately, I think the current management have improved immeasurably and whilst we will remain relatively low in aspiration & ambition from board level, the coaches have astoundingly harvested a mentality of battling, pressing and playing exciting football which is massively commendable. I have much more faith in them making the right decisions, even under the restricted, difficult and improvident ownership.

Good. A strike partner or additional striker it is then. Careful. I got shot down for suggesting that from the board Bielsas. I would loan or push back Obafemi. May help his attitude. Bring in Colley (or alternative) and Mohammed Salisu. Sign KWP (or a more physical RB but I do like KWP). Then with Harrison Reed back, that’s shrewd strengthening and team management and a very solid squad. A forward is not a necessity but it would be a wise and welcome change (the club competently safe-guarding the squad rather than stupidly gambling) instead of the ridiculous risks we gambled and partly got away with this season (first half of Brighton proved that not having a full defence & making do with incapable midfielders in defence is a mentality fundamentally flawed). I am really excited about the new season. Finally, with Semmens returned and some sense returning to the management, a wise window and (finally) rebuilding sensibly in the right positions will galvanise our squad.

Why? 15 million is relatively small fry these days. Until Bednarek got injured, Vestergaard was 3rd choice CB and he cost £19 million. I still can’t believe we didn’t snap Leicester's hard off for Vestergaard in January. Danso can be no more of a liability if played in position as a third choice backup if we sold Vestergaard in Jan & took the gamble until the end of the season. Oh well. Learnt the hard way...again. Omar Colley and Mohammed Salisu joining from Sampdoria and Real Valladolid will be a couple of welcome additions.

A great and almost perfect end to a fantastic season. I got my second wish come true (going above Everton up to 11th) but perfection would have been Danny’s earlier shot in the back of the net and a golden boot winning hatrick but you can’t have it all. Mc Carthy kept us in it first half & was solid throughout and Redmond was superb. Really made the difference and when he’s on form, he really links up the attacks. So pleased for Che Adams. Seems the diagonal stripes favour him. Always chuffed for Ingsy but so wished he got one more goal. Just one more. We’ve not had a golden boot since Keegan. Well done Ralph and & the coaching staff all those concerned. A real change in fortunes down to training and coaching hard and a strong sense of determination and grit mixed with excellent levels of fitness. I can’t wait until next season. A couple of wise defensive additions and Reed back & we could have quite the campaign. Brilliant form since lockdown. Outstanding. Suddenly, we play with belief and determination again.

I really like Harrison Reed and I’m excited to see how he fares. I just didn’t see him as a direct replacement which he may not be. Who knows. it’s good irrespective

You may be right. He seems to be improving. But I also think we need a more consistent striker as back up to Ings. Obafemi and Che are not to be relied on for 10-15 goals a season as the stats illustrate. What I am suggesting is that one of them goes on loan and one is replaced by a reliable goal scorer. If Ings got injured, would you be happy going into a new season with you throng of attacking options as Shane Long, Che Adams or Obafemi? I personally don’t see many goals in those three but they would do better alongside an experienced frontman who can hold the ball up and bring them into play and pass as accurately as Ings. Danny’s interlinking play and some of his assists & passes this last month or two has been exceptional. We rely on him too much though which is a mistake. It leaves us vulnerable.

He is undoubtedly a player of quality as Danny Murphy & other pundits illustrated at the start of the season. Even in a lack lustre cold and hailing home game which we lost to Liverpool a season or 2 back, the squad were not interested but he led my example and was the stand out, committed player. Somewhere along the way, under the poor, previous managers or Les, he and the club fell out. We may never know why. Lemina seemed to want to do the stepping stone to a high earning club thing without achieving the “in between” bit of actually playing and performing consistently at the club he was contracted to but our club was in turmoil at the time and he has an abdominal injury I believe. What happened after that was farcical and I don’t know if it was Lemina, Les, or a bit of both but the mentality of the player and his relationship with the club descended into chaos. He may be a player that is nuts and may never have the right temperament (a la Osvaldo) but we can’t deny that on his day, ignoring any off field antics, he’s exactly the style of midfielder we are crying out for. Urgent. Skillfull. Creative. He can lead and Marshall the midfield and link defence to attack. He would be the lynch pin of a quality midfield. As it turned out, he didn’t have his head in the real world but we can’t also rule out Les (allegedly) sabotaging the head of another PL played by his ultimatum and unreasonable demand approach that worked so well with the Koemans or even his ability to alienate Gerrard in his FA says. Les had a bullying habit of going back on his word and destroying the focus of many a player, likely masked by NDAs. I‘m sure that is why Morgan’s patience run out when he turned to Twitter for an outburst (so many years ruined in an afternoon or something to that affect). As I said, seemingly taken out of context, Lemina would be ideal if he wasn’t mental. He had more than two good games and when he’s on form, he was one of the best players in the squad. Seems he may not have the aptitude or mentality to galvanise his obvious talent. A sad symptom of the broken players of the football world, polluted by the money and lifestyle. A la Clyne, etc. Don’t let the press debacle take away the fact, he would he the exact type of player to push us to the next level. The press have made many a player look an idiot. Fairly and unfairly. Don’t believe all the club, heavily driven, social engineering. He is a player of talent.

We should loan Leeds Che for the season or half a season. Che gets some good training and coaching & perhaps boosts his self confidence from a brilliant manager then we get him back at the end of the season (or Christmas). Meanwhile, we bring in a suitable foil/partner or backup in case Ings gets injured. I like Shane Long but he’s not a prolific goalscorer and I wouldn’t feel confident of goals with Obafemi & Long starting. We do need another striker to support Ings. We leave ourselves vulnerable otherwise. I can’t see Carillio being that man but who knows. I’m happy with our seemingly wise defensive maintenance we seem to be quietly orchestrating. Much needed. I’m most excited about getting Harrison Reed back and seeing how he does under Ralph’s tutelage. I’m unsure if Harrison will be seen as a direct replacement for Højbjerg or whether we will purchase another central midfielder. Aside from the obvious defensive transfers, the best signing we can make for the team would be a player like Lemina. That debacle is such a shame as he is absolute quality and exactly what would drive our squad to that next level. I wish he wasn’t mental. 🤪 I hope we can sell or loan out Gunn. I’d like to see how Forster manages under Ralph. Sell on Vestergaard.

Good post and I agree entirely with every aspect. Especially the slow to react mindset of Højbjerg whom is a dreadful passer of the ball and can’t shoot. Maybe it’s the fast pace of the Premier League that flusters him to panic and pass straight to the opposition. Therefore, sell him to Spurs for a rip off fee as recompense to f*** off Levy for constantly stitching us with transfers & sell on clauses. Then I hope he plays even worse for them. Daniel Levy *grunt* ✊🏼💦 PEH is another Lovren. He lives in a dream world where he believes he is a class above everyone else when he is in fact a class below as Lovren has proved at Liverpool. Perhaps that’s a little unfair to Højbjerg as no-one in world football is as big an arrogant pr**k as that hoof w**king bunglec*nt Dejan Lovren. Both Vestergaard & Højbjerg are painfully slow. Che was poor against Brighton but I do think he ‘might’ develop but it’s very 50-50 because he does a lot that really doesn’t breed confidence. Anyone saying he’s quick is deluded. He needs gametime & an arm around the shoulder. Playing him and then dropping him after one bad game like Brighton won’t do his confidence any favours so include him in your plans Ralph if you see him as part of our future. Don’t drop him for long periods as that won’t do his head any good. I’m personally not sure he’s got it. We need a RB, CM... I’d like to see us shift one of the young strikers (Che or Obafemi) and one of our goalkeepers to replace them with better or give Forster a run. I’d like to see Harrison Reed back. Fulham fans love him and I was always a fan from the outset but he’s never seemed to curry favour for whatever reason. Maybe he upset someone in academy. It is odd though as we have seen Ralph persist or try other players from the Academy of lesser quality but not Reed. I think he is tenacious midfielder and our closing down, high pressure, pressing style of football would suit him down to the ground.

Don’t agree in the slightest. Højbjerg constantly gives the ball away & I don’t understand why so many fans are so blind to this.

Exactly my thoughts and I saw Che come back and was prepared to give him a chance and I hope the guy would boost his clearly lacking self confidence. I’ve been quite defensive for him but v Brighton he just showed he’s not got it. I’m sure that’s down to really low confidence and a poor match can’t sum up a player’s calibre but he is clearly a player that suffers with confidence and he just looks poor. Højbjerg I have never rated since his dreadful cup final miss against United from the outset. He can’t shoot aside from one won wonder goal and his passing is woeful as one attack against Brighton displayed when he passed straight back to the opposition which is deadly and he would’ve cost us a match against a team like Man City. Romeo is twice the player Talking of wonder goals, how unlucky was Lurch (Vestergaard) to have save of the season deny him? That shot had everything & would’ve been goal of the season. Power, precision, swerve. Incredible effort. Incredible save.

Wind your neck in choppy!

Oh. Sorry. I assumed he was a billionaire judging by the financial statements and evidence he presented to the PL in order to actually purchase the club. Are you suggesting he has committed high level fraud by the cited figures (into the billions) which were declared? There was me thinking he purchased our club just for fun. Thanks for correcting me! Apparently, according to the PL, he is. How do you know he is not? Based on the fact he's the tightest owner in the PL or through sheer guesswork? Like all those speculatively claiming Gao is potless without any direct evidence. Other than Roman Abramovich spending almost £900 million on Chelsea since buying the club (for £140 million) and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan putting near on 1.2 Billion into Man City. What is a difficult concept, accepting some Billionaire's spend money and some (ours) do NOT?! Not even a penny!! This was all I was trying to highlight rather than going over old ground but there is a strange sense of delusion and being unable to accept reality on this forum. I kind of get the not spending in Jan if we really don't need to although I don't entirely agree (but it's not my club, hey, in case I didn't realise) as it carried some risk as our plummeting league position illustrated but we likely would be fine. This is not the point and we digress if we discuss this. My point was merely illustrating how incredibly tight our owner is and why buy a club in the first place. Generally, when you're silent about your intentions, they're often not good or not wanting to be widely known (like when Tony Hayward formed Valleres with Nat Rothschild to take over the largest remaining inshore oil field in Iraq but they didn't want the mainstream media to expand upon it as it contradicted their prevaricating mantra of "Hearts and Minds", peddled a decade previously to the British public during the Gulf War). These tactics generally rely on time passing and history slipping from the minds of the public to avoid any backlash.

And you know this because........ Owners have to divulge their finances to the PL and provide evidence prior to purchasing a club, much like when you are getting a loan/mortgage. If this is wildly wrong, I assume this could allegedly be classed as fraudulent). I find it astounding how you and other members on this forum are privy to such personally, private financial information such as the internal accounts prior to being released, owner's personal wealth and bank statement, etc. If you are in fact privy, it may explain why you so blindly defend the owner when no-one seems to.

What, you mean other than football? Or motor racing? Or many other sports? Besides, it’s not always known to never come back but I’ll leave you to it. If you’re more interested in more important things, don’t come on this forum and stop replying rather than doing so then moaning about it

I think everyone gets that and it’s more than obvious but thanks for the recap. It’s just weird because why would you buy a club if you’re not going to at least try & compete?! He is a property billionaire so I assume he has a certain level of intellect and you wouldn’t buy a Premier League club as a viable business unless you’re bringing it up from the championship for a profit as Markus successfully did. I have a good idea why Gao bought the club but libel reasons prevent me from elaborating but don’t pedal that tired old owner investment cr*p. If he wanted a profit making business, he wouldn’t have bought a Premier League club. We sell any player than attracts attention yet we are bizarrely owing 90 million somehow. They need to elaborate on that. It was clear after our December run, we didn’t need to desperately spend in January but if I owned the club, I certainly wouldn’t take that gamble. There may be a reason given like it’s better than buying in the summer but they’ve done that before and we won’t do that either. We now know the strategy is clearly just to make do, possibly to set up the club for a sale. I find it strange & incredibly tight to add 40,000,000 to the value of the club when you’ve decreased it largely, considering VVD, Gabbiadini, etc. So, I still feel we must have the tightest owner in the Premier League. Why do people on here keep bizarrely saying he’s potless? He’s a property billionaire. If he even spent 20 million in Jan, which I accept he didn’t need to do, do you believe he really will in the summer? No. Of course, no owner has to spend anything on the club they buy but it’s pretty ridiculous to expect a self-sustaining model in the current environment. They always move the goalposts and go back on their word and we will not likely sign much in the summer despite practically needing half a squad. To put things into perspective about their level of stringent finances, we are amongst the top seven in the league wealth table and in the billionaire category. Our owners are worth 4 billion, according to official Premier League figures which is the figure we must go by. That’s more than Liverpool and more than Everton and not far-off Manchester United. Wolves and Leicester are marginally ahead. Compare all those clubs and look at their behaviour in the league. I’m not saying we should copy them but I’m just saying compare them. Then consider each league place is worth 2 million. Consider any transfer window but let’s consider January, hypothetically. 20 million is a lot of money but when you consider a couple of defenders and our league status and the cited 4 billion Gao has got, we are talking 0.005% of their wealth. Let’s hypothetically say I have 2k in the bank. The equivalent of 0.005% of that is a tenner. Our manager wears RoKo’s old, monogrammed gloves. Now that’s tight!!!

Wow! You’re very economical with facts to suit your own misguided argument. Separate the owner from the club with the club. And what would that achieve other than rendering any debate more senseless than that of which you’ve just uttered? Unsure why you are talking about taking a deep breath, odd. It’s as odd as when people say spending money to maintain a club in a league is “throwing money at the club”. Would it have been “throwing money at the club” to have signed a couple of desperately needed defenders the club (yet again) alluded to but reneged in January? Just curious in your choice of language. I’ll be concise, for a change. You say “take a sip of reality”. How about you take a sip of the financials & player trading figures (incoming transfers compared with outgoing transfers in the three years since the majority shareholder took charge) then come back once you’ve de-misted your rose tinted spectacles (made in China) and see if you can formulate a sensible argument. Tell me, I’ve spoke to virtually everything Saints fan I know about Gao. Quite rightly, no-one defends this prevaricating owner who is arguably the worst in our history (and I have a massive hatred towards Rupert Lowe & hatred isn’t an emotion I like to harbour). Yet, you continuously defend Gao. Please explain why? I appreciate that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, no matter how strange but your opinions and defence of a man who has led us to 3 relegation battles & hasn’t even the common courtesy to speak to the fan base is beyond obscure. Are you really Nelly?

Your opinions are fookin’ mental You criticise the people responsible for our greatest success in decades (& and the good fortune following their departure from the excellent ideology & spirit they put in place before Cash Converters put the pin in the balloon & undid all the good work & the strategies (& FUNDS) put in place and you then defend the worst owner we’ve had possibly since Askham & Lowe. Possibly the worst we’ve ever had. There is no point even reasoning against that mindset. Mentali You must surely be paid to defend and argue for the board as no cogent, coherent, lucid, real Saints fan in the real world (and not the upside down) would hold such a crackers opinion, unless they’d just escaped from a padded bus or done too much acid in the 60s!! To surmise, in your view: Cortese and Markus - They were useless or lucky or don’t deserve merit. They just bought success. Gao - spent absolutely f**k all & nearly got us relegated while partying & swinging his d*ck in China and neglecting the club he’s showing off back home. Third time lucky relegation were it not for a man manager motivating the players out of their skin. Led the manager and the club and fans along with all sorts of propaganda & false promises and delivered the club absolutely nothing and now trying to sell the club he asset stripped to oblivion after sending them backwards for 40 million more than he paid for us. That guy is a legend!!!

What a strange view on history you have.

:lol: Yeah, we put United & Villa to shame these past few seasons. Incidentally, In what parallel universe was this, the upside-down? Yeah, starting a Premier League season with one recognised left back and loaning in another inadequate CB (Danso) in a last minute panic. A CB not good enough to displace the low quality CBs in situ (to be fair to Stephens and Bednarek, they’ve made the most of their ability and worked very hard), then offering your manager money to strengthen the clearly p*ss weak defence in January, then going back on your word after a few good results while discarding 2 more defenders (when we were already short in defence) in the winter while only bringing in one short term loan who apparently is no better than the defender whom was a large part of our greatest ever defeat (and the worst defender in years to put on a Saints shirt), Valery, whom lost us the match on Saturday...that is proper ground breaking chairmanship. That is backing your manager up and supporting his campaign and letting him do his thing and giving him the tools for the job. Yep, seemingly breaking assurances to your manager and going fully back on your word & taking the most outrageously risky gamble with our club’s premier league status is genius. The man has more sense than yuan!! I wish he’d stop being so sensible. I hope he never goes crazy and delirious & signs some good quality players!! What a w*nker he’d be if he did that. What a w*nker he’d be if he even fed his children. We’ve got a genius, sensible, proper Fagan father figure. Let’s go spit roast a pig to celebrate!! (please don’t go for the obvious joke, please!!)