hypochondriac

I'm sorry but blind support under every circumstance doesn't really achieve much either. Just suppose we go 5-0 down against spurs and it's clear we aren't really trying like against spurs away. Would it really be fair to expect a wall of support at that point? Are fans never allowed to express their discontent at the terrible performances during a game?

Or in other words protests to attempt to affect change are only acceptable when it's too late for that change to make any difference...

It's not the job of fans to choose a successor. Besides if you believe the club's spiel they have a shortlist of candidates ready at all times.

Personally I'd favour protests but only if we go a couple behind early (which let's be honest could easily happen.) 3-0 down at half time with no hope of a recovery should see mass protests for the entire second half.

Mot sure what you mean by that. Sacking the manager may give us a chance to stay up and there's a chance that we will do that before the end of January. No matter what pressure we put on the board they won't be leaving at least before the end of the season so it has little relevance to our success this season.

Yes but the board aren't likely to get the sack midway through the season whereas the manager may well do.

To be fair we are very likely to lose and a poor performance and a loss coupled with some protests of this nature may actually do the trick. The usual people will ridicule Guan now for this but really it's not like it can get much worse so it's worth a try even if it doesn't achieve anything.

I'll make it a bit easier for you to understand: Things the club don't do: "oh no! Alpine has criticised us. We have to make more signings!" Things the PR company employed by the club will be doing (an approximation of): "your last social media post had a high engagement and click through rate. I see you have a signing announcement soon. Our current public relations strategy suggests that considering some of the negativity posted publicly online recently you may want to consider releasing this information shortly before the game on Sunday along with a message about ambition. This would be a good opportunity to project a positive message."

I wouldn't consider this forum any more reactionary and odd as you put it than the reactions I read on twitter or Facebook for example from every club in he world. It's laughable to suggest that their PR would be garbage for keeping an eye on their online customer base which would include here. You've clearly never been involved in PR in your life if that's what you think. Why do you think that 100 fans on the clubs Instagram page would be any less useful from a data point of view than 100 fans on here? You are acting like everyone is exclusively on one platform. Would your view suddenly be more relevant to the club if you tweeted it to them rather than posting it on here? Literally any PR company worth their salt would look at the online presence of saints fans to better inform their strategy and that will include content from here whether you like it or not. I also know personally of a junior staff member under Cortese who were tasked with seeing what was being written and that included on here so quite frankly you don't know what you're talking about.

And I don't think anyone has said they would base their actions or announcements entirely on what is written on here, or course they don't. I do however think they are very interested in how the club is perceived online. Supposed ITK posters have alluded to it but it also just makes sense to attempt to bolster or safeguard your reputation both through social media but also in here. It wouldn't surprise me if the pr company have some sort of fan profile for people who use messageboards and a specific strategy to target them. It's how these things work. I agree that we won't be seeing any planned protests any time soon unless we end up rooted to the bottom at some point or things get even worse - we had a pretty well attended anti Lowe protest organised by some spotty kid online a few years ago. I think most fans are aware that an organised protest won't actually achieve much at this point but if we get relegated before the last game I am sure we will see something organised to express anger.

Which as I said is not a sweeping change. I am almost certain the club would look to time announcements such as signings to maximise the positivity that such an announcement would have. Its why generally we don't hear about signings at 3am and we often get a teaser on somethibg like twitter to build anticipation. If the club believed that they could build more positivity and perhaps quell some negativity by announcing a signing before a game rather than at another time then I expect it would be something they would look to do. It's hardly the most controversial statement in the world.

Again precisely no one has said that. Did you even read what was written? Do you have even a rudimentary understanding of how PR works? I think if anyone believes that sweeping changes are made at the club based on some reactionary messages on here then they are obviously deluded but no one has said that. You do understand there is a huge difference between for example sacking a manager based on some derogatory message on a Web forum and using Web forums along with other social media to get a feel for the concerns of the fan base in order to try to solve problems? I guarantee you the pr company hired by the club will be looking at a wide range of sources to gather information and messageboards will be one strand of many when devising a PR campaign in exactly the same way that the pr company did under Lowe. It amazes me that more people aren't aware of this or that some will pretend the club totally ignores what is said about them online.

Yep. There's no conspiracy, we are clearly going to bring at least one player in, probably two. The interviewer probably said something to him along the lines of "the club have found signings difficult this month so far. Do you think you have enough quality in the team if you don't manage to sign anyone?"

No different from any other club's fans on twitter. Every single club in the league has morons on social media, the players are probably warned about it in their social media training.

I give up. Will someone tell this simpleton how a PR company works and that no one has suggested knee jerk reactions based on what fans say on here? I know shurlock made it perfectly clear earlier but it obviously hasn't got through.

I would consider the chanting during the Fulham game to be unrest, certainly in the eyes of the club who have a carefully cultivated public image. Had we lost against Fulham do you not consider it likely we would have seen more disorder? The club aren't stupid and they know that if we go a couple behind before half time against spurs that the discontent will grow. The whole point of PR is to anticipate negative customer reactions and then attempt to mitigate that reaction. For this reason it wouldn't surprise me if saints would be pleased to get this signing sorted before spurs because in my opinion it would slightly dampen any potential protests and the club can spin the situation better. There's a reason they released the information about signings this week.

And anyone wanting to run an effective PR and marketing campaign and not keeping an eye on the customer base and their thoughts and feelings aren't going to be in business very long. Obviously the club arent going to change great swathes of their plans but what they will be doing is timing releases of information such as new signings or updating fans based on what is going to have the greatest positive impact and undoubtedly part of how they will monitor that impact is through close analysis of social media and also what is said on here. That's just common sense.

I would consider it incredibly likely that the telegraph article which came out shortly after Walcott was announced yesterday would have been deliberately timed by our pr company in an attempt to quell fan unrest. Some of that unrest would have been from fans online which includes on this messageboard so I do think our actions are designed to some degree to have as big a positive impact on fans as they can generate.

It's really not incredibly surprising that the club would monitor message boards. Lowe did it and considering the importance this regime has placed on PR, I'd be more surprised if they weren't actively keeping tabs about what is being said about them online. I also know from a few years back that certain junior employees were given the task of monitoring message boards so it's naive to think it doesn't happen.

Whereas a first 11 containing Hoedt, Soares, Austin, lemina, Bertrand and Boufal should not be facing the prospect of sliding into the relegation zone this weekend.

I would suggest that they won't be able to avoid then if we slip into the relegation zone and go much longer without a win.

Not sure why you think that. Inheriting loads of money doesn't really make you intelligent or inclined to be erudite on social media. You only have to look at trump to see that.

So actually his purchase has had the opposite effect. I expect he isn't too happy about that.

Are they replacing them with chow mein?

Any family guy fans here?