Saint Fan CaM

What does bounce back even mean? From the Championship to the Prem? From the utterly miserable strength sapping defeats inflicted by teams that are much, much better than you? There’s so many possibilities!

I think if the players give everything we might get away with 3 or 4-0. If they start the game with a mindset that includes leaving without injury and looking forward to a shower then it’ll be 6-0 plus. I would bet my left nut that there’s no premeditated decision by the oppo manager or players that they’ll ’take it easy’ on Saints - switch off and we’ll be spanked good and proper without any feelings of remorse.

To be fair to Stephens he’s managed to cut himself a football career at the highest level - you don’t get that by being complete poop. The fault lies in the successive seasons of the club diluting the quality of the squad and relying on players such as Stephens who have been in the past 3rd or 4th choice to be first choice and even Captain. It’s no wonder we’re not attracting better players when some of the senior players in the squad are seen to be so sub-standard.

Other than the synergies 😉 the trajectory of how Spors is assembling his footballing related team with ex-777 people would suggest that he’s all in for Rohl - the final piece of the jigsaw? Makes so much sense and who knows, it might be the heaven-made match we’ve been crying out for? 🤞

Mmm, don’t know about that. If that were true then our two 9-0 humiliations wouldn’t have come about and we wouldn’t have stuffed Sunderland 8-0 or whatever it was. Not only that but there is every likelihood that this team will end the season with a relegation and joint lowest points tally ever whatever the score. No, I think the players in this team should be contrite if not broken already, however unfortunately I doubt any of their careers will suffer in the slightest as a result of the debacle we’ve been experiencing.

Agreed - it would be a refreshing change, albeit a significant undertaking to re-train an entire squad in how to play defensively within the new rule.

Probably a bit of all that in reality.

Unless Saints are gazumped by a Prem team with a lot of money to tempt him, I reckon Rohl is a dead cert appointment as soon as Wednesday get their replacement. There too many synergies in place in my mind.

Looks like this is more about Spors re-assembling his 777 team, but to be fair as Head of Scouting he just needs to manage what will likely be a third party scouting network and make it his business to know that they’re providing reliable info. So in reality he’s just a supply chain manager.

I share your skepticism however it is clear we approached Rohl late 2024, but that’s not to say it was the right time for both or either parties for him to come on-board - I suspect he wanted to complete the SW project and we didn’t want to get embroiled in compensation when our season was already over. It’s highly likely that a private agreement for Rohl to join us at the end of the season was made, even with Spors blessing.

Not sure how aware you’ve been of team selections this season, but both Armstrong and BBD were loaned out and I can’t recall Archer and Onuachu playing together. We may have too much about us to finish above ‘rock bottom’ of the league next season, but a mid-table finish is highly possible if the right appointments (and player sales) are not made. Can’t underestimate how crucial the job is.

Quite often when business property is concerned, there’s a chain of influence and negotiation to be observed - it’s not as simple as Solak ‘wanting to buy land’ such that he can just go ahead and acquire it. As an example, the concrete plant will need to be provided a suitable relocation site by the City council and assuming that happens, the land owner will need to be persuaded to sell the land or lease it. That’s a huge simplification of a process that in theory could take years and years to see fruition, but that’s not to say the negotiations have not started already - in fact I’d be very surprised if they had not started early in Solak’s ownership.

Proof of the pudding and all that. We can only hope that the managerial appointment will be swift to allow maximum time to sort out the squad. The club will need to offload a lot of players this summer before really strengthening. My concern is that Spors will consider the likes of Bednarek, Stephens, Manning and Smallbone as ‘good enough’ for the Championship - the benchmark for the quality required, then sanction the sale of Fernandes, Rambo and Dibling. We know KWP will be off. If that scenario transpires I dread to think what we’ll be left with and what style of play we’ll be watching (as that’s linked to the quality of squad). As I say, at the end of the window we’ll know how capable Spors is and so have a sense of how competitive we’ll be next season.

Possibly not L1 or L2, but I bet most teams in the lower half of the Championship would have gained as many points or more than us this season. Don’t delude yourself - we’ve been utterly dire and I mean in terms of performances, not just results or points gained.

Carnage awaits.

The Ralph / Rohl partnership re-ignited at Saints. Now that would be headline writing gold. Not that I believe it would happen now Rohl has established himself as a high profile manager. If I were to choose one or the other, it would be Rohl I think, but either would be preferable to fucking Rooney, Gerrard or Lampard.

Fixed it for you. 😉

The thing I fear the most is that SFC is embedded with the SR way of playing football - possession based or whatever you want to call it. The past rationale to this is clear in my mind… SR - We want promotion back to the Prem, but we can’t afford expensive players or any that have high wage demands that will exceed our ceiling. We need a manager and coaching staff who understand and can utilise a possession based system that keeps the ball at all costs - if they don’t have the ball they can’t hurt us. Step up Martin who installs such a system across the entire club (in tow with the entire Group). I’m not seeing or hearing anything so far that indicates to me that the above rationale has been abandoned. Is Spors suggesting a new strategy or direction?

It may not be Rusks fault that we’re so shit, but that’s not to say he’s the answer. On yesterdays evidence he’s not.

Very well explained post, however it does slightly over-simplify the recruitment failure. That started a long time ago - you could possibly trace back to the post-Koeman days when squad quality started to be diluted with the lack of decent replacements for Pelle, Tadic and Mane. Then a lack of replacement for Ings, but we were already on the slippery slope downwards by then. And as the team performances suffered, so did the ability to attract better players - it goes hand in glove.

Has anyone here seen Rusks after match comments? The Echo reported it but it’s all behind a paywall. I believe he essentially blamed the players?

Give it up - the tw@t has just presided over arguably the worst shitshow ever, playing Russball tactics…taking off our best, fittest player while chasing a 2-0 deficit. If you think he’s worthy of a first team role then you’re even more deluded than most in here think you are. We MUST break free somehow of the Russball vice grip thats around the players necks. Rusk and Lallana are not the answer…today proved that beyond doubt.

You’re right - after selling/losing the best players it will be several orders of shit worse. If you think otherwise you’re a deluded fool.

Manga - young as or even younger than Dibling and twice the player.

WTF was that from Tall Paul - braindead!