Daft Kerplunk

The Sports Republic Odyssey continues. Who knows the destination!

Agree with all apart from the ‘wokery’ bit. That’s just about being good human beings who don’t dislike people for being different, and don’t buy in to the false culture war being stoked to take people’s attention from the important things in life. He’s wrong about women’s football become more popular than men’s football any time soon but that’s not a ‘woke’ thing, that’s just being stupid and saying stuff that’s meaningless in reality.

He did indeed, remember it well. Different times

The proof will be in their actions of the summer. If they realise that to develop youngsters, you need some experience alongside them, and that you don’t buy more than you need unless it’s an outstanding talent, then things could get better. I am hopeful that there is a focus on a decent squad that is lean and hungry. I’m not convinced that Che and Armstrong will be good in the championship any more because their confidence will need rebuilding. But perhaps with a decent manager, it might be possible. A good clear out of staff behind the scenes to make it leaner is needed. In the past few years the accompanying staff on a match day have almost matched the number of players. That is apparently the same at the youth level too. And the commercial and legal teams that became bloated too apparently. That’ll probably happen anyway as whatever Semmens says, it’ll be difficult to justify a marketing team of 20+ people in the championship. Plenty to do.

We were on our way to relegation under Gao. The problems of this year are just a culmination of what has been happening for awhile. Apart from the early days of Kat Liebherr, we’ve been on a downward trajectory since 2018.

Not in any way a Sam Allardodgy fan but this post has eloquently argued for it, tongue firmly in cheek, and therefore, I’m in.

At least Semmens and Co are succeeding with the Women’s team. Priorities.

And no centre forward. Not that we really one of those who’s functional in their role, other than Che.

And Lyanco

Under Gao, we would have eventually been in this position as so much damage was done under his reign. Remember that he allowed the board to get on with what they did, and largely, those same people were in charge whilst we nosedived in the second half of last season. Momentum is a big thing. Performances like the other night were like stagnant pool of piss-ridden water that hasn't moved forward for some time. There's a comment about Man City above saying they didn't expand their model until they got it right. I think SR bought the bullshit of Semmens that suggested we were already steps ahead, when the reality was that we were becoming relegation fodder. SR need to go back to the drawing board, become leaner and probably meaner on the football side (no long contracts to 19 year olds who'll likely never make it), and produce a model that works. So many people have wanked off over Moneyball but what none of them seemed to grasp was that Oakland A's were always maintaining a very tight budget and were brutal with players who didn't fit the system, unlike us who have tons of players who aren't good enough. Baseball is also a game largely of individual v individual, team spirit is important but apart from fielding, players don't interact in anywhere near the same frequency as football and that makes it significantly different from an analytical perspective. The club needs a major overhaul, big time.

The team is pathetic. But they’ve been put together under the stewardship of Semmens, and then Ankerson. One has been here for years and needs to go now, and the other should be on borrowed time.

the paper says he has fleas, cribs no return

1. Thinking that they’d found a way to conquer football that hadn’t been considered by any other team in 170+ years of the game. It’s all about teams playing well together, nothing more. 2. Being led by data when it’s all about human interaction and the data should just be a starting point. 3. Forgetting that it’s a football club first and foremost, and then an asset management company further down the list.

If it were Michael Jackson’s theme park, would that be valuable than Jackson’s farm?

Semmens next? He employed all of those apart from Toby Steele who was a Gareth Rogers hire.

There are plenty of people at the club with influential/blocking/yes person roles that people don't know. Fenn is apparently one of the good guys, and remarkably for this club, is a Saints fan as well.

Don’t worry about me, I’m over it. The use of the age range was that Bale, Lallana, Shaw, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Chambers, Targett and so so on were all recruited between 8-12. I was just pointing out to the previous poster that someone who’d been in post for 2 or so years responsible for academy recruitment wouldn’t see results for awhile, especially when it comes to the first team.

Let me break it down for you. At what age do academy players sign for a club, and when do they start making their first team debuts? If they signed at 8, that would make them now 18...so Les was here then. If Dan Rice oversaw the signing of a player for the academy in the last two years, they might make their debut in anywhere between 2 and 12 years.

He’s been in post for two years. The lack of talent currently is the result of the Les Reed years.

1. Always mean to pick on players who simply shouldn’t be at a Premier League club but Moi is the one who offers so little. But it’s not his fault he gets picked. 2. in the modern tradition of being indecisive, all 3 in their own way. 3. Forest. Sat there laughing at the way it all went. But there’s been plenty of competition in this tough to call category. 4. Statistically the most aggressive front footed manager in Europe v we should be grateful to be in this league v amazing light show when the team was dreadful. Hmmm. 5. Toughest category of all but Joe Aribo wins for me. 6. Martin Semmens. Instrumental in allowing Ankerson in so he kept his job. And even if you deny that, he’s instrumental in the culture of the club telling us we should be grateful to be in the league and also creating the type of culture where an on-pitch experience for kids at the end of the season gets cancelled without explanation to the kids, and where home sections get treated badly and away fans can do what they want. Has to go, and the pathetic board and other directors should go with him.

Similar form to those chasing the final Champions league spot then. Just to put in to context for those who still imagine we will conjure a level of form we’ve not had since 2021.

According to employees at Saints, directors say if you don’t like it leave when they make shit changes, and that kind of attitude is the same they take with fans. We are nothing but customers to them, which is fine if you treat them well, but not when you take them for granted. Rotten from the top.

When you see the damage betting does to vulnerable people (including footballers and people who are easily manipulated, which is plenty), this is about time. Betting, no problem, but these muthafucks make it way too easy for people to get in serious problems, and football just takes the money and hasn't given a shit for too long.

About sums us up at the moment. The football club that has forgotten it’s a football club.

The game was supposed to be sold out but there were so many empty seats, including groups of seats together. Are the club keeping some behind for match day walk-ups? Is it some weird security or accounting ploy? Are they selling tickets to tourist groups who don’t sell them? I know there were saints fans trying to get tickets for yesterday so surely our fans would be better than so many empty seats. Really odd.