Daft Kerplunk

The naivety here sometimes is amazing. The Athletic will have really decent contact with the club’s PR and the messages we read will be shaped by the club. We wont be spending much this winter despite the clear need for new decent recruits in critical areas. The board and SR (it appears) will believe that Jones can achieve a miracle in getting us out of trouble.

Is there anyone within the football structure that has premier league playing experience now?

100% We talk a good game about recruitment and thankfully for the people leading the football club now, most of our fans lap it up thinking we are amazing. The proof is in the pudding. We are bottom 3 for a reason. And when you look at the squad, you see the piss poor result of a period of leadership where Semmens has been one of the leaders making the decisions, even when Less and Ross were here. Here’s hoping that SR can stop the rot.

Ain’t that the truth 😁

Mbappe’s goal last night. Expected goal or finish that 99 out of 100 would have messed up? But ultimately, still the same, I know what you’re getting at with the use of the stat but it isn’t needed to confirm we are crap at scoring goals. I could be on the pitch and miss loads of chances. It wouldn’t take xg to tell anyone I was shit in front of goal. It’d be obvious 😎

For the last 150+ years, there’s only one stat that matters when it comes to forward play. That’s goals. It’s high time people remembered that. How you go about goals is another matter but xg is about as pointless a stat as possible when it comes to the actual point of football.

Great news about David Thomas. From everything I’ve heard from people at the club, he was a prize knob and won’t be missed. Definitely not a loss. Crocker is an interesting one, Ralph had so much first team power that his influence would’ve been less that it could’ve been, the academy wasn’t a focus despite the need for it to be. Sports Republic making room for their own. Both of these fellas were Semmens appointments so will he be next?

Not sure it’s pretentious. Almost the opposite in that all the details are what get pretentiously obsessed over these days (xg, final third receptions - so what on this pointless stat, forced turnovers aka tackles), but when it comes down to it, the best teams find a way because of their footballing quality and inner belief. That’s all the journalist is saying here. Think of Ralph with his winning duals chat, taking an age for players to learn our way etc. It’s football speak in an era of mass middle managers who love a spreadsheet or PowerPoint more than the actual game. Bellingham is fantastic but he was letting the ref get to him yesterday. His time will come, and hopefully it will happen for England at some point. Unlike Sancho, let’s hope he doesn’t waste his talent by leaving Dortmund for Man Utd. Players like Kane probably need to play in teams where the expectation is realistic too. Tottenham are consistent also rans even though they believe they’re contenders. Southgate is very good and in many ways, the example of leadership that would be useful across the country right now but he lacks that one thing that takes you to the next step. A little risk taking that leads to confidence in being able to find a way.

With the talk of Nathan Jones being seen as the person who can make what we’ve got work better, Also, with relegation a clear possibility, the board might choose not to spend big as we will be in financial trouble if we go down. Perhaps we will get a loan player in who’s out of favour somewhere and has nothing to lose by joining us in the winter. Just like when we went down when ‘Arry was in charge! Hopefully, Sports Republic will see that none of the above will be a good way to go and they will take over decision making and boost our chances of avoiding relegation and a likely long stay in the lower leagues.

Nathan Jones could and should be a good manager, but he’s got a very tough gig with a team and club that’s utterly lost its way when it comes to the priority of being a football club.

Not sure AA was a Harrods purchase, more Happy Shopper

So with Gakpo and Ramos, looks like we were trying to shop at Harrods for some new clothes whilst having a mindset and budget for Tesco.

That Athletic interview was worrying. I think Semmens believes we’ve got the players, and maybe not signing anyone means we would be less in debt if we were relegated. I would imagine relegation budget exercises are on the agenda.

When it comes to this winter’s transfer news, is anyone concerned by the talk of Nathan Jones being chosen because he can work with what we have?

I think someone in the marketing team has got the wrong idea there! But that also would’ve been signed off by the highest levels in the commercial team too. It’s not great.

Not a great deal in that. Everything is rosy in the St Mary’s savannah.

And absolutely no benefit to the football team whatsoever

The commercial department is a bit of a joke. From one shit show to another whether it’s kit being late/or bad quality, getting a drink at a game, large numbers of opposition fans in the home areas, £500 hospitality tickets that don’t sell out (no surprise, the team has still been shit), sponsorships that fall through or don’t pay…and on to the next mistakes.

Gakpo probably won’t be signing then ⚽️

Apart from those that went to extra time. Almost as long though 😅

I would imagine the 2 week break was already planned and couldn’t be changed by the new manager, and if he had, players would have been upset so no point doing that. As for the trip to Miami being canned, this lot should be sent on army training in Finland instead to build up some toughness 🤣

MLTs chip over Schmeichel v Man Utd was special for the execution and audacity.

If anyone is old enough to remember Alan Hansen’s famous line about not being able to win with kids, this might come up as justification for the current approach of the club. The only problem is that that team’s average age was almost 27 and also contained seasoned pros such as Schmeichel, Parker, Irwin, Bruce, Pallister, Cantona, McClair, Giggs, Keane, Cole and so on. Even Beckham had spent time out on loan at Preston. Some senior pros would really help our kids develop and strengthen the team to stay in the league.

Seems to be a couple of assumptions based on old owners/the summer’s business: Assumption 1. We won’t sign anyone very experienced. This could be true as most players we sign are primarily for sell on value but perhaps there’s finally a recognition that young talent needs a more experienced (doesn’t have to mean that old) helping hand on the pitch. Plus resale on any players, as well as value of the club might be diminished if we go down and players haven’t got to the point where they show the level that allows for big transfer fees. Assumption 2. Most of the money was spent in the last window and we don’t have that much. This is an unknown but if rumours are true that Semmens cocked up in the summer and didn’t sign players SR had approved, we could also assume that the money is still there for us to sign some stronger players. As always, the proof will be in the actions the club takes.

Ralph’s worst characteristic was man management and Nathan seems like he will be the complete opposite. His tactical approach and style of football will be seen soon enough. I just hope the board didn’t either too long in keeping Ralph and we can survive what will be a very hard season for this young team, especially if we don’t sign a couple of strong players over the winter. Perhaps SR now realise they need to take the bill by the horns and crack on with things instead of letting the old guard delay too long.