Daft Kerplunk

The lesson for SR here is that they shouldn’t have believed they were buying a dream of a club with an incredible academy and slick football and commercial operation. If they can’t see that there are big changes needed, then we will be relegated and they will struggle finance a return to the top flight.

When you consider a definition of arrogance, which is: ‘an attitude of superiority manifested in presumptuous claims or assumptions’ then we have a board who assume they are best placed to lead the club (they apparently chose the takeover of SR, probably because it kept them in jobs and as a result of their overconfidence/arrogance) and they are presumptuous in their superiority. The arrogance is believing that they somehow have found a model that nobody else has thought of, or considered, and that their way is the only way for Southampton FC. Arrogance is continuing to follow a path that hasn’t worked so far, and has holes in it that are invisible to people who believe they are exceptional. That’s flawed thinking. Many people could do a better job, with less self-congratulation.

This seems to be true but this was the approach of Semmens and co too. That’s what SR thought they were getting when they were sold Saints, and Semmens and co sold them the the thought that were the ones to continue doing the ‘amazing’ work they’d been doing. And that’s the arrogance. Sign Tino, think that’s all we need to do as it’ll just keep happening. Today’s performance was another in a long line of ‘that’s been coming’ shit performances. At some point the penny will drop.

The board’s arrogance is a major reason we are headed down. They’re convinced they’re brilliant, they treat fans like customers that are just there to extract money from, the hubris about our academy and ability to sign players is unbelievable. They continue to fail. The board deserve relegation. Maybe relegation would get rid of them.

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 🤣