Daft Kerplunk

The word you’re looking for is ‘brave’ 🤣

Interesting group. Nobody with high level playing experience to have that knowledge and insight to help players. I would have thought someone like James Beattie who’s doing well as a coach would’ve been on a list to have in. Especially as he might have been able to help the forwards! Anyway, definitely no more excuses for Ralph if he has selected this group.

If the club has lost money on this, it raises questions on the viability and suitability of Tim Greenwell, the director of legal and risk. Surely the due diligence should have identified the contractor as a potentially risky option?

If he’s as good as people are saying, then the club should be offering a similar deal plus a clear route to the first team. At least the latter as Newcastle won’t be able to compete with that unless they are taking a different approach than the one people expect. Would be far more intelligent not to spunk tonnes on older talent and build with youth. Not much point in the academy if we lose the talent we have actually developed and just buy it in. Brentford model anyone?

So if Lavia signs, maybe Cowill too, then we need an AM (or two) and a CF. Quality experience would be useful to help the young lads along, preferably someone who’s done something decent in their career but players tend to stay fitter longer now and squads are bigger. The days of Case, Mills, Richardson etc. joining are days gone by, but we some mine who can get the players fired up and staying the course would be useful. VVD is the last player that did this for us so age isn’t the key.

Was he 18 though? 🤣

A bit tired to be honest, haven’t slept well recently

Indeed, although still odd that the coaches aren’t in place already…or just not announced yet perhaps. For an optimal pre-season that we need after the last few shambolic seasons (as in utterly inconsistent), you’d think the coaching staff would be in place, fully involved in the planning etc. to get the best out of players and start developing some togetherness and grit. More players in place would be good too. Pre-season might be mostly about fitness but it’s also about building team spirit and confidence for a better season.

Looks quality, far more comfortable on the ball than many of our existing players from this game against our own Premier League level players 😆

Still need a fresh DM, at least one quality AM and absolutely need a CF. And plenty more to move on too. Would be ideal if they were all signed for the beginning of pre-season but that must be fast approaching.

Brexit believers Trump followers Climate change deniers Covid deniers The vaccines contain chips owned by Bill Gates 5G mast destroyers QAnon White lives matter too Pride is being forced on us Lizards are controlling us, or is it the Jews? How many is Matt ticking these days? Don’t need to research any of the above because they’re all daft as fuck 🤣

Seems to like to move forward early, different passes and appears to keep opponents guessing. Scores goals. Looks more like a JWP replacement than Oriol or others. Looks decent though.

5. Some good runs and feelings of positivity, and waving to fans balanced against awful runs and falling out with numerous players, being totally inconsistent with team selections, substitutions etc. He’s half and half Hassenhutl for me.

Saints commercial sign off process taking too long

One of the key reasons the Saints need to bring in better coaching staff. Ralph and good man management are apparently like water and oil. The problem as it appears with the club’s overall attitude is that the players and staff can like it or lump it, and whilst this might work for cleaners and digital marketers, it doesn’t with ‘talented’ assets that need to be nurtured to perform to or beyond their abilities consistently. As you say, it is a failing of Ralph’s that means he’d struggle at a big club with bigger egos to work with.

Others have said it but the key will be what is in front of him. We need a quality CB, a new first team midfielder who makes an impact, and a centre forward who does the same as a minimum.

Buffon made his Serie A debut at 17 and joined Juventus at 22 for a world record fee, and made his Italian senior mens team debut at 19. Age isn’t everything and fingers crossed he is superior to McCarthy, just like Buffon would’ve been at the same age.

For me, Forster and Broja helped keep us up the season just finished. In the context of the huge impact relegation would have had, I wish him well, even if he is a benchwarmer.

Surely you know it is the player or another club’s fault, and never a Saints mistake 😎

He’s a better front man than either of those were but make no mistake, he was a core part of that previous leadership team and led strategy whilst Ralph and Les were ‘in charge’ and was from what I understand, actually in charge. He now has a chance to help clean the mess he also created. With a forgiving fanbase who don’t know how involved in club decisions (including selling to Gao) he was. We now need him to succeed more than ever.

Can’t imagine him being a player that Ralph would like. Not an automaton type of player.

Oh man, regardless of the merits of the leadership discussion, saying football means more here than in a country like Germany is quite mad. The country is football bonkers, they have bigger stadiums than us, they fill them up, they’re far noisier inside than us, and there’s the small matter of them winning a fair few more world cups than us. For my money, a leader, or leaders can come from anywhere. They lead by example, they encourage, they get on people who aren’t performing to keep them at a higher level, they get the best out of others, not make them worse. These people are not exclusively of these islands, and it’s easy to see that we don’t have any more than any other nation.

Well, plenty has been spent in improving hospitality but that’s what the board understands. The person responsible for improving this isn’t a football people so he don’t really know what to do about the rest of the ground. That’s why they need to carry out loads of surveys. Zero instinct. But regardless, St. Mary’s is a very basic stadium, poor kiosks and set up for food and drink. But worst of all is just how quiet we as fans have become. In the chapel you get looked at strangely if you try and start a song, and few people join in. Is it because it’s tourist fans? Are we scared to show any enthusiasm now? Whatever it means, its boring going to games and with often unreliable football effort from the players, and a tactically stupid manager (will this change with better coaching staff advising him? Hopefully so) the football doesn’t help.

For those worried about Kelvin, I’m sure the club will find a role for him if they still want him around to make people laff

About time. Time to raise the quality far higher