Daft Kerplunk

Make no mistake, that was rubbish. It will continue. Streaky as bacon.

Martin Semmens and the board members like Ralph because he stays at his desk late. Is that enough? Is it fuck.

I think I’ve been a Saints fan too long, and know too much about how the club works to have anything but low expectations 😄

Semmens has said the new owners aren’t super wealthy so this is the first step in managing the fan expectations. Not that any of the realists expected anything different

As long as we don’t go down, the senior managers at the club won’t really care that Ralph is as inconsistent as lumpy custard. They still get their nice bonuses, the Premier League club on their CV and no need to be anything other than the very ordinary to achieve the reflected glory, and wedge. How the new ownership reacts, and whether they provide a war chest this summer will let us know how committed they are to us getting better.

The reality is, this shit show doesn’t matter. As long as we are in the premier league making the TV money, then the people in charge at this football club couldn’t care less. Tv money has made a mockery of good management because the money is always there as long as you’re somewhere above relegation crap. This is where comparisons with being run like a business fails. We mugs always turn out regardless and as long as there is £100m plus from TV deals, the club can be noddy as fuck.

Like many believers of conspiracy theory, he lacks the intelligence to critique the material he absorbs just because it goes against the norm. Conspiracy theories may occasionally have a grain of truth, but they are also bait for the naive. He is showing the same idiocy of many, so instead of acknowledging that he also might be wrong, he just digs a bigger hole. He was admired and idolised for his left foot, right foot and forehead, not the gray matter behind it. Ignore.

I know he isn’t a new recruit, but I also know that there are people at the academy have zero respect for him being promoted to this role. He might be a lovely bloke but we aren’t attracting the best talent to run the show.

The plan was in place prior to the purchase as this role was being recruited before. Surprising, although also not surprising that a cricket coach is now heading up a key football department. Seems the academy powers still have something against people with a football background 🤔

It’s a win for managing expectations, and Semmens has exceeded expectations on this front. Fortunately Saints fans are not that ambitious for their club and have no particular expectations other than being reasonably entertained. The approach of the club is aligned with fans, and indeed an average city, so it’s a great fit. As for the point about JWP, we should let him go to win something, and fans shouldn’t get upset because it’s the Southampton way. Defectors, we salute you.

Agreed. It’s just that we might be able to get a little higher in the table as we can attract better quality younger players. Maybe the stadium can be improved with safe standing as a result of the new owners at least.

Club dropped a bit of a changer giving Alex McCarthy a contract extension (apparently they have and if anyone says they haven’t, phone the club and ask them to deny it) and since that time, Fraser has made it a no contest situation. Need a better keeper but currently a shame that the better one will likely leave because the other was given a better contract and will be difficult to offload for a decent wedge.

Definitely not off topic for me. Good info and let’s hope they keep up the progress, plenty make this level but then not the jump to top level professional careers so the next transition to our first team is the big one. Fingers crossed that they don’t get injured and can maintain the progression so far

He is very important to our team moving forward, one of the most positive players on our team and that allows others more space. We are a different proposition when he plays.

FCUK YOU SPUDS CNUTS. That is all.

Glad he is sort of happy with this 👍🏼

Seeing as Ralph indicated we’d be able to do business this window, it’d be interesting if we don’t. Not that there’s a pressing need as we should exceed our target of staying up this season. Be great to get Broja locked in as that’s a biggie for how we are evolving.

No smoking in stadiums any more though, and timber use in construction has greatly improved. No way it would pass far more rigorous structural tests if it wasn’t deemed to be okay. Problem at Bradford was also linked to exits, lack of trained staff, low maintenance. in Scandinavia and other very progressive countries, they are building tall buildings from wood given the progress in strength and safety.

He’s a goner

Fantastic result against an incredible team. Crap defending for the goal. VAR nonsense adding to the drama. Was a solid team effort and the fighting spirit seems to have arrived thankfully. Impossible to criticise our play going forward against such a well organised team who rarely give the ball away, and certainly not cheaply. Nice one Saints.

The financial situation might be better but we still have the same dithering staff.

Everything that’s shit began with Man Utd. Business first, football second, and the rest have just followed, and then others saw English football as some sort of easy pickings promised land.

The giveaway was the lower case ‘a’ in American 🇺🇸 or maybe it was Paris Hilton…

The third part would take more investment that imagined, academies are expensive to operate, a country like the US and continent like Africa is vast so where would you be based, and it’s likely to be more efficient to develop links with clubs that are high performing already. As it appears now, global development sits in the commercial department so the only objective will be making money. If there was a joined up strategy, it could work but it would take a big commitment. Or, as would be more effective, just having a very strong scouting network and identifying kids and snapping them up before they join Red Bull Salzburg, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax and the like. This last bit seems the big win here. Imagine Haaland signing for us instead of Salzburg, and we really should be able to compete in that space.

It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out. The comparisons with Red Bull seem a little wayward given that Red Bull have poured tons of cash into stadium development, sponsorship etc. to help their clubs compete at a higher level. It’d be great to see this new ownership doing that but it’s not apparent yet, although there hasn’t been any real detail. I’m hopeful that the academy hierarchy and commercial team leadership are shitting themselves a bit given how rubbish those areas have been over recent years.