Daft Kerplunk

Clearly not about money, this will be about the state of the club and where it is going. At the moment, it’s treading water. If I was Danny, I’d be looking to join a team that at least looks it won’t be disappointing to play in every week. The second half of the season must have been dreadful for our few better than average players.

Not physical enough for the Premier League is it’s a no from me.

The money put in the club by KL was also loans that were paid back. The only ‘investor’ was ML. When Gao purchased the club, he bought 80% of KL’s shares and has not invested in the club as the club has not seen any of the money. It was a dud deal and Marin Semmens was the clubs strategy lead at the time and brains behind the deal with Gao. For KL, it was a great bit of business, for Saints as a football club, it has and will continue to be terrible.

Sky could move it

See also Derby and Middlesbrough. The move was needed but the stadium was never great quality and is probably in need of structural work, let alone new paint.

It is reasonably well known in football circles that the quality of coaching overall has declined from where it was. A great coach on a shit pitch will get more out of a player than a shit coach on a nice pitch. The facilities are very good, many of the newer coaches and recruitment not so much.

Exactly on that last bit. But also, we signed Lallana at 12 and therefore we definitely should have players ready to make a significant contribution. I think this is what Ralph was saying when he said that a player from each year should be making a difference to the first team. Getting players to make a substitute appearance in the league is simply not enough even if the club thinks it can sell the idea of it being success. Some fans and sponsors might be gullible but those who dig beneath the surface guff can see we aren’t as great as we say we are. It just needs some serious honesty (not to fans necessarily but internally) from those running the football club. When significant changes start happening like new technical directors with excellent track records, great coaches being employed, you’ll know they’ve taken the problem and are committed to turning it around. If the current academy (anything below first team) leadership stays as is, you know they aren’t yet.

The administration impact would have had an impact but it is 12 years since Marcus Liebherr took over and started investing in the academy. Many of the good coaches were still there so it was down to the new person running football to get things going. That person was Les and the academy hasn’t been on form since when it comes to developing actual premier league level players. If Les was amazing, we’d have at least a couple of players signed at a youngish age making great strides right now. That things have only become worse in the academy means it needs a proper overhaul from top to bottom.

Crazy that another player Saints rejected as a teenager makes it to the England squad. It’s a shame for JWP, he should be in the squad.

Jumping ship before it sinks?

Oh mush, the club has 99 problems but Ings ain’t one

See the club is still spouting that manifesto bollocks of coming back stronger 😁👍🏼🤣

If there’s a silver lining to this season, it will be that after consecutive bad seasons since the Puel, somebody in a leadership position will be honest and say we need significant work and probably some genuine changes in the football department. Each of the last goodness know how many seasons, it has been the same from whatever manager, CEO/MD/Chairman whatever we have had... “we will work hard and learn, we will better next year” well blah blah fucking blah. Silver lining will be some serious honesty behind the scenes and big big changes. Regardless of the owner, the place is clearly a mess.

Owner: 0/10 Board: 2/10 Manager: 3/10 Players: 4/10

This is decent comedy 👍🏼

Adam Blackmore saying on radio that Ralph needs to have better coaches around him, but that he also would need to listen to them too. His lack of interaction with the staff compared with Bielsa and other managers shows either he doesn’t trust them or that they don’t offer anything other than putting the cones out. If Ralph continues on, which is likely because we can’t afford to let him go financially, then surely he needs to be able to appoint his own quality staff instead of this lot that Les left, or be told that it clearly isn’t working well enough with him and this current coaching team. standards need to be raised where we can afford to do it and first team coaches and fitness staff won’t cost the same as a substitute midfielder and could be more impactful.

No decent team needs to get out of second gear to beat us really. Do the Saints board have the honesty to challenge themselves to make things better? They talk a good game but results ain’t lying. All the nice pies and graphics in the world won’t make up for a hungry team competent enough to make it harder work for the better teams. We are still on relegation form and wins against Palace and Fulham hardly scream rejuvenation. It’ll carry on over into next season unless serious changes are made to coaching staff and players.

With this current crop of players, no Ings, no survival. Vital.

Players can either relax and play well or relax because they are now on their holidays and don’t really care where they finish. Be interesting to see what happens for the last four games. Our momentum is downwards, time to reverse it, sign some strong players, move the crap on and restart afresh with some hunger.

Getting kids from the west is fine. The coaches, especially those that have joined in recent years, are the real problem, nowhere near good enough but given jobs because they’ve been at Bath or know Matt personally/played for Bristol or Yeovil. Fine if they are brilliant but not if they aren’t. Need to take on the best coaches to get the best results.

Does this signal the end of the Matt Hale West Country cartel! 🤔

When you look at the u18s and u23s you’ll see that most players have been purchased from other clubs or are rejects from ‘better’ teams. Recruitment hasn’t been great but neither has the coaching, which has dropped hugely from the pre-Les era level. Both of these things are of huge importance to our model so need a massive overhaul starting from the top.

Will Kami sign for Saints though? He can’t have a pro contract yet. Word is that other better clubs are looking at signing him/talking to his people already

At least we don’t have to worry about Ings being the only player who scores reasonably regularly

Seeing as Martin Semmens was instrumental in the selling of the club to Gao, hopefully he can take him with him...