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Les Reed Appreciation thread

OttawaSaint

By OttawaSaint
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...
Heisenberg

Heisenberg

Posted
Posted
Probably time to move on chaps. Les Who?

 

Once we rid the Les wrongs I'll happily move on.

 

Just now we are still riddled by his mis management and I find the fact that some "fans" want to praise him a little odd.

 

He truly ****ed us.

sadoldgit

sadoldgit

Posted
Posted
Once we rid the Les wrongs I'll happily move on.

 

Just now we are still riddled by his mis management and I find the fact that some "fans" want to praise him a little odd.

 

He truly ****ed us.

 

I will never forgive him for those four consecutive top ten finishes either mate, but it is time to move on.

OttawaSaint

OttawaSaint

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Looks like a good weekend to me, given all the bites...

 

I think he’s bitten on more than he’s got bites on though. Poor effort for a so called trolling expert. #glasgowcutadrift

  • 6 years later...
Lord Duckhunter

Lord Duckhunter

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Saint Garrett said:

Wonder if he talks about all the shit signings he made or just the good times?! Not sure i can face watching it tbh

I wonder if you’ll post about the good signings he made, or just the shit ones…

Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
31 minutes ago, SaintNewForest said:

Unpopular opinion time; Les is overhated and a bad spell at the end of his regime clouds people's judgements of him and his time here.

Probably a fair assessment.

For me then turning point was probably the fall out with Koeman. 

  • Like 3
Turkish

Turkish

Posted
Posted (edited)
12 hours ago, Saint Garrett said:

Wonder if he talks about all the shit signings he made or just the good times?! Not sure i can face watching it tbh

Why don’t you want to watch what the man who masterminded two promotions, two European campaigns, 3 consecutive top 8 finishes and a cup final has to say?

Edited by Turkish
  • Like 2
Katalinic

Katalinic

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, SuperSAINT said:

not watched it yet.

Some of it is wildly inaccurate especially around the Adkins sacking and Pochettino appointment. Timelines totally wrong which make his anecdotes highly questionable. 

  • Like 3
Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
27 minutes ago, Katalinic said:

Some of it is wildly inaccurate especially around the Adkins sacking and Pochettino appointment. Timelines totally wrong which make his anecdotes highly questionable. 

Only listened to a brief snippet and intended to go back to it, but if I heard correctly he talks about sacking Adkins in November and having a 10 day break before the next fixture.
 

My recollection was sacked in January, a day or so after a creditable 2-2 midweek draw away v Chelsea, with a home fixture on the Monday night v Everton. 

  • Like 3
Doctoroncall

Doctoroncall

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Katalinic said:

Some of it is wildly inaccurate especially around the Adkins sacking and Pochettino appointment. Timelines totally wrong which make his anecdotes highly questionable. 

He didn’t correct the ‘sale’ of Toby to Spurs when asked by Foster. 
 

Pochettino replaced Adkins on the same day in January 

Edited by Doctoroncall
1
  • Like 2
bugenhagen

bugenhagen

Posted
Posted
On 10/04/2026 at 23:40, Saint Garrett said:

Wonder if he talks about all the shit signings he made or just the good times?! Not sure i can face watching it tbh

Sorry to spoil it for you (I had a listen) and it was surprise, surprise - just the good times

  • Like 1
Willo of Whiteley

Willo of Whiteley

Posted
Posted

Listened to it commuting to work the last couple of days.

I thought although he got some facts wrong, whether that be forgetfulness or not, he articulated a lot of behind the scenes processes very well. 

You could also work out which players he was talking about when referencing specific deals; i.e. The Coutinho signing didn’t happen because the chairman at the time (Cortese) has overruled it and found someone else - quite clearly Gaston Ramirez - that was very much a “statement signing” for the club at the time.

He spoke highly of Jose Fonte as a player that threw his everything behind Poch and his coaching/training.

Poch is largely responsible for the way the club/clubs now train, eat healthy, sports science etc.

He also mentioned “gentleman’s agreements” with players and agents, which ties up to what is documented about Tadic’s departure.

The football operation, under Liebherr he had the autonomy to go out and make a deal without needing to get approval, that changed under Chinese ownership (Jisheng Gao).

I thought it was a fascinating listen.
He should get a bit more slack than he does but his last few windows let him down.

  • Like 1
Miltonaggro

Miltonaggro

Posted
Posted
On 11/04/2026 at 10:42, Turkish said:

Why don’t you want to watch what the man who masterminded two promotions, two European campaigns, 3 consecutive top 8 finishes and a cup final has to say?

Plus invented the famous Staplewood 'Black Box' and the active manager replacement list.  Essentially, in terms of impact, Lesley Reed is the Stephen Hawking of soccer.

  • Haha 1
Turkish

Turkish

Posted
Posted (edited)
40 minutes ago, Miltonaggro said:

Plus invented the famous Staplewood 'Black Box' and the active manager replacement list.  Essentially, in terms of impact, Lesley Reed is the Stephen Hawking of soccer.

The manager list was absolute genius. Not only did he track them for years he always timed needing a new manager to coincide with when they were unemployed thus saving the clubs millions in compensation payments to other clubs. He could probably teach Martin Lewis a thing or two about saving money as well.

Edited by Turkish
  • Haha 1
OldNick

OldNick

Posted
Posted

He wasuseless and a self proclaimer of how good he was. He walked into the Saints dressing room when Pardew was there and gave him his book on coaching, as soon as he walked out it was put straight in the bin. That is from someone who was there

  • Like 1
Miltonaggro

Miltonaggro

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, Turkish said:

The manager list was absolute genius. Not only did he track them for years he always timed needing a new manager to coincidence with when they were unemployed thus saving the clubs millions in compensation payments to other clubs. He could probably teach Martin Lewis a thing or two about saving money as well.

Indeed.  Very rare to have a cutting-edge scientific mind in terms of use of technology, a top financial brain in terms of pragmatism and accountancy, plus an aptitude for communication and likeability.

Dman

Dman

Posted
Posted
On 10/04/2026 at 22:40, Saint Garrett said:

Wonder if he talks about all the shit signings he made or just the good times?! Not sure i can face watching it tbh

They were all the chairmans fault, not his. 

  • Like 1
Gloucester Saint

Gloucester Saint

Posted
Posted
19 minutes ago, OldNick said:

He wasuseless and a self proclaimer of how good he was. He walked into the Saints dressing room when Pardew was there and gave him his book on coaching, as soon as he walked out it was put straight in the bin. That is from someone who was there

Probably left back who posted on here at the time. Was suspected to be Wally Downes but rumoured that Pardew himself and some of the players used the account too.

It was none too complimentary about Les. ‘Oaf’ was one word used.

Ted Bates Statue

Ted Bates Statue

Posted
Posted (edited)

I reckon he was good for us overall, but eventually everyone had enough of the constant trumpeting of his own achievements combined with the bullshit over signings via friendly journalists. It got to the point where being quoted as "relaxed" about a key contract situation meant the individual, whether it be Virgil or Koeman was probably on his way out.

Things really did start to go wrong on the playing side when Gao took over in summer 2017 but surely if Reed was struggling with getting permissions from Gao later he would have GTFO before the shit hit the fan or given one of his journo pals a juicy story. Also, Martin Semmens is on record after saying Gao was a silent owner who left him to it. So did things change, or is Reed making excuses knowing that Gao isn't going to pop up and correct the record?

I think Reed has misremembered some aspects, e.g. Coutinho's potential transfer fee - maybe try £5M rather than £0.5M, and a lot of people are latching onto the Adkins decision but I always suspected it might have been made around November as he says. The key aspect is that very few people would have known before the trigger was pulled publically and to bring in Poch. 

The black box finally debunked. Also, funny how signings tended to be heavily based around players the managers knew well.

All in all, I see him a bit like Lowe - someone who did plenty of good for the club but so obviously obsessed with PR to the point that it tarnishes the individual and if anything only serves to highlight the negative aspects of their times at the club.

I will never forget this gem:

Quote

Mauricio believes with the quality we have we can play exciting, attacking football, taking the game to our opponents by playing a high-intensity game. He will continue to develop and introduce young players whilst building on the core of experience that we have in the squad.

During the recruitment process Mauricio quickly became our first choice and, while he had other options, we are delighted he feels that St Mary’s is the right place for him and we believe he is the right fit for us.

 

Edited by Ted Bates Statue
  • Like 2
Turkish

Turkish

Posted
Posted (edited)
12 minutes ago, Ted Bates Statue said:

I reckon he was good for us overall, but eventually everyone had enough of the constant trumpeting of his own achievements combined with the bullshit over signings via friendly journalists. It got to the point where being quoted as "relaxed" about a key contract situation meant the individual, whether it be Virgil or Koeman was probably on his way out.

Things really did start to go wrong on the playing side when Gao took over in summer 2017 but surely if Reed was struggling with getting permissions from Gao later he would have GTFO before the shit hit the fan or given one of his journo pals a juicy story. Also, Martin Semmens is on record after saying Gao was a silent owner who left him to it. So did things change, or is Reed making excuses knowing that Gao isn't going to pop up and correct the record?

I think Reed has misremembered some aspects, e.g. Coutinho's potential transfer fee - maybe try £5M rather than £0.5M, and a lot of people are latching onto the Adkins decision but I always suspected it might have been made around November as he says. The key aspect is that very few people would have known before the trigger was pulled publically and to bring in Poch. 

The black box finally debunked. Also, funny how signings tended to be heavily based around players the managers knew well.

All in all, I see him a bit like Lowe - someone who did plenty of good for the club but so obviously obsessed with PR to the point that it tarnishes the individual and if anything only serves to highlight the negative aspects of their times at the club.

I will never forget this gem:

 

His memory is playing up - i've only listened to about 10 mins so far

It was more like £10m 

hes also got his dates wrong about Adkin’s sacking. He said it was November before an international break, it wasn’t it was January the 18th after we drew 2-2 away at Chelsea Pochetino was appointed the same day and his first game was 5 days later home to Everton

Says Alderwereld signed after speaking to Pochetino, he signed when Koeman was here

Edited by Turkish
  • Like 4
Turkish

Turkish

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Listened to it commuting to work the last couple of days.

I thought although he got some facts wrong, whether that be forgetfulness or not, he articulated a lot of behind the scenes processes very well. 

You could also work out which players he was talking about when referencing specific deals; i.e. The Coutinho signing didn’t happen because the chairman at the time (Cortese) has overruled it and found someone else - quite clearly Gaston Ramirez - that was very much a “statement signing” for the club at the time.

He spoke highly of Jose Fonte as a player that threw his everything behind Poch and his coaching/training.

Poch is largely responsible for the way the club/clubs now train, eat healthy, sports science etc.

He also mentioned “gentleman’s agreements” with players and agents, which ties up to what is documented about Tadic’s departure.

The football operation, under Liebherr he had the autonomy to go out and make a deal without needing to get approval, that changed under Chinese ownership (Jisheng Gao).

I thought it was a fascinating listen.
He should get a bit more slack than he does but his last few windows let him down.

He does get quite a lot of the details wrong and i think there is a bit of bullshitting going on about some stuff, like when he reckons he came back from selling Luke Shaw and he asked the other directors to guess how much he'd got, they said 12 or 15m and Les smiles and says 30 - that's gotta be bullshit

Im not buying the Coutinho story either, its on record we had a 10m bid accepted for him in the January 12/13 window, he chose Liverpool as most players would. It wasn't Ramirez who was preferred as he was already here having signed in the summer, unless we tried to get him in the summer as well. the only player we signed that window was Forren and in the summer we signed Lovren, Osvaldo and Wanyama none of which are alternatives to Coutinho. Apart from anything else no way would his value for from 0.5m to 10m in 4 5 months.

Overall he did well for us but i think his ego ran away with him towards the end thinking he'd cracked it, tbf for a time pretty much everyone we signed was a success but then certainly made up for it with the likes of Carillo, Hoedt, Lemina etc

Very interesting stuff though, dont think anything new came from it but 

Edited by Turkish
  • Like 3
benjii

benjii

Posted
Posted
On 11/04/2026 at 12:49, Badger said:

Probably a fair assessment.

For me then turning point was probably the fall out with Koeman. 

Yes, I never understood that. 

"We can't have him going into his last year so we have to push him out". 

Why? It's not a player worth tens of millions walking on a free, it's a manager. The value of a good manager is much higher than a year's worth of comp.

We could have let Koeman continue to build for a year whilst concentrating on succession planning. I doubt anyone believes Ron would have half-arsed dialled it in for a year as he clearly wanted to continue in management.

  • Like 1
Midfield_General

Midfield_General

Posted
Posted (edited)
12 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

I thought although he got some facts wrong, whether that be forgetfulness or not, he articulated a lot of behind the scenes processes very well. 

*

The football operation, under Liebherr he had the autonomy to go out and make a deal without needing to get approval, that changed under Chinese ownership (Jisheng Gao).

Funny how the bits of history he’s forgetful about always accidentally end up making him look better, isn’t it? 

Re autonomy, given the absolute dogshit he saddled us with when he didn’t have Poch or Koeman calling in favours and making him look good, I’m with Gao on this one.

For a true reflection of his own ability you just need to see how he got on as a manager. One of the worst records in premier league history (until Rusty came along).

Respect where it’s due, he appointed two good managers. Other than that he’s a serial bullshitter who has made a career out of taking credit for other people’s achievements. 

Edited by Midfield_General
  • Like 2
Gloucester Saint

Gloucester Saint

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, benjii said:

Yes, I never understood that. 

"We can't have him going into his last year so we have to push him out". 

Why? It's not a player worth tens of millions walking on a free, it's a manager. The value of a good manager is much higher than a year's worth of comp.

We could have let Koeman continue to build for a year whilst concentrating on succession planning. I doubt anyone believes Ron would have half-arsed dialled it in for a year as he clearly wanted to continue in management.

It didn’t work out well for either party going to Everton yes, it was a needless mistake. Claude Puel wasn’t the puppet Les thought he’d easily control either - the Forster contract extension against the manager’s wishes caused a rift allegedly. 

The 2016 end of season fans forum and the Les Reed comment about Ronald ‘doing alright’ when he steered us to top 6 for the first time since Lawrie fully warranted the nervous laughter in the audience. Les lost my trust from that point. 

Also, the response to the Guido Carrillo question in the 2018 forum was also priceless. Rather than just say the player wasn’t suited, he went into a speech about how he’d be a great asset over time. The laughter was deafening. We’d all seen him marked out of the FA Cup game by Wigan’s centre backs.

The Fonte transfer window mess was awful and cost us a trophy.

Les was fine with an experienced manager but not the brains of the operation.

Edited by Gloucester Saint

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