Martin Semmens

[Miltonaggro]

2 hours ago, Dellman said:

Is that helpful? I am happy with his investment, much needed, just disappointed at recent ludicrous appointment.

Not meant to be helpful, rather a true estimation of his abilities.  I am very happy with Dragan Solak's financial investment in our club, and feel for him in that it appears to have been trusted to charlatans operating remotely.

[Turkish]

4 hours ago, Miltonaggro said:

By any measure or metric Rasmus Ankersen is not world class in anything he does or has done, even the books are hackneyed biz-speak nonsense.  He's a hipster incarnation of a snake oil salesman.  

He too class at rolling his sleeves up, they’re always perfectly done

[SaintlySaz]

I know a lot of people don't like Semmens, but ironically it felt like the club was better run when he was making decisions with no owner butting in to fuck it all up. The model couldn't last forever, and we needed investment, it's just a shame those who took over are so incompetent when it comes to running things.

[Dellman]

44 minutes ago, SaintlySaz said:

I know a lot of people don't like Semmens, but ironically it felt like the club was better run when he was making decisions with no owner butting in to fuck it all up. The model couldn't last forever, and we needed investment, it's just a shame those who took over are so incompetent when it comes to running things.

Bring back Cortese, he would sort it out and it needs sorting out.

[Smirking_Saint]

5 hours ago, SW11_Saint said:

Though part of me now wonders if Wilcox will even take up his role. Did he bank on being in the Championship? 

As we have seen with Joe Shields it just takes a flash of leg from elsewhere and they’re off…

Its a fair take and a definite possibility yeah, I imagine he’s been redied for Championship football but honestly who knows anymore 

[Miltonaggro]

2 hours ago, Turkish said:

He too class at rolling his sleeves up, they’re always perfectly done

I reckon he buys them pre-rolled from Hugo Boss. 

[Saint Fan CaM]

13 hours ago, JamiSaint said:

I find it hard to understand how two such competent - and in Ankersen's case, world class leadership expert - people have made such disastrous key strategic decisions:

1) Not parting company with Ralph after the summer

2) Not investing in a striker in the summer

3) Making a 20 year old goalkeeper with no top flight experience our number one (he may well be destined for great things)

4) Selling Oriel Romeu

5) Appointing Nathan Jones

Am sure they are working around the clock/trying really hard to make the right decisions, and SR have invested a huge amount to their credit, but I just find it baffling how they've essentially got every one of the major strategic calls wrong.

And 6) Appointing Selles as interim Manager to the end of the season. Who would not bet on this being reality?

[Dark Munster]

7 hours ago, Miltonaggro said:

By any measure or metric Rasmus Ankersen is not world class in anything he does or has done, even the books are hackneyed biz-speak nonsense.  He's a hipster incarnation of a snake oil salesman.  

He's a smarmy smooth-talker with nice hair, designer stubble and a sexy Danish accent.

If he had a cockney accent and looked like the bloke below he'd be widely dismissed as the fraud that he is.

[Turkish]

21 hours ago, stevegrant said:

Indeed. I imagine most of us have come across "that guy" in our careers, the bloke who can speak with absolute crystal clear self-confidence about any subject and can convince most people in earshot that they know what they are talking about, and yet those with pre-existing knowledge can see him for what he is - a bit of a bluffer.

From what I gather from his time at Brentford, he was the "ideas guy" but also the vast majority of his ideas were ignored because there were checks and balances alongside and above him at the club to ensure he didn't go "off message". His job title was Joint-Director of Football. As mentioned elsewhere, he left Brentford 14 months ago and yet they didn't seek to hire a replacement, which seems to imply that they are happy to continue with the other DoF who remains at the club. Their record since that time would appear to back up that decision.

For all that he may have used the Thomas Frank defence when talking about the Nathan Jones situation, Frank was already a known quantity at Brentford as he was working at the club with their B team, so it was easier to give him a bit of rope when the early results weren't good because they had seen his management and coaching style in action over a long period of time.

Imagine him and Semmens in a meeting room with their white boards, flip charts, post it notes and multi coloured markers, mapping out their ideas. Congratulating each other on how brilliant they are. We've got two ideas guys and no one to actually do anything.

[hypochondriac]

12 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Imagine him and Semmens in a meeting room with their white boards, flip charts, post it notes and multi coloured markers, mapping out their ideas. Congratulating each other on how brilliant they are. We've got two ideas guys and no one to actually do anything.

Yep. Cortese was a bellend but he was a doer. 

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, hypochondriac said:

Yep. Cortese was a bellend but he was a doer. 

you can say what you like about Cortese but......

[Weston Super Saint]

1 minute ago, Turkish said:

you can say what you like about Cortese but......

....don't do it to his face or you'll wake up with a horses head on your bed?

[OldNick]

I din't start this thread to give Semmens a kicking as I truly believe he is good at his job, just he made the mistake of selecting the wrong consortium, ok a major mistake but he did it for the right reasons and how they set their plan out. 

[Turkish]

7 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

....don't do it to his face or you'll wake up with a horses head on your bed?

How i miss the days when we had a CEO that would get himself banned from midrange city centre restaurants.

[Smirking_Saint]

20 minutes ago, OldNick said:

I din't start this thread to give Semmens a kicking as I truly believe he is good at his job, just he made the mistake of selecting the wrong consortium, ok a major mistake but he did it for the right reasons and how they set their plan out. 

Has he made the mistake of picking the wrong consortium? We don’t really know what the alternatives were… SR aren’t that bad, I think they’re aligning things were we need to be behind the scenes tbh and putting money where it needs to be

I’m not convinced Semmens is that fantastic at his job really, it’s basically all centered around Ralphs good work keeping us up.. thats largely it, that and soundbites… worth noting apparently he was the reason we failed to get a striker over the line in the summer

Im also not entirely sure Rasmus is the devil incarnate either, outside of the obvious fuck up in Jones

[Smirking_Saint]

18 minutes ago, Turkish said:

How i miss the days when we had a CEO that would get himself banned from midrange city centre restaurants.

I was involved in some of the redevelopment at Staplewood.. Cortese was.. to put it mildly.. hard work

[eurosaint]

Haven’t really read this thread through but FWIW I’ve always been impressed by Semmens and reckon that he is open, straightforward and sensible !

Adam Blackmore seems to agree and he’s met him many times…

I realise that it’s more fashionable to be negative but I work on the principle of judging what I see and hear for myself and he has always come across as an OK guy ✔️

[Turkish]

21 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

I was involved in some of the redevelopment at Staplewood.. Cortese was.. to put it mildly.. hard work

Yeah I had a few contacts at the club when he was there plus the echo and a mate of mine was involved in staplewood some of the stories were absolutely hilarious 

[ApprenticeBillionaire]

This prick is culpable.

"SportsRepublic will take the club to the next level"

 

[saintant]

19 minutes ago, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

This prick is culpable.

"SportsRepublic will take the club to the next level"

 

Agree.

[Convict Colony]

28 minutes ago, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

This prick is culpable.

"SportsRepublic will take the club to the next level"

 

You assumed the next level was upwards 😒

[ApprenticeBillionaire]

This twat deserves to have these words follow him around for the rest of his fucking life 

 

[Toussaint]

He continues to be a stain on the pants of Southampton Football Club. 

[OldNick]

37 minutes ago, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

This twat deserves to have these words follow him around for the rest of his fucking life 

 

We had 2 otherbids he turned down. I was tod one was the Burnley new owners, so that would be crap and the other had some sort of connection to a French side that was folded. 

[Weston Super Saint]

5 hours ago, OldNick said:

We had 2 otherbids he turned down. I was tod one was the Burnley new owners, so that would be crap and the other had some sort of connection to a French side that was folded. 

Are they now called "Exempt"?

If so, they're worse than us - although their goal difference is better.

[SaintsLoyal]

Semmens mistake was keeping the 9-0 merchant way past his sell by date, apart from that hes pretty clean compared to this out of his depth Phil Parsons 

[Mboto Gorge]

“Experienced within the world of Elite professional sports” 😂😂🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Midfield_General]

Semmens is on the radio now and has just gone on the record saying that under his watch the pitch to players Saints were trying to buy was literally 'Come to us, and we'll develop you and then sell you to a top club'. His exact words. 

Also said that he regrets not letting Van Dijk go as soon as he said he wanted to leave, as he'd been signed on this promise, and looking back finds it 'embarrassing' that the club dragged it out as long as they did, even after it became apparent he'd been seen being shown round the Liverpool training ground by Klopp.

I know we're all aware that Saints pitch themselves as a stepping stone, and that history has shown that we are a selling club that has no intention of ever trying to hold onto valuable assets, but it's still slightly odd hearing it in such stark terms from someone who has run the club.

Edited Friday at 11:37 by Midfield_General

[Wade Garrett]

I will always be grateful to Semmens for giving up all those Saturday afternoons to watch football.

[Badger]

Good job results and league position don’t matter. 

[Turkish]

33 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Semmens is on the radio now and has just gone on the record saying that under his watch the pitch to players Saints were trying to buy was literally 'Come to us, and we'll develop you and then sell you to a top club'. His exact words. 

Also said that he regrets not letting Van Dijk go as soon as he said he wanted to leave, as he'd been signed on this promise, and looking back finds it 'embarrassing' that the club dragged it out as long as they did, even after it became apparent he'd been seen being shown round the Liverpool training ground by Klopp.

I know we're all aware that Saints pitch themselves as a stepping stone, and that history has shown that we are a selling club that has no intention of ever trying to hold onto valuable assets, but it's still slightly odd hearing it in such stark terms from someone who has run the club.

I have zero issue with this, it's the reality for all about 3 clubs in the world. Some clubs, like we did for a while, do it very well.  What i have an issue with about Saints is that is the only strategy. We stopped bringing in experienced players to build a solid core and instead tried to build a team pretty entirely of players we wanted to sell in two years time. We never looked at who could do a job for us now, it was all about how much we can sell them for in the future. 

[Badger]

Semmens stance wouldn’t be so bad if they invested in the team around the ‘project and investment  players’ .
 

We bought some fucking rubbish under Semmens. Seemed a nice bloke, but glad to see the back of him. Problem that he seems to have cast the die in which others (Rasmus) want to operate. 

[malcolm waldron]

29 minutes ago, Turkish said:

I have zero issue with this, it's the reality for all about 3 clubs in the world. Some clubs, like we did for a while, do it very well.  What i have an issue with about Saints is that is the only strategy. We stopped bringing in experienced players to build a solid core and instead tried to build a team pretty entirely of players we wanted to sell in two years time. We never looked at who could do a job for us now, it was all about how much we can sell them for in the future. 

I've no issue with it too - it's exactly what Brighton and Brentford are doing, in fact their models are built on buying in cheap(er) young players, developing them and then selling on to the 'big 6' for a huge profit - and don't get me started on little Bournemouth.  The problems occur, as we know all too well, when certain people (looking at you Les Reed) start to believe their own hype.  😠

[Gloucester Saint]

33 minutes ago, Turkish said:

I have zero issue with this, it's the reality for all about 3 clubs in the world. Some clubs, like we did for a while, do it very well.  What i have an issue with about Saints is that is the only strategy. We stopped bringing in experienced players to build a solid core and instead tried to build a team pretty entirely of players we wanted to sell in two years time. We never looked at who could do a job for us now, it was all about how much we can sell them for in the future. 

Hopefully this window made a departure from that constant trawl for the next Livramento/Lavia - but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating @hypochondriac - did I get the saying right?

[Football Special]

3 minutes ago, malcolm waldron said:

I've no issue with it too - it's exactly what Brighton and Brentford are doing, in fact their models are built on buying in cheap(er) young players, developing them and then selling on to the 'big 6' for a huge profit - and don't get me started on little Bournemouth.  The problems occur, as we know all too well, when certain people (looking at you Les Reed) start to believe their own hype.  😠

"We don’t just buy success, we breed it." 

[AlexLaw76]

It’s fine if it is written into the contacts. I guess it was not with VvD

 

Semmens is now a CEO of a WSL team I think, which is apt for such a wet wipe 

Edited Friday at 12:52 by AlexLaw76

[Gloucester Saint]

2 minutes ago, Football Special said:

"We don’t just buy success, we breed it." 

I now have in my mind the club hosting a dating agency with former elite footballer’s fathers and different mothers being introduced and mating….like a footballer/zoo programme

[Saint86]

43 minutes ago, Badger said:

Semmens stance wouldn’t be so bad if they invested in the team around the ‘project and investment  players’ .
 

We bought some fucking rubbish under Semmens. Seemed a nice bloke, but glad to see the back of him. Problem that he seems to have cast the die in which others (Rasmus) want to operate. 

Semmens had no investment behind him, he and Ralph kept the club going and in the top flight on a relative shoestring, they also made the most out of a lot of players we had in place.

The likes of ings, kwp, livramento were all good buys. The lavia leg work was done on their watch. JWP saints' career was basically saved by Ralph etc. 

There were some duff buys in that time as well though, particularly earlier one... But absolutely nothing in comparison to the absolute shitfest that was sports republic's (rasmus') first year in recruitment duties 😅

(Bet semmens thought he was onto a winner when he SR turned up and wanted to put money into investments... Little did he know that we were going to rip up the entire established recruitment system and he was going to have little control 😄).

Edited Friday at 12:58 by Saint86

[hypochondriac]

19 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Hopefully this window made a departure from that constant trawl for the next Livramento/Lavia - but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating @hypochondriac - did I get the saying right?

I approve. 

[Turkish]

29 minutes ago, Football Special said:

"We don’t just buy success, we breed it." 

the sort of record breaking "success" we bred wasn't quite what they planned. 

[Turkish]

36 minutes ago, malcolm waldron said:

I've no issue with it too - it's exactly what Brighton and Brentford are doing, in fact their models are built on buying in cheap(er) young players, developing them and then selling on to the 'big 6' for a huge profit - and don't get me started on little Bournemouth.  The problems occur, as we know all too well, when certain people (looking at you Les Reed) start to believe their own hype.  😠

Brighton particularly had the balance right though. They also signed James Milner, Danny Wellbeck, Lallana, along with the likes of Lewis Dunk, Solly March who have been there years. They've also spent big at times to, they have 11 players who cost more than our record transfer fee. 

They have struck a balance of experience, quality and YHGTIers. It might all go wrong but they've got it very right at the moment

[Turkish]

35 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

It’s fine if it is written into the contacts. I guess it was not with VvD

 

Semmens is now a CEO of a WSL team I think, which is apt for such a wet wipe 

Remember when he said the womens team will be bigger than the mens 😂

[Football Special]

42 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

It’s fine if it is written into the contacts. I guess it was not with VvD

 

Semmens is now a CEO of a WSL team I think, which is apt for such a wet wipe 

Didn't he claim the womens game would be bigger than the men's? 

[Turkish]

7 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Remember when he said the womens team will be bigger than the mens 😂

 

1 minute ago, Football Special said:

Didn't he claim the womens game would be bigger than the men's? 

YES!!

[Gloucester Saint]

1 minute ago, Turkish said:

 

YES!!

At a fans forum as well.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

55 minutes ago, Turkish said:

the sort of record breaking "success" we bred wasn't quite what they planned. 

"It's perfectly fine not to be sure if your baby has just kicked, Mrs Downes. The uncertainty is due to it being a soft kick, taking say a ball, in a short side or backwards direction."

[bpsaint]

I’d love to know who the other interested parties were that he turned down in favour of bringing SR on board.

Never forget him complaining about giving up his weekends to watch Saints, all whilst coining a 6 figure salary the wanker.

[Dan Johnson]

2 hours ago, Turkish said:

I have zero issue with this, it's the reality for all about 3 clubs in the world. Some clubs, like we did for a while, do it very well.  What i have an issue with about Saints is that is the only strategy. We stopped bringing in experienced players to build a solid core and instead tried to build a team pretty entirely of players we wanted to sell in two years time. We never looked at who could do a job for us now, it was all about how much we can sell them for in the future. 

100% agree.

I'd rather have the VVDs, Manes, Lavias, Livramento for 2 seasons than not at all. If we want to be an ambitious club, we need to sign ambitious players, as part of that process the clubs trajectory maybe slower than a players and the player wants to move on.

 

[trousers]

43 minutes ago, bpsaint said:

I’d love to know who the other interested parties were that he turned down in favour of bringing SR on board

Weren't MSD Holdings in the takeover frame at some point? (The investment company we ended up getting a loan from)

I have a vague memory of people getting excited at the time because of the link with Dell...

 

Edited Friday at 15:11 by trousers

[CSA96]

48 minutes ago, bpsaint said:

I’d love to know who the other interested parties were that he turned down in favour of bringing SR on board.

Never forget him complaining about giving up his weekends to watch Saints, all whilst coining a 6 figure salary the wanker.

One was Alan Pace with ALK Capital, now owner of Burnley

I'm sure the common version is that Katharina Liebherr used her veto on his takeover because he wanted to carry out a leveraged takeover (which Burnley accepted) but Liebherr/Semmens weren't comfortable with it and wanted a new owner to be an individual or group of individuals with solid proof of funds from other businesses, rather than a capital group like ALK looking to raise investment funds first