Johannes Spors

[Gloucester Saint]

6 hours ago, LGTL said:

Makes you wonder what the fuck he’s been doing since January. Window has been open since June and he’s managed to find us two completely irrelevant, pointless reserve players after the witnessing the worse season in our history. Not fucking good enough. 

Similar to Nathan Jones in that 6 weeks game and formation training for a manager is like 6 months to plan and prepare for a DoF. Very rare to get the luxury yet the performances resulting from both are unacceptable.

Huge week for Spors and he must be perfect in terms of 4-5 new faces who start the next league game. No room for mistakes after signing the two fringe players from Germany neither of whom we needed.

[Toussaint]

16 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

we'd have to ditch 3 at the back first (we could have done this already).

So far, it is like Juric/Rusk have never left

We also have to ditch diagonal crosses from deep to a penalty area packed full of behemoths

[Harry_SFC]

8 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

We also have to ditch diagonal crosses from deep to a penalty area packed full of behemoths

Manning was awful for that yesterday.

[Bakovnetski]

3 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

Manning was awful for that yesterday.

The whole team was awful for that. This breaking up the transitional play to check back for a possession pass is killing any opportunities to confront defences on the run or back foot

[Harry_SFC]

7 minutes ago, Bakovnetski said:

The whole team was awful for that. This breaking up the transitional play to check back for a possession pass is killing any opportunities to confront defences on the run or back foot

Doesn't help when you've got an incredibly one paced team. 

In terms of options yesterday ahead of the back 3:

Manning - slow

Downes -slow

Charles - slow

Robinson - slow

Fernandes - slow

Stewart - slow

Downs - doesn't look particularly quick

Fraser & Armstrong - used to be quick but both have lost most of their pace. 

 

Edited Sunday at 08:52 by Harry_SFC

[Gloucester Saint]

6 minutes ago, Bakovnetski said:

The whole team was awful for that. This breaking up the transitional play to check back for a possession pass is killing any opportunities to confront defences on the run or back foot

Another reason why several new faces come in who challenge Russell’s boys when they do it in training. Need some shouts of ‘weak’, ‘cop out’ ‘weak dick’ and ‘bottled it’ when it happens to knock it out of the existing squad. Build some character as well.

[Whitey Grandad]

33 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

Manning was awful for that yesterday.

He underhit most crosses which was disappointing considering his appearance against Wrexham that turned the game around. 

[Dr. Kucho]

I am under the impression that Spors doesn’t have free rein of who he wants to buy, but has been given a profile of players he should look for.

You don’t have to be a football expert to conclude that to get promoted you look at the best players in the league for the core of the squad and maybe a few young talents to develop. Like we did in L1 and the championship under Liebherr. 

[S-Clarke]

3 hours ago, Harry_SFC said:

I'd certainly sell either Armstrong or Archer to facilitate Sargent. He'd cost £20m. Johannsson is available for £2m apparently. No brainer. Azaz available for £12m.

That would be 3 of the best players in the championship and combined they'd cost £10m less than what we are getting for Dibling.

I'd be totally down with this.

But would we get any takers? We know, bizarrely, that our players are on stupid money which clubs without Parachute Payments simply can't match. 

It's crazy really, we won't put down £2m on the Stoke Keeper (for an example), yet we throw down 50k p/w on people like Archer and Armstrong (and Stephens).

This is why I think we're struggling to shift them and it's probably a case of being easier said than done. We're going to need to wait for a lot of these contracts to expire to be free of the dross, which will take many transfer windows.

[Badger]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Kucho said:

I am under the impression that Spors doesn’t have free rein of who he wants to buy, but has been given a profile of players he should look for.

 

So who do you think is pulling his strings, Rasmus? 

[Dr. Kucho]

7 hours ago, Badger said:

So who do you think is pulling his strings, Rasmus? 

Don’t know, possibly the board and whoever is part of it. It’s just strange that we’ve had different directors of football and all seem to make the same mistakes.

[Matthew Le God]

8 hours ago, Dr. Kucho said:

I am under the impression that Spors doesn’t have free rein of who he wants to buy, but has been given a profile of players he should look for.

What makes you think that?

[danjosaint]

9 hours ago, Badger said:

So who do you think is pulling his strings, Rasmus? 

Probably involved in team selection and formations 

[Badger]

4 minutes ago, danjosaint said:

Probably involved in team selection and formations 

Who is, Rasmus or Spors ? 

[danjosaint]

11 minutes ago, Badger said:

Who is, Rasmus or Spors ? 

Either or , I know its a bit tongue in cheek but I find it really bizarre after WS comments about flexibility and after the shocking Juric tactics which then got followed by Rusk. 3/5 is supposed to shore a team up, we look open as fuck, Wrexham should've had 3, a shitty Northampton had chances plus to make it worse we struggle offensively. All this about its only 5atb because we dont have wingers seems a load of bollocks, quite easily play JR left or even Fraser and AA right with 1 of the donkeys up front, could play 433 or 4231 like that 

[Dr. Kucho]

13 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

What makes you think that?

We’ve had Shields, Wilcox, Spors and whoever did the transfers between their appointments, and all make similar mistakes in going for cheap talent instead of proven players. 

When you look at when we went down to league 1 in 2009 we did a good job in recruiting (yes not every player was a hit).

We bought the league top scorer (Lambert), a proven defender (Jaiidi), Hammond, convinced Fonte to drop a league and built a team of experienced along with young talents like Lallana and Schneiderlin.

Resulting in promotions and the best time I had in supporting Saints (started supporting in 2002).

Edited Monday at 08:55 by Dr. Kucho

[Badger]

2 hours ago, Dr. Kucho said:

We’ve had Shields, Wilcox, Spors and whoever did the transfers between their appointments, and all make similar mistakes in going for cheap talent instead of proven players. 

When you look at when we went down to league 1 in 2009 we did a good job in recruiting (yes not every player was a hit).

We bought the league top scorer (Lambert), a proven defender (Jaiidi), Hammond, convinced Fonte to drop a league and built a team of experienced along with young talents like Lallana and Schneiderlin.

Resulting in promotions and the best time I had in supporting Saints (started supporting in 2002).

When we went into L1 the club had a full reset. Although talk of one last summer it hasn’t materialised and we’ve stayed on same path it seems.

For L1 we had new owner, new and ambitious CEO, and appointed a manager whose reputation was above that level. Having Pardew in charge no doubt helped attracting the players you mention.

 

[saint michael]

13 hours ago, danjosaint said:

Either or , I know its a bit tongue in cheek but I find it really bizarre after WS comments about flexibility and after the shocking Juric tactics which then got followed by Rusk. 3/5 is supposed to shore a team up, we look open as fuck, Wrexham should've had 3, a shitty Northampton had chances plus to make it worse we struggle offensively. All this about its only 5atb because we dont have wingers seems a load of bollocks, quite easily play JR left or even Fraser and AA right with 1 of the donkeys up front, could play 433 or 4231 like that 

I don’t think Still would be here if he didn’t control team and shape. He clearly is starting to recognise how poor the team is at doing anything right, and that they seem to have an inability to learn from what I see. Biggest problem for me is that we continue to think we are geniuses in who's being targeted and bought. There seems to be a real inability to learn on this front too as we continue to buy players for a future that never arrives 

Edited Monday at 11:09 by saint michael

[S-Clarke]

12 minutes ago, saint michael said:

I don’t think Still would be here if he didn’t control team and shape. He clearly is starting to recognise how poor the team is at doing anything right, and that they seem to have an inability to learn from what I see. Biggest problem for me is that we continue to think we are geniuses in who's being targeted and bought. There seems to be a real inability to learn on this front too as we continue to buy players for a future that never arrives 

I think one of the biggest criticisms I can make of our group is that they come across as thick as shit. They have no brain, they don't sense danger and they react rather than know how to be proactive.

They might have some ability somewhere, but they need others to do the thinking for them, and when you've got a squad of reactors it's not a good mix - no matter how good individually some of them may be. Maybe we need to send the squad to get a PhD or something, back to school basics, count 1-10.

[saint michael]

3 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I think one of the biggest criticisms I can make of our group is that they come across as thick as shit. They have no brain, they don't sense danger and they react rather than know how to be proactive.

They might have some ability somewhere, but they need others to do the thinking for them, and when you've got a squad of reactors it's not a good mix - no matter how good individually some of them may be. Maybe we need to send the squad to get a PhD or something, back to school basics, count 1-10.

Agree and maybe we send the board with them as they seem as thick. Good bonding exercise

Edited Monday at 11:25 by saint michael

[Badger]

4 minutes ago, saint michael said:

Agree and maybe we send the board with them as they seem as thick. Good bonding exercise

When Lawrie arrived he sent the first team squad to the Docks for a day, and to see the bin collections. Idea being to show the players how hard people had to work to pay their entrance at The Dell to watch them play.

No idea if it got the message home, according to legend they probably spent as much as the blokes earnt that afternoon in the pub.

But in those days it might also be said that the pub was probably the team bonding exercise. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

32 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I think one of the biggest criticisms I can make of our group is that they come across as thick as shit. They have no brain, they don't sense danger and they react rather than know how to be proactive.

They might have some ability somewhere, but they need others to do the thinking for them, and when you've got a squad of reactors it's not a good mix - no matter how good individually some of them may be. Maybe we need to send the squad to get a PhD or something, back to school basics, count 1-10.

Ralph and Russ were so system based, that independent thinkers were not required. All managers are going to have personnel issues in their squad. It's also important that players buy into a manager, if it's going to be a success. The downside is that we're left with autonomic drones. A squad where Stephens pulling some hair gets him our equivalent of a Victoria cross for bravery. 

[saint michael]

It feels like to me that the commercial aspect of the club is overriding everything else. I know it’s always been in background and so it should but now drives the outcome:

question order feels like

1. Position needed

2. list players with possible potential and more importantly resale value

3. Align fit with what we want to pay 

4. check on availability and salary with agent 

5. Put in low offer to test out and see who on list becomes real possibility

6. Buy the one we can 

All fine if we have a stable core to the team, but unless experience comes within £ target we buy without. We do have exceptions like Ramsdale but that feels like a desperate last step to go in this direction and not really aligned to their approach

[S-Clarke]

5 minutes ago, saint michael said:

It feels like to me that the commercial aspect of the club is overriding everything else. I know it’s always been in background and so it should but now drives the outcome:

question order feels like

1. Position needed

2. list players with possible potential and more importantly resale value

3. Align fit with what we want to pay 

4. check on availability and salary with agent 

5. Put in low offer to test out and see who on list becomes real possibility

6. Buy the one we can 

All fine if we have a stable core to the team, but unless experience comes within £ target we buy without. We do have exceptions like Ramsdale but that feels like a desperate last step to go in this direction and not really aligned to their approach

I agree, we're not in a position where we can buy potential and evolve it right now. That may be their long-term model, but right now we are not in the place to do that.

We need a squad full of ready-made starters, not projects. Once we have a stable squad we know about, who are proven at the respective levels, we can then start integrating some of those potential into the side.

The current approach of still targeting potential when we don't have a core team is dangerous to us, and also to the players we're signing as we risk them never developing as the environment is imbalanced.

The crazy thing is that when they did come in, we had a stable 'core' which needed some tweaks to the 11 down the spine (as in ready-made players). Then we could have started bringing in potential. But they got it so wrong from the outset, kids from day 1 to fill first deficiencies (Mara/Edozie/Bazunu etc etc). They are really pushing the patience of the fanbase, they had the ability to build on a PL club but they destroyed it by fast tracking their approach. Strikes me that SR was/is full of people who have no idea about what's required at the highest levels of professional sport.

Edited Monday at 13:02 by S-Clarke

[saintant]

Presume Spors is bobbing about on a yacht somewhere in the Med supping Champagne 🙂

[John B]

4 hours ago, Dr. Kucho said:

We’ve had Shields, Wilcox, Spors and whoever did the transfers between their appointments, and all make similar mistakes in going for cheap talent instead of proven players. 

When you look at when we went down to league 1 in 2009 we did a good job in recruiting (yes not every player was a hit).

We bought the league top scorer (Lambert), a proven defender (Jaiidi), Hammond, convinced Fonte to drop a league and built a team of experienced along with young talents like Lallana and Schneiderlin.

Resulting in promotions and the best time I had in supporting Saints (started supporting in 2002).

I agree with your comments but I see little evidence that the current recruitment is based on new players who will enhance the team instead they seem to be low cost players who will develop a bit and then will be sold at a profit

But if wages are low not many talented players will want to come to St Mary;s 

[pimpin4rizeal]

3 hours ago, John B said:

I agree with your comments but I see little evidence that the current recruitment is based on new players who will enhance the team instead they seem to be low cost players who will develop a bit and then will be sold at a profit

But if wages are low not many talented players will want to come to St Mary;s 

Seeing absolutely nothing so far to suggest this guy isn’t more of the same . 70 odd million worth of sales and all we have to show for it is 2 cheapo youngsters from bundesliga 2 (obviously with profit in mind) and a 3rd choice keeper . I know we still got this week to go but it’s not looking good is it ? Zero strengthening of the first team and just more promising kids to fatten up for £

[SaintNewForest]

Different guy. Same shit. 

Get them all gone.

[John B]

1 hour ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Seeing absolutely nothing so far to suggest this guy isn’t more of the same . 70 odd million worth of sales and all we have to show for it is 2 cheapo youngsters from bundesliga 2 (obviously with profit in mind) and a 3rd choice keeper . I know we still got this week to go but it’s not looking good is it ? Zero strengthening of the first team and just more promising kids to fatten up for £

I think that for a team to get promoted there needs to be a nucleus of decent current players which can be added to with new ones

Two years ago we had KWP Bednerak Smallbone S Armstrong A Armstrong and Adams and possibly Eidoze to which we added THB Manning Downes and Fraser and later Brookes and Rothwell and used other players which we already had such as Stephens Bree Airibo etc

Today I feel we do not have a decent nucleus as Downes A Armstrong and THB have lost form and no one else apart from Fernandes and Robinson are guaranteed starters although THB is likely to improve with more game time

So it is very difficult to try and recruit new players to gel in with what we have already got to get a promotion team so I think we will end up towards the top half of the table

Just buying players like we have done recently has proved to be a failure so what is the point of wasting money

 

[LGTL]

Another massive dickhead to go along with the rest. 

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

On 24/08/2025 at 09:30, Gloucester Saint said:

No room for mistakes after signing the two fringe players from Germany neither of whom we needed

Problem is, that's his pond where he goes fishing and our scouts don't seem to find anyone else. Downs is Sekou Mara in disguise and Quashie I like but he can't kick a football.

 

[bpsaint]

What the actual fuck do we pay our scouting network for, all these directors with their fancy job titles, and what about that bint who is meant to be the talent acquisition guru or whatever. I reckon a group of fans could do a better job than this lot.

[Matthew Le God]

Just now, bpsaint said:

What the actual fuck do we pay our scouting network for, all these directors with their fancy job titles, and what about that bint who is meant to be the talent acquisition guru or whatever. I reckon a group of fans could do a better job than this lot.

Wait and see what happens at the end of the window. Complain if it looks a shambles after that. Makes little sense to do so with the typically busiest week of the window still left.

[Miltonaggro]

On 24/08/2025 at 09:30, Gloucester Saint said:

Similar to Nathan Jones in that 6 weeks game and formation training for a manager is like 6 months to plan and prepare for a DoF. Very rare to get the luxury yet the performances resulting from both are unacceptable.

Huge week for Spors and he must be perfect in terms of 4-5 new faces who start the next league game. No room for mistakes after signing the two fringe players from Germany neither of whom we needed.

He’s on it like a car bonnet! 

[bpsaint]

2 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Wait and see what happens at the end of the window. Complain if it looks a shambles after that. Makes little sense to do so with the typically busiest week of the window still left.

Even you though MLG, with all of your fancy FM data. You could probably do a better job than some of these charlatans.

Edited Monday at 21:18 by bpsaint

[Matthew Le God]

29 minutes ago, bpsaint said:

Even you though MLG, with all of your fancy FM data. You could probably do a better job than some of these charlatans.

I'll write a strongly worded email to Dragan with a list of my -9 and -10 recommendations from the FM26 database

[Willo of Whiteley]

37 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Wait and see what happens at the end of the window. Complain if it looks a shambles after that. Makes little sense to do so with the typically busiest week of the window still left.

Correct.

I disagree with MLG on some topics but this is right.

So far it’s been underwhelming, but I’ll be more annoyed in a weeks time if there’s been little to no change.

[Dr Who?]

On 24/08/2025 at 09:31, Toussaint said:

We also have to ditch diagonal crosses from deep to a penalty area packed full of behemoths

This worked brilliantly during our double promotion seasons, but we had the personal to execute it! 

[Patrick Bateman]

On 23/08/2025 at 23:08, Patrick Bateman said:

From another thread, but simple message to the recruitment team at Saints - buy some players that are instantly good enough for the first 11, PLEASE.

 

No more "might be good enough" or "potential youngster", I mean yeah, they can be great, but your track record is appalling and when it's worked, we see them for about 3 minutes in a Saints shirt (Lavia, Livramento). 

Downs might become decent, but right now, we need a striker who is a proper '9' and who will walk into the first 11 and make a difference. Get on it. Best regards.

 

Going well since this. 3rd choice goalie, well done. 

[trousers]

According to this 2024 article, a likely  reason Spors didn't get the Newcastle DoF job is that his philosophy was/is that clubs should aim to buy players that play in the same country, and his lack of experience in England counted against him. Not something that discouraged Sport Republic from employing him then...? Could this partly explain our slow transfer window activity so far...?

https://www.geordiebootboys.com/news/how-johannes-spors-may-have-talked-himself-out-of-newcastle-united-sporting-director-job/

 

[saint michael]

So he has studied the english market now for 6months and George Long was the answer to the gk question… thank goodness we have such razor sharp minds on our recruitment 

[Osvaldorama]

9 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Correct.

I disagree with MLG on some topics but this is right.

So far it’s been underwhelming, but I’ll be more annoyed in a weeks time if there’s been little to no change.

We’ve been down since basically October last year 

Yet we’ve not prepared at all, in any position. It’s actually your expectations that are underwhelming. 
This transfer window has been horrendous already as we’ve already lost points that we could have easily avoided with even a modicum of squad planning. 

[tdmickey3]

Just now, Osvaldorama said:

We’ve been down since basically October last year 

Yet we’ve not prepared at all, in any position. It’s actually your expectations that are underwhelming. 
This transfer window has been horrendous already as we’ve already lost points that we could have easily avoided with even a modicum of squad planning. 

We were doomed the moment we let Martin continue his stupid and clueless style

[Willo of Whiteley]

10 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

We’ve been down since basically October last year 

Yet we’ve not prepared at all, in any position. It’s actually your expectations that are underwhelming. 
This transfer window has been horrendous already as we’ve already lost points that we could have easily avoided with even a modicum of squad planning. 

And Johannes Spors came onboard in March.

Still plenty of time, I’m still underwhelmed, I’d rather see us pay that bit extra and get our players on July 1st.

But there’s a week left to sort this out.

[Dman]

Huge week for Spors. 

He said previously that squad planning doesn’t make sense until the end, but we look so far off it, I genuinely think we could end up being mid-table if we don’t get this week right. 

So far, his record with us is underwhelming.

- Failed to get Rohl. 

- Chased the Russian all window when seemingly neither the selling club or the player were all that keen on making the deal happen. 

- Signed 2 players, both of whom look out of their depth. 

I was optimistic when he came in, but to-date, it’s not looking like he is having the impact we need. 

Edited Tuesday at 08:27 by Dman

[Farmer Saint]

This constant failure (and let's not pretend, this has been since Koeman left) says to me that there is an inherent issue with us attracting the players we want, and we end up buying our 3rd or 4th choice. Not got a solution, just something that's been an issue for 10 years.

Edited Tuesday at 08:08 by Farmer Saint

[Dman]

7 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

This constant failure, and let's not pretend this has been since Koeman left, says to me that there is an inherent issue with us attracting the players we want, and we end up buying our 3rd or 4th choice. Not got a solution, just something that's been an issue for 10 years.

Koeman was the pull factor, not the club. 

We’re still trying to pay 2010 transfer fee’s and wages in a crowded market. a club on decline with no ambition. Happy just to survive. 

What top player in their right mind would want to join us. 
 

 

[Gloucester Saint]

17 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

This constant failure, and let's not pretend this has been since Koeman left, says to me that there is an inherent issue with us attracting the players we want, and we end up buying our 3rd or 4th choice. Not got a solution, just something that's been an issue for 10 years.

And injured players too. Started with Boufal who Reed bought for Puel to liven up the drab football Claude deployed but he was already out until October and bar the odd spectacular goal never got going. Equivalent fee of £30-35m today.

Stewart was an even worse risk - they were very lucky Adams’s proposed move to Wolves didn’t materialise that day. Previously fit and well players can develop niggles, it happens in sport, but to sign a player who is already scheduled to miss a third of a season at very best and an uncertain prognosis…and Stewart was out of contract at the end of that season too!

There’s also tunnel vision, Les, Hughes and Bowen identified correctly that the defence lacked height (correctly). So Vestergaard was identified by Reed and Wilson as top pick. There’s a TalkSPORT clip with Bowen where he said him and Mark Hughes said to Reed ‘you’ve got to be kidding Les, he can’t run at all!’. Both went on holiday thinking no more of it, they come back and signing happened, OS pictures with Les and the watch. So they went with the tallest defender and overlooked all other attributes. What Leicester were thinking later on giving us our money back…the mind boggles. Hence both clubs in a dreadful mess. 

Edited Tuesday at 08:18 by Gloucester Saint

[Gloucester Saint]

8 minutes ago, Dman said:

Koeman was the pull factor, not the club. 

We’re still trying to pay 2010 transfer fee’s and wages in a crowded market. a club on decline with no ambition. Happy just to survive. 

What top player in their right mind would want to join us. 
 

 

Spot on and Semmens with his lucky to be here crap at forums. Upwardly mobile Southampton FC is not. You’re right about name managers. We’ve always been far better with them on the whole - Koeman, Poch to an extent, Adkins was an ambitious hire for L1, Pards, WGS. Souness was tactically iffy but bought in some cracking players. 

[Dman]

3 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

And injured players too. Started with Boufal who Reed bought for Puel to liven up the drab football Claude deployed but he was already out until October and bar the odd spectacular goal never got going. Equivalent fee of £30-35m today.

Stewart was an even worse risk - they were very lucky Adams’s proposed move to Wolves didn’t materialise that day. Previously fit and well players can developed Biggleswade, it happens in sport, but to sign a player who is already scheduled to miss a third of a season at very best and an uncertain prognosis…and Stewart was out of contract at the end of that season too!

There’s also tunnel vision, Les, Hughes and Bowen identified correctly that the defence lacked height (correctly). So Vestergaard was identified by Reed and Wilson as top pick. There’s a TalkSPORT clip with Bowen where he said him and Mark Hughes said to Reed ‘you’ve got to be kidding Les, he can’t run at all!’. Both went on holiday thinking no more of it, they come back and signing happened, OS pictures with Les and the watch. So they went with the tallest defender and overlooked all other attributes. What Leicester were thinking later on giving us our money back…the mind boggles. Hence both clubs in a dreadful mess. 

Martyn Glover.