Dragan Solak interviews with BBC and Daily Echo

[Turkish]

stadium expansion or relocation "soon"

Champions league ready by 2021

 

 

[Barsiem]

4 hours ago, Football Special said:

I was wondering if the striker was an out of contract one like Ings? 

Alfie House said on Twitter that he knows who it is, and that it's not Ings.  Guessing it might be the German kid from Cologne 

[Saint86]

4 hours ago, Dusic said:

Per Dragan himself - seems absolutely clear that he valued Wilcox highly:

"...then it (structure of the club) started to work (under Wilcox). However you do it (run a club), it is based on people. I really liked working with Jason Wilcox but then we lost him after 6 months so that is an issue, even when we do things right one of the big boys says "Oh I really like this guy from your team so much and I take him".

"I have to say and Jason knows this, I was really really mad at him but at the end of the day you get the call from Man Utd then you go. But on the other hand we suddenly lost a man who started building something and unfortunately we didn't replace him quick enough so we went into the PL without a leading figure in our football department and that was very, very costly."

-------

To assess he job he did in a brief time (some of which is, and much of which is not visible to supporters) you have to understand the role and I am not sure that you really do. I am sure Dragan does though so will go with his view on it.

 

Solak is coming at it from a position where he says himself in that interview that "he's not a football man". And tbh having watched rasmus and kraft have an absolute shit show (either side of Wilcox's short-lived stint), you have to question whether he wouldn't have valued someone's gran as DoF in comparison. So sure, you can take his view if you want, but he's been an incredibly naïve football owner to date, and the only real thing you can say about this re that interview, is that he has at least learnt that having someone with a reasonable footballing background was an improvement over rasmus and kraft. 

For you to describe the job Wilcox did as "excellent" is just nonsense hyperbole i'm afraid, and certainly something without evidence. Wilcox hired a limited manager and assembled an inflexible squad, just about scraped promotion (which was the bear minimum to be classed as reasonable that season), and then left us with a team that needed significant outlay just to stand still. You also have to question whether he even left a succession plan and/or any future plans... if he did, they included not hiring another DoF and signing the likes of Fraser to long contract 😬. Regardless, how you can describe Wilcox's performance here as "excellent" is beyond me, he quite literally scraped by with the minimum expected level of performance, then f'd off leaving us in the lurch and started stealing our academy players.

Edited Thursday at 16:51 by Saint86

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, Barsiem said:

Alfie House said on Twitter that he knows who it is, and that it's not Ings.  Guessing it might be the German kid from Cologne 

Not another German kid ! I hoped we might get Ferguson from Brighton on loan, always looked good when I've seen him 

[Matthew Le God]

42 minutes ago, Football Special said:

Not another German kid ! I hoped we might get Ferguson from Brighton on loan, always looked good when I've seen him 

They are both 20 years old. Damion Downs is older than Evan Ferguson by a few months.

Edited Thursday at 17:48 by Matthew Le God

[CB Fry]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

stadium expansion or relocation "soon"

Champions league ready by 2021

 

 

We had it all in the palm of our hands until Bournemouth fucked our catchment area. 

[Matthew Le God]

19 hours ago, CB Fry said:

We had it all in the palm of our hands until Bournemouth fucked our catchment area. 

Someone you quoted, so I then saw still isn't able to grasp "soon" meant given the apparent conditions at the time. Things then changed and we became aware Gao didn't have a pot to piss in. Still recycling the debunked nonsense I see!

Edited 11 hours ago by Matthew Le God

[Turkish]

2 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

When has a Southampton owner ever said the intention is to spend hundreds of millions on the stadium and facilities before this week?

 

55 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Someone you quoted so I then saw still isn't able to grasp "soon" meant given the apparent conditions at the time. Things then changed and we became aware Gao didn't have a pot to piss in. Still recycling the debunked nonsense I see!

The question was when had a Southampton owner ever said the intention is to spend 100s of millions on stadium and facilities before this week?

the answer is you should know this now the third owner in the last 12 years you’ve quoted as doing so 

[skintsaint]

never mind.

Edited Thursday at 19:41 by skintsaint

[EBS1980]

9 hours ago, trousers said:

"Rasmus is still CEO of Sport Republic, but we understood that he should move to a different position, so he is mainly focused on Goztepe.

"He is my personal advisor on transfer windows because I think his knowledge of structure, negotiations, contracts and everything is valuable."

 

Bugger... ☹️

Doesn’t mention identifying players though, that sounds more about fees and contracts rather than who to buy

[S-Clarke]

I don't have any animosity towards Dragan, I never have. His intentions have always been right, there's never been any reason to doubt that as he's put his money where his mouth is. The problem came from the guys put in place to execute his intentions, and they got it fundamentally wrong on so many levels.

It's clear he's recognised that. I don't think he wanted to take such an active role, it certainly doesn't sound like his intention, but he needs to claw back some control as the guys he put in charge were utterly destroying his investment.

Admitting the mistakes of going into the PL under prepared are correct, I don't put that all onto Dragan as there were many other parties who should have been a lot more savvy than they were.

His opinion of Martin made me laugh - 'a bit too cocky' - that's an understatement, but he is absolutely right in what he says. I don't buy the VAR robbed us of points though, and I don't think that would have saved Martin. Those 8 points would have given us 20 in total, hold the champers for that acoldade.

Anyway, this has always been a crucial summer and arguably their last chance to get it right. I think there is a structure in place of the right people, but we just have to hope that certain meddlers are a bit further away than they have been.

I'm intrigued to see where we stand in September.

[Dark Munster]

12 hours ago, trousers said:

"Rasmus is still CEO of Sport Republic, but we understood that he should move to a different position, so he is mainly focused on Goztepe.

"He is my personal advisor on transfer windows because I think his knowledge of structure, negotiations, contracts and everything is valuable."

 

Bugger... ☹️

Yeah that stood out like a neon flashing light. I only hope by "advisor" he means he is just humouring that drooling moron, and he either ignores whatever advice Ramsus gives him, or passes it on to Spors telling him what not to do.

[Convict Colony]

11 hours ago, Football Special said:

Not another German kid ! I hoped we might get Ferguson from Brighton on loan, always looked good when I've seen him 

Time to MLG it...

Damion Downs whilst born in germany moved to the US at 1yr old and is a US citizen and plays for the US national team while retaining his german citizenship.

So it should really be Not another half german kid 😁

Also at 6ft 4in..

"A rangy central striker with more pace than the average No.9, Downs has a touch of Germany record scorer Miroslav Klose about his budding game."

Edited 19 hours ago by Convict Colony

[CB Fry]

Absolutely fuming that he has not shared any detailed plans regarding the development of Jacksons Farm.

[BarberSaint]

2 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

Time to MLG it...

Damion Downs whilst born in germany moved to the US at 1yr old and is a US citizen and plays for the US national team while retaining his german citizenship.

So it should really be Not another half german kid 😁

Also at 6ft 4in..

"A rangy central striker with more pace than the average No.9, Downs has a touch of Germany record scorer Miroslav Klose about his budding game."

The quote was written by someone who knows about football rather than someone who doesn't and has access to the internet of course? 

 

Here's how things will go:

 

DS speaks. Saints forum - oooh! We luv you.

Season starts - we'll smash em and our team (who we've never heard of but they look good on youtube) will win the league.

Then either: we're crap, doom and gloom, Still out. Or we'll win the league, VAR/referees/butterflies in foreign climes hate us.

When we get promoted as champions: I told you so! Still for England, but only after we win the league.

If we don't. Manager hasn't a clue. My dog could do better and it's from Poopey. Despair sets in. Players' faults are suddenly noticed and there is much talk of potential: 35 is still young and time to improve. Starve them to keep them hungry on their £50,000+ a week. Mercenaries (that bit is actually valid).

Sack the board, etc.

DS speaks. Saints forum - ooh! We luv you.

(Repeat until the end of time).

 

It's lovely to see what a fluff piece, the likes of which are trotted out all over the place all over the time, will do to those who are dare I say 'easy to please'.

I wait with bated breath for the pre-season expectations. At least some will wait until we've signed players and seen them play a few times.

[Weston Super Saint]

2 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

Time to MLG it...

Damion Downs whilst born in germany moved to the US at 1yr old and is a US citizen and plays for the US national team while retaining his german citizenship.

So it should really be Not another half german kid 😁

Also at 6ft 4in..

"A rangy central striker with more pace than the average No.9, Downs has a touch of Germany record scorer Miroslav Klose about his budding game."

If that comes off we should have 3 out of the 4 ready to go for our 4x100m relay team.  I know I'm excited.

[Verbal]

1 hour ago, Weston Super Saint said:

If that comes off we should have 3 out of the 4 ready to go for our 4x100m relay team.  I know I'm excited.

If I may piss on your chips a tad, even in relay teams everyone has to be able to pass effectively

[iansums]

19 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

When was the last time the Southampton owner stated the intention to spend hundreds of millions on capacity and facilities upgrades at the stadium?

Did he actually say this? Genuine question, I've only seen snippets on X from Blackmore and AlfiHouse and not seen this quoted.

[Matthew Le God]

5 minutes ago, iansums said:

Did he actually say this? Genuine question, I've only seen snippets on X from Blackmore and AlfiHouse and not seen this quoted.

Yes, "hundreds of millions" on "changes on the capacity of the stadium and facilities around" are quotes from the Echo article.

Edited 15 hours ago by Matthew Le God

[Saint Fan CaM]

4 hours ago, CB Fry said:

Absolutely fuming that he has not shared any detailed plans regarding the development of Jacksons Farm.

Are you ok hun?

[Saint Fan CaM]

3 hours ago, BarberSaint said:

The quote was written by someone who knows about football rather than someone who doesn't and has access to the internet of course? 

 

Here's how things will go:

 

DS speaks. Saints forum - oooh! We luv you.

Season starts - we'll smash em and our team (who we've never heard of but they look good on youtube) will win the league.

Then either: we're crap, doom and gloom, Still out. Or we'll win the league, VAR/referees/butterflies in foreign climes hate us.

When we get promoted as champions: I told you so! Still for England, but only after we win the league.

If we don't. Manager hasn't a clue. My dog could do better and it's from Poopey. Despair sets in. Players' faults are suddenly noticed and there is much talk of potential: 35 is still young and time to improve. Starve them to keep them hungry on their £50,000+ a week. Mercenaries (that bit is actually valid).

Sack the board, etc.

DS speaks. Saints forum - ooh! We luv you.

(Repeat until the end of time).

 

It's lovely to see what a fluff piece, the likes of which are trotted out all over the place all over the time, will do to those who are dare I say 'easy to please'.

I wait with bated breath for the pre-season expectations. At least some will wait until we've signed players and seen them play a few times.

As usual, you’re attacking others opinions rather than forming and lucidly expressing your own. And anyway, I don’t read too many on here taking the interview as anything other than at face value. Loosen up a bit - the sun’s shining outside.

[Saint86]

2 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Yes, "hundreds of millions" on "changes on the capacity of the stadium and facilities around" are quotes from the Echo article.

Reading into it, he also mentioned "master plan" - which to me implies its part of a much wider redevelopment where the club and council are aligned. Could be more of a sporting / leisure / residential / commercial development of the area where the club provide funding and in return secure long term income. Agree though, he certainly implies stadium expansion is on the cards.

[Matthew Le God]

Just now, Saint86 said:

Reading into it, he also mentioned "master plan" - which to me implies its part of a much wider redevelopment where the club and council are aligned. Could be more of a sporting / leisure / residential / commercial development of the area where the club provide funding and in return secure long term income. Agree though, he certainly implies stadium expansion is on the cards.

Yep, it won't just be the stadium expansion for hundreds of millions. It is part of a bigger plan for the surrounding area.

[Dusic]

18 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Solak is coming at it from a position where he says himself in that interview that "he's not a football man". And tbh having watched rasmus and kraft have an absolute shit show (either side of Wilcox's short-lived stint), you have to question whether he wouldn't have valued someone's gran as DoF in comparison. So sure, you can take his view if you want, but he's been an incredibly naïve football owner to date, and the only real thing you can say about this re that interview, is that he has at least learnt that having someone with a reasonable footballing background was an improvement over rasmus and kraft. 

For you to describe the job Wilcox did as "excellent" is just nonsense hyperbole i'm afraid, and certainly something without evidence. Wilcox hired a limited manager and assembled an inflexible squad, just about scraped promotion (which was the bear minimum to be classed as reasonable that season), and then left us with a team that needed significant outlay just to stand still. You also have to question whether he even left a succession plan and/or any future plans... if he did, they included not hiring another DoF and signing the likes of Fraser to long contract 😬. Regardless, how you can describe Wilcox's performance here as "excellent" is beyond me, he quite literally scraped by with the minimum expected level of performance, then f'd off leaving us in the lurch and started stealing our academy players.

Alternatively,

Wilcox oversaw the only successful season of the SR tenure. He hired a manager who brought a lot of demotivated players onside and achieved promotion, the target at the outset.

At the time it became clear he would leave for Mn Utd we had just ended a club record run without defeat.

His role also included significant remit to revitalise a failing academy. He set this in motion, not least through the hiring of Andy Goldie who has been very successful and getting Callum McFarlane from Man City who has done a great job with both U18s and U21s.

I'm not convinced that Wilcox shoukd be responsible for his own successor and whether or not we replaced him was clearly not his own decision to make.

Equally whilst Dragan said he isnt a "football man" its not like he is clueless, he has been very successful and I am sure was able to judge Wilcox's performance, just as we all do without a background in professional football. In fact he is obviously a lot closer to it than we are, just like the hierarchy at Man Utd who have given him a job and then promoted him, presumably on the basis of what he has done and how he has done it. Not all of this can be reduced to league positions, especially in the short term.

Agree to disagree but combined with his very successful tenure at Man City, pretty much every comment made about him from people who work closely with him, I would suggest he is likely very good at what he does and as above showed that in his brief time at Saints.

[Saint86]

19 minutes ago, Dusic said:

Alternatively,

Wilcox oversaw the only successful season of the SR tenure. He hired a manager who brought a lot of demotivated players onside and achieved promotion, the target at the outset.

At the time it became clear he would leave for Mn Utd we had just ended a club record run without defeat.

His role also included significant remit to revitalise a failing academy. He set this in motion, not least through the hiring of Andy Goldie who has been very successful and getting Callum McFarlane from Man City who has done a great job with both U18s and U21s.

I'm not convinced that Wilcox shoukd be responsible for his own successor and whether or not we replaced him was clearly not his own decision to make.

Equally whilst Dragan said he isnt a "football man" its not like he is clueless, he has been very successful and I am sure was able to judge Wilcox's performance, just as we all do without a background in professional football. In fact he is obviously a lot closer to it than we are, just like the hierarchy at Man Utd who have given him a job and then promoted him, presumably on the basis of what he has done and how he has done it. Not all of this can be reduced to league positions, especially in the short term.

Agree to disagree but combined with his very successful tenure at Man City, pretty much every comment made about him from people who work closely with him, I would suggest he is likely very good at what he does and as above showed that in his brief time at Saints.

Fair enough Dusic. Don't get me wrong - i am glad we had him when we did (the alternative - i.e., more rasmus/kraft dream team - doesn't bear thinking about frankly). I think he did a reasonable job 🙂, but i don't think his recruitment in particular was that great and i am expecting/hoping that Spors (and his new team) will prove to be a step above Wilcox as a result. I also think its a bit harsh to say the academy was failing - Players like Dibbling, JJ Morgan, Gomes etc were all coming through before Wilcox arrived - we've also lost a lot of top talent during/post Wilcox from the academy which is a real shame. Dibbling notably wasn't considered good enough to make an appearance for us in the champ, and then less than a year later was terrorising gvardiol and co. 🤷‍♂️

[richardc]

Another example today of the big club bias we have to compete with - not one of our players nominated for Premier league player of the season 

[Willo of Whiteley]

In MLG’s eyes Sport Republic have done no wrong and can do no wrong. 😂

Some of the “healthy debates” I’ve seen on social media have been very amusing.

 

Back on topic, as said before Dragan Solak has said all the right things that will get us onside and excited, it’s generic PR.

There isn’t really anything gospel in what he said, it’s a case of trust.
Given he’s resumed control and moved people around and made the right people accountable in the right place you could say he’s learned from failings.
The bit I would er caution to is comments about large scale investment or expansion. Equally it’s very easy for him to say”I don’t like to say things because I’m superstitious” if you’ve got no real plan or intentions.

It’s swings and roundabouts, I’m more encouraged, but certainly won’t be shelling out on anything until there’s some form of evidence on improvement on or off the field. I’m not made of money. 😂

 

[Matthew Le God]

2 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

In MLG’s eyes Sport Republic have done no wrong and can do no wrong. 😂

 

 

I've criticised them on multiple occasions.

 

[Dusic]

1 hour ago, Saint86 said:

Fair enough Dusic. Don't get me wrong - i am glad we had him when we did (the alternative - i.e., more rasmus/kraft dream team - doesn't bear thinking about frankly). I think he did a reasonable job 🙂, but i don't think his recruitment in particular was that great and i am expecting/hoping that Spors (and his new team) will prove to be a step above Wilcox as a result. I also think its a bit harsh to say the academy was failing - Players like Dibbling, JJ Morgan, Gomes etc were all coming through before Wilcox arrived - we've also lost a lot of top talent during/post Wilcox from the academy which is a real shame. Dibbling notably wasn't considered good enough to make an appearance for us in the champ, and then less than a year later was terrorising gvardiol and co. 🤷‍♂️

Interesting point on Dibling and if I recall was similar with JWP. I guess in an odd way there is less pressure throwing someone in at the start of a PL season than the end of a season where you are fighting for promotion.

In general though the Academy has been one of few things SR havent butchered and most of that is due to personnel, who in this case Wilcox brought in.

[Badger]

4 hours ago, Dusic said:

In general though the Academy has been one of few things SR havent butchered and most of that is due to personnel, who in this case Wilcox brought in.

Although I though they rolled over and conceded the closure of the Bath satellite set up too easily.

The production line from the Academy hasn’t been great for a while. That’s not laying the blame at SR, it pre-dates them. 

[Matthew Le God]

21 minutes ago, Badger said:

Although I though they rolled over and conceded the closure of the Bath satellite set up too easily.

The argument for having the Bath setup of being on the coast is daft, a large number of British clubs are near or on the coast. Not at all unique for us.

Plus there are 140,000 people to the South of Southampton on the Isle of Wight.

Edited 5 hours ago by Matthew Le God

[sfc4prem]

6 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

The argument for having the Bath setup of being on the coast is daft, a large number of British clubs are near or on the coast. Not at all unique for us.

Plus there are 140,000 people to the South of Southampton on the Isle of Wight.

Loads of Wighters are Pompey from what I gather

[HarvSFC]

23 minutes ago, Badger said:

Although I though they rolled over and conceded the closure of the Bath satellite set up too easily.

The production line from the Academy hasn’t been great for a while. That’s not laying the blame at SR, it pre-dates them. 

Could also argue that having an inflexible and strict wage structure has not only impacted the quality of the first team, but also seen us lose a number of young talents to other clubs in recent years. I think losing Gomes-Rodriguez to Lyon, who don't have much money at all could be one that we think got away in a year or so.

[Matthew Le God]

4 minutes ago, sfc4prem said:

Loads of Wighters are Pompey from what I gather

They'd be daft to stop their 8 year olds joining Saints academy if offered a place regardless of club rivalry. 

[saintnick]

2 hours ago, sfc4prem said:

Loads of Wighters are Pompey from what I gather

I’m a Wighter as you put it, it’s circa 50/50 for the most part for what it’s worth. Those of us on the righteous path are red and white 

[suewhistle]

Does it depend which ferry you're nearer to? Most caulk heads came from the East of the island!