| The Athletic expose article 09:43 - May 16 with 1086 views | arfurdent |
“Dragan should have just bought a yacht instead – he’d have had more fun,” pointed out one source at Southampton.
‘Dragan’ is Dragan Solak, the Serbian billionaire who has financed Sport Republic’s first full season at Southampton – one that has ended in relegation after spending £132million ($165.3m) on 15 players across two windows.
There is a suspicion from observers close to Solak and staff in his telecoms business, the United Group, that his regular cash injections, including a recent £15million booster in April, are needed due to Southampton, as they put it, “burning cash” on poor recruitment and continual change to the existing infrastructure. Some club staff admitted it is odd that Solak sits back while it all goes wrong, but it is worth noting that his commitment will remain steadfast in the Championship.
This is the story of Southampton’s relegation – power struggles, dressing room division, a raft of staff exits and a club that made one mistake too many.
The Athletic can reveal…
Doubts surfaced over recruitment last summer
A division between young and old players emerged, with players getting changed in separate changing rooms – this was also down to a bloated squad not having enough room
Promising youth talent considering their futures
Three managers interviewed after Ralph Hasenhuttl’s sacking
Question marks over the attitude of some new signings, contributing to a “softness” in the team
Players were concerned over January’s recruitment
Sport Republic co-founder Henrik Kraft dissatisfied with the existing scouting system
A sense that fellow co-founder Rasmus Ankersen was not reined in
Staff disillusioned with the club’s direction, leading to several key departures
40 per cent pay cut following relegation
Five years ago, Rasmus Ankersen was on stage in Manchester, delivering a Ted Talk to peers on sports analytics. “There is an expression in football that the table never lies,” he began. “It’s not that simple actually. Let me explain why…”
Ankersen went on to debate the fluctuating nature of football and how fine margins decide games and often interfere with best-laid long-term plans. “If you want to understand how a gambler thinks, it’s this: the league table always lies,” he said. “Football is a very random game, much more random than basketball because football is a low-scoring sport.”
Kraft, left, and Ankersen, right (Photo: Robin Jones/Getty Images)
Along with existing board members, Ankersen, ultimately, gambled on Southampton this season. He admitted buying youth was “a risk” in an interview with The Athletic in November.
Ankersen is a highly confident individual with bold ideas and, before his time at Southampton, was regarded as an innovative, out-of-the-box thinker who intended to bring about transformative changes for the better.
His time working with Matthew Benham, the owner of a gambling company, at Brentford and Midtjylland was underpinned by using increased analytics to cut through emotion and influence key decisions: manager, recruitment, staff and general modus operandi. Ankersen sees himself as a scholar, capable of delivering presentations to suits as well as a best-selling author. His book, The Gold Mine Effect, promises to “crack the secrets of high performance”.
This extract, however, encapsulates Ankersen’s approach better than any other. “Talent is not something static; it’s not something that you either have or you don’t and if you don’t you’re out of the game. It must be understood dynamically. For example, many women in the world sing better than Madonna. Plenty of women are better looking as well. But Madonna has managed to administer what she has at her disposal and put it into action. This is what constitutes true talent.”
Sport Republic has two co-founders, Kraft and Ankersen. Kraft’s background is in investment and has no experience in football. Until the sacking of Nathan Jones, he relied on Ankersen to be the decision-maker when it comes to on-pitch-related matters. Kraft, though, has attempted to reinstall what he described to The Athletic as a “functional board” – something he said the club did not have before Sport Republic’s arrival. This was one example of Kraft’s approach putting noses out of joint inside the club.
At Brentford, Ankersen worked with director of football Phil Giles, who was capable of checking and challenging his usually punchy ideas.
“If he has 10 ideas, one might be incredible,” said one source who has worked with Ankersen and who, like all others in this piece, wished to speak on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships. “The other nine, you have to manage him.”
The first casualty of the regime was expected to be manager Hasenhuttl last summer. The board, made up of Kraft and Ankersen and figures from the previous ownership, such as chief executive Martin Semmens, managing director Toby Steele and director of football Matt Crocker, were split on sacking Hasenhuttl. It was Ankersen who decided to stick with the Austrian, despite others expressing doubts. It was the first warning of division in the boardroom and the separation between the old and new regimes.
Southampton attempted to freshen up Hasenhuttl’s coaching staff, removing three senior coaches – Dave Watson, Kelvin Davis and Craig Fleming – and bringing new additions in, including Ruben Selles, who were seen as huge improvements. Alex Clapham, a young coach from Notts County, was swiftly discarded and not seen to be up to the requisite level.
Ten players were signed in the summer, with long-standing servants such as Nathan Redmond and Jack Stephens leaving after their relationships with Hasenhuttl had grown fractured. Sport Republic sanctioned the departures of the players Hasenhuttl no longer wanted, with Oriol Romeu an exception. In essence, Southampton and Sport Republic changed everything apart from the manager. An environment that had grown stale limped on.
Throughout Southampton’s proactive recruitment drive, there remained serious misgivings from close first-team observers over the profile of players signed and the inexperience within the squad. Southampton missed out on three striker targets they were confident of landing: Portugal’s Goncalo Ramos; the Netherlands’ Cody Gakpo, who joined Liverpool in January; and Rasmus Hojlund, the Denmark striker who signed for Atalanta from Sturm Graz instead.
But in truth, missed targets was a theme that pre-dated Sport Republic – and failure of recruitment does not necessarily entirely lie with them. Under Hasenhuttl, for example, they decided against Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze and Jarrod Bowen.
Previous manager Mark Hughes failed to convince James Maddison with his over-the-phone sales pitch in the summer of 2018 and Southampton ended up signing Mohamed Elyounoussi instead. Maddison had even gone as far as visiting the Staplewood training ground before choosing Leicester City. Gallingly, scouts had identified Victor Osimhen before his time at Lille and Napoli. Now brought into focus by Sport Republic, the existing issues with scouting and recruitment are often described as a nightmare by staff inside the club and not just within those departments.
Kraft was not satisfied with the old-school, perceived lack of data scouting process from the outset and supported the idea to centralise Southampton’s system. Effectively, players would be scouted for Sport Republic’s multi-club model, as opposed to being recruited specifically for Southampton or its only other club at present, Turkish second-division side Goztepe. Some scouts, however, were not prepared to follow this route as they did not believe in the project’s purpose. It jarred from the beginning.
In overhauling the recruitment system, there was growing feeling scouts were being used to simply provide data to Ankersen and Kraft before they decided on who to sign. It is a process viewed as “robotic” and lacking emotion, in turn, alienating staff. Multiple sources have told The Athletic they were concerned with the direction the club was taking.
Against the backdrop of chaos on the pitch and perpetual uncertainty in the face of relegation, there has also been a huge turnover of staff.
Sources have described the upheaval as staff “fleeing a sinking ship”, becoming disillusioned with Sport Republic’s changes that are yet to show any long-term benefit. Even though they have made it clear their strategy will bear fruit long term, in the immediate future it has left staff and observers sceptical. However, it could be argued that any staff member who sees the remit slightly altered would likely be unhappy.
Several key figures have or will be leaving the club. In some cases, those departing had felt marginalised in their ability to do their jobs due to a scattergun recruitment policy and the tearing up of the existing infrastructure, impacting most departments across the club.
Alternatively, there is a sense that Southampton has been in decline for several years, stretching back to Claude Puel replacing Ronald Koeman as manager and illustrated by the gradual downslope in league positions. Sport Republic’s attempt to implement fresh impetus was widely accepted to be necessary when the ownership arrived. The side’s form has been alarming since a 4-0 defeat to Aston Villa in March last season, which indicates more entrenched problems.
In centralising the scouting system, Ankersen brought employees across with him. Head of player insights Tom Stockwell was tasked with moving Southampton’s scouts over to Sport Republic, but The Athletic can reveal he has recently resigned. Stockwell, who had been at Southampton for more than a decade, was a key figure in recruitment and his departure is being viewed as a massive loss. Those who initially stayed – in the scouting department and staff inside the club – were baffled by the decisions being taken but sought to stay until they got further clarity.
When there was little evidence as to what Sport Republic’s vision was, it triggered an increased number of exits. Crocker initially clashed with Hasenhuttl, which limited his impact on the first team, before deciding to depart at the end of the season. Chief commercial officer David Thomas officially left as a board member on January 27 and Southampton are yet to replace former head of recruitment Joe Shields, who joined Chelsea after being taken off gardening leave in February.
Assistant academy director Edd Vahid joined the Premier League last summer, while academy director Matt Hale will leave this summer. Head of academy recruitment Dan Rice will join Everton after holding talks with Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur. Within the football department, highly rated lead data scientist Alex Kleyn, who was crucial in building Southampton’s data systems, left for Manchester United. Steele resigned in April and was confronted by a supporter after the Bournemouth game, having to be led away by stewards.
Other staff exits include loans manager Danny Butterfield, European scout Vicente Portal and pathways officer Vince Bartram. All of this has left a gaping hole in the infrastructure.
Privately, players and intermediaries were told in the summer that Southampton would acquire more experience to offset the inconsistency that threatened to plague Hasenhuttl’s side. As it turned out, they signed 10 players – but only two were over the age of 25. It led to sources close to the first team expressing sympathy with the few experienced players, such as James Ward-Prowse. “There are no winners in that team apart from Prowsey,” said one source close to the squad.
Several figures close to players expressed doubts in the summer over whether the investment in youth was too much and too sudden; that an absence of experience would destabilise the project Sport Republic intended to build.
If the summer reboot intended to aid Hasenhuttl’s job security, it quickly became apparent the end was near. There were concerns over the type of player recruited, with the attitude of certain younger players questioned. Some younger players have tended to be more laid-back, turning up late for training and meetings and spending a lot of time on their phones. This created a division with some senior squad members, who were unhappy with the lowering of standards and thought the developing cliques and gulfs in age would hamper effective communication on the pitch.
The growing divide between players and the manager was compounded by this schism in the dressing room between young and old. Assistant Selles impressed players in pre-season – some preferred him to take over as manager back then – before Hasenhuttl managed to wrestle control of training and tactical setup as the campaign neared.
The 2-1 home defeat to Everton in October was the first warning shot. Although he stumbled on for another month, that was the end for Hasenhuttl. The plan for Sport Republic was to change manager during the World Cup break.
After picking up 12 points in 14 games, Hasenhuttl was sacked a week early following a 4-1 home loss to Newcastle United. Southampton interviewed three managers for the job, including Nathan Jones, Torino manager Ivan Juric and a coach from Germany.
But with Ankersen wielding chief authority, he decided on Jones. Ankersen liked Jones from his first spell at Luton Town and, despite his difficult period at Stoke City, Jones registered well with Sport Republic’s data. The ownership did not see much difference between the Championship and Premier League.
Southampton essentially wasted two pre-seasons in one season, with two managers that never appeared as long-term hires for Sport Republic or could settle on a defined style of play. In Southampton’s training camp in Spain during the World Cup break, there was surprise at the contents of Jones’ training sessions, which appeared basic and in contrast to the detail Hasenhuttl had applied. Attempts to improve Southampton’s defensive shape and set-play threat soon fell flat.
For Southampton’s first match back after the break – a 2-1 win over Lincoln City in the Carabao Cup – Jones threw out the back-three system he had been working on over the previous four weeks. In the first league game six days later, he switched formation five times inside 90 minutes against Brighton & Hove Albion. Changing shape confused the players and raised questions as to whether Jones doubted himself.
A 1-0 home defeat to Wolves in February was Jones’ seventh league loss in eight games and sealed his fate. In his final week, he ostracised Selles and a number of players, who were left to watch training from afar. There had been friction with Selles, who stayed following Hasenhuttl’s sacking. The Welshman felt undermined and opted to pull rank. One player said they started to ignore instructions from the manager, wary of the defensively heavy information.
One of Jones’ strengths – which he said so himself – was about creating an improved environment, but he let standards slip, with players continuing to be late. Under Jones, there were examples when players would turn up to St Mary’s on matchday only to be told they were not playing hours before kick-off.
Players started getting changed in two separate dressing rooms at Staplewood. There are two sides to this, however: too many players in the squad meant not enough space, but young players continued to not realise the reality of the relegation-threatened situation they were in. Notably, the older players, including Ward-Prowse, would get changed in the other dressing room.
Selles quickly rectified the issue of space and tightened a bloated squad, sending several players to train with the B team on a weekly basis.
Jones agreed with Sport Republic that they would look deeper than results, but it was difficult to look beyond the dire run of form and Jones’ behaviour in press conferences, where he described his former Luton Town side as “one of the best in Europe” and intimated that “certain people in the village” were threatening to undermine his coaching style. It caused anger and bemusement internally and further highlighted the disconnect with staff below the first team. His style of play was in stark contrast to the teachings in the ‘SFC Playbook’.
Players in the academy started to consider their futures, despite being offered new lucrative contracts. They were hesitant to commit unless they saw a plan of how to be integrated into the first team. A bloated squad size of 30 – the second most in the Premier League behind Chelsea – blocked any pathway and with Jones and Hasenhuttl, there was little interest taken in the B team and the under-18s, which are viewed as the best age group in over a decade.
One player knocked on Jones’ office door to ask why he was not being afforded an opportunity to play. “The boys see them buying players and those players end up playing with the B team because they’re not good enough,” said one source close to a player. “The instability doesn’t help.”
Selles, though, was viewed as more approachable and took a genuine interest in youngsters’ development.
Jones was sacked after 94 days. The board decided to pivot once again, wanting a return to Hasenhuttl’s high-pressing principles. The American Jesse Marsch was sounded out a week before Jones was fired and was first choice to take over.
Marsch travelled to Southampton and stayed at the Grand Harbour Hotel in Ocean Village, where the plan was to discuss personal terms and finalise an agreement. Yet, as The Athletic reported, the American had a change of heart. The prospect of a short-term deal and Southampton’s perilous league position made the job unfavourable. Marsch also felt he was not ever wanted by Sport Republic, who intended to move away from the Red Bull style of football, so doubted whether he was viewed as a long-term option.
In the end, Southampton turned to Selles; the 40-year-old was Semmens’ choice, not Ankersen’s. Both Semmens and Crocker – who had handed in his notice and is set to leave at the end of the season – started to run the football department again thereafter. Since Selles’ appointment, Ankersen has stepped back to provide support from behind and has been to one game, the 1-0 victory away to Chelsea.
Selles was well-liked and aimed to stamp his authority. He could not, however, change the culture sufficiently, which was seen as ‘too nice’ and contributing to a general softness among the squad. Southampton hired a psychologist from Denmark last month to improve the players’ mentality as they sought to stave off relegation.
Players, however, were not willing to call each other out for dropping standards and those who did were met with brick-wall responses by team-mates who would not listen. Older players began to lose heart in Southampton’s chances of staying up and getting through to players.“Everyone’s looking for excuses,” said a source close to a senior player during the team’s 11-game winless run that ultimately sealed relegation.
Soon after the defeat to Fulham, in which relegation was confirmed, captain Ward-Prowse made reference to the standards lowering at St Mary’s. “As a team and a club overall, we’ll think about the season that has gone by,” he said. “Have decisions been right? Have we done everything we could on a pitch?
“I think we should perform at a better level than we have done. From the first day of the season until now, you can tell the standards have slipped.”
Squad members also expressed concerns over the quality of players acquired in January. Mislav Orsic (£6million) felt disrespected by the lack of opportunities to play, Paul Onuachu (£18m) was not suited to Selles’ pressing from the front and could not play a full game at Premier League intensity. Club-record signing Kamaldeen Sulemana (£22m) was young, dynamic and viewed in the “Sadio Mane” mould, with underlying data contradicting his goal total of five across two seasons in France.
Nonetheless, there was a general feeling Southampton needed to spend that money on players who could make an immediate impact.
“Relegation is like being punched in the face 100 times before having your head chopped off,” a senior employee said.
Relegation was the elephant in the room and although Semmens attempted to rally players and staff through internal emails that preached unity, plans were in place for next year in the Championship, illustrated in Southampton’s financial accounts.
The cost between staying up and relegation is believed to be the same, with those inside the club sharing a theory that to just stand still in the Premier League, a team still needs to spend £100million. Even then, there is a good chance that might not be enough to keep a club the stature of Southampton up.
Players have a 40 per cent wage reduction clause in their contracts in the event of relegation, which is likely to precipitate considerable turnover of the squad this summer. “Everyone will be scrambling to get out,” said one source close to a player.
Conversely, there is a school of thought that relegation may not be as fatal a blow to Sport Republic’s long-term vision. It will allow them to enforce a substantial clearout of players, cultivating a younger and hungrier team built in its image, akin to what Burnley have done this season.
It will be easier for Ankersen and Jason Wilcox, who will join from Manchester City and replace Crocker, to implement what they want. Wilcox is likely to bring in a football-based model similar to City: a possession-heavy style that is required in the Championship.
“The circus continues, but relegation isn’t as much a fear factor as expected,” said one source. More wins next season will aim to transform the mood around the team and attitude towards Sport Republic.
For a club that prided itself in staying ahead of the curve through shrewd recruitment and innovative ways of working, Southampton’s growing dysfunction failed to be addressed. Relegation served as the culmination of a number of bad decisions over a number of years and despite Sport Republic’s attempts to arrest the drift when they purchased the club in January 2022, they only proved to speed up the decline.
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| And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's off with her head |
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| The Athletic expose article on 09:52 - May 16 with 1047 views | saintwizzler |
Thanks.
‘Five years ago, Rasmus Ankersen was on stage in Manchester, delivering a Ted Talk to peers on sports analytics. “There is an expression in football that the table never lies,” he began. “It’s not that simple actually. Let me explain why…”’
Fûcking hell what a mess.
Then again Fulham are no better than us. |  |
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| The Athletic expose article on 09:56 - May 16 with 1037 views | PatfromPoole |
Can Madonna play at CB? |  |
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| The Athletic expose article on 09:58 - May 16 with 1034 views | arfurdent |
| The Athletic expose article on 09:56 - May 16 by PatfromPoole |
Can Madonna play at CB? |
not heard that track | |
| And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's off with her head |
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| The Athletic expose article on 10:08 - May 16 with 1012 views | Ron11 |
| The Athletic expose article on 09:56 - May 16 by PatfromPoole |
Can Madonna play at CB? |
No, we had prima donnas....like the large Bella Ketchup and others performing like pussies on the pitch.... |  | | |
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