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Reply | Happy New Year Uglies
at 09:17 1 Jan 2025
Happy new year. Let's hope that Saints form, like the sun, is past its low point and things are slowly getting brighter. |
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Reply | Who is conducting transfer negotiations in January?
at 09:16 1 Jan 2025
I'm not spinning anything. The words are there in black and white. Even a child can understand the difference between "the manager has a yes/no decision" and "the manager alone has a yes/no decision". If a child can understand the difference then I think you can too. So that means that you are deliberately claiming I said things, that you know I didn't. If it was the first time I'd let it pass, but it isn't. You clearly have some kind of weird agenda.
Making up bullsh*t about someone is disrespectful at least, so I will now start treating you with the same disrespect that you treat me. So, I wish a happy new year to all other Uglies, but you can just go stick it where the sun don't shine. Until you stop telling lies about me I hope your 2025 is as sh*tty as you deserve. |
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Reply | Who is conducting transfer negotiations in January?
at 18:28 31 Dec 2024
Why do you keep misquoting what people say? Are you really as stupid as you seem or are you deliberately trying to be annoying?
I did not say "the manager alone" has a yes/no decision. I said that the manager "will always set the priorities and have a yes/no decision on signings" i.e. he is ONE of the people who has to agree to a signing. If you were an owner of a club would you really spend £20m on a player that your manager said he didn't want, didn't rate and wasn't likely to pick? If so, then you are as stupid as you sound.
Every player we've signed as a senior player will have been approved by the manager at the time they were bought. The only modern club that hasn't followed this policy was Brentford in the first years after Matthew Benham took over and he insisted that the then manager couldn't overrule the data engine that Benham had brought with him to the club. This was so revolutionary that the manager resigned. They've since changed this policy. Now Phil Giles and Thomas Frank work hand in hand on transfers as they've talked about publicly. |
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Reply | Do Southampton Cut Their Losses Now On This Season And Cash In On Kyle Walker Pe
at 15:17 31 Dec 2024
The situation hasn't changed since the summer. He could have gone to West Ham, but not on the wages he wanted as a free agent. It's the same story now. If we get £10-15m for him (we won't) then that is money that doesn't go into his pocket, so he would refuse to move and he'd just wait until the summer when he gets all the money.
It's possible that we could get £2-5m and leave enough room for his wage demands, but I doubt it will happen because there won't be many clubs looking to spend big on a full back in January, as opposed to the summer.
So, I expect he'll see out his contract as he's planned to do for a couple of years now and then leave for free in the summer. |
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Reply | Nucleus of a fairly strong Championship side next season
at 11:34 31 Dec 2024
That's a very unlikely team if Juric stays or if we have another decent manager next year. It's a team full of 5'6" or lightweight players who can do bit of tippy tappy but not much else. It's very much a legacy of RM's days, which by next year we should be starting to move beyond. Next year we should be starting to see more death metal football and hopefully we'll use the parachute payments and money from player sales to buy a few players who can play it.
If next year our physicality in attack is limited to Fraser, Archer and Armstrong as in your team, then we will still be sh*t - but as we've seen, you can be sh*t and still make the play-offs. |
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Reply | Dragan Solak has been legged over…
at 19:04 30 Dec 2024
Yes, firing board members might be difficult and firing someone like Ankersen who is a founding owner of SR might be even more difficult (e.g. if there are constitutional agreements). But he doesn't have to be fired outright. For example, if Solak worked with Kraft to persuade Ankersen to concentrate on the other clubs in the group and step back from SFC, that might work. He's already the president of Goztepe.
So far Ankersen hasn't managed to f*ck up Goztepe, but there was talk of a cunning plan to get all the clubs in the group to play the same style (RM's tippy tappy) so it was probably only a matter of time. But none of us care about the other clubs in the group, so the more time he spends with them, the better. |
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Reply | Dragan Solak has been legged over…
at 16:57 30 Dec 2024
None of us know what's been said by who exactly, but it seems pretty clear to me that the blame lies with Ankersen. The 3 SR executives were supposed to bring different things:
Kraft - commercial management of sports and media companies
Ankersen - football expertise
Solak - serious money
Of these, it is clear that the failures have been down to poor football decisions, which was supposed to be Ankersen's bag. He is the one at fault. I think what you can blame Solak and Kraft for is putting their trust in Ankersen and not having a way out when it's become obvious that he doesn't know what he's doing. If they don't either push Ankersen out, or bring in some real expertise to overrule him, then Solak and Kraft become equally to blame. Depending on the personalities involved, it may be that Juric is the one who will overrule Ankersen on football decisions and that will be the solution. |
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Reply | Who is conducting transfer negotiations in January?
at 16:42 30 Dec 2024
Transfer negotiations are one thing, but identifying and prioritising the type of players that the manager wants in the first place is actually more important. The manager will always set the priorities and have a yes/no decision on signings.
Juric has shown already that he believes in centre forwards, while RM was more interested in false 9s and centre forwards on the wing. I bet Juric also knows that physical, ball winning midfielders are more important to clubs like us than tippy tappy types. The January window is probably a lost cause, but with a decent manager in place we now have more hope of signing the right kind of players in the summer. |
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Reply | Who is conducting transfer negotiations in January?
at 14:07 30 Dec 2024
What did Wilcox ever do for us? There were few great signings in his time here and who's to say we wouldn't have got them or near equivalents anyway? About the only thing he did was appoint RM. So, if his contribution to the club was negative then why should we miss him? Wilcox was part of the problem.
If we recruit a new DOF now then it will have to be someone who buys into the new approach, instead of being another tippy tappy merchant, which is what would have happened if we'd replaced Wilcox immediately. |
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Reply | Anybody still of the opinion that it was all Russell Martin’s fault ?
at 13:42 30 Dec 2024
Exactly this.
Whoever said it was "all Russell Martin's fault"? No one as far as I'm aware. But most people can see that RM's tactics were disastrous. Really, for those that can't see that then there is no helping them. His suicidal defending and ridiculous slow build up was never going to work, even if we had a mid-table PL squad. It was obvious to 99% of people by the end.
No manager can turn the ship around in 2 weeks. We will be relegated - and probably in the position I predicted at the start of the season: 20th. But we now have some hope that we can start to move in the right direction. RM had 3 transfer windows to implement his approach. If we want to compare Juric with RM's record, then we need to wait until he's been backed in 3 transfer windows too. |
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Reply | Crystal Palace Game Matchday Thread
at 10:02 29 Dec 2024
Criticism of him is harsh as far as I'm concerned. If you watch the highlights back I think he did a decent job with the chances on offer and very nearly scored a couple of times. Very difficult to get power when you are leaning backwards, the cross is just a soft chip from 30 yards out, or a PL level defender is unbalancing you. None of our other strikers could have done anything with those chances. He needs chances where a proper cross is pulled back from somewhere near the goal line. Either that, or play him with someone like Archer who can pick up a second ball.
That was the first time in his SFC career that he has been tried in his proper role. To have a couple of near misses is a good return from 1 PL game in a new role. He may not be the greatest but he needs a decent chance to show what he can do. |
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Reply | Russell Martin goes but results wise nothing changes
at 18:11 26 Dec 2024
So, you're saying that a year and a half and 3 transfer windows after RM took control it was still too early to be clear that he was the cause of a lot of our problems - even though that was blindingly obvious to anyone who knows anything about football (who do you think needed to give their agreement to AA's contract btw?). Yet after 1 game(!!) with Ivan in charge, and with no chance for him to influence our recruitment, we have co conclude that "nothing changes"!!!??!?!!??? Give it a rest and give him a chance. |
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Reply | Set pieces - again
at 15:32 23 Dec 2024
Yes, Arsenal have been fantastic from set pieces this year without being a particularly big side in the way that maybe Everton are. They are just "clever" i.e. they have specific plans where everyone has a defined role and they know how much cheating they can get away with.
For a club of our limited means and first year back in the PL, the sensible plan was always to defend tight and maximise set pieces and counter attacks. Unfortunately we had a manager who didn't have a clue what he was doing. Hopefully we're beginning to move on. |
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Reply | Up Front
at 15:24 23 Dec 2024
I think most of us agree that the number 1 priority to strengthen is centre forward. The impression I get is that Juric will make pressing a key part of his tactics. If so, Tall Paul will yet again be surplus to requirements. I can't see him putting in a shift and chasing down opposition defenders. He's hardly Shane Long.
I think it's quite likely that Juric knows a few players on the fringes of Serie A sides that could do a job for us. We'll probably bring in 1 or 2 in January that we have never heard of. |
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Reply | Ramsdale & KWP back against Fulham
at 09:42 23 Dec 2024
I saw when I was looking at tickets that this is actually no longer a general stand (they used to call it a neutral stand). It's now designated as home seating, but the neutral culture seems to live on. Must be one of the few places in the country where an away supporter can support their team without trouble. Always seemed a bit odd to me how they don't get trouble. |
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Reply | Ivan Jurić
at 18:33 21 Dec 2024
I'm reading it's all official now.
“It's important to immediately be connected with the fans. I want an aggressive team and I think that fans of Southampton will like that.” says Juric.
Well here's one fan that will like it anyway. Welcome to SFC and I hope you succeed! |
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Reply | Ivan Juric - Reasons to be cheerful 1,2,3
at 16:22 21 Dec 2024
I like the positivity, but I'm not sure about your point 2 and attacking football. My guess is that he'll concentrate on us conceding fewer goals as his first priority. I think any sensible manager would. If that means some 0-0 draws for us, there's nothing wrong with that as far as I'm concerned. It's too much to expect any confident flowing football for a while yet. First stop us being such an easy touch and then worry about the attacking football later. |
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Reply | New manager
at 12:28 21 Dec 2024
I doubt that SR have learned any lessons. RM had the most extreme playing style of anyone out there, so anyone else would represent a change of style. I suspect that Juric is being targeted because he's about the highest quality of the few that didn't say no and he's not going to cost a lot.
But I think he has a decent record for the level that we can expect. So long as he doesn't blow up and go mental, like Nathan Jones, it's a step forward and just possibly, a big step forward. I look at his appointment positively even if we're still very likely to be relegated.
I feel positive about the club for the first time in 2 years. |
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Reply | Gardening leave for Russell Martin
at 19:08 20 Dec 2024
So why all the stories about having to pay RM £10m? Actually some clubs do pay out immediately. Man Utd said they'd paid out to Ten Haag to get rid of him. If SFC did the same with RM it was stupid. Do like Roma do, even if not in Rome. |
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Thread | Gardening leave for Russell Martin
at 12:02 20 Dec 2024
This is a side point to our change of manager, regarding what I have said about putting Russell Martin on "gardening leave". That is what we should have done with RM to avoid the cost of sacking him and it appears to be what Roma did with Juric. Note the tweet from Fabrizio Romano:
Roma sacked him on 10th November, yet he is now "formally working on exit terms". That means he is still contracted to them even though he was sacked as manager 6 weeks ago. By doing this, Roma will avoid having to pay him compensation because he will now want to be freed from his contract so that he can come to Saints. Now it all comes down to a negotiation where Juric will accept less than his full compensation so that he is free to work here.
If SFC really put themselves in a position where they had to pay RM his full 3 year contract, or the £10-12m that was rumoured, then that would be incompetent. We should have put him on gardening leave and waited until a Championship club offered him a job, like Roma have clearly done with Juric.
Edit: the tweet appears to be censored but anyway you get the idea [Post edited 20 Dec 2024 12:06]
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