like Spanish I have been and will remain one of Micks fiercest critics. Unlike JWM I have been reluctant to criticise ME in the past as he saved our club However I have now changed my point of view. In my profession (Health and Safety) when trying to establish the root cause of an accident/incident it is necessary to establish the root cause by employing the 5 why rule, and to employ that to yesterday's embarrassment I asked 1. Why were we crap, Answer- because we have a crap manager 2. Why is the manager crap Answer- because he bought crap players and employed crap tactics 3. Why did he buy crap players Answer- lack of funds 4. Why is there a lack of funds Answer-because ME refuses to release the funds 5. Why does ME refuse to release the funds Answer- only he knows So the inescapable answer is ME is totally to blame I was gobsmacked when I heard on TV that we had only spent 2 million in 4 years on players, how have we got here in this state of affairs, it's a joke I am therefore now firmly in JWM's camp and believe that we have to force ME to sell up How we do this is by fan power I.e. demonstrations, boycotting games etc Christ even wave photographs of him at games if that works because we all know how he hates publicity I live 300 miles away and don't see that many games but to all you true supporters who follow the town home and away and have to suffer that garbage week in and week out you have my total chest thumping respect
I want both out, a fresh start is needed but sadly i dont think its gonna happen on either front! The only way it will happen is if half the season ticket holders stop going, to try to force Evans hand but even then...... He already has their money!
Yes I was an ardent and very vocal supporter of Mick when he first came into the club because at the time we were in a right mess with Relegation being more than likely. He was the best man for the job back then and for a while he proved that you can take a ragbag team of journeymen to the brink of promotion! He over achieved when we reached the playoffs two years ago and we all know that! The biggest mistake made was not to invest some serious cash in quality that Summer for us to kick on and build on that momentum. Instead we sold Mings and didn't spend any cash on players to strengthen what we had. That is unforgivable in my book and that tells you all you need to know about our owner and manager. They are both too cushy with things here and completely lack any ambition to drive this great football club forward. We the fans deserve so much better than this and I'm disgusted by the way ME and MM seem to sail along without giving a ****e what the paying punters think! We then sell our most dangerous Striker with only two days to go before the transfer window shuts without a clue as to who will replace him! The game last night for example was crying out for Murphy with his aerial threat in the box. No wonder we have the worst goal scoring record in the division! The worrying thing is that we are now conceding sloppy goals at the other end! We can't score and we are now conceding regularly which in anyone's book is Relegation form! Mick is too arrogant to admit it and our owner is AWOL so there it is my friends we are fooked!!! McCarthy won't resign and Evans won't sack him and in the meantime our club is going diwn the tubes! Sorry about the rant btw.
Look what's possible if you have plan and stick to it: Southampton: How Saints thrive despite selling best players & losing managers http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37954971
I admire the way Southampton have evolved. A clear plan in place and a solid system for the academy and player/manager identification and recruitment. We'll get nowhere by selling our best assets and not using the income on the squad.
It's hardly rocket science though is it SD?You just wonder how someone as,apparently,clueless as ME has accrued such a fortune.
Maybe you don't give him enough credit. His ownership of ITFC may have actually helped him in some way, so many theories going about you don't know what to think. He bought a large debt dirt cheap and he's making interest on it, sounds alright to me. I think this will end up with some skeletons coming out of the closet to be honest. Either he is good at business or just a very good scam artist. He seemingly doesn't give a toss about customer satisfaction
Spot on Yorkie, and the most telling part is in the transfer money figures over the last 4 years, £2M spent and £18M received, good players sold and replacements for as cheap as possible or no replacement at all, it's no wonder the quality count keeps reducing as the squad is diluted and the standard of play naturally declines with it.
Yeah I'm in the MM, ME out club now too. It's taken me a while I know, but I like to give people a good chance especially someone like MM, though he has faults is a good man and I appreciate he stabilised the squad initially but the football has been woeful more often than not. ME's lack of investment just shows he's happy to try and remain a Championship club whilst spending as little as possible. No ambition, terrible football leads to one thing thing, falling attendances and I think it's just going to get worse. The players must hate playing at PR at the moment.
I have seen this quoted and it is pretty black and white.. and quite clearly a damning reflection of the owners approach at being thrifty. But who have we not replaced or poorly replaced (There are some obvious ones) Cresswell - Replaced by Mings - Replaced by Knudsen. Clearly we have less quality (but 12m+ in the bank) Murphy - No one (but 3m+ in the bank) though I'm still hopefull we will spend that on a replacement. Other than those, the others are Wickham and Walters who you could argue we didn't replace but we were probably making the shift away from relying on Walters and Wickham was never as good for us as his potential (or his current level) - Are there any others? To play devils advocate, you could also create a list of players who we have replaced with far more quality (some for free) Loach - Bart Chopra - McG Jay Tabb - Grant Ward Frank Nouble - Brett Pittman Clearly we could do will shelling out a few more quid though, I don't think anyone would disagree with that sentiment
Good post Scowey, I can only think of Rhodes who went and raised another reported £800,000 at the time, we've also had a massive influx of dross most of whom I've forgotten about and Jewell at one time had 9 loan players on the books, penny wise and pound bloody foolish springs to mind.
The other three players I would mention in that list are McAuley Ledbitter Delaney All had their fans and detractors but it could be argued they are better than what we have in the respective positions.
That's right BA but I was thinking of players who have been sold for a huge profit and replaced with greatly inferior players who were dirt cheap or cost absolutely nothing, and as the quality diminishes the playing standard falls also, but that's a good shout and more examples of falling quality levels, its been going on for years now and has finally caught up with us.
Unfortunately we're at the point of losing £8 - £10 mill per season at the minute which is very depressing. Clear as day we don't spend £££ on transfer fees however that loss shows the wage bill must be quite reasonable - we have several players on over £10k p.w probably rising to £15/ £17k when you put in bonuses, fees etc. We certainly pay the wages. Problem is, so do every other club in this division. Then you have the joke of parachute ££££. Take Forest, Brett Assumbolonga ( spelling ) on over £35,000 p.w. It's an absolutely laughable division interms of £££ spend. Take the current league table, Villa one point ahead despite parachute ££££ and spending £40 mill this summer. Forest and Wolves behind us, and boy Wolves have spent. Problem is with the likes of Bournemouth, Swansea, Hull, and other less fashionable clubs in the prem if you look through this entire sodding division I think most fans would demand promotion and expect to be top 8 minimum. We're no different, Wolves, Villa, Derby. As for Evans, when he came I thought our prayers had been answered. £36 mill in debt, free transfers, players going for bugger all fees.... how wrong I was. Very excited when Keane came, he received the backing and he was an absolute joke. Poor Jewell tried but created an even bigger mess you could argue. Both were backed with numerous £500 - £3 mill signings..... both failed miserably. Mick hasn't been backed properly which is half the problem. At times he's made some good signings - note this summer, he was given a tiny bit of ££££ in this league and I'd say Webster, Ward have been excellent signings. I don't really want to go into Mick massively - more Evans. He's going to have to work out what he wants to do. Realistically if he wants to gamble with youth, not spend and pray then I suppose Mick is the man for the job. Not that it's going to be remotely fun, enjoyable for us supporters for the next few years however I suppose that's one strategy. As I said before on a post when I met Milne the penny had kinda dropped my end and I was amazed that the Chelsea fan thought fans would be happy at how this club is being run. Barring an absolute miracle, something like 14/15 - and with that midfield how the hell we came top 6 I will never know - we are well and truly entrenched in this division for ........... I don't know when!
Whilst I agree with all your sentiments, with the players we now have, I'm not saying they are world beaters but it is the best in terms of ability that we've had under Mick we should be producing better performances than we are. My feeling is for the past 4 years we've played percentage football and now we suddenly have players who are of a decent quality Mick wants a bit more football from his team but the style is so entrenched in some of our players (and definitely manager) we just look awful. I've never been the biggest fan of Mick or ME for that matter but I really get the feeling of be careful what you wish for if either of them were to leave!! This season certainly isn't over by a long shot we're only 6 points of the playoffs and got a few players coming back from injury/gaining match fitness so I think we'll pick up at some point. I'm just glad I don't have to watch that sh*t every week. Mick might be a good manager but he sucks the fun and glory out of football, can anyone think of 1 exciting match since he's been in charge?
