This. Even in seasons where there are fans and stuff, our commercial revenues outstrip our matchday revenues. And we aren't exactly a commercial giant.
Well that question has no logical answer. The change in style has not seen an improvement in results or a better brand of football. We haven't been more solid at the back and we haven't scored more goals. This is one of those decisions that would make Obelix tap his head three times and say 'these Austrians are crazy'.
I'm with those who have an optimistic view of the new owners intentions with improvements in the playing and coaching teams. As others have pointed out announcing big investments leads to inflated prices.
Also it goes back to why invest ~£200m and then not try to improve the squad so we then probably get relegated and that investment is worth £50m less or worse. I think some people forget that when you buy a Premier League club it is not like stretching yourself on say a new house that you get a slightly bigger house then you live with a crap kitchen for a few years until you can afford it. You buy a club for one of a few reasons. You are a lifelong fan, stupidly rich and love the club. You buy it as an investment with a view to improving and making money so you could eventually sell at a profit You buy it to asset strip. Clearly SportRepublic are in the second category. Gao was also in that category, but China changed the goalposts and stopped people from taking money out of China. He didn’t plan on buying the club then not spending a penny more for years - do we think that people who have amassed an absolute fortune through business are that stupid and naive? The down/upside of this is that they tend also not to be reckless with their fortune so they may not spend £150m on Lionel Messi, but may be tempted to invest £40-70m a year on playing staff whilst trying to get a value back for players that are no longer needed. We aren’t Newcastle, but we are not poor by any means.
The thing is LTL, Ralph is complaining that the players are not following his instructions on the pitch, and is repeating this statement. If they have no confidence in the manner in which they are being asked to perform, that's not a good sign and suggests they are not trusting of his instructions.
That’s a huge leap from what Ralph thinks to what you suggest the players think. The answer is probably much simpler; that their fragile confidence just induces a touch of panic.
I don’t think Hassenhuttl has said “**** the press guys let’s just play lacklustre **** for the rest of the season” I think it’s probably the simple answer that the players feel there is **** all to play for so have dropped off a few % which when you have a team like ours is enough for them to get battered
Yes that is true but it's not such an insignificant amount that the club can afford to take a reduction in ticket sales. They wouldn't heavily advertise them or offer early bird discounts if that were the case. It's more about running the business than giving Solak a quick return on his investment, in fact every source of income is important. Giving hints about future player purchases (and keeping player departures quiet) is a well known tactic used by clubs to encourage ST renewals and sales.
It's Ralph's job to motivate and make sure he thinks that's not acceptable, he should've played more fringe players if he thinks anybody is not pulling their weight. Ultimately they should all be playing for their place and professional pride everytime they put on the shirt. Ironically when they did have plenty to play for in our biggest game of the season he picked an out of favour striker and one who has been back up for the last 2 seasons. (yes i'm still miffed about that!) Salisu and Bedders quite simply should not have been playing for the last 2 months.
Yeah I agree it’s his job to get a tune out of the players, but have been seeing more comments recently about how we have abandoned the press. I don’t think we have, just that the players have dropped off since we were “safe” Could argue same thing happened last season although we had other circumstances with injuries etc then.
I agree it's more convenient for you to suggest this, as no blame can therefore be attributed to Ralph, its all the players fault. Ralph remains blameless for 5 pts from the last 30 pts...
No doubt there's several factors that contributed to the recent slide The Manger and coaches plus the players and of course the tea lady.
Whatever anyone thinks of Ralph, there is absolutely no point in getting rid of a manager now - you give someone like Ralph a pre-season and do some proper strategic planning with the new owners, and benefit from the knowledge of what is needed from an existing managerial team. Otherwise we'd be doing it with new owners and a new manager, which is too many variables. As The Athletic point out, over the last five seasons, Saints' net spend has been 10% of that of Brighton's (and 18% of Watford's, 40% of Burnley's and Sheffield United's - all relegated or potentially relegated teams). Brighton - whose manager constantly has praise heaped upon him - have not outperformed us in the league in any way close to representing that net spending difference. Ralph has changes forced upon him each season, which constrain him massively. What needs to be resolved is how he can seemingly get us performing at the level of a top six team for periods, and then of a bottom three team for the rest - that variance needs to change ideally. But if we have a manager who can get that level of performance, we just need to work out how to prolong his working at that level. It's not like he is mediocre at best and crap at worse - his highs are spectacular, which means he knows what he's doing in general.
As i've said before, why not take the net figure from just since Ralph has been the manager? 5 seasons conveniently includes the massive £75m the club recieved from the VVD transfer before Ralph was here and is not a true reflection of what the net spend has been since then.
He’s spent roughly £25m net in his 3 seasons here. We’ve averaged around £45m total spend each season
