Well if my friends are anything to go by Hassenhuttl will get a similar reception to the Jones appointment. Unlikely it is him anyway
My stance is more or less the same, with the caveat that I didn't account for NJ shooting himself in the foot post-match: not initially keen on the appointment; but we have him, and I can see something he could bring with an underdog/backs-against-the-wall mentality; it may work or may not, but I believe in and trust the investors' motives, and will support him while he is in the job and managing the club; I will reappraise after some games with his new signings; if you don't like him, blame SR, not NJ. In essence, though, let him try to do his job, because he's not going anywhere, and fans are just piling on extra pressure. Which I think still has some truth, because these crazy player decisions, blame culture, ranting interviews, fights in training, and the rest, are things that start to happen when outside pressure is at these crazy levels that people start to crumble and point fingers. Obviously, though, he is the manager and needs to protect people from those outside pressures, not pile it on them. He is meant to be the calm outside-facing voice who shields the panic behind the scenes. Not doing this part of the job shows the immense lack of experience we all know he has. The issue now, though, is he has properly screwed his own position, made himself the problem, and escalated the pressure on himself with that interview, so I just can't see him lasting amidst this atmosphere. The only way he survives is if he wins each of the next few games, moves us off the bottom of the table, and buys some breathing space. Everything he now does has to visibly move us forward. I would imagine this is the phase of the process where SR sound out replacement managers and wait for one final loss, but keep him in place incase he picks up some points. A club in our position cannot be in fire-fighting mode off the pitch at this point of the season - and ultimately that's where we are. The wait between each of these PL games seems immense atm.
It's funny. I actually think going down would help us find our identity. Last season we didn't have a great squad, but at least we had something resembling a team. A recognisable backbone, senior players with 100+ games, complemented by a few exciting young prospects etc. Now we don't even have that. No one knows who the CB-pairing will be, who the midfield will be, or who will be up front. There are far too many new signings and youngsters, with no leadership or communication. Just eleven strangers. Going down I believe would allow us to push the re-start button, but with a relatively decent set of players, and with a good budget for the Championship. I also think it would allow us to use more of the academy players too. The key is obviously getting in a competent manager asap, rather than at the end of the season.
I was keeping an open mind with some benefit of the doubt but the display was so abject and his interview so bad I don't think there is any way that he can manage to pull everyone together behind him now which is a bare minimum requirement in our present predicament.
I'm always in support of the manager until he proves beyond reasonable doubt, that he is unfit to carry the responsibly. My thinking is, if that is the case, the owners will have acted beforehand anyway. Like most on this board, I was pretty taken aback by the post match comments by NJ. I'm not at all sure he can continue but, SR are the paymasters and it is their call, one way or the other. If future home matches provide an extremely toxic atmosphere, as I think they will unless Saints go 5-0 up by HT, then the decision may be that in the interests of the players it will be best to remove the cause of dissatisfaction in terms of results and then popularity. I'm sorry that it has come to this state of affairs for all concerned.
Interesting perceptions as just spoke to someone who said he didn’t see why there was such uproar after his interview. He said sounded like he’d come into a new job at a much bigger club than he was previously and taken on advice from people already here and gone away from his own principles, now he’s had enough and wants to go back to what he knows and play his own way. Which all sounds about right but the issue is a PL manager should’nt be compromising/listening to people when they come into a failing club and should have the belief to just implement their own system as soon as they arrive.
OR he has been doing things his own way but has failed and has decided to make excuses and shift the blame from himself.
So if Jones wasn’t there at the time of the alleged 20 man brawl, does that mean that it was between the players? Are the players now split into two camps, one pro, the other anti Jones? Or have senior players (JWP?) been calling out those who he doesn’t think are putting in the effort? JWP’s comments about no longer having a core of experienced players could have alienated the younger players who might now think that they are being hung out to dry and being blamed - as Lavia must surely feel after Jones’ comments Saturday. We will probably never hear the full story, but it doesn’t bode well for Saturday, if players have fallen out en masse.
Worth noting that even if this did happen, we can very likely replace "brawl" with "a few pushes and a bit of shouting over a disagreement due to current high pressure situation players are in".
I will always back the manager and the players no matter what, if they are here, I believe they can come good, Josh Sims will be a great player soon, Sam McQueen will come back stronger soon and NJ will turn it around. I like to see things from all angles as things aren't always black and white and what you think is happening may be wide of the mark. I feel sorry for someone who has come in to do a job to help our beloved team out of the ****, find out that before a ball is kicked in his first game, a large percentage of fans do not want him here. The same thing happens sometimes with players, although a player can have a few bad games and we can still win so it gets hidden a bit, the manager is the focal point and we should all have got behind him but alas that was not to be and now various things have played out. He is now like a cornered snake, lashing out and saying and doing anything he can to save himself. Don't forget this is kind of like Deja Vu for him after his Stoke exploits. We will never know if it had been any better if the fanbase were more united in giving him a chance, but I suspect it would have been, even if only marginally better. Maybe in some weird twisted way, now he has had his mini meltdown, the players will smash it against Wolves, he just needs to say sorry to everyone and pick the best players in a simple system that they understand. Start the 2 new guys and just ****ing go for it!
He would of always known it would be a tough gig surely. That’s just the premier league, and we are a relatively patient bunch I think. Just a strange appointment given the **** we are in and his lack of experience of the premier league and premier league players.
Strachan was an unpopular hire. Pochettino was a really, really unpopular hire. But then they became two of the most loved Saints managers ever, because they had a clue, showed positive changes to the team, and weren't total ****s.
