Sorry, but it sounds like some people have been a bit taken in by some nice, placartory, considered words by Ankersen. It’ll last until about 1700 on Saturday. Please don’t forget the rubbish we’ve been watching and listening to.
Agree with your main point. BUT saying our online support is toxic, and then referring to other teams' online support to back up your point, is a bit hypocritical. Of course we're gonna get stick from other fans online, because it would be directed to the fans of any club in this situation. Last week Everton had the worst fans in the world. It really is better not to ever look at twitter/fb/instagram.
Haven't been 'taken in', personally, (haven't had a chance to listen yet), but I will always remember that Ankersen is the guy who convinced a billionaire to buy our club and spend 160m on new players. So I'll give him some slack. The Jones thing is a huge mistake, no doubt. And relegation is certain, in my opinion. It sucks, but it just shows how difficult it is to survive in the Premier League, even when you spend money. We've been on a downward spiral for 3-4 years, and though Jones is a horrible manager, it is hard to know who would be able to keep this squad up. Yes there's talent, and yes there's potential. But there is no core of experience. We haven't looked like a team since way before Jones took over. I don't fear relegation. I think we need a break from the top-flight. It's ruthless. With a more competent manager in charge, and continued commitment from the owners, we will come back up, and look the more healthy for it.
Watched it now, and thought he, Semmens and Kraft came across well (and like DTLW I was surprised with Kraft’s voice!) Thing is, I have been around the block enough times now not to be impressed by hearing about how brilliant someone’s idea is - I these days also need to *see* how brilliant it is. They do the first part very well - I’m yet to see the second part.
I have just watched the forum. I think the fans asked the questions we all wanted them to and the board answered as much as they could. I believe them that they have a plan etc if they feel they need to act on it and I believe them that they have a contingency in place if we do go down. I think they have done their best by the club and most other fans would love to be able to have this sort of engagement from their own board. I also believe they strengthened well in the summer and in January. Regardless of what happens we do not have a team of ageing players with no resale value and actually most of our players values will actually increase over the coming seasons. They are not afraid to do things a bit differently, the youth experiment, the Jones experiment etc. Fans will always fear relegation, we want to play against the best and to have bragging rights over your closest rivals or colleagues we work with who are fans of other teams. As SR said, they have more insight than all of us about what's going on behind the scenes. We read things on twitter from some ITK or speak to a mate who knows a guy who works for the club and believe it, good or bad. We get excited about a transfer, we get angry about a training ground bust up, we get angry when we find out that some players are training away from the group and we get angry when we see 4 players playing for the U23s. We have no clue what's going on behind the scenes, the only thing we can truly see is what's going on, on the pitch. Admittedly this has not been good. I always felt it right to give the manager time to get through January, get the new players in and then see how they get on. Things have been so poor for such a long time that things are coming to a head and it's Jones who is getting the brunt of it, he's not handling it overly well but maybe it shows the emotion of the guy. As long as SR are still backing him, then they must be happy with him behind the scenes, JWP must be happy with him as will the majority of the players. Yeah players will be annoyed when they don't play or when they get subbed off, I would expect nothing less. Not sure personally that it is such a big deal when seniors play for the B team, if the manager decides they won't play for the first team, I think it's a good idea to give them some minutes. I remember watching many reserve matches when I was a kid and seeing players like Le Tissier, Benali, Beasant etc regularly play to keep up their fitness or when coming back from an injury, no problem there for me. I would not be surprised at all to beat Wolves at the weekend, that would give Jones 6 points in 8 games. I love Ralph to bits but he only managed 5 points in his last 9 games.
99% of fans couldn't give 2 ****s about the politics behind the scenes 99% of the fans couldn't give 2 ****s about the board members 99% of the fans wouldn't really care if a player(s) fell out with a manager. IF results on the field were acceptable. Not amazing, not winning every game, just acceptable. The results are appalling. There's absolutely nothing good about having Jones as our manager. The summer signings (with the exception of Lavia) are **** to mediocre. Who knows what the Jan signings are like because they're coming into a team so devoid of ideas and identity because of Jones. We're barrelling our way into Championship football at full pelt, but we've got fans who think that's just tickety-boo because Rasmus says we'll be ok. This fans forum last night was brilliant stroke by the club because a large portion of our fans are mugs and are lapping this up. What one single factor makes the happy clappers believe this will be any different than 2005? *How on earth will a NJ team beat Wolves? Have you watched us under him?
We'll beat Wolves because they underperformed, had a bad day at the office as do every team we beat. Can but hope the flood of morose negativity of many on here doesn't overflow into the team whatever seemingly bizarre selections are made.
I guess I hope that Ankerson and SR are right and everyone else is wrong, and Jones is a football genius all along who has just been brilliant at hiding it so far, as it doesn't sound like he'll even get the boot should we lose to Wolves. Wolves needs to not just be a fluky win, it needs to be the beginning of a turnaround under Jones. SR are willing to give him as much rope as possible to try and prove that they're right (bit like Jones with Janny B despite him not fitting the profile of player that he says he likes), so that means there is no Plan B. It may already be too late, but there was a slim chance a new man coming in now could turn it around. But if Jones doesn't turn this around in the next few games, there will be no roll of the dice we can make. Pretty weird gamble to make given the circumstances. We're going all in on the guy who has shown precisely **** all (progression in our football, and far too much 'personality') in the first 4 months but lets trust he will suddenly turn it around now because we hired him in the first place so we can't be wrong.
I was going to post this note in the last few days (but never got a chance), so I'm going to caveat it by saying last night's Forum had no bearing on my thoughts... This may not be the most popular opinion on here, but I don't honestly have a huge issue with SR. They took us over at a time we were stagnating. Worth remembering that the previous ownership strangled the life out of Ralph through lack of backing and investment and by the time SR came in, Ralph was very different to the breath of fresh air when he joined. They have invested heavily since they came in. They've spent circa 143M euros (and sold players for 5.5M euros). In the same period under Gao we spent 43M euros (and sold players for 60.35M euros). They sacked Ralph at the time when most fans were calling for his head. Could they have done it sooner? Yes, possibly, but they saw a guy in charge who genuinely cared about our club, the city and the fans and also had the track record and skills (on paper) to turn it around, so desperately wanted it to work. The appointment of Jones was a massive risk, but no-one could have imagined what a disaster it/ he would turn out to be. It could have been a stroke of genius and he could have turned out to be the next Graham Potter, who knows. They genuinely believed he could do a good job and on paper they were probably right. We're not the first club to appoint a manager who really didn't work out and we won't be the last. Football decisions, be that managerial or player transfers are always on a knife edge, and unfortunately for us, this one has gone completely the wrong way. The only real problem i have with them now is that they aren't acting sooner to rectify the situation, especially after Jones' outburst at the weekend. For me, that is gross mis-conduct (on top of the ****e results). They aren't keeping him as it's the easy choice, or the cheap choice, they honestly think he can still do something. (For the record i think they're wrong and he will be gone in the next couple of weeks after a couple more losses). Let's face it, we're down this season. The ppg needed is unattainable for a club like us, in the rut that we are, but let's just prey it's not that Welsh turkey in charge for the 1st day of next season, for our charge back to the premiership. I get emotions are high, given our perilous league position/ impending relegation but I just don't understand some of the vitriol towards SR. Parking our league position for a moment, i can honestly say that over the next 5 years i think we will be in a much better position with SR, than we would have been under Gao. We would have gone down eventually under Gao due to lack of investment and we would never have the backing to come back up anytime soon. Likewise, we could have ended up with a SISU or another ****-show. They've made mistakes, as every club does, but the the stability, the passion, the financial backing is still there. Let's not try and run them out of town, as guaranteed there aren't many better options out there currently in terms of ownership. COYR
This was the point I was making, I don't appreciate being labelled. I see what is going on in the Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd camps, all of which are having similar meltdowns, the real poison is within Twitter, it's a pandemic which is capable of killing our Club. There are also some that have already made up their mind and aren't listening to what is being said. If we want success, we first have to change our attitude to the whole scenario.
I just watched the forum on the OS, which was illuminating in several respects. Apart from the occasional technical issues due to the audience mics either not working or not being used, I thought the questions asked were absolutely well-articulated and to the point. There certainly was no question of the chosen few being hand picked to go gently with the board. In general I thought all the board members came across very well. Rasmus couldn’t hide his ego completely, but he had to be diplomatic about Nathan the elephant in the room who was there behind every question. He couldn’t throw his manager under the bus, even if he wanted to. I was left mildly reassured that: a) There is a point of no return for Jones, even if no one would say when that might be. b) There (probably) is a strategy in place to replace him. c) If the worst comes to the worst, and we go down, Sport Republic have no intention of walking away, that’s just a ridiculous thing to think. The financial commitment they have already made ties them into the future of the club. d) SR recognise that fan involvement is crucial in a football club, and that they haven’t listened enough up until now. I think the recent outburst of anxiety from the fans has taken them a bit by surprise.
Agreed, Chilcs, though I’m surprised they’re surprised tbh. We’ve lost 6 of the last 7 PL games, we’re rooted at the bottom of the league, and our manager is, at best, a prickly individual. What were they expecting!!?
Just finished listening to it. I am actually really impressed with Ankersen and SR in general. I think they will be great owners for the club and they do seem engaged in the project. We all know that it is an under invested club from the Gao era, and in all honesty we probably should have been relegated prior to this year given investment made at our rival clubs. Football at this level is very cyclical and you can see other clubs on the up, Brentford, other clubs peaking, Brighton and other clubs on the way down, Wolves... Ankersen is aware of this and seemingly has some sort of formula for returning us to the lofty heights of around 10th place and semi regular pushes for Europe. Jones is very clearly not the man to take this club forward, but I do believe that the next 5 years once SRs model has a chance to bed in will be much more positive than the previous 5.
I disagree with “no one could have imagined what a disaster NJ would be”. It was spectacularly obvious IMO. The warning signs were all there. All you had to do was look at his time at Stoke, which he has identically replicated here. I do agree with the general positivity toward SR and Dragan though. They seem on the surface to be good owners. Which is why it’s absolutely perplexing that they appointed such a poor manager. All we can do is hope that the stuff they see internally that makes them think NJ is Pep Guardiola is also being seen by the players. Although player interviews, demeanours and results would suggest the exact opposite. At least it’s not dull being a saints fan, eh
The appointment of Jones is on one man and one man only - Ankersen. SR in general are going to be good for Saints long term. They've made errors - Jones, no striker signed in the summer being the two major ones. But they will pump money into the club and they clearly have a plan if we go down, not just if we stay up.
Fair point, better wording would have been "no-one could have known" (not "imagined"). We probably all imagined how bad he was going to be... and unfortunately were correct! Definitely not dull!!
I've also seen a few fans saying they want to deliberately make it a toxic atmosphere on Saturday. What the **** is the point in that? Obviously if we go a couple of goals down then I'd completely understand it, but turning up purely to be negative before a ball is kicked is moronic.
They spoke about us not having any academy players ready to compete for a first team spot, which has potentially led to JJ Morgan leaving. Just a thought but Sunderland will have a 15 years old striker on the bench for the cup replay with Fulham, with the full support of the manager, who is saying that he will send him on at some stage of the game. Shame we weren’t better against Blackpool as it would have been good to see Ballard given a few minutes in that one.
Agreed, although the point made by the board was that it’s the U23 group which hasn’t any stand out players ready to move up at the moment. Ballard, Morgan, Dibling and Doyle are all U18’s who are playing at a higher age group because there aren’t enough older Academy players good enough. That being said, they are still not ready to bring on unless a victory is already assured, and that hasn’t been the case very often! Maybe if we are 4-0 up with 10 minutes to go against Grimsby we might see Ballard or Doyle.
