https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2023-05-13/southampton-football-club-statement-13th-may-2023 Today is a hugely disappointing day for everyone associated with Southampton Football Club. We have fought tirelessly as a club throughout the season, but the Premier League is the most competitive league in the world and our results were simply not good enough to stay there. We are particularly saddened and frustrated that our first season as controlling shareholders in Southampton Football Club has ended in relegation. While this outcome is distressing for all of us, now is the time to demonstrate unity. We are grateful to our managers, our players, our staff and above all our fans for battling to the end to keep the Saints in the top tier. Our work begins today to return Southampton Football Club – an inaugural member of the Premier League with a rich history – to where it belongs. We want to reassure our supporters, our partners and our staff that we remain fully committed to achieving long-term success for the club at the top level. We must now reflect on the lessons to be learned from this season and start preparing for the challenges ahead of us in the Championship. Our goal is to return to the Premier League as soon as possible and ensure that we stay there. At the same time, we will continue to focus on the long-term development of the club, both on and off the pitch, to ensure its sustainability at the highest level. We understand that significant improvement is required, and at the end of the season we will announce our immediate next steps and provide details of how the club will operate moving forward. We cannot thank our fans enough for the fantastic support they have given the team throughout the season. Your commitment to the club is an inspiration and one of the foundations that will support Southampton’s return to the top flight. Dragan, Henrik & Rasmus Sport Republic
For me the key words are "at the end of the season we will announce our immediate next steps". That very much suggests to me that we'll be letting Selles go after the Liverpool, most likely within 24 hours. It's not like there any many things that a club can suddenly announce, beyond staffing changes.
“Fought tirelessly” - wish I’d seen that. It’s a ****e statement to be honest. But there’s nothing they can say that would make it better, and at least they bothered.
“We are grateful to our managers, our players, our staff and above all our fans for battling to the end to keep the Saints in the top tier.” Lol. The only battle I’ve seen is from the chavs throwing chairs at each other after the Spurs game which was as equally pathetic as whatever battle the managers/players have supposedly put in to keep us up.
It's absolutely embarrassing that that's in there. Who the f actually proof read that. Tone deaf... Read the ****ing room SR.
I think that Sports Republic's tenure cannot be salvaged. The fact that two of the major directors were not at the match this afternoon makes reading this statement seem really odd. It is very much a bland, vanilla bit of PR into which you can read anything. I wondered if anyone else felt that the absense of Ankerson this afternoon is perhaps the more telling thing regarding the ownership of the club ? My gut feeling is he is going to be binned or something really radical is going to happen like the club being sold to new owners.
They have invested a lot of money into Saints and I do believe they will continue to do so. As long as they have learned from their mistakes I see no reason for them to f**K off. We could have owners who want to asset strip or not invest so it could be much much worse.Those who want SR gone here are those word again Be careful what you wish for.
The Athletic piece says he has taken a backseat since Jones was sacked - and has attended just one game. Selles was Semmens’ solution and he and Crocker has been running the football dept since NJ’s departure. I suspect we might get a new CEO as well as a new manager. Don’t think that would necessarily be a bad step.
At least they've acknowledged that significant improvement is required. Call me insane but I still think they could be good owners with the right structure in place. And that starts with a DoF who can stop Ankersen making anymore catastrophic decisions.
Maybe that’s why Sunak was here today. Would probably be good news for both the club and the country….
If they were good owners, I think that the management structure within the club would have remained loyal and we would not have seen the mass exodus that we have witnessed over the last 12 months. For me, this is the most telling aspect, Tom, that the people in charge do not have the confidence of the team they have employed to manage the club off the playing field. I think someone told me at the last home game that something like ten people have left key roles in the club since Christmas because of the issues within the club albeit I would be pleased for someone to correct me on the true number / time frame. Looking in from the outside and from the perspective of a fan, the impression is that many within the club do not have confidence in the direction the club is being managed by SR. I think the issue with Jesse Marsch not taking the Saints job probably reveals more than you might have expected and how we ended up promoting Selles to manager. I sometime find Lincoln Saints' comments can be a bit paranoid but I have to totally concur with his reservations about SR. I respect your opinion yet , if we are going to get into the realms of speculation, there is nothing there to suggest that SR actually know what they are doing or are indeed capable of fixing the mess that lies entirely at their doorstep. I could never see Cortese accepting the kind of sh/t-storm we have experienced over the last 18 months.
I do wish people would stop clinging on to the Cortese love. The bloke left nearly 10 years ago. Let it go.
