Hello. First of all, apologies, my rant wasn't aimed at you in particular. The problem with dipping in and out of this forum only once in a while, is that you miss the day-to-day arguments, spats, banter, and whatever else. And over the last few weeks, there has been far too much sulking and entitlement from a lot of our fans. My rant was aimed at them more so because I knew they'd eagerly read your post. That said, removing all the offensive bits, I still totally stand by what I've said. I find it incredible that some of our fans have given up on the team so quickly. I just can't understand it.
I haven’t given up on the team quickly. But I feel like I’ve given up on the owners after a couple of years of terrible decisions, poor recruitment and choices that mean we are going to be staying in the championship for a long time. Hope I’m wrong but so far almost every decision they’ve made has been horrendous for the club
If you think of all the factors, both on the pitch and off, that you need for a team to be successful, there are really a very substantial number. However, for things to go wrong, you often only need one bad thing to happen. It's bloody hard to be successful basically. But it's very easy to fail. Things are really not that bad at Southampton FC, even with the relegation. We still have a wealthy owner, and an ambitious boardroom around him. It isn't realistic to think they will fix everything over night, so the fans have to be patient. If it takes three or four years to get everything right at this club, then so be it. It was rotting for four or five years before the owners came in, so maybe it will take that long for them to fix it.
I am thinking that this is a bit harsh on our owners, when they acquired us, it was a massive gamble, taking on a virtual titanic shipwreck, It was always going to need some strong investment just to refloat the hulk. With one hand tied behind their back by the financial restrictions imposed upon them, it was always going to be diificult. They have at least got us through the first steps, but have been plagued with bad luck with some of the players and Managers that have been acquired. Not all of the decisions have been correct, any criticism has been warranted, there is still a long way to go, but to actually be in with a shout in the play-offs is a pretty good start. Nothing about the Saints is ever straighforward, you need a bit of bottle and a backbone to survive. Over the last 75 years I've just about experienced everything that can go wrong and a lot that has gone right, all I can say is keep the faith! There will be setbacks but hopefully some rewards...
We were a struggling premier league team when they came in. With a few sensible decisions we could have been a solid premier league team. Instead they try and reinvent football with every decision because they think they are smarter than everyone else. Im pretty staggered that people are defending them. They have been an absolute catastrophe
We were a skint Premier team, sinking fast, it could have been a lot worse if they hadn't stepped in when they did, there wasn't a queue to take us on. I also seem to remember that there was a Pandemic which may have affected some of the decision making?
I think that’s a bit revisionist. We were struggling but by no means nailed on for relegation. They made 2 of the worst managerial appointments ever, after treating Hasenhüttl terribly, then they signed some of the biggest wastes of money in our history. Their decision making was totally erratic and cost us our premier league place. Then they decided to gamble on an unproven manager instead of going for a more experienced option like the other promotion chasing clubs, whilst overseeing an unprecedented turnover of staff. (Although arguably this is needed. If they replace our whole recruitment team I probably wouldn’t mind as this has been appalling for ages) I think they’re horrendous owners.
Having gone through the Rupert Lowe era, I am well aware that you can get misguided and get things wrong,so I am a bit wary of any new owners, this lot aren't great but are a bit better than Gao and Kat. Just being a Premier Club doesn't entitle you to success, it has to be earned and this lot are still learning how to go about it. Whether they will succeed is open to debate and I am not confident, but they are what they are and I have to accept it.
They didn't treat him terribly though. Most of the fans - including you and me - wanted him booted out of the door when they came him. But they actually stuck with him and gave him a lot of money to spend. But we were still gash, and getting worse. The managerial appointments they made after that were terrible, yes. Player recruitment was hit and miss. Some good, some bad. Worst was that they didn't hold on to Redmond and Romeu (but I think they left because of Ralph). But we had been signing sh*t players for years before SR came in anyway, so it was much of the same with that. Now at least they are working on their own scouting system, and focusing on the academy. Both of which take time.
Fair points, especially around how easy it is to fail, but I'm with O"s on this. It's not like the mistakes are one off. They're pretty consistent. Our player recruitment has been really bad. Our managerial appointments have been ok(ish) The fact that we still haven't signed a bloody striker is killing me, and it just feels like we're trying to be too clever about everything. Maybe we'll know more at the end of the season, and I'm being too harsh but it feels to me like next season will be even harder when we lose Stu, Che and KWP at a minimum. It seems to me that Russ and the board needs to learn that when plan A doesn't work there's 25 other letters.
If you look at most clubs, I'll think you'll find a lot of them making mistake after mistake. It's just that we were in such a vulnerable position before SR came in, that we couldn't afford to make mistakes. Player recruitment wasn't that bad, it was just overkill. Too much, too soon. On the striker issue, it's unfortunate what happened to Stewart, but we kept hold of Adams, which we weren't expecting. The fact that he has been underwhelming is not on SR. Think most of us thought he'd do much better at this level. Losing players will hurt us, for sure, but we'll bring in new ones too. We need to just spend big on two or three players, instead of ten cheap ones/freebies. Now we know the league, we should maybe try and recruit a few tried and tested players from this division.
Basically what we need is new owners with their own new Manager (in the Klopp or Pep mode),and a new squad of quality players and we will guarantee to be a major success, and with that a whole new raft of supporters who will give their full support.
Thank you...apology accepted. Not that anyone will care, but the reason I only dip in and out of here now is there is way, way too much testosterone here (which is probably why there are so few women who contribute), and a lack of respect for opinions held by others. Life is too short for that nonsense - so I'll leave you all in peace until the season is done. Good luck.
If we don’t bring in some bigger, quicker and more versatile midfielders in the summer I will be pissed off. Most of our midfield options are lightweight, get knocked off the ball too easily and only seem to have one string to their bow and sometimes that one string is loose or broken. I want a choice between midfielders who have two or three strings to their bow, players who can tackle, dribble, pass and score more than our current bunch.
I mean I guess if you want to put a positive slant on it then you can. I massively disagree. They are the ones that let Romeu, Redmond, etc go. If you go back to that season where they came in there was actually a lot of optimism that we could push up the table. We were not favs for relegation at all. In my opinion they have shown a total lack of understanding of how to create a strong team that can win matches and made us weaker in every single area since they came in. Their recruitment especially has been mistake after mistake, more so than any other premier club.. which is why we are not in the premier league any more. - Let all senior players go - ruined both business ends of the pitch (striker and goal keeper) - Weakened squad in every area - Recruited not 1, but 2 of the worst managers we have ever had. - Followed all that up by trying to reinvent the championship instead of trying to bring in solid experience It’s been an absolute cluster **** tbh. I respect people trying to be positive but I personally don’t see any positives at all in their ownership so far. As another example, in just 2 years they’ve tried 3 totally different footballing philosophies. - Ralph high press - Jones ball - Martin ball.
That's a pretty black picture you paint which the majority of us are fully aware of, in the knowledge that there is naff all we can do about it. First thing in solving a problem is the awareness that it exists, solving it is something else.
Redmond left because of Ralph. He's admitted that in interviews since he left. Romeu left because he wanted to go home, apparently. Either way neither were because of SR. It's really not a case of being positive or negative. Most fans are a mixture of both, and I'm just as negative as others at times. The issue is that some of the negative fans, put their viewpoints across so poorly, using hyperbole, hypocrisy, and hysteria. Hyperbole - What's all this about 're-inventing' the Championship? They've simply brought in a highly-regarded young manager who prefers to play possession-football. That's hardly trying to re-invent anything. If anything it seems they are trying to placate the fans who complained about Ralph's, and later, Jones', tactics, oh and the same fans who look down their noses at the likes of Dyche, because he plays too direct. Hypocrisy - People will complain about SR's recruitment policy, saying the players they bring in are not good enough, and so on, and then moments later they'll be complaining about Russ, because, we have 'one of the best squads in the league' and should be in the autos. Downes, THB, Fraser, three of our best players this season; all new recruits. Hysteria - See: any of Lincoln's posts ever.
