I thought he meant that the way we progress our home grown players was key marketing point. When fans are choosing their club to support they choose Saints because we have 4,5,6 players in the England squad. We can become fans "2nd club" so when they can't get to Manchester they may come and watch us instead. Plastic Yes but it is a good angle to increase revenue. Everyone is impressed by how well we have done this season and what our Academy has achieved, so this can be tapped into commercially. At least that is what I read into that comment and mine is more positive so I will keep to it.
When he speaks of us being 'sentimental favourites' he is talking about what we appear to be to possible sponsors...he also said that our commercial marketing isn't all it should be. Don't think he is talking about us being plucky losers. If you think about how we are talked about in the media...Les Reed on Sky yesterday for example...as an amazing Academy and supplier of players for the England team. Sponsors will want to be linked to that.
There are worse things to be famous for than producing quality players. It gives us an identity...better than being relegation battlers.
Well I like what he says. In an ideal world your club splashes big sums, keeps everyone it wants and doesn't have to worry about the consequences. The fact is we have (or appear to) have an accepting and realistic owner, who remains ambitious alongside her chairman. Welcome to Saints, Ralph. Lets hope we have plenty to continue to be proud of during your tenure.
Got a lump in my throat when he mentioned how they sit around Markus's empty seat at the ground. I remember when Markus died someone said that all he talked about was Saints in his final year. No wonder Katharina has warm feelings for the club. RK also said that the Leihberr family are known to be a moral family who are not flash....a bit different from most football owners!
Initial observations seem to be that he is looking to carry on as we have been and also make us into a more commercially stable club. No problem with that, but would rather the naming rights of St. Mary's weren't sold and the American style of everything being commercialised adopted. Could have done himself a lot more favours by saying he was looking to keep Shaw and Lallana. I expect the stripes will be back next season after he said he wants to stick to the club's traditional values.
I liked when in the SSN interview, he actually referred to "Gods of Hockey... I mean football" Brilliant. There's one for the vultures.
Naming rights of the stadium is something I'm not entirely adverse to. On one real condition though. St. Mary's has to stay. It was the Friends Provident St. Mary's Stadium and then had heavy links to Flybe, and we all called it St. Mary's regardless. If you get a great offer from a decent brand (please not CashConverters etc.) then you'd be foolish to outright reject the idea.
I'm just not sure it would be entirely worth it. Sure, for City and Arsenal they must get lots of money from Etihad and Emirates, but for a club of our stature I'm not sure it would be worth the move to destroy a part of our history.
Don't really care about the stadium name. People not on TV will almost certainly just call the place St Mary's anyway.
"@Joe_Batchelor: Interesting response when @SimonPeach asked about Hull and Cardiff name/kit changes...Krueger said Saints really need to grow commercially"
