RK likes the sound of his own voice - all positive - all good - reminds me of politicians around election time - telling you what you want to hear. Fact is we lost our manager and will now lose 3 - 4 key players...
There is no proof we will lose 3-4 key players. They are on long contracts and I would be surprised if we lost more than 1-2. P.s. please give Cork a contract.
Fran - there is no proof - but the glue that held this team together was the belief and the aspirations that NC instilled into the squad and the management over the past seasons. That came unstuck when he left and Poch, clearly unhappy with his demise, is the first to take the exit and I doubt he will be the last: the 'thin edge of the wedge'.
Apart from me and you eh Fran? I'm applying for the job and have you down as Assistant Manager. CBK will be our communications officer so I can't see how we'll fail.
I need to give the board the chance to perform and see where we are in terms of managers / players come August. The statement on European football is reassuring - you cannot get near that without making the team stronger than it is now. On reflection I suspect poch decided to leave the day NC went and it probably mattered little what the boards ambition actually is - time will prove this true or not.
I really don't think Ralph is that bad, not that verbose, or maybe it's me. He's only made..........what, 2 or 3 statements/interviews and a lot has happened since he's joined us.
Just read the summary of Ralph's speech on BBC website. He says that we won't get through the summer without transactions, but they will be on our terms. I really wanted to hear that there would be no sales...probably being unrealistic.
I was actually happy to hear him say that. First because (at odds with most of the board I realize) I've always felt we need to be bold and not be afraid to sell players. I hate the knee jerk reaction that selling players for large fees means you are selling club. All the big clubs sell young, hot prospects for big dollars. They don't cling to what they have thinking it's the best they'll ever do. If we aspire to be like them we've got to leverage all of our assets and young starlets are a major asset. Unfortunately, things have taken a bit of a downturn and we probably won't be selling players quite as much on our terms as we'd hope (or like RK makes out). But still, if we have to sell due to either finances or players just wanting out (or both), we can't show weakness. And it covers us when/if we do let players go. If he'd said "No one is leaving" and then someone left, it'd be much worse. So he's getting out in front of the issue a bit. The thing is, someone has to be the BS'er/Face Man/Fall guy of the club, and it seems as though Krueger is taking on that duty. He's saying the things someone has to say even if no one believes him or it makes no one happy. We're all supposed to dislike him in some respects, he's taking the heat for KL and others.
As Le Tissier said, selling players and bringing others in doesn't mean you are falling apart. It just happens. Other clubs sell players, but the media always picks on us because we have sold such good players...the type that top sides would be unlikely to sell.
There is no proof, you're right. But I will agree that NC definitely instilled a vision/philosophy/confidence/whathaveyou into the squad while he was here. But here's the problem. The belief should always have been in the CLUB. Not in Cortese. He should have been selling the club's vision and not his own. A good leader not only runs things well in charge, but they make sure that the organization can still run well should they leave. Cortese never seemed much interested in the latter. If his ego hadn't been so massive he could have done a better job and maybe MP and others wouldn't have lost faith so quickly. Because the training ground was still being improved, the team still finished eighth, the people funding the vision remained, Les Reed remains, etc. There is no reason to believe that things will fall apart except that NC planted that thought in everyone's heads.
Well, I have just heard the whole thing and I don't understand how one can be negative. It is obvious that MP decided to go despite the board being keen to retain him. Perhaps Saints are looking at another 5 year plan and MP wasn't prepared to wait that long? It is clear that the ambition to advance is there without question though. I think what he said about transfers was very sensible- seriously, you couldn't say that you would never sell a player but nobody will be going unless it suits us. As far as his delivery is concerned, for goodness sake- he's the Chairman. What were you expecting? Harry Redknapp?
Reading some posts in this thread, and other threads has left me wondering why the Saints fanbase is so ****ing stupid.
