Martin Samuel writing about Saints being arrogant and blasé. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...rez-Gareth-Bale-scruff-neck-match-winner.html
The only good thing about that article is that he recognises we are a new big club. Somebody please tell Tobes that. It is in print and he always wants evidence.
That's very obliging of you St.G. How have you been keeping on this special royal day? I presume, like me, head down and grumbling?
It's almost all just hypotheticals...'just because it's gone okay so far doesn't mean it won't crash and burn this time'. Nothing newsworthy anyway. Almost the Robbie Savage Law of Averages approach. It's gone well so far so law of averages it must go badly next.
What was that all about? I don't know anything about that. Was it some foreign royal or something? I want Charlie to be King so that he and his lovely wife will piss off all those Diana lovers. Every man on here knows that first wives are always poisonous bitches.
Speak for yourself. Although I sometimes introduce Mrs Fodder as my first wife, I sincerely hope that she is my last.
Tbf he isn't really wrong. It is a big gamble to replace key people every year or so and continue to improve, or even stay as we are. It would only take one summer of poor recruitment and we would be falling right back into the pack, with a year gone on some of the better players' contracts and some of them looking to leave.
There is a big difference between a first wife and an only wife. You can only have had a first wife if you have had a second.
Where he is crucially wrong though is that Saints are blasé about it. If we are so well run, wouldn't we have measures already planned to sort this.? Even as far back as Adkins, who was at Saints long enough to be in the planning, he talked about plans that were set for one season, then the next, and the next. One thing this club doesn't do is take a punt. There's a plan for every scenario. They are so meticulous. And I've never been happier with them.
Didn't some business analysis recently show that we were the best run football business in the EPL. We had good practices in every area. Rather be the best football team, but you can't have everything.
Well they do. Every new manager/signing/employee is a punt. It may be a well researched and educated punt, but there is no guarantee that it will work out. We can have all the plans in the world and everything might look good in the recruitment stakes for a summer, and it goes wrong. The crucial thing Saints need to find a way of doing if they are to continue on an upward trend, or even maintain a regular place in the top 6, is find a way to keep their players longer. Unfortunately the only way this happens in my mind is to pay them more, which we won't be able to do for a long time as we need to build the brand more, which involves being near the top of the league to grow quickly. See the vicious circle here?
Gareth has won business awards while with us. That includes every company type, not just football clubs.
A punt is a guess. A shot in the dark. Les Reed himself said Saints don't take punts, so I'm not saying anything new.
