It says a lot that the club sanctioned a piece of content where local journos line up to each take a pop at Koeman!
Enjoyed that....a discussion between 4 people who understand our club. Nice to hear they approved of the extension for Davis...didn't have to do it, but sent a good message to the team. And showed the club are good employers. I agree it would be good to have a good cup run...even culminating in a win. We are too good a club to have won so little.
Cheers for posting that DTLW. Thoroughly enjoyable. I liked the fact that they allowed their professionalism to slip slightly, because we''re in an emotional business here. It's not Debenhams or Waitrose, this is something that really affects people. Plus I echo all that has been mentioned above about Davis, etc... Planned several weeks before the end of the season and the schedule had to change with Koeman leaving. I think they very much caught the mood of the supporters with their evaluation of that episode. Good stuff.
Expected it from Blackmore. I thought Leitch's comments were interesting as he basically laid it out there that signing players to extensions is a pure business decision about the the club protecting its assets and not statements of ambition or whatever the fans think. It was a cynical, though accurate view of the modern game. But he still thought Davis was a good bit of business, so I found that persuasive. Also agree that Martina did a good job in the second half, and took too much unfair criticism from the fans. Although tbf, I think people finally started to come around at the very end of the season. Not sure what it means that on the one hand they praised the Davis extension and Martina's play... but then their suggestions for transfers were an RB and a #10!
Probably that football is a squad game these days. It's about finding the best balance of players to contribute across a season that will have 46 games as a minimum with the funds we have available, and allowing for the fatigue (mental and physical) that midweek European travel, and several games in a short space over Xmas will throw at us. So in essence, accepting that to improve we'd have to find options that may reduce S. Davis or Cuco's playing time, but not necessarily to '0'. Also reflecting that in each case the business we had done in getting Cuco so cheap and extending Davis they think we're a good use of our available budget at the time each took place.
I thought this was very good and hope they do more of them Be good include a "national" journalist too for a different view
Would be something they could do as a podcast, possibly, I think. I'd download it and listen to it on the way into work or on the way back etc. And yeah, need to make sure to bring new people into the panel. Although, the fact it's produced by the club rather than say Solent or the Echo means the club will be hot on the editorial side of it. Which could be a shame if it just becomes too vanilla or people being critical or going 'off message' results in outlets being cut off. That'd be a real shame.
I liked that because they feel deceived as well. Others were beginning to act like we were all hypersensitive about it. We had every right to be deeply upset by being lied to.
Having thought about it, they didn't even discuss how well cooked the main course was. It had a bit of a "critics from master chef" feel to it.
It would have been the elephant-in-the-room if they hadn't, to be fair. And it's not as if they didn't say that they hadn't intended to talk about Koeman's departure. It was however, somewhat forced upon them. They all showed their disappointment, but I thought Blackmore toned his comments down, because at the time he was clearly quite angry at Koeman for taking everyone for a ride. Nobody likes to find out that their hard won trust has been misplaced, and Blackmore certainly didn't. I hear he's supposed to be a Villa fan. If so, he does a very good impression of being a Saints one.
