Just to clarify, I didn't mean that to be facetious (well maybe a little) but it was a genuine question. He's not really the business guy, he's certainly not the football guy and he's not a great communicator (judging on the interviews we've heard thus far). If his sole role is to grow the corporate side of the business, it seems an odd choice of job title i.e. chairman. Still think it was a strange appointment.
Sure he is, but so have been a lot of Spurs managers who have walked sooner rather than later. Levy is a loose cannon. With other chairmen you could be confident of a manager being in position come the end of the season. With Levy I give it a 50/50 chance.
Yes and no. I think that if you go back, you will find that Krueger from the start made several very concrete promises/statements of intent which were exactly what the fans wanted to hear. Krueger said we weren't looking to sell. He said we wouldn't make a move until the new manager came in and not before WC. He said that we tried to keep MP, but MP wanted to leave but that we were looking at highly qualified European managers and the fans would be pleased with who we brought in. He said that the club still had the same ambition and wasn't selling. Not only are these the same things Reed is saying, but so far all of them have come to pass exactly like Krueger said. The only difference is, the fans believe Reed when he says things, and they didn't believe Krueger. During the time between Krueger's initially much-maligned statements and Reed's interviews, things had already started to progress. A week or so went by where we did not in fact sell players. Rumors were printed in the paper that turned sentiment against Lallana and in favor of the club. Certain "ITK's" a la Guan were fed leaks that bolstered the clubs position. We were connected to Koeman, who the fans like. And simply through the passage of time, a lot of fans who were panicking had a chance to settle down. Therefore, everyone was much more receptive to Reed when it came his turn to speak. Having said that, I think the fact that Reed is perceived as a football guy and Krueger as an corporate shill makes a difference. I think that Reed's choice of words and tone seem to strike a chord with the fans more than Krueger's speech. He speaks in very English football terms, rather than in North American human resource/corporate speak. If that helps settle the fans, then that is fine and perhaps Reed should be doing more talking in the future. But to say that Krueger promised nothing or didn't know what he was talking about is unfair. It seems that Reed/Krueger/KL/club are all on the same page and that no one is "asset stripping" the club and the board is not clueless. That's the most important thing, and hopefully going forward you will continue see it in the club's actions and not just in what Reed says. But in the end, the fans are kind of saying that they want kindly old Uncle Les to say some things to make them feel better and not that mean old Ralph Krueger. And really, that's kind the fans' fault for being so easily manipulated by the right faceman. I'd prefer Les Reed concentrate on football rather than PR matters, but if that's what it takes, so be it. In the end the club as a whole-- not just Reed, and not despite Krueger-- seems to have gotten it right so it's all going good. But it's still harsh on Krueger to blame him for you not believing what he had to say even though he was right.
Yes, good post. Wish you'd either put some dots after your edit of my quote, to indicate that you had picked from it, or had shown all of which I'd written. I went onto to say that Ralph's main job is to push Saints into areas in the commercial markets, where he has rightly said they are weak. Something that appears to be un-sexy to the average supporter, but is necessary to produce major income.
It's also unfortunate for Kruger that he said no players would be sold without a manager in to consent. Then Rickie got the offer which was obviously a special case and had to be done right then or not at all. Of course our fans **** the bed and blew up about how he lied and how they were stripping assets and all that horseshit. God, I hate our fans sometimes.
This is going to be a tricky pre-season. How do the management team know who that want to buy until they know who's leaving? And we won't know that until after the World Cup. As such everything is going to have to be done in a rush. Not the ideal way to do things. Having said that I would imagine a lot of clubs are in a similar position.
You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. This is doubly true for any "non-football" person entering the game. Trebbly true for a person of North American extraction.
As Uncle Les keeps saying, we have targets identified, numbers one, two and three etc, and that this an on going process. I guess Ron needs to run his eye over them with Les, and we go from there? Edit: reply to Lff
Reed has smashed that to be fair. Clear, concise and what we all wanted to hear. Just need a few worldy signings and everything will be hunky dory again!
I hope Ralph does well at Saints because it would mean we are doing well and I have nothing personal against him, but his speeches weren't just verbose he was using the wrong words and phrases which just made them worse.
Southampton to 'raise the bar', says Saints chief: http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/06/18/ca-southampton-looking-to-raise-the-bar-says-saints-chief/ Wonderful piece...
Cheers for being the only person on the internet to write positive news about saints! Articles are getting better all the time mate! Nice one.
