RK's exclusive interview with Daily Echo

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RK needs to start understanding the British...cut out all the strange and excessive language that makes him sound as if he is a character in Yes, Minister. Apart from business people who have a taste for flowery words and spiel, most of us would say cut the codswallop.

However, sieving through the guff he says some very important things.

1. We are in a good place and our target is Europe.
2. We don't need to sell people, but he is more pragmatic than the average fan and will do so, on our terms, if he has to.
3. He wants the correct man in place ASAP before any decisions can be made.
4. He mentions us being off track when he took over: suspect that means there were some financial chickens coming home to roost.
5. They agreed to wait till the end of the season to sort out MP, so Saints could concentrate on success on the field.
6. Yes, I am pissed off about Pochettino, but not wasting any more time on him.
 
Good interview from Echo and they got a little more information from Ralph from previous interviews. Two key Q & As for me were;

Q: Les Reed said he was comfortable and happy to wait until the summer to discuss a new contract with Mauricio and he left very soon after the end of the season. Was that tactic a mistake in hindsight?

A: You make your decisions all the time on the information that you have at that point in time. The focus on bringing the product on the field to the fan base, to our followers, was the dominant fact until the end of the Man United game. When we came in as a board we didn’t want to disrupt anything going on around the most important thing in the club, and that’s the football.

We stayed away from the football as much as we needed to and when it was asked we did for the quality of the product on the field. I believe we retained the quality of the product.

We found it extremely important to get the eighth place, we found it extremely important to play right until the finish line, which the club did, and then we began the next process. No, we don’t feel we made any mistakes because that was our focus and so we made all the other decisions connected to that. What was the main focus? football. But on May 12 that focus changed.

We will be eighth place all summer long but now we need to defend that, we need to build on it, so I don’t feel from a timing perspective if we remixed the cards we would do it any different.

Q: What is the time frame?

A: There is no date, but we would like to have a long list together as quickly as is healthily possible. The reason is that we would like the new manager to be involved in our player decisions.

We have held off on every single coming and going in respect that we have, and Les Reed especially has, for the new manager, that he can put his stamp on the team and influence the process.

It’s very important that we, once again I want to use the words, have controlled speed and not haste. We are going 24-7 right now and we hope to have a shortlist out there in the very near future. We are speaking days and not weeks.

The two points in bold show to me that knowledge of Pochettinos exit was known well before the end of the season and explains why the media were like flies round ****. I can only applaud everyone at Southampton(including Pochettino) that the team still performed so well regardless of other motivations. You only have to look at the end of season Newcastle had to see a club in proper meltdown.

This will also explain why Fonte and Cork have not had contract discussions. Players of their salary and stature at the club will really need to be backed and wanted by the new manager.
 
He's pretty much lost all credibility in my eyes. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, now I'd like to punch his daft gurning Canadian mug. He's got a lot of work to do if he's ever going to be taken seriously again.
 
He's pretty much lost all credibility in my eyes. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, now I'd like to punch his daft gurning Canadian mug. He's got a lot of work to do if he's ever going to be taken seriously again.

In fairness that did make me laugh - not the easiest task today!
 
I'm pretty much with you Archers, we can't take anything he says in future seriously and has completely blown his reputation
Kruger - I have no respect for you, turn the lights out when you go please as I don't want you at the helm of the club I have loved for 46 years

Nicola must be wetting himself with laughter....come back Nicola we need you!
 
And you would expect him to be at least in the loop.

This just feels like a very bad train crash is about to happen. I actually feel for Ralph, he doesn't know what he has got himself into. He doesn't know the sport, the culture and seemingly doesn't have a scoobies about what is happening in the company that he is running
 
And you would expect him to be at least in the loop.

This just feels like a very bad train crash is about to happen. I actually feel for Ralph, he doesn't know what he has got himself into. He doesn't know the sport, the culture and seemingly doesn't have a scoobies about what is happening in the company that he is running



Sorry but the bloke is getting a big enough salary for us to expect him to know exactly what he is getting himself into. Seems like he needs to get up to speed on this and calm things down. So far he's been a fecking disaster.
 
Personally I think Kruger has had it. I will never take anything he says seriously again...he is either inept or a liar and not credible as the leader of my club
Resign!

Guessing you haven't been wrong before in your life before then. How does it feel?