I don't know how long this bloke has been at Southampton, but they have turned a lot of good lads out over the years. Looks the right kind of long term appointment to me.
Those who get to hear bits, have connections within the club is it fair to think this is the most professional the club has ever been run? It certainly seems that way from the outside. We finally have things in place that proper clubs have, it used to baffle me we had no data analysis going on. Then when you see the amount of appointments they have made in staff it's obvious there has been gaps that most normal fans wouldn't even be aware of? The lads on the pitch aswell what a difference in attitudes to what we used to sign, any fan wanting us to sign championship proven 30 somethings over these lads must be mad! For years we signed players who were professional footballers in job title only, players who enjoyed the money and lifestyle more than the football. Wickham is a great one here the lad had all the ability to be playing regularly in the Premiership for decades and his attitude has stank him out all the way to league 1 at 29! That was a signing we made for 10 million or whatever it was arguably as one for the future! The lad retired as soon as he got the wages off us!
Even as someone who gets no info whatsoever, its clear we are doing things right behind the scenes now. The state of the actual pitch under Donald showed what direction we were heading under his stewardship and that's without looking at the likes of Scowen, Dobson etc. who were playing on it. It's night and day now with KLD.
i think it was David Jones who highlighted the massive change in culture at the club when comparing pre-KLD to the present environment. KLD has came in and essentially built everything from the ground up. The infrastructure at the academy has seen huge improvements (such as the £200k gym refurb) and they constantly seem to be improving in all areas behind the scenes. They’ve now got full staffing in the football operational side of the club, having hired the academy manager. So, everything should now be in place for us to really kick on. It’s a really exciting time to support the lads. I’m loving every minute of it right now.
Even compared to under all the other owners we are night and day now under KLD. We were never run well. Short was the one who chucked the most money at it but he did it in the wrong way and the place seemed like a jobs for the boys from top to bottom. The players saw it as a holiday/retirement home and by all accounts its how we had been seen for decades! Quick edit I had forgot the state of the pitch before the upgrade. My god it was Sunday league!
Imagine we somehow fluked promotion back then, Dobson and Scowen in the championship would have been frighteningly bad
After the game yesterday one of the lads was saying look at the team compared to 2 years ago total no brainer,keep up the good work KLD we are right behind you
Look at the team compared to the majority of any of those of the past 20-30 years. They may be playing in the championship but they are exciting, promising and full of potential. Historically we would need to add players to improve as we have always signed players at their peak or close to with no chnlance of improving getting better, I assume the go out and sign championship players would prefer this to what we have now a young squad who have potential to improve with us or beyond us. We have nearly always lost money on transfers, can't see that being the case from now on!
The clamour of signing of proven championship players amuses me a bit. We've got the most exciting team in years by not siging proven championship players . I'd rather sign an up and coming kid who can't get a look in at Chelsea and has something to prove than someone like Jake Livermore.
Unfortunately mate, a percentage of our fan base want everything now and refuse to see the bigger picture. Take Michut, he's had absolute dogs abuse across social media and message boards, because shock, horror he had a bad game yesterday. Ignore the fact hes 19, had injuries, was his second game in 4 days, but I've seen an awful lot saying how ****e he is, will never make it here. Some of our fans just don't have the patience for what's needed. I learnt my lesson the hard way with my criticism of Baath and Clarke when they joined this time last year and have admitted I was completely wrong
Yeah, I saw that roker report done an article on him today but I couldn't be arsed to click the link and read it. Played well at Wigan, not so good at Blackpool but the lad is 19yrs old, he's not going to be knocking out 9/10 performances every week in a new country while he is still settling.
Clarke is the biggest one to prove me wrong like, thought he was all fart no ****e. Then all of a sudden he started having some end product and he has been fantastic at times.
Michut is gonna be quality. He's a bairn, he'll have iffy games. You can train a lot into kids, but you can't impart class and natural ability. Michut has both. He's a bit physically weak now, he's not used to our game yet, it'll come though. If he's not ready, which is the coaches call, minimise his exposure. I think I've seen enough from him to start him again.
