Good and informative video. Good point about Long, Koeman seems to really rate him. As he said, he improved massively. So we're looking to buy 1-2 players which would add more quality to our squad.
But no one was allowed to ask about the elephant in the room He really does rate Long and the effort he has put in to improve.
Very interesting answers, I think that both Kelv and Steven Davis will make managers one day and of course Jose.
I presume today's the day....or we'll just be treated to a picture of Ronald by a golf course in Portugal this weekend. Toss of a coin.
I was thinking(dangerous) that it will be difficult for the club to put a positive spin on him not extending his contract because of Ronald's talk of ambition. It will look like that's the only reason for him not to sign.
I think he just doesn't like long term commitments, because he sticks to his contracts. Most managers sign without really thinking they will necessarily finish it....they'll move on to something better or it's like a guarantee of a pay off if sacked. We are ambitious, but (as Ron keeps saying) we know who we are. Saints is extremely well run, so will provide our manager with as much as we can, but not at the expense of stability. All in Ron's court.
Very good point. I think what's interesting is actually the definition of 'ambition' in both cases. E.g. Let's say we successfully scout and sign the next Vardy & Mahrez and get them in for a total of £10-15m combined, some would say that we hadn't been ambitious in the transfer market before we've kicked a ball. However, if we signed the same two players for £20m each, then everyone would assume that we were ambitious because we'd spent loads. It really just depends on the confidence in the accuracy of the recruitment/black box. If ambition = money spent and nothing else, then we (and Ronald) need only look at last year's table to see that you can make a lot of shrewder gains with less money if you have faith in the structure and process around you. Will be interesting to see how it falls, but if RK doesn't buy into the philosophy, we have to move on. While there would be short term questions over him leaving and our 'ambition', this board are yet to fail us.
We look for a certain kind of player at a certain price. The higher grade of player may not want to come whatever you offer or will only come for the money. And the character of the player is also important....he has to want to play with our team and, to a certain extent, believe he is lucky to be with us....don't want any big 'I ams' at the club to disrupt the team. Ron has pointed out that it will be hard to improve every season...after all, we only have 5 places to go I'd like a real stab at a Cup though. I bet Ron would like to sign on a rolling contract, but the club won't necessarily buy that as we will keep going through all this every season. I want to keep him next season (whatever he decides) as he could yet change his mind and sign if we have another good season.
I don't know why there is any worry about Ronald being here in August, for the season. He will be. He said so about a million times. Even the newsmedia have realised and have now adjusted their shock stories to accommodate his statements, so that they appear to be have been correct all along, when really they've just been fishing. The only thing of concern is will he be the manager in 2017-18 and onwards. Or will it be Mourinho.?
I don't think anyone is worried about Ron's intentions. The only tiny blip on my radar is if he and the Board don't see eye to eye on whatever this issue is, they could decide to change things themselves.
Oh, there are one or two who are still fidgety about whether he will get his head turned, despite all that he has said. They just can't get the last of the old despairing pre-2009 Saints fan out of their system. It's a disease.
There are a lot of fans that are fidgety, about what happens over the next few days/weeks, ref Ronald. On one of my rare sorties to the Echo, the usual suspects are already manoeuvring into position to say "Told you so", should the board fail to get a contract extension out of Ronald. And they are already throwing the "This will be a test of our true ambition" into the mix, as well. How any fan, of this club, can question the board's ambition, after the way they have continually moved us forward, after the heart was ripped out of the club by the departure of Cortese, Pochettino et al, is beyond belief, IMO. I would love Ronald to sign a new contract, but what will be will be. Should he stick with his current contract, I won't consider it to be because the board have lacked ambition.
Exactly this. Won't be a surprise to see the press spin Ronald's quotes for the next 12 months to that effect if he doesn't extend his current contract though.
But they're not spinning the quotes. Ron has said it and if he doesn't extend then to outsiders it will look like we're not ambitious enough. Ultimately this doesn't count for much. It's just views from those on the outside and it doesn't reflect reality, but I think on the short term Ron would have hurt the club from a P.R perspective. Brendan Rodgers has just signed a rolling contract with Celtic, so hopefully the club can agree to similar with Ron.
Rolling contract sounds theoretically better, but in reality gives us no security. He still becomes available at the end of each season. However, he'll be here next season and I'll settle for that and hope we do very well.
