Welcome Saint Nathan

First job ... build JWP back up after the disappointment of not making the England squad (though not a huge surprise). Get James fired up to prove Gareth wrong!

 

We can, but only until we Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye. Probably take until the Cruel Summer though. If he goes then, that would be Really Saying Something. Just remember not to worry if he leaves as Robert De Niro's Waiting (Talking Italian)

 

Yes, we'll use the earlier Supremes version.

 

All three of them?

 

I've read a fair few times now that player egos at Stoke were partly the reason for his downfall and that they weren't buying in to him. I'm hoping our relatively young first team aren't up themselves enough to not respect him and play how they're told.

If its true that SR had been scouting him for a while, I wonder if that influenced buying a load of academy players and getting rid of the old boys (Redmond, Rom, Stephens etc) in the summer.

Either way this season is going to get very very interesting!

 

Does anyone know if the squad are getting a break during the World Cup? If it’s a 6 week break maybe they’ll be given a couple of weeks off before returning for a kind of pre season

 

Bit more than grumpy player it looks like a basket case of a football club. https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/stoke-city-championship-relegation-transfer-spending-462958

 

He speaks really well. Can tell he’s a football guy through and through and would be in the stands watching if he wasn’t a manager.

I would ****ing love it if he makes us more aggressive as he says. We need that.

Need to be dirty and hard to beat, score some headers from set pieces occasionally. Instead of just running around and passing backwards.

 

Can we get Benali added to the coaching staff?

 

I gather the player ego at Stoke thing came from them still having premier league players there who potentially thought they were above the league they were in. And perhaps didn’t need to try as much?

I can’t see how that would be the case with our squad

 

And who wanted to leave to go back to the PL cos in their heads that’s where they deserved to be…

 

Bring back terry hurlock.

 

Having watched the Sunderland 'Til I Die series, it's hard to overstate how toxic a mix that can be. You have players who don't want to be there, and are resentful that they have to waste their talents at such a lowly club (mostly because no one at bigger clubs actually want them), and then you get players are resentful that some of their teammates are making 20x more than them while sulking and often not playing at all.

Hard to get everyone focused and pulling together under those circumstances; there's a reason (beyond financial necessity) that my suggestion if we went down last year was to sell everything that wasn't nailed down even if it meant eating some salary.

 

I'm both sceptical and excited at the same time, weirdly. The good thing is that the latter is beginning to overtake the former.

Either way though, I wish him all the best. And, quite obviously, I hope he's a success.

 

I genuinely think about 90% of all Saints fans reactions were identical. Initial thought of "What the ****" then "well that's underwhelming" then "hmmm, this could work" then "OK, the more I find out Jones, the more I like this appointment".

I think that just about sums it up.

 

The Lemina meets Bednarek meets Thierry Small effect.

 

Good luck Nathan, your tenure starts after the Liverpool game so here's hoping that having 99% of the squad with you for 6 weeks is enough to get things turned around. Look forward to the first game post WC.

 

I'm intrigued. With Ralph, I was excited because I knew what we would get based on his previous work. With Jones, I'm curious how we intend to adapt him to our style as much as we adapt to his.