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Episode 354: Managers and chaos...
2 Playsin 12 hours
Southampton – Man Utd, Chelsea, Celtic, all with manager sackings in the last couple of days, and all with one commonality with saints, structure, directors of football, and turmoil.
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Transcript
Introduction and Recent Events
00:00:13
Global Sports Podcast Network
Hello and welcome back to the Daily Saints pod. My name is Greg and as always today, join me by my good friend and wonderful co-host, Zach. How you doing today, mate? You alright?
00:00:24
Zak
I mean, comparison to my absolute crash out yesterday did a bit better.
00:00:30
Global Sports Podcast Network
Good.
00:00:31
Zak
I was just really bad. It was a really, really bad game to watch. And it was the the post-match antics of the players and then even the manager. And then just watching the world of social media start a fire under the Saints fan base that has kind of remained dormant during this spell of like positivity. and
Game Performance and Management Decisions
00:00:52
Zak
And even when it was like lost draw, lost draw, it was like, maybe we can come back. But...
00:00:56
Zak
yeah after After yesterday, you know it just it just annoyed me. But then today we've had the the crazy news of Ameren being sacked, which a lot of people couldn't believe had happened, considering it's our former sports director, right? the There's probably the reason for that after he was criticised for the first time ever, right? yeah Not the first time ever, but...
00:01:18
Zak
It is weird that like he gets a little bit of stick and they fire him outright. The guy comes 15th and loses a final, doesn't get fired.
00:01:27
Global Sports Podcast Network
It feels weirdly topical when you relate it back to Saints, right?
00:01:31
Zak
Yes.
00:01:31
Global Sports Podcast Network
And think about...
00:01:32
Zak
that's That's why we wanted to talk about it, because...
00:01:34
Global Sports Podcast Network
Think about the conversations we've been having about, you know, i mean, what is a manager? What is a coach? How much of what happens on the pitch is decided by Tonda?
00:01:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
And how much is down to, I mean, who? Spores?
00:01:51
Zak
Well, at this point, it would be sports, right?
00:01:52
Global Sports Podcast Network
Ankersen?
00:01:54
Zak
Well, this is your theory, right? So again, like the conversations we have are fair sometimes because we do that. And
Player Dynamics and Managerial Control
00:02:01
Zak
we were talking about it yesterday after we finished recording. probably should have add it into the recording, to be honest, but we'd already stopped by that point. But it is absolutely wild to me that you're looking at at sort of Maresca, who's been fired from Chelsea because he disagrees with a lot of the stuff that's going on behind the scenes and...
00:02:20
Zak
can't you know to do things his way. Ameren, who had a distinctive style before he was brought to Manchester United, and they wanted him and his distinctive style, has been fired for continuing to persist with his distinctive style and complaining that he's not had a say.
00:02:37
Zak
On top of that, just before we started recording, you've had Wilfred Nancy fired from Celtic, who obviously have become, you know after Rangers started the season as the banter club of the Scottish League, they've now become the follow-up, right?
00:02:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:02:50
Zak
They got they got beaten in the the old firm at the weekend. And he's been under a lot of pressure for playing a bit weird. And and it's sort of, you you wonder, you know, it's a really, I think you've you spoke about before, Greg, when we were talking, you know, we're talking about still being fired. And however manager many managers we've had sacked off at this point, it feels like 100. Yeah.
00:03:12
Zak
the The point that you made that like, does it even matter? Because they they bring in somebody else and, you know, they they actually allowed to to play. in And your
Challenges in Modern Football Management
00:03:21
Zak
your controversial take from yesterday, which I will throw you a little bit under the bus for, it was like, it just goes back to that Nathan Jones quote from like January 2023, 24, where he was like, yeah, I'm going to start doing things my way now.
00:03:21
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:03:34
Zak
And then like, wasn't able to, and then got fired after what, 38 days?
00:03:39
Global Sports Podcast Network
You know, i mean, drawing parallels, his his exact words were very similar to...
00:03:39
Zak
And yeah.
00:03:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
I'm a manager, not a coach. So I'm here to do what I want. And then, well, he got fired too. Right. And, and, you know, who was in charge of the director of football at that time? Well, it was, it was Jason Wilcox. So, i mean, if that's the systems and the sort of things we go through, that you have to, you have to put these questions in place. Like it's easy to lay the blame on the manager, But what we've seen time and time again, manager after manager, is that we still play the say you the same way, right? Like, how many times under Tonda in this disappointing period have we said...
00:04:27
Global Sports Podcast Network
well, it looks like a Will Steele game or it looks like a Russell Martin game. And how many times when Juric came in and he was supposed to bring this heavy metal football, did we say, but it's just defaulting back to Martin Ball. So what's the point?
00:04:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
And you
Football Management's Current State
00:04:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
have to question, is it is it the manager? It's the manager that sticks their neck out and gets the blame.
00:04:45
Zak
Yeah, it's...
00:04:47
Global Sports Podcast Network
But who is there some a power above that's making these calls that the manager can't go against? I don't i don't know.
00:04:54
Zak
Well... We had an episode similar to this back then where we were like, what is a football manager? And like the fact of the matter is, like you call the game a football manager, but how many managers, quote-unquote, of clubs now are just head coaches?
00:05:07
Zak
They don't make those decisions.
00:05:08
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:05:09
Zak
Decisions are being made. It's like you are able to put someone in that position and they are able to be a convenient full guy, right? Because then what you do is you replace them when things aren't going well.
00:05:19
Zak
But what I think is absolutely mad about it is that, like, okay, so you've brought this guy in specifically and you've backed him, and you're supposed to back him to the hill, and you don't.
00:05:29
Zak
So then you continue to do things exactly the same way the next time around, and you you hope for change. And that seems to be the case in not just us, but multiple clubs, right? And it's like even, you know, there there are more overt versions of it, right? You're looking at the owner of Forest, right?
00:05:47
Zak
He is very, very clearly sticking his neck in in things that probably shouldn't do. right And that resulted in, you know, it was this season, Greg, that Anjapostokoglu also had a couple of games as Forest manager.
00:05:59
Zak
It doesn't feel like it, but it was this season.
00:06:00
Global Sports Podcast Network
wild yeah yeah
00:06:02
Zak
right And they got rid of Nudo because he was cross with Nudo because they'd fallen out over, i want to say, transfer strategy. And now Forest are languishing just above the relegation zone.
00:06:12
Zak
you know, West Ham is where Nuno ended up, who are also the relegation zone, who are also under the same levels of criticism, right? Wolves, another club, same levels of criticism, constantly changed the managers, not been able to really do anything to a level of success since, ironically, Nuno was in charge.
00:06:28
Zak
But like, when you see it in sort of a club like Manchester United, it gets so much... coverage so much more everyone's got eyes on it and and it's you know it's and it's it's no other way to see them like cronyism in the fact that you know they have a right to fire their employee if they want to i guess but it's baffling that you can become 15th lose in a cup final but have you know have have words publicly about your like words publicly about not even technically i don't know if it's technically his boss or what and then just get fired next day
00:06:36
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:06:58
Zak
And, you know, people are talking about, oh, what if we brought this manager in? And what if we brought this manager in? And what if we brought this manager in? And maybe maybe people, you know, I say not maybe people are right. People have noticed it a long time ago. If Sports Republic are the problem, if they are the ones that are going to consistently persist, they play a specific way because they've got people in their back room that think that's the idea. Like, it's baffling. But there is a counter-argument to this as well. So the counter-argument being, Greg, that we did allow a manager to come in and change everything, right? This is when Russell Martin came in and and we allowed him to completely overhaul the squad. And it was a problem. You saw it also become a huge problem for Rangers, right? Massive problem for Rangers because everyone was like, this is terrible. We're not doing this. And they didn't. And he got fired. but obviously with us, it went a bit better.
00:07:44
Zak
They did do what he said, but then obviously see Jason Wilcox left. There was no director of football and he was left as the manager and the
Ownership Influence on Management
00:07:50
Zak
coach and everything in between. And thus the recruitment we had for the Premier League was shocking to say the least, right? Our January transfer window last year, what was it? Like, what's the name of the guy?
00:08:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
Grumbach.
00:08:03
Zak
Gromberg.
00:08:04
Zak
There you go That was it.
00:08:05
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:08:06
Zak
And like, we're you know, we're we're we're supposed to be we're supposed to be closing in on a goalkeeper now, which is all part of this squad planning is an art BS, which it did look like an art when everything started to click together.
00:08:07
Global Sports Podcast Network
On for the trivia books.
00:08:17
Zak
And now it's fallen apart again, but it can't... No no one...
00:08:20
Global Sports Podcast Network
and will said what Now looks like abstractism.
00:08:24
Zak
Yeah, it's it's the fact that he's been made permanent and all of a sudden things have changed. And I just can't believe that what you were saying, which is, oh, maybe he's under more pressure now and he's worried. And I'm like, what but but, you know, he wanted wanted to get the job.
00:08:36
Zak
So why would you be, what i just so much of it.
00:08:37
Global Sports Podcast Network
look I mean, if you if you take a step back, right, and like whether the the like intraday decisions and like the players or the system on the pitch, whether that is directly impacted and and directly driven by someone else behind the scenes or not,
00:08:57
Global Sports Podcast Network
what What you have to acknowledge is that with this structure and with this setup, which is you know the the modern football way, it's not exclusively a problem to us.
00:09:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
To get it right, you require collaboration and cohesion, which is not always guaranteed either, right? Because, you know, long gone are the days where Alex Ferguson can, you know, as a manager, just be everything about the club, right? We talked about unsustainability. You want to talk about, you know, the modern world and how someone like Alex Ferguson would cope without, like, being in charge of every detail. It's just...
00:09:39
Global Sports Podcast Network
it's a different world and a different game now. But that cohesion is is clearly a problem in so many facets. It's like... But, like, you you try to think about that to a bigger level as well. And, like, if we can't even...
00:09:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
in our own club, get this level of cohesion working where the like the transfers are what the manager wants? i mean, how can you say that any of our transfers at any point in the last three seasons...
00:10:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
apart from under Russell Martin, have been what the manager wants because we've not stuck with any manager long enough to to work that out, right? Like, none of the players that Tonda has inherited are Tonda's players, so who knows if we're, you know, playing Tonda's system, but we haven't got the players for it, or if it's the players defaulting to their old way. It's just...
00:10:33
Zak
yep it's it's the same thing that
Recruitment and Managerial Systems
00:10:35
Zak
that happened with Wolstow when he came in, right? And like, he was supposed to be playing a specifically different style of football and everyone noticed that he didn't. And the whole point we were excited for bringing him in was that he was going to play to win games and that it didn't quite take off because of the personnel.
00:10:49
Zak
Despite the fact they'd had a whole transfer window to get the specific personnel in unless they had the specific personnel being brought in to play a specific system. And this is where there's such a disconnect where if you have a director of football who is doing all of these things, but somebody that's actually like running the games on the pitch, and then he sort of saying it's up to you to get the best out of these players, but also you need to do it in this specific way because we've got players that can do this specific thing.
00:11:13
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. Oh, well, we we don't need a new striker. I'm happy with what we've got, but also I can't play my system unless we've got a target man. Well, we've got one target man who's been injured more often than not and three players who can't do that type of striker. So, like, it's just, it's baffling. And and that's the thing, right? yeah At the club level, if we can't get that right with the right hand talking to the left and what do we need and what do we do?
00:11:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
How can we possibly ever, ever in the long run, hope to benefit and achieve that from a multi-club perspective, which is supposedly Sports Republic's whole selling point?
00:11:51
Zak
with goal.
00:11:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
Like...
00:11:54
Zak
And also, say also on top of that, like what you're seeing with Manchester United, Chelsea, all these other clubs as well. So obviously money, a big attractive proposition, but like people are talking about, and it's the same with Saints, right? So this is, this comes back to the argument that's just, I don't think we're as good as people think we are. And we we ended up appointing a new assistant manager yesterday and I don't remember assistant coach.
00:12:14
Zak
And this was after we we went, we don't even have an assistant coach. And then got to the end of the recording and went, it turns out we did a point one today. Randomly, they announced it like two hours before the game. So was completely lost. And then people realised like his credentials are like Bristol Rovers and Colchiseum United. So just went, yeah, proper top tier championship. And that is mugging somebody off before I've done enough research on them. So I don't want to...
00:12:35
Zak
But do you see what i mean? Like, where where people's expectations of the types of staff we should be getting in are, and the realities are very, very different. And and this is going to be the same for those clubs as well, because, like, people talking about, oh, they need a manager of pedigree. You're getting names like Zinazine Zidane linked, right?
00:12:51
Zak
and At least with...
00:12:51
Global Sports Podcast Network
Why would he come here? Right,
00:12:53
Zak
no but No, not with us, to be clear, with Manchester United. But, like...
00:12:56
Global Sports Podcast Network
right okay.
00:12:57
Zak
But my point is, is that like, with all of this that's going on, all of this lack of control, all of this, like, who wants to deal with that? And then the problem the answer is they end up getting people in like Ameren, right?
00:13:08
Zak
Like Maresca from Leicester. They ended up getting sort of the people that aren't of the quote unquote pedigree. And and you wonder why, like, Sam Allardyce and Steve Bruce, and when we were talking about bringing Allardyce in, they wouldn't want to bring Allardyce in.
00:13:19
Zak
Allardyce
Ownership Models and Club Success
00:13:19
Zak
wouldn't want to do everything the board's telling him to, like, every week, week in, week out.
00:13:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:13:23
Zak
And and that becomes... that's That's why I think you've got a lot of these old-school guys leave the game, and these other guys are now used to the fact that they're going to be passed around, like... I don't know, like kick like playing cards, right?
00:13:35
Zak
This is how we talked about before, but people talk about getting a good manager of championship pedigree. It doesn't matter what manager we bring in because by the sounds of it, it feels like it's going to be forced a style and forced a specific way.
00:13:46
Zak
But also people were like, oh, well, if we change the ownership, this will help.
00:13:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
They're just the avatar, mate. They're just the avatar of the owners playing real-life football manager.
00:13:54
Zak
So so if so if the if we replace the owners, if you have a look at the rest of the ways that football clubs are run now and who the owners are, I don't think it would change with different owners.
00:13:56
Global Sports Podcast Network
That's... Hmm.
00:14:02
Zak
Maybe the different owner would play a different formation or have a different lineup or a different desire to do things. But like the arrogance of some of these people, you can see bleeding through all levels of football, right?
00:14:14
Zak
You're seeing it now with with sort of wolves who are coming out with harsh statements about how they don't want it to be this way and don't know what they did what they're doing. You're getting it with, you know, you see it with Manchester United. You've seen it in the Scottish League with both the biggest clubs.
00:14:26
Zak
You've seen it with us. Sheffield Wednesday is an extreme example of a guy who's in charge that stuck his name in the stadium and basically just sat there and refused to do anything while running this club.
00:14:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:14:36
Zak
But you you start to... It's made me think even more back on our episode where we went, what is a football manager? And like the thing is, i don't think there are football managers anymore. There are just coaches. There are guys who are there, as you pointed out, the the perfect word for it, Greg, was avatar. Because it doesn't matter who's in that position. It doesn't change anything. That's why the new manager bounce, by the looks of it, barely lasts, if that.
00:14:57
Zak
Because is it just because they're into it or what? Like, there's obviously look a lot of counterpoints to what I'm saying. I'm not saying that we're... entirely the experts on this, but like the observation of it over the last couple of years is like when you go back to, to like when Koeman was here and Pochettino and like even to an extent like Hasselhoof, right? When they started having like the Southampton playbook or whatever, the Southampton way. And what does that mean now? And now it's like, we don't get, they don't say about that, but it feels like there is some sort of weird DNA,
00:15:27
Zak
in a specific way that we play that for some reason requires us to have three defenders no matter what.
00:15:33
Global Sports Podcast Network
Mm-hmm.
00:15:34
Zak
and Yeah, it's just the whole the whole thing just feels films just a bit off. Everything feels a bit off. And we were excited to have Tonda We were excited the way he played. And everything, the instant he became, and you know, we thought, oh, there's no way they would suddenly let him, they would change the way he's playing, you know, considering this is what got him the job. And now we're in a position where,
00:15:54
Zak
4-0 to Middlesbrough on the fourth year of ownership by Sports Republic. But my big fear is everyone thinks that it's the ownership. And, you know, I know that some people have been critical Abbey House for not coming out because he's like, oh, he's mates with Dragan because he like went to a golf course
Successful Club Ownership Traits
00:16:08
Zak
with him one time.
00:16:08
Zak
I don't think that's the case at all. I think that he probably just recognizes the thing that other people do, which is, okay, Sports Republic are, as we've pointed out many times before, terrible at the foot-building aspect, good at the business aspect and have invested in the club.
00:16:12
Global Sports Podcast Network
Thank you.
00:16:22
Zak
what is What is there to say that we won't have a new car like company that comes in? like Look at Rangers, right? you get You get bought out by some giant American conglomerate that come in and they just start doing Nepo stuff where they're like putting their kids in charge of scouting.
00:16:37
Zak
And it just doesn't work because you end up having, well we're going to bring in a really world-class manager. And some of these clubs have brought in like great managers, but you can't attract managers.
00:16:45
Global Sports Podcast Network
But that's the thing, mate, right? Like, you know, there's there's the dream that you just want a decent owner, but the real realistic point of view is for every, like, dream owner like Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds who have come in and, and you know, got back-to-back-to-back promotions with Wrexham and got them to where they are now... There's three other examples like Mike Ashley, like Chan Ziri, like ratclie Radcliffe at Manchester United, right? like
00:17:16
Global Sports Podcast Network
Like sacking the manager and their current system is like the tip of the iceberg of their troubles at Man United, right? Like, let's not forget this, not that long ago, they sacked the tea lady who had worked there for 83 years or something like that.
00:17:23
Zak
Yeah.
00:17:29
Zak
Sack their club historians. So like if anyone wants to go back to look at X players and stuff, they better hope that there's an archive on the internet somewhere because you can't ask anybody.
00:17:31
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:17:37
Zak
Yeah.
00:17:38
Global Sports Podcast Network
And then I'm like,
00:17:39
Zak
And that's a that is a cultural shift towards a a significantly bigger business model. But like it it does mean that the football managers are dead, right? There's not like a thing that you don't have.
00:17:51
Zak
I can't really think of a club where the manager has that level of power unless they've got, like I guess, the backing, right? Guardiola has a lot of backing. And he's very, very careful of what he says in the media, but you know they will basically do what he asks.
00:18:05
Zak
I think Arteta at the moment, because they're finally on their way to win the league.
00:18:08
Global Sports Podcast Network
Thank you.
00:18:10
Zak
Maybe Klopp, maybe not, because we don't really know the real reasons that he left. He said it was because he was tired, but it could have been other conversations that went behind. and We know that the Liverpool stuff is always, they always claim poverty, but yet spent a different point for a different podcast. LAUGHTER But like, I think what I was trying to get to the point of is like, okay, Tonda out, cool. We sacked Tonda.
00:18:33
Zak
Who wants to come to our club? And then if like, if Man U were going to struggle to get a new manager in and Chelsea, because like Chelsea are just going to apparently hit up their multi-club model and literally switch one of their already owned managers to another club, right?
00:18:45
Zak
Who will do as they say, who has already been working within the hierarchy, which means they don't need to know there's no, you know, what's the word? Like wild card,
Owners' Expertise and Club Impact
00:18:53
Zak
right? So Manchester United, the idea of bringing in someone like Zidazine Zidane, there are some of these managers have worked in what I would consider to be more complex systems, right?
00:18:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:19:02
Zak
Real Madrid, Barcelona, everything that goes on with La Liga is always confusing with club presidents and stuff like that. But yeah, it's just it's it's wild to me that...
00:19:15
Zak
the current state of like football is like, I've watched three sackings in two days, two of which were like manager of the month. It's man, you were sick. They're actually in a significantly better place than they've been previously.
00:19:27
Zak
we've we've sacked off our manager who was brought in to be young and exciting in this and other, and it changed for a little bit, and then as soon as it was permanent, it stopped changing. And I don't know if, you know, do are there people out there that own football clubs that are that arrogant?
00:19:42
Zak
They think they know better than the people that understand football. And I guess the odd yeah the answer to that question is that there are a lot of people who own big businesses.
00:19:45
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yes. a and
00:19:51
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yes, here are 12 examples.
00:19:53
Zak
There are a lot people.
00:19:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
I don't know what you want from me, mate. I know that that felt like you were opening me up for a like a successful, long-winded retort, but really, that's all I've got.
00:20:05
Global Sports Podcast Network
Like... kid
00:20:06
Zak
But that's fine.
00:20:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
a
00:20:07
Zak
But it's it's like it's like the problem you have with anyone that that owns like a huge business is because you're good at one thing, you automatically assume that you're good at other things, right? I am really good at playing the video game Fallout 4. But I know that doesn't translate to chess. Yeah.
00:20:22
Zak
god I'm not very good at that. I'm not very good at lot of other stuff, right? I can sometimes do good at playing football manager. Doesn't mean that any of my takes are ever good.
00:20:33
Zak
It's just, you need to like be aware.
00:20:33
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:20:35
Zak
And it does feel like you've become, because they bought a football club and they own the football club. they They know more than the footballing people they put in charge. Or you have a situation where you put footballing people in charge who maybe are a little bit more yes men than you'd like.
00:20:48
Zak
Or, in our case, we've got Spores where we we sung his praises, we looked through his credentials, it looked really, really exciting. And so far, he's managed to tap tap up championship players that everybody knew were good, and the rest of his entire scouting pool just seems to be the Bundesliga, right?
00:21:04
Zak
So, like okay, cool.
00:21:05
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:21:07
Zak
He definitely knows more than me. does he Has he made really good decisions so far this season? Did he come out and basically...
00:21:14
Global Sports Podcast Network
I mean, the jury's out, right? It depends what part of the season you ask that question, whereas at the end of the day, whether, ironically, it's going to be a an art that's decided by hindsight, right? Because at the end of the season, where we're at and where we sit is really the only judgment we can make because...
00:21:36
Global Sports Podcast Network
because it's so hard to separate
00:21:36
Zak
That's what matters.
Evolving Role of Head Coaches
00:21:37
Global Sports Podcast Network
yourself from it whilst you're in the moment.
00:21:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
But like, who's to say we don't go on and win the next seven games out of the blue. And then like, I mean, football short sighted and fickle, isn't it?
00:21:50
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's, it's,
00:21:51
Zak
Yeah, we are. we We wouldn't have been having this conversation three, four weeks ago because we weren't in that cycle. We were in a cycle of positivity and joy. And it had been so long since we felt those emotions that we didn't want to let go.
00:22:03
Zak
i certainly didn't. I was happy to live in the clouds and delusion that, that oh my God, we might actually get promoted.
00:22:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:22:08
Zak
Tondor might get us up to second. That'd be insane. Didn't think we'd displace Coventry, but they seem to be having a wobble for the first time. It's only taken them you know five, six months. But Yeah, it's just how much of it is in control of any of like the head coaches.
00:22:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
Well,
00:22:22
Zak
And it's like all these conversations around replacing the manager and everybody's saying, and like, fair play. There there are those people have been saying it's Sports Republic from day one. But I also just don't know if shifting and getting rid of the ownership that invests is there always going to be a good thing.
00:22:37
Zak
like Unless youve unless they they actually know how to play football. Another example is...
00:22:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
And that's the thing, right? Like, we don't know, really. We don't
Internal Politics and Club Performance
00:22:44
Global Sports Podcast Network
know what goes on and and where this is coming from. We don't know if it is the ownership specifically or just, like, the the name that frequently comes up, right, is Ankerson. And, you know, when it all went...
00:22:57
Zak
Pete Tong. There you go.
00:22:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, there we go.
00:22:59
Zak
so
00:22:59
Global Sports Podcast Network
Thank you. When it went up and hit the fan, you know he was the one that supposedly got moved on to Gustepe in an effort to get him less involved in Southampton, but you know he's still on the the board and still involved in some capacity.
00:23:17
Global Sports Podcast Network
and you know that's the That's the name that comes up frequently when you hear about this, you know getting involved and doing deals and sorting certain things out. And, you know, whether it's him or whether it's one of the other board or someone else higher up, you just, you just don't know, mate. Like it might not directly be the ownership, but someone somewhere is, uh, is making it a not very good time for us at the moment.
00:23:46
Zak
Yeah, and again, it's not just us. There's multiple clubs where this is happening across the board, right? Like West Ham, another one that I frequently see. Ever since we had all of those interactions with, what is it, like West Ham Central, or whatever his name is, the guy the guy that basically kept arguing with everybody on Twitter about Fernandes, which, by the way, worked out real well for them.
00:24:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
Hmm.
00:24:05
Zak
Matty Fernandes and Carl Walker-Peters both involved that 3-0 loss to Wolves the other day.
00:24:05
Global Sports Podcast Network
Hmm.
00:24:10
Zak
and That's no disrespect. i'd I'd have taken them both back probably quite quickly. But... if you hear that is an example because I can see their frustration growing into the season of like lack of sign-ins and it's actually the ownership and it doesn't matter which manager they put in charge and it's it's not exclusive to us but it's becoming more and more obvious as every single managerial like takee time changes and My current prediction as we as we headed as we're heading into the new year, mate, is that I can see us finishing mid-table, we we sack off Tonda at the end of the season, and we replace him with another generic manager.
00:24:42
Zak
Maybe they pick a manager with championship experience, and and maybe that's that.
00:24:45
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:24:46
Zak
Maybe they even sell up. I don't i don't i think they've invested too much into it, personally, than I would see for them to just randomly sell up, because couple of people are mad, but...
00:24:55
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. I just don't see it on the cards. Like I said yesterday, lot I just don't see it happening.
Future of Football Club Ownership
00:25:01
Global Sports Podcast Network
and And like I say, like whether that's a good thing or a bad thing or not, I don't think it matters what I think about that because I just don't think it's going to happen.
00:25:10
Global Sports Podcast Network
So here's here's what it is.
00:25:11
Zak
It's just very interesting that these interesting times are the things that that all of a sudden peak everybody's interest again.
00:25:12
Global Sports Podcast Network
do We are where we are.
00:25:18
Zak
As I said, it was a very a very fragile piece, right? A very sort of, we were all kind of happy because everything was going all right for the first time in forever.
00:25:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:25:27
Zak
And it took, well, not the smallest of cracks, so 4-0 losses are quite a big crack in my opinion. But it took that crack for suddenly all of that to burst back out.
00:25:34
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:25:36
Zak
And that includes from us, right?
00:25:37
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. 100%.
00:25:38
Zak
Like, you know,
00:25:39
Global Sports Podcast Network
Do you know what, mate? I blame Pep.
00:25:45
Zak
But he's a manager! Actual one! Maybe, who knows?
00:25:49
Global Sports Podcast Network
Who knows? All right, look, that is all that we have got time for today. So thank you, everyone, for listening, as always. Thank you, Zach, for joining me. We will be back to talk more football at some point. But until then, let us know on socials, in the comments, your thoughts. Is is it purely on the manager? Where else does the blame lie? Is it just Sports Republic as a whole?
00:26:15
Global Sports Podcast Network
Do we know? Let let us know. What are your thoughts? We love hearing from you. We're on all the socials. We are Daily Saints Pod everywhere on TikTok, YouTube, Blue Sky, Instagram, Facebook, everywhere. Hit
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:26:25
Global Sports Podcast Network
us up. Let us know.
00:26:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
Like say, we'll be back to talk more football. But until then, everyone, have wonderful day. We'll see you later.