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00:00:01
Episode 444: Fan Advisory Board Statement...
152 Plays19 days ago
Southampton – The FAB have spoken, and the club still have not. We talk about their statement, and whether their demands are reasonable!
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Transcript
Introduction and Day Recap
00:00:14
dailysaintspod
Hello and welcome back to the Daily Saints pod. My name is Greg and as always today, joined by my good friend, a wonderful co-host, Zach. Mate, how you doing?
00:00:24
Zak
Hello, melting. I tried a kangaroo burger today. That was weird. Had a rum and a ginger beer. I went to the Big Eat Festival in Victoria Park, and it was really nice.
00:00:37
Zak
It was really cool. It was a really nice nice afternoon out. But alas, it's it's made me knackered, and here
00:00:42
dailysaintspod
Nice.
Communication Failures at Southampton FC
00:00:44
Zak
we are.
00:00:45
Zak
quite Quite late due to the fact that, you know, both have real busy days, but here to talk slightly more Southampton, eh?
00:00:50
dailysaintspod
Yeah, that's it, mate.
00:00:51
Zak
Did you have a nice day?
00:00:53
dailysaintspod
I did, yeah, mate.
00:00:54
Zak
it's
00:00:54
dailysaintspod
Making the most of the bank holiday, you know, as I tend to do, off to a theme park and feeling the heat now. And i mean, couldn't believe that I got home and it was like 10 to 9 and it's still daylight.
00:01:00
Zak
Yeah, aren't we
00:01:07
dailysaintspod
Like, what's going on?
00:01:07
Zak
all? It's still daylight. It's still like 28, 29 degrees. it's part the it. so part the fun of it
00:01:13
dailysaintspod
Yeah, it is, mate. But look, speaking of turning up the heat, we talked yesterday about the fan advisory board and how they have made a statement and sent an email to Phil Parsons.
00:01:25
Zak
Mm-hmm.
00:01:29
dailysaintspod
So I thought we would have a look at that today and just go through it give our thoughts on it. See if we feel like it goes far enough or goes too far and just all of that stuff, really.
00:01:43
Zak
Yeah, we've we've taken the post that Football Martin kindly put up where he's split it out into five main key talking points. So we will be directly quoting from that just because, you know, I care about source control.
00:02:00
dailysaintspod
Yeah, of course. van look Absolutely. it's It's important to name the sources and give credit where it's due. We've got some amazing other fan creators in the...
00:02:15
dailysaintspod
in the Saints space. So it's nice to to give them a shout out as well. alright Right, mate, let's get into it. Where do you where do you want to start?
00:02:23
dailysaintspod
What...
00:02:24
Zak
well i think we just start with uh regularity of communication uh which is hilarious because you know was i was having to explain to to to my mom today about why she she asked that what's been going on like that that's how you know is started to break containment like one of my mates that works in game development
00:02:40
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:02:44
Zak
found out that he lived like, well, say found out knows that he lives quite near Southampton. So you heard about all this Spygate stuff. for Like, despite the fact that arguably at this point, everything is resolved, it's still, still having wider ramifications where at this point I feel more like a mouthpiece for the club than the actual club, which is insane.
00:03:03
Zak
So the FAB field communication throughout the process has been poor with supporters largely relying on external sources for information. Accurate. Since the CEO's note following the fail the P, there have been no meaningful update beyond the brief statement regarding refunds, which did include further apology or they should not include further apology sorry or acknowledgement of the impact on fans.
00:03:25
Zak
But as you pointed out yesterday, Greg, you do you can get all of the information on Take That. The FAB describes the current silence as deafening, which ironically was what I put out as one of our clips yesterday, stressing the proactive that proactive communication is essential for maintaining unity.
00:03:31
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:03:38
dailysaintspod
Hmm.
00:03:43
Zak
They add that this is not solely about apology or internal review, but about the club actively defending its position and keeping supporters informed. And that's basically it, right? Like, that's the summary, realistically, of what you pointed out yesterday, which is people just, like, want to know.
Need for Official Communication Channels
00:03:57
Zak
Like, people just want to know what's going on, like, what's happening. And I understand that there's going to be a lot of things that I feel like they can't say because, you know, there might be it might be due to the FA investigation.
00:04:08
Zak
Just say that. We can't say anything due to the FA investigation.
00:04:10
dailysaintspod
Yeah, exactly. but That information itself would be enough, right? Hey, the FA, you know, we're cooperating with the FA investigation. we have triggered this third party to come in and do an internal review.
00:04:25
dailysaintspod
Because of those things, we're not able to, you know, comment publicly on any matters. But, you know, please be assured they'll be handled in due course. It's all it takes.
00:04:36
dailysaintspod
It's not hard, is it?
00:04:37
Zak
it's not it's not it's not rocket science and like part of me genuinely believes the joke we made yesterday is actually what's happened which is that they've gone hey guys we're really sorry for like making you cancel all of your holidays due to you know the playoff final the entirety of the media team and the Cubs team have just got the bank holiday weekend off. And we might end up just hearing something time of the episodes being released. And if if that's the case, and we've all got a bit up in arms about the fact that they've just had a couple of days off after an extremely busy season, sure, but also, say that!
00:05:10
Zak
Like, it's not difficult!
00:05:11
dailysaintspod
well Here's the thing, mate. like That's all well and good and you know potential, but we were due to be playing in a playoff final on Saturday.
00:05:23
dailysaintspod
You're telling me that immediately after either winning or losing a playoff final, they'd planned the entirety of the CEO and media and release team to be off for two days?
00:05:34
Zak
No, i feel i feel like I feel like the failed appeal took place and that a vast majority of people are now going to be scared for their jobs and they decided that they'd rather not have them around the office is what I actually feel like.
00:05:34
dailysaintspod
I don't i don't think so. not having any of it.
00:05:45
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:05:47
Zak
No.
00:05:47
dailysaintspod
And that's fine too, but you're right. Just just say that. like Like, these people are not going to been on planned leave, right?
00:05:55
Zak
No.
00:05:56
dailysaintspod
So,
00:05:58
Zak
any Any further points from you, mate, on regularity of communication?
00:05:58
dailysaintspod
yeah Just daft.
00:06:01
Zak
I think I've made my points abundantly clear.
00:06:04
dailysaintspod
No, I think we covered it pretty much in depth yesterday. It's a very good starting point because you're right, even throughout the whole process, we we were refreshing Twitter of all places to to get our information.
00:06:17
dailysaintspod
And love...
00:06:18
Zak
You're right. I'm having to rely on Baropolis and other but great sources of definitely key communication.
00:06:23
dailysaintspod
yeah Right, like... Don't get me wrong, I love Alfie House, and he is we are very lucky as a team to have a reporter like Alfie doing the reporting for Saints for the Echo. I stand by that. But that's not...
00:06:40
Zak
His job is not communications for the club.
00:06:42
dailysaintspod
Yeah, yeah.
00:06:43
Zak
His job is local media. And yes, okay, he's going to get more information due to the fact that he does work in that media. But the fact that he has become the mouthpiece and consequently had probably the most abuse thrown at him... weirdly from even some other Northern journalists have been a bit kind of, I don't know if there's been, they've thrown any abuse as such, but I think that they have antagonized the situation.
00:07:06
Zak
Whereas I've only really seen him sort of bite back where he's been bitten. That's like realistically how it should be, but you're right. Having to rely entirely on a journalist for an external paper. Yes, it's local news, but arguably it's still an external entity that,
00:07:22
Zak
to Southampton Football Club for everything. It's just a bit of a joke. It's not hard.
00:07:26
dailysaintspod
hmm
00:07:27
Zak
That's where I'm at. like This isn't difficult. This isn't something we're asking for. So moving on to number two, external communication of fan engagement. The FAB believe official club statements should be issued more regularly by the website alongside greater media engagement in the form of interviews. They're calling for an urgent fans forum within the next week with senior figures including Dragan and Phil present for a live Q&A
Silence on Controversies
00:07:50
Zak
with supporters. While acknowledging challenging, they note similar forums of the past, such as those involving Rasmus, Henrik and Martin during the latter stages of the Nathan Jones era, have helped improve communication and understanding. And to kick us off with this, it's like...
00:08:05
Zak
you know things that I worry about are like, oh, you know what what if Dragan's got like a beach holiday planned on the yacht? and I'm like, it's your business, mate. And it is in absolute turmoil.
00:08:14
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:08:15
Zak
And you arguably are needing to address the stakeholders that will actually pay your wages. Because if the fan base turns and people stop spending money and people stop showing up, there's going problem they're going to have.
00:08:26
Zak
And they're not going to be able to get away with some of the things that they would probably want to, such as
00:08:27
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:08:31
Zak
price free price price rises, price increases. And it's just, I think it's like almost the least they can do. Like the least they could do And
00:08:39
Zak
them ask the questions that we want to hear, right? No one wants to hear about the, oh, guys, what's the chip specifications of the chairs at St. Mary's this year? Like, oh, can we get a better beer than a sigh? How's the catering company? start Like, no one, in the nicest possible way, for something this...
00:08:58
Zak
this important and this, you know, reputationally catastrophic to the club. We want to actually hear, you know, what is going on from their mouths. And if it means they might need to part with some tough questions, like where I'm at is if, if wolves can do that though, right?
00:09:15
Zak
Like if wolves, yeah for so are you all about it, but like they did that.
00:09:16
dailysaintspod
They just need to get... They need to come out and face it and, it you know, take their their humble pie and run with it and give the right answers.
00:09:21
Zak
Yes.
00:09:26
Zak
Especially with like Phil Parsons coming out being like, yeah, guys, it was just a rogue intern. And then being like, nah, it turns out we lied all along.
00:09:34
dailysaintspod
Turns out...
00:09:34
Zak
It's like, so did you get lied to? like how's How's this going? Because if you were lied to by your management team and your sporting director and this, that, the other, then that means that you've you've not rolled any heads yet.
00:09:46
Zak
So you've just accepted that. What about how the rest of the fan base feel? And again, I know that
00:09:50
dailysaintspod
Yeah, that's it It's just furthering the communication, be right. it's putting a It's putting an active face to it, right? It's trying to get ahead of it. And the the fact of the matter is, in my opinion, they will either get ahead of it and organise one of these sooner rather than later now, or their hand will be forced when they don't do that and announce new season tickets and they're to their rates drop drastically than what they're expecting because, you know, so not all fans, but but at least more fans than they, I think, think will will vote with their wallets in that instance.
00:10:31
Zak
so Some have gone into siege mentality and I get that, but the people that are that wired into the club as much as us do not make up a majority of the people that go to St Mary's.
00:10:34
dailysaintspod
Hmm.
00:10:41
Zak
And that's unfortunately just a fact. And that means that there will be people who are quite casual that have turned around and looked at this whole thing and been like, don't want to put my kid through the stress of that next year. i don't want to do this. I can't be bothered.
00:10:51
Zak
you know I'd rather save the money and do other stuff.
00:10:52
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:10:53
Zak
And and and that's ultimately what it's going to come down to. And again, it's it's the thing we were talking about yesterday with you know the whole stuff. we' We're talking Tonda in or Tonda out based on a footballing perspective and which managers are available and which managers would want to come here on top of the fact that we've got this reputation.
00:11:11
Zak
But the other big part of this is is the business side of things and that you can't just like... you can't just bury your head in the sand. And and people might have done that before with, with crises, but like, man, they've not even like hired a PR crisis firm because if they had, unless that PR crisis firm that they have hired has turned around and gone, don't say anything for like
Season Ticket Concerns
00:11:29
Zak
the next week.
00:11:30
Zak
And just, just let them all like, you know, cannibalize each other, which is how it feels. But yeah, Yeah, external communication, fan engagement is definitely something they could get better at. You know, think that the most they've done in terms of fan engagement realistically in the last couple of months was bring out Mark Dennis more, which seemed to rile everybody up, which is good, and reinstate the tis to the board, where the first thing he did after that was quite a controversial interview, right?
00:11:48
dailysaintspod
Always good. Love to see it.
00:11:54
Zak
Like, so it's just, it's what it is. But my point is, yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:11:58
dailysaintspod
feel like you know what you're letting yourself into, bringing that in and that's fine.
00:12:01
Zak
But I think like that's,
00:12:02
dailysaintspod
if you focus purely on Matt Letizia's footballing opinions, there is a lot you can take and learn from him. And if you filter out the rest of it, that's fine too.
00:12:12
dailysaintspod
Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:13
Zak
Look, I'm not here to tell people how to live their lives, right? we For starters, we're we're two blokes that talk about, do a football podcast, and let's face it, you play significantly more football than me, but we don't...
00:12:27
Zak
We're nowhere near the professional level, even amateur level, you know, so who are we?
00:12:33
dailysaintspod
Mm-hmm.
00:12:33
Zak
But but my point... is like, you know, that is a a good piece of fan engagement. Arguably, I feel like the signing of Oriol Romeo was a piece of fan engagement at this point. But when it comes to actually, like, sending out information, i think that they need to they need to figure out what they're doing. And they need to figure out fast. Like, I shouldn't have to find out whether or not Peretz might be staying from, like, some random...
00:13:00
Zak
noons outlet that interview him where they just catch a glimpse of him, right?
00:13:03
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:13:04
Zak
It should be, this is what we're planning for, this is what we're doing, etc.
00:13:05
dailysaintspod
That's it, right? It's an
00:13:07
Zak
No.
00:13:08
dailysaintspod
And that's it, right? Because it's not just the silence on those things either, like caused by this.
00:13:12
Zak
audio
00:13:13
dailysaintspod
We talked before about, oh, maybe they've offered Bree a couple of different deals depending on if we go up, but just not releasing and holding that piece of information. but actually, like, just get out ahead of it.
00:13:25
dailysaintspod
The fans want to know. The fans want to engage. is you You should buy into that because, you know, otherwise you're going to lose them. And...
00:13:34
Zak
Yeah, that's true.
00:13:35
dailysaintspod
especially with with all this stuff coming out. But yes, and you know, like the tick box exercise of doing like one, you know, little open invite fan Q&A a year where, you know, Adam Blackmore selecting the questions is is fine, but it's it's not enough.
00:13:56
Zak
it's fine when you don't do something like this that's where i'm at like that's that's totally okay people will be annoyed by that but like you need to you need to figure it out sooner rather than later with a situation like this anything else to say on that mate or is that pretty much think that covers both of our opinions on it right
00:13:59
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:14:13
dailysaintspod
I think that's pretty well covered.
00:14:17
Zak
Wonderful. So point number three, 2026 to 2027 season tickets, which I'm sure definitely going to have an opinion on, mate. While recognising that legal and disciplinary matters will take time to resolve, the f FAB highlights season tickets as an immediate concern. Over 19,000 supporters held season tickets last year, and many now feel let down, with recent events effectively rendering the outcomes of matches they attended irrelevant, accurate, They describe season ticket holders as the lifeblood of the club and stress the importance of encouraging renewals as part of rebuilding trust.
00:14:50
Zak
Also accurate. They suggest a minimum, a price freeze on renewals should be considered, with a reduction ideally reflecting recent circumstances. Also 100% agree with that. They also believe that some form of refund should be issued for the Middlesbrough fixtures, both home and a away, while acknowledging rising club costs and the need for revenue to remain competitive. They argue the balance must forever support...
00:15:12
Zak
must favour supporter engagement and renewal incentives. And yeah, i I agree with basically every point there. I find it, even if it's just like your first two, that they should knock the price of the middle's pre-fixtures off of the renewal of the frozen season ticket.
00:15:28
Zak
That's what I would do.
00:15:29
dailysaintspod
Yeah, that feels like a reasonably sensible suggestion. It's a tricky one. I agree.
00:15:38
dailysaintspod
i've got just I've got my both sides of the fence hat on. I fully agree as a season ticket holder that the... the the hurt and the pain that they caused me in the last week and and through all of this has, you know, it's been been a lot.
00:15:55
dailysaintspod
And to acknowledge that is important. And for them to do something to to try and mend that and put that right is important.
00:15:59
Zak
Amen.
00:16:06
dailysaintspod
And I agree. Yeah. I don't know know. I don't know if they if that's something that is you know viable for them. you know We know that they're reducing parachute payment money. We know that the costs of everything are going up.
00:16:21
dailysaintspod
You've got to think that originally the plan was going to be to raise the season ticket prices. And like you can think that because last time you' were in championship... uh, still could get promoted. They put a presale on season tickets before the season ended. It's like, Hey, if you buy these specific set of tickets in the Northern wall, you can have it at prices that would be suitable for the championship instead of the premier league And they didn't do that this year. So the, you know, the inference of that is that they were planning on putting the prices up either way.
00:16:52
Zak
Yes.
00:16:54
dailysaintspod
so So I don't know. I don't know how viable that is. But again, it comes back to communication. If they come out and say, hey, we we can't commit to freezing the season ticket prices because the costs are increasing.
00:17:12
dailysaintspod
we've We've kept the increase as low as we can and it's only gone up this much. That is a better look than just doing it, right? But it's...
00:17:20
Zak
Great.
00:17:22
dailysaintspod
Yeah, it, the, there really, there really should be some level of remuneration and I don't know what that looks like.
00:17:24
Zak
but Just give out... give out every every Every season ticket gets a free shirt and then you also get like a 40% off voucher on another of got a additional shirt.
00:17:29
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:17:35
Zak
like I know that sounds ridiculous, but let's face it they're one of the they are big money makers, don't get me wrong.
00:17:36
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:17:40
Zak
But also, the overheads on a shirt are nowhere near you know what they charge extra for them.
00:17:44
dailysaintspod
yeah Yeah.
00:17:45
Zak
So it's it's it's difficult, because I get what you mean from like the financial aspect.
00:17:48
dailysaintspod
Look, there are, there are plenty of, there are,
00:17:50
Zak
But also, it's like, okay, in the nicest possible way, you're a billionaire owner with like you know a couple of super yachts and this and the Pull out your wallet and shove a million pound down for the fans.
00:18:01
Zak
like It's not...
00:18:02
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:18:02
Zak
I know that sounds ridiculous and that's that shouldn't be taken for granted, but...
00:18:03
dailysaintspod
hunter and the there will be
Fan Compensation Considerations
00:18:06
dailysaintspod
there will be ways to do that, right? The thing is that, like, from a book perspective, like, actively refunding, you know, all tickets to the Middlesbrough game is... It would just be, like, an immediate outlay of what?
00:18:21
dailysaintspod
talking, like, £40 a ticket, 30,000 people. So 1.2 mil? And it it just feels not... That's a low ball estimate, right? Like, that's...
00:18:32
dailysaintspod
it's just not necessarily like financially viable, uh, as you know, as right as it feels like it should be. But like I say there, and like you say, there are, there are things and deal sweetness that won't be as much of a financial hit to them that maybe even we haven't thought of yet.
00:18:50
dailysaintspod
The, the turn sort of sweet and the deal and, and lessen the blow.
00:18:50
Zak
100% Figure out some sort of subscription model for drinks.
00:18:57
Zak
I don't know. There's a lot that they can do. I think the problem that you've got is that I have a worry that they will think that, well, if everybody who's currently a season ticket holder just doesn't renew, we'll get different ones.
00:19:13
Zak
Other people will come in or just get more tourists.
00:19:14
dailysaintspod
m
00:19:15
Zak
And I just don't think that's going to be the case with the way things are.
00:19:17
dailysaintspod
No, it definitely won't.
00:19:19
Zak
At this point, I don't think you're get a lot of people that come to watch Southampton play.
00:19:19
dailysaintspod
And that's what I say.
00:19:24
Zak
don't know what the atmosphere is going like. Again, we might end up just implementing a siege mentality, but again, it's really going depend on who's in charge, what's going on, there's so much of that that's currently an unknown.
00:19:35
dailysaintspod
Oh, you can see the division and the split, mate.
00:19:35
Zak
Yeah.
00:19:38
dailysaintspod
as As, you know, down to Saints Extra put out a poll this morning. I don't know if you saw of like Or it seems to be dividing people. Sacked on draw keeping.
00:19:48
dailysaintspod
What do you think, pending the findings of the FA? And it's literally like 57% sack, keep, which is... It's a division immediately.
00:19:58
dailysaintspod
So who knows what the atmosphere is going to be like. It's not going to be together. It's not going to be, you know, the same vibes that we've had as we fought through the end of last season, which is shame because i worked so hard to build it back up.
00:20:05
Zak
No. God, would you remember when...
00:20:10
dailysaintspod
But... So so they they need to they need to put the work in to bring back that goodwill. And I don't know what that looks like. And and I understand that from a financial perspective, turning around and refunding two games worth of tickets it probably isn't an option.
00:20:30
dailysaintspod
But they've got to do something. And it will be interesting to see what that is and what they come up with.
00:20:36
Zak
I'm sorry, I don't know if I agree because I think that they have to see it as an investment. They have to see anything that they do in renovation for like what has happened this season as an investment in keeping fans on board.
00:20:50
Zak
Because like if they thought that the Sports Republic count sentiment... you know know They have done a very good job so far of separating the ownership from it. And we don't know how that has been and we don't know what's going on.
00:21:02
Zak
And again, I still feel like if you are paying that little attention to your business and what's going on behind the scenes and not understanding that these things are potential risk factors, right?
00:21:14
Zak
that That's a problem for itself but and a conversation for another time. Ultimately, it's just an investment, but it's just...
00:21:20
dailysaintspod
Yeah, well, like, like that's that's fine, mate, in in a, like, rosy world. But, you know, like i said, just the quick global tally of refunding that game worked out like, 1.2 million.
00:21:33
Zak
Yeah, know.
00:21:33
dailysaintspod
And let's not forget that last season, 1.2 million below the line cost West Brom two points. So...
00:21:40
Zak
Yeah, I know. It's just,
00:21:41
dailysaintspod
you've got work within the boundaries that you have available to you and our set and in in a summer where we're already going to be rebuilding quite drastically writing off a a chunky investment like that probably isn't going to be the option.
00:21:58
Zak
I'm interested. Did you see that one West Ham fan that thought they're going to pick up Sienza for 3.5 million? Sorry,
00:22:04
dailysaintspod
Amazing. Absolutely Delulu.
00:22:08
Zak
we'll talk about that another time. but Anything else to say on season tickets, mate? Or unfortunately, you've taken the incredibly, what I would consider to be, just very sensible approach of hopefully not, but even if they do, yeah, I get it.
00:22:22
Zak
Which is, yeah, I i too understand it.
00:22:25
dailysaintspod
Yeah, look, they need to make... Here's the thing, right? though the The feeling is that they need to do something to remunerate or repatriate, whatever you want to call it. And that's fair, and that's right.
00:22:38
dailysaintspod
And so what we will get is some form of gesture and... where that falls will be whether that gesture is deemed in the public opinion to be enough or a cop-out.
00:22:51
dailysaintspod
And that's the line they're going to have to tread. So we'll see how it plays out. Because because it's not going to be... it it just isn't going to be... The the pure like logistics of refunding transactions from as far back as that, to me, rule it
Call for Emergency Club Meeting
00:23:09
dailysaintspod
out.
00:23:10
dailysaintspod
So...
00:23:11
Zak
Yeah.
00:23:12
dailysaintspod
Yeah. and And like I say, even if it it might be in the form of, okay, we can't refund that money, but we can credit like you take that the cost of that ticket into in-store spending.
00:23:28
dailysaintspod
Because then it is feeding back into the club anyway, kind of thing. Because there's already a margin like tied into the club shop, so it's it's not like giving actual money away. But I don't know.
00:23:42
dailysaintspod
It's...
00:23:43
Zak
There's no easy answer to it. It's complicated because of that.
00:23:45
dailysaintspod
Yeah. Yeah, of course it is. and But yeah, they they should do something and they need to do something big enough that fans aren't going see and go, what cop out. And so just have to wait and see what that turns out to be.
00:24:01
Zak
Indeed. Right, well, moving swiftly on to point number four, emergency FAB meeting. in advance of a fans forum, the FAB proposed an emergency meeting with the club to discuss these issues in greater depth.
00:24:15
Zak
They emphasise the value of involving long-standing committed supporters who can contribute constructively to discussions. I think that would be an incredibly good step just because if used when you have an open fans forum, as I pointed out, whilst I believe we should be able to ask any questions, there will be people that just ask any old stuff, right? Well, if you've got people that are already, I guess, to an extent, media trained in the kind of questions they'd ask,
00:24:43
Zak
Hopefully they can ask the tough questions in a way that means that they'll listen. So I think it's a good starting point. And I think it's to be quite frank, the least they can do if they're expecting these people to act as representatives for the entirety of the fans, the least they can do is talk to them.
Fan Advisory Board Discussion
00:24:59
Zak
especially where like that way you can open up dialogue for what we actually want and they wouldn't have to read a massive letter and the email that's been sent to them.
00:24:59
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:25:08
Zak
They can actually have those discussions in person and and hopefully go from there. you know I know these things don't always end well. We've got a multitude of of cases throughout Premier League this year of sort of having conversations with fans that hasn't ended well.
00:25:23
Zak
However, yeah I, I, I'm in full support of them having that conversation. i think that you're probably the same boat, right?
00:25:31
dailysaintspod
Yeah, I mean, they bothered to appoint this board, so if if this is not the time to utilise them in this way, when is? if it's If it's anything more than a meaningless shell of a gesture, then yes, I agree.
00:25:41
Zak
Yeah.
00:25:48
Zak
Yeah. There you go. it's It's quite simple.
00:25:50
dailysaintspod
as as though this
00:25:51
Zak
It's,
00:25:52
dailysaintspod
There's no other way to interpreting it otherwise.
00:25:53
Zak
It's supposed to be the purpose of it.
00:25:55
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:25:55
Zak
then Then you use it, right? So moving swiftly on to our last point, point five, future FAB recruitment.
00:25:58
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:26:03
Zak
The club's intention recruit a new FAB over the summer is noted. However, the current board suggests this may not be the right time to begin that process. They state that they are willing to continue their current roles until a new board is formally appointed.
00:26:15
Zak
Yeah. I don't know how i feel about that. I feel like don't replace the board, maybe expand it rather than just replace everybody that's on it currently. Because I feel like, you know, just randomly going around and picking more people to it to already supplement the voices and showing a wider range of opinions is a good idea. Getting rid of the current people and then replacing with a bunch of other people seems a bit silly in the current moment because of everything that's going on with it.
00:26:44
Zak
So, yeah.
00:26:45
dailysaintspod
Yeah. Yeah, I guess. don't know.
00:26:51
Zak
In actuality, you don't really have a huge opinion about that one.
00:26:51
dailysaintspod
I feel like
00:26:55
dailysaintspod
like you could pick any random 20 season ticket holders from Saints and they are more than likely to be able to provide a quality of feedback on this situation that would be enough.
00:27:09
Zak
If it's divided as it is, you're going to get 10 that give probably opinions that the other 10 won't agree with, but enough that they should be able to see a basis of what they actually want.
00:27:12
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:27:20
dailysaintspod
I think the important thing for me is that Until this season, I've never heard of the FAT advisory board.
00:27:30
dailysaintspod
And bearing mind for two seasons, we've been paying enough attention to Saints to do a podcast on them every day. that goes back to the communication and the, you know, the sizing.
00:27:41
Zak
External communication.
00:27:44
Zak
Because guess where I've heard about them quite a lot from, Greg?
00:27:45
dailysaintspod
Twere?
00:27:47
Zak
You're
Improving Communication and Reassurance
00:27:48
Zak
going to be shocked by this.
00:27:48
dailysaintspod
Twere? Twere?
00:27:49
Zak
no way. x the everything app including all communications that you know yeah because obviously people that are on the board have will tweet out that they've had meetings and stuff like this and you know some of them it's probably been less than ideal because i imagine that you know they will obviously inevitably get people that then start directing questions at them and obviously a lot of the time they've not been able to ask the i think the questions they've probably wanted to right
00:28:12
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:28:19
dailysaintspod
Yeah, and we did an episode on like the notes of one of their meetings back in February when when they did get better at putting that out and made it a bit more visible and a bit more out there.
00:28:31
dailysaintspod
And I'm not suggesting that the board are not good enough at their job to not to replace immediately. I just don't know. It's the thing. it is i don't know what the process is. i don't know.
00:28:44
dailysaintspod
what it is, but you're right, rather than replace, utilize their experience and expand it a bit, because...
00:28:50
Zak
Yeah, that's where I'm at with anything like this.
00:28:52
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:28:53
Zak
is it Anything like this needs to be more democratic than necessarily trying to like cherry pick new people because I don't think now's the right time to cherry pick people either way. And I don't know if that's necessarily how it works.
00:29:05
Zak
Again, it would be nice to actually have more information about it without us having to try and dig through it right again. it just links back as you pointed out to point one and two which is just like man it'd be nice to have better communication channels than like a statement of a club website or a tweet but
00:29:22
dailysaintspod
Yeah, I mean, even if that is the communication channel of choice, just do it better.
00:29:27
Zak
look they're they're quite happy to consistently send emails about people trying to buy tickets they can send me emails about more than that that's where i'm at you know like good lord even even our even the
00:29:36
dailysaintspod
You're right. Let's check my inbox and see how many emails I've had about level one since we got to play our final.
00:29:40
Zak
suck
00:29:43
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:29:43
Zak
That's the right type of communication. That's the problem. That's the type of communication currently they're interested in. It's
00:29:48
dailysaintspod
for To be fair, I think it is zero. I don't think any any of those have gone out either. and even Even I don't think they are that tone deaf.
00:29:56
Zak
it just... I just think it's... They're all reasonable suggestions. I think that I agree with all of them, basically.
00:30:03
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:30:07
dailysaintspod
Yeah, nice.
00:30:07
Zak
i just...
00:30:08
Zak
It's... I think the big one for me, again, is just communication, anything. anything At the moment, it's just, again, more and more speculation. And it' going to it's driving people up into a frenzy.
00:30:18
Zak
and i just don't think it's that hard to turn around and acknowledge it.
00:30:19
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:30:22
Zak
And again, if it if we do get a statement by the time this episode is out, because it turns out they were just off on a bank holiday, that in itself will tell you that maybe they need to sort out what their priorities are.
00:30:33
Zak
But who knows?
00:30:34
dailysaintspod
Yeah, I mean, it's yeah it's just not good enough to to this point.
00:30:37
Zak
No.
00:30:39
dailysaintspod
It is not. And like I even if with whatever restrictions are in place of what they can and can't say, just to comment letting people know that rather than assuming the knowledge is is enough to subside it.
00:30:49
Zak
Yeah, that's that's what you gotta do.
00:30:56
dailysaintspod
you The club website, the most recent post is obviously, as mentioned, like how to see McFly. and the you know the Southampton Twitter
00:31:07
Zak
Take that, mate. They're very different bands.
00:31:08
dailysaintspod
it's I'm pretty sure it's McFly mate.
00:31:12
Zak
Oh, it might be.
00:31:14
dailysaintspod
It is take that, you're right McFly's later in the thing, I apologise.
00:31:18
Zak
I was gonna say!
00:31:20
Zak
To be clear, not
00:31:24
dailysaintspod
they are They are groups of men who make music mate, I don't know what to tell you.
00:31:31
Zak
I thoroughly enjoyed that, but continue, you my friend.
00:31:32
dailysaintspod
the
00:31:35
dailysaintspod
The Saints Twitter are the two statements that the club put out with pictures of St Mary's. And a then working towards home.
00:31:46
dailysaintspod
luck Like...
00:31:48
Zak
No, you're going mention the community note of no, they aren't.
00:31:48
dailysaintspod
It's just...
00:31:51
Zak
It's a picture of us being thrown.
00:31:51
dailysaintspod
yes
00:31:53
Zak
It's the fuck of us being thrown out.
00:31:55
dailysaintspod
yeah
00:31:55
Zak
Yeah, I think that i think it's the whole the whole stuff. All of it's difficult. All of it's gross. We really would like to just hear some more from them.
00:32:05
Zak
he Just any level of reassurance, I think, is what people actually want, right?
00:32:06
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:32:08
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:32:09
Zak
so but Somebody even put that in our YouTube comments.
00:32:09
dailysaintspod
What do we say? It doesn't...
00:32:11
Zak
i Ultimately, we just want reassurance. And I'm like, that's that's pretty much it.
00:32:14
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:32:15
Zak
that's that's
Conclusion and Thanks
00:32:15
Zak
That's all it is. is it's like At the moment, there's just rampant speculation. You've now got these championship hit teams that have come down with significantly larger budgets that their fans are already starting to to tear into our squad and which ones they take and which ones they aren't. and We know that that's going to be a tough part of this summer, especially with everything that's going on. but So then just do anything, say anything.
00:32:39
Zak
Because as far as I'm concerned, the current situation is that saying anything is better than saying nothing. Unless that nothing is like, hey, unless that something is we're increasing the price of season tickets by 15% or something ridiculous like that.
00:32:53
Zak
Maybe that's why.
00:32:53
dailysaintspod
Mate.
00:32:54
Zak
They're just waiting.
00:32:56
dailysaintspod
To continue with the bad analogies of boy bands, to quote, definitely not take that on, I think, boy zone. You say it best when you say nothing at all.
00:33:08
Zak
I don't think that we're going to top that for the rest of this episode, mate. I think that's it. We have discussed the the recommendations that were outlined by the fans advisory board.
00:33:19
Zak
Shout out to Football Martin for putting it in that order. Shout out to The Echo, who published all too. Shout out Alfie for this journalism over the space of what can only be described as a tough season, which is consider considered to be joy and not so much joy.
00:33:33
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:33:36
Zak
George Reistudian is also, I think, moving on to different pastures. and He's had some really good articles this year that have been immensely helpful to us and uh yeah i don't think we've quite hushed out what was discussed in the rest of the week but we will still be here i know that we said we were going to take an extended break and quite frankly four days for us was an extended break especially the both of us so you know we won't i don't know if we're going be as frequent throughout the summer however there's going to be loads to talk about even if we are the only ones that are your source of information so we'll try and keep it as accurate as possible
00:33:57
dailysaintspod
yeah
00:34:03
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:34:07
dailysaintspod
yeah stick to quality over quantity. If there's not something to talk about, we won't put episode out.
00:34:12
Zak
yeah Correct.
00:34:13
dailysaintspod
If we've got something to talk about, we will. And if that's something, yeah, if that's something current, then so be it.
00:34:15
Zak
much Much prefer that approach to life, to be honest, mate.
00:34:21
dailysaintspod
If we've got something from the past talk about, maybe do some, look back at some old matches or some old players, then maybe we'll do that. if we've got something to talk about, we will be here to talk about it.
00:34:32
dailysaintspod
And, uh, I mean, as we reach our second episode in a day that goes on the 35 plus minute mark, mate, I think that it's safe to say we'll probably be here more often than not.
00:34:44
dailysaintspod
But...
00:34:52
dailysaintspod
Yeah.
00:34:53
Zak
and
00:34:53
dailysaintspod
going to go and take an ice bath. That's my plan.
00:34:55
Zak
That sounds perfect, mate. Right. Yeah. Thank you everybody, for listening. I'm going to throw Greg off by saying we're all on all the social medias. Facebook, X.com, the Everything app, Blue Sky, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. Appreciate all the support we're getting on there. Obviously, everything kind of blew up after that middle spur. announcement, but we appreciate all the backing we get.
00:35:20
Zak
We will be back soon, hopefully tomorrow, with something exciting and Saints related. Any last parting words from my wonderful co-host, mate?
00:35:31
dailysaintspod
No, I can't think of any more boy band songs, mate.
00:35:35
Zak
you
00:35:36
dailysaintspod
I'm done. That was my full repertoire.
00:35:37
Zak
Wonderful. but I guess that's it, mate.
00:35:51
Zak
Stay hydrated.