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Daily Southampton: Episode 122 - Dragan Solak speaks to talkSPORT...
106 Plays1 month ago
Southampton – Dragan Solak conducted an interview with talksport and discussed the clubs future and what he will be doing to ensure it's success and we discuss his interview, and what we thjnk it means for the future of the club.
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Transcript
Introduction to Daily Southampton Podcast
00:00:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
Hello and welcome back to the Daily Southampton part of the Global Sports Podcast Network. My name is Greg Elliott and I'm joined today by one part of the Southampton team. Zach, how are you doing today mate?
00:00:21
Zak
Hello, mate. Yeah, not too bad. How are you?
00:00:23
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, um I'm all right. we're not We're not trying to work out for actions anymore. we're We're back in the game after a disaster at First Strike. OK, it is Wild Card Wednesday. And today we're going to talk a bit about an appearance that happened on the day of recording
Insights from Dragann Solak's TalkSport Interview
00:00:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
today. We had a ah little interview on TalkSport with our standing chairman and owner, Dragann Solak. And did you get a chance to give it a listen, Zach? Did you have any thoughts?
00:00:53
Zak
I've not given it a chance to give it a proper listen. um I've definitely seen all of the the tidbits from Alfie House and that lot. I will point out that I know we've been quite critical of sports public ownership, and they have made a bunch of bad decisions. When Gao was in charge of a club, the only person I remember him talking to was the MP Eastley at the time, Mims Davis, who was the, what was it, she was the like culture, a sect chief or sport, I think at the time.
00:01:24
Zak
I'm not going to share my political opinions on her but but regardless it's one of those things that you know one of the things that came out of that was the whole like quote around you know a pig needs to be fattened whatever it was you know what it's been so long I don't care to remember and quite frankly it's a part of the Southampton past that I care to not remember realistically but you know fair play for him coming onto to a radio show to be asked questions you know where sometimes you could be asked off the cuff things i'm sure there are probably pre-agreed questions and stuff like that but right
00:02:00
Global Sports Podcast Network
i It was a pre-recorded interview from from Saturday, just after the game and after the loss. and But a bit like Ivan Djuric,
00:02:13
Global Sports Podcast Network
comes from a similar part of the world. ah He had some short blunt answers that I think a lot of fans will be grateful to hear and I know that there is a lot of outcry for Sports Republic but I think a lot of people need to remember that they're still investing in the club. They're not going to go away anytime soon because you may kick up a fuss and make us think about it and frankly if they did we could be back in exactly the same position we were in stuck at the bottom of league one with points deductions
00:02:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
just about with our club hanging on for dear life and no one wants that, no one wants to see it. So it's good that they're trying to improve and acknowledging their mistakes and it's nice to just have him come out and be visible at all.
00:02:57
Zak
i think I think that's but my long winded approach of where I was trying to get to was I much prefer this format than necessarily some BS five paragraph statement that the club put out on the website that has been you know read like read over and over by multiple departments including a marketing department that's going to want to make it not sound like the situation that it is giving blunt answers to blunt questions sometimes is actually i think what we all want to hear and regardless of whether or not they give you you confidence or not would you rather know the situation than not at the same time it's also you can tell there's kind of care there whereas in instance to the
00:03:40
Zak
who was it, the the Sheffield Wednesday like fan forum when Shay Charles got removed and stuff, and it was like, as opposed to him flinging mud back in the direction of, the you know, well, if someone comes to buy the club, they'll sell it then. And it's just kind of like, this is significantly more reasonable and reads as if somebody kind of knows what they're talking about. and I think we'll get into the statement a little bit more. But like I guess you know where I'm at is I appreciate the fact that there are answers to some questions that might not be answered by other owners.
Mistakes and Investments for Stability
00:04:15
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, well, I want to start with a part of the interview that's being singled out already in a couple of posts on social media I've seen. There's almost been taken out of the full context of the quote, and I guess that really is the buck line of social media, but let's not ah go down that rabbit hole.
00:04:31
Global Sports Podcast Network
But he said that the football's not been good enough and it's failure, and he accepts it as failure. But failure is not something to fear because from failure comes success.
00:04:44
Global Sports Podcast Network
And he's a successful businessman and no one who's a successful businessman gets to the point of being a successful businessman without failing plenty to get there. And now the part that people are reading into that is, I'm a successful businessman, I'll make this work. And whilst that is what he's trying to say, he's also saying like, it's not going to be an easy road. Like sometimes you try things and they don't work and that's fine.
00:05:10
Global Sports Podcast Network
I'm still going to be here and invest the money and we'll come back and try again. like
00:05:15
Zak
The issue with some of that and I can understand is that it's, yeah football is a business now. Let's not pretend it's like it was back in the day. The problem with that is, you know, we we had an altercation at the weekend. It's not it's not quite an altercation. You were very rote riled up. So we went to, um went along with you to the game in the weekend. I took one of your kid's tickets. We did the correct thing and go and upgrade the ticket at the ticket office.
00:05:44
Zak
we could have chanced it in fact we were kind of even advised to do that by the ticket office which is mad but usually sort of 17 pound an upgrade something like that i can't remember what game it was that i went with you where it was that price and then it ended up being what like 30 quid to upgrade the ticket so it would have been 45 pounds for the home end something like that when asked to explain why their answer was Don't know, mate. Somebody looked at the different games that are being undertaken, and somebody looked at Newcastle and decided that that was going to be more expensive than another game. And you're like, OK, why, though? And it's like, I don't know. And it's it's that the fact that you know the benefits, the the the expensive points, the fan zone where they're trying to get everyone to go in and spend all their money in the stadium, they are creating a successful business side of things.
00:06:40
Zak
The football is also the entertainment and also the actual product. And this is the the problem is that when you turn around and admit that you basically stopped paying attention to the actual, it'd be like saying, Greg, that like, well, the production lines are working really well in my factories and all of the employees are really, really happy.
00:06:57
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:06:59
Zak
And it's like, cool, what do you make? Pencil sharpeners. How how are the pencil sharpeners?
00:07:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
But he didn't try to point in this statement.
00:07:04
Zak
They don't work.
00:07:05
Global Sports Podcast Network
He didn't try to point any of that as a point of success. He out and out said, it's been a failure. we are we We need to restructure and formalize the football properly.
00:07:17
Global Sports Podcast Network
It hasn't worked. and so he He is acknowledging that and accepting that without trying to blow his own trumpet about the the other stuff he's done.
00:07:27
Global Sports Podcast Network
And I and you like that. likeki Yeah, I agree.
00:07:30
Zak
this is This is true, but the other stuff feels gross. let Let's not kick the can down the road. like You were more annoyed than me. I was happy to pay it mainly because I don't like confrontation, but you were wound up. And do you know what? Rightly so. You pay a lot of money for your season ticket go to go. You know, gaming, game out to be you know served. dross we We saw problems with stewarding. I've never seen so many stewards, which I think was ironic.
00:07:54
Zak
for considering the last time I mentioned how little stewards there were was the Chelsea game and admittedly we had a pitch invader so you know quite frankly it's just there's a lot of things that go on around the club that are making people cross and it's like trial and error sure like don't get me wrong but the problem is is that these failures are ah not realistically their expense and i think that's why it feels so grim is it it shouldn't be you should not treat your fan base like that it's all well and good calling us the best fans in the world treat us like it then know
Zencastr Promotional Segment
00:08:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
All right. Okay. So I want to touch on some other points from from the interview, but first time for a message from our partners at Zencaster. So here at the Global Sports Podcast Network, we spent a lot of time selecting our delivery platform and Zencaster came out the clear winner with 4K video recording from your phone and AI editing that automatically removes all those ums and r's. It's super easy to start a podcast that sounds great and is delivered efficiently. If you're ready to tell your story, check out the link in the show description and learn more about Zencaster.
00:09:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
OK, so yeah, I mean, you're right. Completely, it is a bit gross and we've seen other stuff as well, like you already get your 10 percent discount in the shop as a season ticket holder. Basically, more and more of the benefits of being a season ticket holder, being sort of ripped away some of them attached to bolt-ons, which people have mixed opinions on and that's fine. I'm kind of on the fence on them.
00:09:29
Global Sports Podcast Network
so but but yeah also in the statement he came out and said may not in as many words but kind of alluded to the fact that maybe because Russell Martin brought us up he was given more time than than maybe he should have been he did say that he got unlucky at the start of the season and there were some losses that we didn't deserve to lose which i agree with there were definitely games where that was the case but um Yeah, and said that we're sort of stuck in a position where the players played that philosophy and now we're struggling to get to grips with another philosophy. Which is no secret, on my opinion, on that, to regular listeners of the show. Go back and listen to how Pep Guardiola ruined football for anyone. Not familiar.
00:10:16
Zak
is yeah it's very much uh yeah like all of that stuff i agree with to be fair and you know i think one of the big things to come out of it was them talking about Jason Wilcox going and uh them not really being able to refill with the footballing department afterwards he left Southampton as appointed technical director at Manchester United on the 19th of April 2024 So before we'd even got promotion, I can't understand why you decided to rebuild it. i don't I don't know what conversations took place, but it part of it feels like maybe they gave well too much trust and faith in Russell Martin and he went, yeah, I can take it all on my shoulders.
00:10:58
Zak
and then was unable to deliver because he was being a manager and maybe more who knows again this is speculation but like the fact that it is now you know almost sort of eight nine months later and we've had an entire sort of half of a campaign in the Premier League and only now they've gone oh maybe we should have got someone in charge of the football then makes you makes you wonder. And like again, it's it's good that they're owning up to the mistakes and saying, look, we need it to be better. But it's just that for me, it reeks of suddenly things have started escalating. They had to fire Russell Martin. And then they've gone, oh, my goodness, we need to take control of what's going on here, which means that like they just kind of ignored it for a while, which means that it's only because it's caused a problem.
00:11:45
Zak
It's just a bit... It's just a bit weird. Do you not think it's weird, Greg? No?
00:11:49
Global Sports Podcast Network
but i Mean no, I I don't think it's weird. I think it's exactly what I expected because they are Effectively a startup trying to start up a multi club conglomeration and so their focus Can't be in one place can't be in all of the place at the same time And you see it time and time again if you listen to any of the like like I hate the term mainstream media if you listen to any sort of media that's not purely Southampton focused or hasn't been watching Southampton all season. What they, the drivel they spit is just awful. Like, like, oh yeah, no, they just don't, they don't play well. They don't do it. It's like, it's not as clear or they just try and pass it out from the back and that's their only problem. It's like, no, it's not. None of it. It's just, unless you're paying as much attention as we as fans pay,
00:12:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's easy to to not see the forest for the trees, right? Like, well, Russell Martin's system is causing the problem. Let's fire Russell Martin. I'm not saying we shouldn't have fired Russell Martin. I think that ship had sailed. But to fire Russell Martin, and not it's the lack of foresight to not have a list of managers ready. Like, we'd all just been talking about whether Russell Martin had a future or not. What, six, eight games before that?
00:13:13
Global Sports Podcast Network
So to not even have a ah ah short list prepared, it's the lack of foresight that can only come because you're spreading yourself too thin and focusing on running three different clubs instead of one that needs your attention.
Challenges and Foresight in Club Management
00:13:26
Zak
I agree, but it's it's one of those things that like if we're the crown jewel in the fleet, you don't you don't spend all your time paying attention to the dinghy, and maybe that's disrespectful so to our Turkish counterparts. But like just yeah it just seems really, really strange that all of a sudden all of this sort of came out of the woodwork as a surprise to them.
00:13:45
Zak
and And they seem to have been flabbergasted when, you know, we were on still five points, I think it must have been at the time. And yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe they just weren't paying enough attention. And I think that that maybe is a problem in itself, because it is not the same, in my opinion, as owning a another business, right? This isn't owning a business that you can hope will passively generate income.
00:14:09
Zak
and maybe in the beginning when you know you had like people maybe a bit too involved playing real life football manager that that was more of an issue and maybe the numbers that he was getting and the advice he was getting from the previous chairman was don't worry all of the numbers are going up green even we've managed to swap some yes we've invested a lot of money but don't worry that's all going to pay off in the end and maybe he just trusted them so
00:14:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
Look, you say, i I mean, here's the problem, right? We didn't restructure with the footballing side of the business after Jason Wilcox left. And so then what's left, the financial side?
00:14:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
Well, we still sell out every game, somehow, because our fans
00:14:46
Zak
If you're right.
00:14:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
because our fans show up and suck us for punishment. I mean, I still go to every game, so I fully throw myself into that category. You know, we we still get good numbers at the fan zone, like green, green, green. All of them, those numbers are up. So if you're only focusing on that, because that's what you know, and that's what your job is, as your CEO, is to get those numbers up effectively, I think it's easy for the rest to fall by the wayside. So it's got it under control.
00:15:17
Global Sports Podcast Network
doing all right and I mean you know it's not even really in the scheme of things that long that it's happened over right because five points in November yeah that's a disappointing start but but there were two or three games that we should have got something out of that we didn't and that's unlucky okay but then by December one month later that's untenable So, you know, you don't have to take your eye off the ball for that long for it to become a problem.
00:15:43
Zak
shh.
00:15:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
And that's the problem, right? Because how can you, we, you know, we, we both work in a business, you know, how information's fed up and what that gap in knowledge is going to be.
00:16:01
Zak
Yes, very much so.
00:16:01
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:16:03
Zak
Make the chart green because the chart's currently red.
00:16:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:16:07
Zak
So yeah, i guess I guess the problem is with that, and it's like with businesses around the world, with but with lots of things in general in life, is is's the there becomes a almost a lack of accountability.
00:16:20
Zak
But accountability has been taken, so I can't really be too mad about it if that's what my issue is.
00:16:24
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah No, and it's what they it's what they go on to do from here that we can I mean we can judge them on their past mistakes Absolutely But it's what they go on to do from here that they should then be further judged on like Accepting the mistakes move on and do better by it and let's hope they do Okay, I want to pivot into another line of
00:16:30
Zak
Yes.
Ivan Djuric's Role Amidst Relegation Concerns
00:16:45
Global Sports Podcast Network
thought based off of another Line from dragon in his interview, but first message from our partners at the global sports podcast network
00:16:55
Zak
The Global Sport Podcast Network is changing the face of football podcasting with dedicated daily content for every Premier League team, women's football, fantasy football and a daily Premier League wrap-up broadcasted in five different languages. This is your one-stop shop for your daily football fix. Find GSBN wherever you find your usual podcasts.
00:17:13
Global Sports Podcast Network
OK, so the final thought I want to touch on kind of throws back to yesterday's episode a bit. But there's an interesting quote. it It actively made me laugh, to be honest, because it was so blunt and not to the point. And it was he was asked about whether Djuric will be ah the manager within the championship next season.
00:17:38
Global Sports Podcast Network
And if the club are accepting that we're relegated and he said, no, we've signed Ivan on an 18 month contract. He'll be our manager next season. No matter what, that's what the contract is. I don't want to say we're relegated because that would be disrespectful to Ivan and we're going to fight in every game, but we're preparing for next season. So.
00:17:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
so
00:18:00
Zak
I didn't want to say that we're relegated because I have a lot of respect for the guy that I specifically went out of my way to hire.
00:18:07
Global Sports Podcast Network
But.
00:18:07
Zak
But we're also preparing for when we're relegated but unless by some sort of miracle we aren't. And that would be even funnier because I don't know how they would prepare for the lack of parachute payments at this point.
00:18:14
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:18:20
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:18:22
Zak
yes
00:18:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
Just, I don't know. Uh, so yeah, I mean, does that mean that's it for our January transfer window? Cause that doesn't seem to be the impression Djuric gave in his post-match presser on Newcastle.
00:18:33
Global Sports Podcast Network
Do you see us doing much this week?
00:18:36
Zak
Still got a lone spot available, right?
00:18:37
Global Sports Podcast Network
anything we can is there anything really we can do
00:18:42
Zak
We can have this discussion until the cows come home. where are we Where are we weakest? Arguably a lot of places. We've tried to bring someone in to shore up with the midfield. is is Is that person good enough? Who knows what we have to see? Is there any chance that anyone's going to want to come to us in our current predicament?
00:18:59
Zak
Probably not. We'll be far more of a lucrative prospect for anybody that wants to come to the club if we're a potentially favorite to come up in a championship, right?
00:19:01
Global Sports Podcast Network
Is there anything we can do?
00:19:08
Zak
As opposed to it currently, which could just, just looks like I want to go to, you know, kind of feels like joining the club to go 10 rounds with Tyson. except you've got your hands tied behind your back and it's also prime Mike Tyson. You're just going to get beaten and down trodden. By the sounds of it, Gromback who's joined us wasn't having the best of time and at Ren who aren't doing that great either. So for him, potentially it was actually a brighter option.
00:19:35
Zak
So I worry about who we're going to bring in or what we're going to do, which is, but we've got these loan spaces available. Maybe they decide to bring in some players and bits and pieces. But yeah, where I'm at is prepare for next year. And if they if that's the mindset and that is where we're at.
00:19:52
Zak
stop spending money, calm it down a little bit, look to build something in the summer, build something that would last because it was what burnt us the last time we went down. Admittedly, we didn't think we were going to go down as much as we were this time round.
00:20:08
Zak
but we we did a lot of panic buying and that was a problem.
00:20:11
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:20:12
Zak
We're more depressed personally at the podcast because it's meant that what we've been talking about is essentially players that are potentially leaving or the most insane theories that some random guy has come up on in like an Argentinian forum and we're having to use that as the rumour for potentially a transfer incoming.
00:20:32
Zak
So, you know, it's always exciting to have new signings but
00:20:33
Global Sports Podcast Network
Right.
00:20:36
Zak
be smart, and if that smart means we have to be a bit more, we have to be punished for the next couple of months, well, ah failures to get success, right? that's That's what he said, something like that.
00:20:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yep. Yeah.
00:20:48
Zak
but
00:20:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
fa Failure is just to step on the road to success or something. Something along those lines with that spirit
Southampton's Optimistic Future Outlook
00:20:55
Global Sports Podcast Network
anyway. So yeah, I don't know.
00:20:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
I'm still perhaps to a fault, optimistic, something good will come, not from this season, if we're being honest. Like to me, the target is still don't be the worst probability team in history.
00:21:11
Zak
If we really hit that, I think i think that it will be it will be because that is a story from rising from the Ashes, right? That is a <unk>s a Phoenix rising story, is that we end up being the worst Premier League in like team in history and then we come back up in glorious fashion, winning the championship in a completely new new manner. And then the same thing will happen again, because I don't know if you've noticed, if you look at the bottom of the Premier League currently, I think potentially Leicester's win against whatever Spurs is nowadays um um has resulted in Wolves being, I think, in the the top spot now.
00:21:49
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:21:50
Zak
However, for relegation, so I still probably think that Wolves have it in them to stay up more than Leicester do. And then, you know, that shows you the Gulf, doesn't it? Because of the three teams that have come up, the same three teams will go back down.
00:22:00
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:22:04
Global Sports Podcast Network
be the second year in a row. That'll happen.
00:22:04
Zak
a weird world we live in.
00:22:07
Zak
second year in a row, but then as much as ah this is where I will hold my hands up because I do have some integrity. I was talking about how it's the same thing every year ever since Lester won the league. But if you look at the state of the league now, Spurs and Man United being in sort of the bottom half of the table,
00:22:26
Zak
in in a season where we didn't have this, if the the bottom wasn't as poor as it was, they could potentially be in relegation spots. And then you've got Forrest at Newcastle flying high, a resurgent Chelsea is a feel-good story.
00:22:33
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:22:38
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:22:40
Zak
Like at the end of the day, it's an exciting league and it would be exciting regardless. But I'd love to think that we will become a Phoenix rising from the ashes and that if we have an ownership who care and want to invest and we have to take them at face value because
00:22:55
Global Sports Podcast Network
I don't think you come out on national radio and do an interview if you don't care.
00:22:55
Zak
What else do we do? Well, they will need to make a statement.
00:23:01
Zak
No. You don't need to say anything.
00:23:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
If you don't care, you stay silent, you sit in the background. you But actively speaking to talk sport and doing an interview that's going to get played on national radio shows that he cares a lot more than some of our previous owners.
00:23:13
Zak
yeah
00:23:17
Global Sports Podcast Network
And to to want to see that gone, I get the mistakes. You can factor all of that in, but I think it's incredibly short-sighted of anyone to be calling for Sport Republic out.
00:23:28
Zak
it's it's it's emotional reactions to a situation that in my opinion are valid and as a man who is incredibly emotionally reactive to a lot of things in my life I can understand the feeling but yeah longer term is it the worst thing in the world all I care about is that they learn from mistakes and proof that they can and that's what I can only hope will mean that our future campaigns and endeavors will be brighter and I hopefully look forward to us actually getting
Conclusion and Predictions for Premier League Success
00:24:02
Zak
some wins in the championship because I we're back to Delilah!
00:24:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah You heard it here first, 26-27 Premier League champions Southampton on the way. That is it. Okay, well that is the note of positivity.
00:24:15
Global Sports Podcast Network
That's the note of positivity we're going to end on. Thank you very much for joining us today.
00:24:18
Zak
day
00:24:20
Global Sports Podcast Network
will be back tomorrow with a crossover episode with our counterparts at the daily Ipswich. Until then, we will see you next time. Thanks for joining us.