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Episode 384: Looking back to look forward....
2 Playsin 6 hours
Southampton – Taking a look back at an article from 2022, just after sports repunlic took over the club...
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/3249557/2022/04/14/100-days-sport-republic-southampton/
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Transcript
00:00:13
DailySaintsPod
Hello and welcome back to the Daily Saints pod. My name is Greg and once again today joined by my good friend and wonderful co-host Zach. How you doing mate? You all good?
00:00:25
Zak
Yeah, fair to Midland. We've had a bit of a hectic week with scheduling and missed the episode, which kind of sucked. And yeah, just been really, really busy week in every single aspect of my life.
00:00:38
DailySaintsPod
Yeah man.
00:00:39
Zak
So it's kind of nice to get back to at least what I would refer to as some sort of normality. Even if today's topic isn't really like, even current and up to date, to be perfectly honest, mate. So...
00:00:51
DailySaintsPod
It's good, mate, because took a journey on my solo episode yesterday and tried to take a step back and think about balance and perspective and look towards the future.
00:01:03
DailySaintsPod
And today we're kind of reframing that thinking about the future of the past, which is the present, right? Yeah.
00:01:14
Zak
Oh, something about me being a student of history broke my brain there with what you just stated. But what Greg is alluding is that obviously not even, like we talked about it briefly before, but it's technically an athletic article embedded in the New York Times. So it is paywalled, but I will link it in the description. It was written by Dan Sheldon that was basically 100 days of Sports Republic. And like after they'd taken over Southampton,
00:01:40
Zak
And it just reads. It's just a very, very interesting read as to some of the things that they were kind of looking to do, how there is a lot more long-term planning.
00:01:51
Zak
We ended up going down rabbit hole where we found out that Paul Onoatu once made a substitute appearance against us that I didn't believe and neither did Greg until we verified it.
00:01:58
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. Crazy revelation.
00:02:02
Zak
which was kind of wild.
00:02:03
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:02:03
Zak
But I just thought it was fascinating because some of the things that are in there almost have been flipped on its head, whereas some of the other things seem to have literally gone exactly way that they wanted, right?
00:02:14
Zak
So it's by Dan Sheldon. He's done another article down the line sort of talking about what was going wrong at Southampton. I think it was sort of like last year or the year before. But yeah, I'll put a link to it. But I just thought it was fascinating because they were talking about how when all staff kind of met in uh st mary's in the halo lounge and there was a lot of sort of hype around rasmus anchorson henrik kraft and summons at the time who you know it but it was like sort of understand that anchorson has become don't know like a mr villain of like our club now right because we feel like it's entirely down to his mismanagement
00:02:54
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:03:03
Zak
But he had a bit more of...
00:03:04
DailySaintsPod
I don't know. Obviously, we don't know the factual matters or the ins and outs, but definitely the perception that I have as someone who follows the club very closely, as you know, is that he is someone who You know, we talked about the culpability and the responsibility of head coaches and directors of footballs. He is a businessman who tried to come in and meddle with the football without taking the responsibility of the manager. That's the perception. You know, we don't know how true that is or isn't, but that's the perception, right?
00:03:36
Zak
Yeah, and this was obviously before Simmons was no longer CEO as well. So there was that kind of... But if you want to know how far back this was and how it kind of feels like a relic of the past, mate, is that they talk about this article how to be able to have discussions with all of the staff, they had to split them into different groups for Q&A because of social distancing rules, despite being in a massive lounge. Yeah. You kind of forget that was like even a thing. know that, you know, we're going to bring up some other relics of the past soon.
00:04:05
Zak
But yeah, I just thought that was fascinating because I forgot how long ago that kind of all was quite rife and how going through of a takeover during COVID where we had some of our greatest seasons without fans and the weird ability to turn fan noise on on the TV or off despite there being no fans and how much of an effect that definitely had on different title chances that kind of stuff.
00:04:10
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:04:28
Zak
but it was more that they were kind of outlying what their plan was. And there was actually significantly more level of positivity because people seem to like look through rose tinted glasses at how, you know, like Gao's tenure, like he basically just did nothing.
00:04:43
Zak
Like people, people try to act like, oh, well at least it was better. At least like it was almost better that he had hands off. And I'm like, not really, because that was during a time where like Chinese investment started like being a bit an issue.
00:04:57
Zak
I don't think the guy even slightly really cared about the club. And I think he just wanted to own Premier League club. And if I remember rightly, he had failed the ownership test before he eventually managed to pass it, right?
00:05:09
Zak
But it was kind of, you know, a big deal.
00:05:10
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:05:12
Zak
80% of the state gone. And then they had finally got it coming in. And it didn't really look like initially much had changed. Obviously, things started to change. And one of the things they talked about...
00:05:23
Zak
was the use of Ankersen's brothers company transfer route that by the looks of things is potentially still knocking about. And I just kind of found that fascinating because again, it's all this kind of sort of looking into as much as you said, Greg, like not somebody that knows a lot about football, trying to come in be all football-y, but thinking that he knew more about football, right? And he'd been involved previously in Brentford, as we discussed, right?
00:05:52
Zak
uh michelin as well who as me and greg discovered obviously we anyone remembers the europa league we played we played a game against them and we found out that paul ono actually made a one minute sub appearance against us that's all which is absolutely wild because when he was there he actually scored grand total of 51 goals and 134 appearances for them which is which is nuts because can't imagine him scoring that many goals and
00:06:00
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, two legs in the qualifiers, right?
00:06:06
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:06:19
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, it was crazy to see that name pop up on sheet. Jay Rodriguez, of course, scored a penalty in that game. So, yeah, I don't know. I really vividly remember whenever I see...
00:06:33
DailySaintsPod
Mitchelland mentioned, I just really vividly remember playing them and not being able to find the away leg on TV. It was just like buried away on like Eurosport, I think it was on like Eurosport 3 or something.
00:06:45
Zak
starts
00:06:46
DailySaintsPod
Like it was, it was crazy.
00:06:51
Zak
Obviously, that kind of stuff aside, one of the big things that everybody was looking forward to, and one of the things that they started immediately digging into was player contracts, commercial contracts, and even down to the medical department that we know is going to be busy in the future with Ross Stewart and other perpetually injured players. This is around the time we're going to bring in Juan Larios, who's going to take up a bed pretty much for the entirety of his tenure at Southampton. But obviously, there was a big issue around commercials as well, because obviously Gao couldn't invest any money because the Chinese government rules were like, you can't invest money overseas.
00:07:28
Zak
So even if he wanted to, which he didn't really seem like he was all for, he couldn't, right? And that was one of the things that they wanted to do. And like it or not, they have invested in the business side quite heavily, right?
00:07:43
Zak
you know, the pub, we talk about all of the fans, those are stuff and you can have your opinions on it and think that it's terrible because it makes the money. But ultimately we were looking at a time when financial stability for the club was a massive issue.
00:07:57
Zak
And it was kind of a bit more worrying at the time than we thought.
00:08:01
Zak
And this is where always take umbrage with the whole, like they came in and ruined a premier league club. I'm like, We were in a Premier League club. We were kind of on the edge for a while. And, you know, especially where we'd already had like decisions and previously being made. You know, we've all heard that famous thing now with like Sparky not wanting Vestergaard, the owner liking Vestergaard and then they just bought Vestergaard. And like, we've all heard that kind of stuff now.
00:08:24
DailySaintsPod
It was kind of the opposite of what it is now, right? Because I would say that where we're at now is a position where the business decisions off the pitch seem to be solid and profitable and our books are balanced and all of the stuff that comes along with it. And the results are not living up to that name. Whereas I actually think in that time it was like the opposite. Like behind the scenes was a shambolic, chaotic mess. But it was well hidden by the fact that somehow we seem to be getting results and doing pretty well.
00:08:57
DailySaintsPod
And, you know, the things that people and fans want to see.
00:09:00
Zak
Exactly. At the time, mate, Hassan, who was charge, and they talk about Hankerson's going to be the one that's more likely to talk to him because of his time at Michelin and because of his time at Brentford. And then, obviously, it goes on to talk about how, obviously, Sports Republic, as we are all aware, was not established to focus solely on us and was going to be inside a multi-club model because that was at the time, like, we almost kind of forget we were, like, one of the first, if not the first purchase, right?
00:09:26
Zak
And they were kind of going to look around to buy other areas. And this is the bit where I kind of forgot that it also happened. One of the reasons why was to do around player trading rules in light of Brexit. And that's a direct quote. And I kind of completely forgot about Brexit in general. Yeah. Because despite, you know, whatever it means to you as an individual, like it definitely had an impact on sport, right? And we kind of like don't really see that unless you spend time digging into it. But part of it was to essentially be able to get players in to higher banded leagues. So that's why they were looking at things like the Belgian League, the Turkish League, Championship, you know, potentially, you know, they didn't really want to have differences with the Championship teams. So obviously we know eventually they went for Gestepi.
00:10:15
Zak
But the idea is that any players from those divisions would score higher and it would be easier for them to join a Premier League side. And then obviously everything kind of with us went bad, right? At the time of this article being written, they didn't know that was going happen. And it's funny because it almost feels like it's flipped. It's gone from, oh, well, you know, can get all these players in Katuga Steppi to then send them off to Premier League Southampton. In an actuality, it now feels like we can send them off to Championship Southampton.
00:10:40
Zak
then we can get them to other places easier. don't know that's entirely accurate or true, but it just, it's kind of...
00:10:47
DailySaintsPod
Oh, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if the sample size is big enough to really judge either way.
00:10:52
Zak
Because there hasn't been as much transfer activity between the clubs as you'd want there to be, right?
00:10:52
DailySaintsPod
I think that it's... Nah. Yeah.
00:10:56
Zak
Yeah.
00:10:57
DailySaintsPod
And the few examples that there have been could be perceived either way, right? Like they've gone to Gestapo on loan and then either...
00:11:09
DailySaintsPod
it's been identified that they're good enough for that league, but probably not good enough for us. So stayed there or, or moved on or, you know, come to us with Matt ski and starting to make an impression in the first team.
00:11:21
DailySaintsPod
And the, the, the only like question mark was there was that striker, was it one who we signed and went out on loan to them and then moved permanently to them.
00:11:26
Zak
Yes, Brazilian.
00:11:29
DailySaintsPod
And then the January window was linked with a sale for like 20 million quid or something. But, It didn't transpire or come to anything. So I just think that the sample size is too small to work out what the hierarchy as they see it is. And I mean, that uncertainty is enough to cause the mistrust from both sides, right?
00:11:53
Zak
Yeah, I don't know if that feels like it was ever the purpose of the multi-club model. At the time, that might have been it was outlined to be, right? Like, oh, help us deal with Brexit rules this and the other. And it now very much, as I've said, almost feels like it's flipped on its head. But in a way, that is there to produce profit, right? It very much feels like this is a way to develop and sell on players. being able to switch them between the different areas the different leagues and potentially make a profit depending on where they suit best, right? We're not seeing practical, what I would consider to be advantages from it. All of the finances behind the scenes seem pretty dodgy, but clearly don't know if it was, you know, this was...
00:12:30
Zak
sort of speculation from Sheldon's part when he wrote the article, or if it was one of the main things they kind of said at the time, or at least, know, out to press and journalists they spoke to.
00:12:40
Zak
But I just thought it it was just a fascinating insight. It's like, oh, so that's supposedly why we have a Maltby Club model. But also, you know, they wanted to try and build up some other stuff, right? So they wanted to build up a head of football operations where we took up sort of business development role that was taken up by who left Portsmouth, right? Who had apparently helped develop a young guy. They go into that bit. I'm not going to go too much into it, but it was fascinating to see and talk about. don't know if you remember the idea that there was going be like no Southampton scouts, which is going to be like Sports Republic Scouting Network, right? And this is where they were all going hook in to the transfer room, which is Ankersen's brothers. And like, we know how that went down, right? Yeah.
00:13:20
Zak
initially.
00:13:20
DailySaintsPod
Yes.
00:13:21
Zak
It seems like that's changed hugely now. And, you know, they've got the scouting network set up and it's not, I don't know how much, if I'm totally honest, we are digging into like the transfer room, whether we use it much anymore.
00:13:33
Zak
But I just thought that was fascinating I don't remember that being a big part of the the takeover, but I do remember a lot of the conversation being around the fact that, oh, we're going have access to this massive, incredible scouting network.
00:13:45
Zak
And rather than having a bunch of scouts focused on one team, you had significantly less scouts over multiple teams not really paying as much attention, right? So when they bought Gostepi, if you're doing dual role at that point, regardless of what type of job you have, if you have double the amount workload, you're busier and not as good, right?
00:14:04
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:14:05
Zak
And I think some of the fascinating things was where it leads off, which is even though there's a change of ownership that has not brought any visible changes to Southampton supporters yet, the summer transfer Mendo may be the first opportunity to understand what Sports Republic's intentions are. And there's plenty of positivity behind the scenes.
00:14:24
Zak
That's changed, mate.
00:14:28
Zak
However... The club has now financial stability, which is something that could not be said during Gao's ownership. And I think that's probably still quite accurate, depending... It really depends on how much we believe from what's come out of Valencia, right?
00:14:39
DailySaintsPod
Definitely.
00:14:43
Zak
Because I still have yet to see any concrete sources that... I, there's like an article that links like some guy who's been a bit dodgy and there is a YouTube video. And that one YouTube video, as much as it's from an accredited journalist, like an accredited journalist should post their sources so everybody else can verify what they're saying is true.
00:15:06
Zak
And it's starting to grind my gears a little bit because I can't find all this information other than a Reddit post talking about this YouTube video, the YouTube video itself. And I saw, what is it, State with State got a bit of criticism for, oh, you're just sucking up to Sports Republic.
00:15:19
Zak
It's like, no, just going with the evidence I've got in front of me.
00:15:22
DailySaintsPod
It just went with hard, solid numbers that added up and made sense.
00:15:24
Zak
Yeah, it's difficult.
00:15:27
DailySaintsPod
I think with Valenciennes, I think even when you dig into the slim sources there are, actually a lot of the concerns, accusations, I don't know what you want to call it, are not directly at Sports Republic, right?
00:15:37
Zak
Thank you.
00:15:43
DailySaintsPod
It's the other people in charge of the club working Sports Republic. And it's kind of more that they have allowed that to happen more than... are sort of actively doing it, participating in it, whatever you want to say. It is a strange one for sure.
00:16:01
DailySaintsPod
But you're right. Without deep-rooted sources, it's impossible to gauge
00:16:05
Zak
There is something weird that's going on there. And you can see that by the fact they've dropped through the leagues. And by the looks of it, when we took over, there was already weird stuff going on. And we were also apparently aware of that. And by the way, I use the royal we of Sports Republic. But again, would like to reiterate that that isn't who we are. We are Saints fans. And this is why I find the last bit fascinating, which is Sports Republic's acquisition allowed for something of a reset Southampton. And it is now about maximizing that and growing not only the football club, but also its business by securing other acquisitions. And it's like, yeah, but it's not. It's not Southampton purchasing other clubs. It's not like an affiliate club sort of association. It is literally, there is a business where now, if all of a sudden one club starts doing better than the other, they will prioritize that club. And I think we're starting to see that a little bit with, well, think a lot of people feel like we are seeing that with them prioritizing Gestepi because they're doing better. And we were supposed to be the flagship central part of this multi-club model.
00:17:02
Zak
And it feels for a while they kind of pushed us to the side, right? Because we started being bad. And, you know, partly due to their investments, where clearly they trusted their scouting network to buy the entirety of Man City's academy. just hope that would resolve all of our problems. And then obviously everything that happened under Hasenhutl, and then the absolute terrible decision to go after Nathan Jones, or... maybe it wouldn't have been if they'd let him do what they wanted, but apparently not.
00:17:28
Zak
And then signing sellers for the rest of the year. And a lot those decisions are being made behind the scenes by somebody that clearly has had success in a, you know, a Danish club and had success as a chairman of Brentford, but everything else was kind of like, you know, you make those kinds of decisions on a whim and you'll end up in the position that we ended up in. And it's just, I find it, the whole article fascinating to look back at the past and see how the feeling was around that time. And I don't know if everybody,
00:17:57
Zak
felt at the time, oh, this is the worst thing ever. Oh, finally, we've got some owners that can invest. And admittedly, we did invest, right? Like they bought a bunch of players, maybe too many players at the time. And it didn't work out in the end.
00:18:07
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:18:09
Zak
But it's the bits that stuck out to me is that like, well, ultimately, they kind of established financial stability. And if they were focusing on grubbing the business of Sports Republic, they have done that because they now have three clubs and are still looking for a fourth.
00:18:24
Zak
What that means for Southampton, though,
00:18:25
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:18:26
Zak
is yet to be determined right we've had a very very topsy-turvy time since their ownership i feel like only recently with small's appointment have they started to get things better and even with small's appointment everything that's gone on this season has felt bizarre right because we're in a bit of a high point at the moment we've had another high point but so much low at the beginning and so much like weird don't know weird vibes
00:18:50
DailySaintsPod
I think it's, it's, I think when you take it a step out, a step back and look at it, which sort of what I was trying to get to yesterday and didn't do a very good job of articulating. If you try and put it in the wider context of where we want the club to go as a whole,
00:19:09
DailySaintsPod
this season was always going to be weird because one way or another, it is a huge transition, right? Like it is, it's the first season that Spores is going have had the full season of control of what he wants to do. But at the same time, he is still trying to shift the club in that direction from what it was doing before.
00:19:30
DailySaintsPod
And that is all, it's never going to be a smooth and seamless transition no matter how you try manage it. And, And I don't know, was thinking about if that's something that they came out and said then and sort of got ahead of at the beginning of the season, perhaps it would have made it easier and better to do.
00:19:51
DailySaintsPod
But it's, I don't know, it's not really what you'd want to hear as a fan either.
00:19:54
Zak
Well, here's a question. Here's a question. Do they care? This is where I kind of, you know, this is where some of the stuff, like, it's really important to us and, like, we feel entitled as we should because we're ones spending all the money to maybe get
00:19:58
DailySaintsPod
I don't know.
00:20:11
Zak
sort of more information and have them speak more about things. But like you look at their backgrounds and why they've been, what the business they've worked in is, it is another investment to them.
00:20:21
DailySaintsPod
Mm.
00:20:22
Zak
have picked Southampton football club and specifically the football, football in general, because I really, really am passionate about, you know, owning a football club and really, really want to see or succeed.
00:20:30
DailySaintsPod
Mm.
00:20:34
Zak
And like this whole thing around developing the area around St. Mary's, Again, it's just money business decisions, right? And arguably some of that stuff they are getting right because clearly with the businesses they've built, they've done that successfully before.
00:20:46
Zak
But yeah, the footballing side, it seems like they've just outsourced it throughout the entirety of the opening of Sports Republic.
00:20:50
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:20:53
Zak
And you can tell that by the fact that a vast majority of those names mentioned don't have anything to do with Southampton Football Club anymore. Ankersen doesn't touch it. Semon's left the CEO and admittedly, that was probably a good thing. Gagliardi who I am I don't recognize the name but he was the guy that was supposed to be brought in as like the business development role and maybe he still has that Sports Republic and we've just never seen anything about him you know obviously
00:21:19
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, that's the thing, right? It's all back room and behind the scenes, whereas what you see visibly is the football. But I think, again, actually, I think that I touched on my opinion on it a bit yesterday in that if it was easy...
00:21:38
DailySaintsPod
to come in and run a football club, everyone would be doing it. And what football on the whole across the board has displayed frequently recently is that there are not very many people that are good at it and it's not easy.
00:21:56
Zak
No, I can think of Forest. I can think of Spurs.
00:22:00
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:22:01
Zak
I can think of, I could just, well, let's just sit here and name most Premier League clubs, half of the championship clubs.
00:22:06
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:22:08
Zak
It's a very,
00:22:09
DailySaintsPod
Leicester, Chelsea, Sheffield Wednesday, like all clubs at every level.
00:22:13
Zak
it's not a unique thing.
00:22:15
DailySaintsPod
It's not easy to do it right and to do it well. And especially when realistically the front facing part of what you're judged on and what fans will always judge you on.
00:22:29
DailySaintsPod
is at the end of the day 11 different adults kicking a bag of air around like that's that's not something that you can easily control it much unlike many the other things in business that you approach right so
00:22:42
Zak
It's not, and think that's why people are so frustrated, because they are doing the things that they know how to control, like the fan zones and these bits and pieces. That seems to be so out of their control that they almost... sort of exercise of the responsibility. And you've seen that by the fact that, you know, they shift and fire and rehire and well, Spores is in charge of all the football now. So if the football is bad, it's no longer, know, you could no longer sort shout up the stream. But it's like ultimately them ignoring the football for so long, as we've talked about for so long on this podcast, is, as you just said, kind of the problem.
00:23:16
Zak
And like, at least they're kind of paying more attention to it now.
00:23:16
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, I don't know if it's even... don't even know so much if it was ignoring as much as not being actively involved in, but there was definitely a lot of it that comes from leaving a lot of decisions too late, right, and inaction.
00:23:35
Zak
Yeah.
00:23:36
DailySaintsPod
So it's tough, but like I say, it's not... It's not something that is easy. And I don't... You know, even though I don't really like the multi-club ownership model, and I've got lots of gripes with it and lots of other concerns, I don't think any of it's through malice. I don't think they've come in and sought out to get us relegated to the championship and then have an up-and-down season like we've had.
00:24:01
DailySaintsPod
I think that they also wanted to come in and... you make the business great and nothing is better for business than winning the premier league.
00:24:11
DailySaintsPod
I think that they'd love that as much as anyone else. So yeah.
00:24:13
Zak
Well, it seems like they like to gamble, right?
00:24:14
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. Hmm.
00:24:15
Zak
They picked a team that, yeah, okay, everyone said we're an established Premier League side. That's not true. We almost went down... beforehand, right? There's been times we've almost went down. It was basically down to Gabbiadini. We didn't, right, previously. And we are a risk. Gestepi was a risk that's massively paid off for them.
00:24:35
Zak
Valencios was clearly a risk that they knew about and has not paid off for them that well. And it does very much feel like, as business people, they talk about being data-driven,
00:24:47
Zak
but it does almost feel like they're big gamblers, right? Everything seems to be, well, either this is a good gamble or not.
00:24:51
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:24:53
Zak
It's mad how often we talk about that with some of the players. you're right, obviously there's risks and things. But they never really explain the backup of the data and sometimes everything does kind of just feel like a roll of the dice. They're like, if it works out, it'll be great.
00:25:05
Zak
If not, it's a problem, right? I don't know. It's... Either way, it was fascinating to go back to a time where, like, the word social distancing came up and I got whiplash. I was like, oh, yeah, that was a thing.
00:25:19
Zak
And top of that, a time where behind the scenes, everyone had nothing but positivity for ownership that were about spend a bunch of money.
00:25:19
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:25:26
Zak
And now down the line, you know, we're second season in championship in four.
00:25:26
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:25:30
Zak
Like, mad, isn't it, really? But 2022, four years ago now, almost four years ago, this article was written. I'll post it. Feel free to have a read if you can, you know, get past the paywall or pay to read it.
00:25:46
Zak
Yeah.
00:25:46
DailySaintsPod
Worth the subscription, I think, is what Zach's trying to say.
00:25:46
Zak
Yeah.
00:25:48
Zak
That's the word. That's what I was trying to say. Yeah, for sure.
00:25:51
DailySaintsPod
yeah, look, an excellent read and good topic, mate. I really enjoyed it. It's fascinating to see the shift and the change and what time loads. And who knows in four years' time what we'll be sat here saying about Sports Republic.
00:26:05
DailySaintsPod
Boy, I hope they're listening because that win in the Premier League thing would be really good. Come on, guys.
00:26:11
Zak
you imagine? Guys, we need to have a word with the boys. These two podcasters really would like us to win the Premier League. Like, you're right. We should do it for them.
00:26:20
Zak
Yeah, no, mate, fine. Let's change the world by desperately pleading for some incredible...
00:26:29
DailySaintsPod
I don't know if it's a philosophy you share with me, Zach, but I think you've got put these things out into the universe and manifest them with all of your belief.
00:26:37
Zak
Oh, we're so different. I always prepare for the worst. So if it's okay, at least that way I can be moderately happier.
00:26:47
DailySaintsPod
Oh, look, mate, that difference in approach is what makes our show so interesting.
00:26:53
Zak
Something like that, mate.
00:26:54
DailySaintsPod
But look, that is all we have got time for today.
00:26:56
Zak
Yeah.
00:26:58
DailySaintsPod
So thank you, Zach, for the topic and for joining me.
00:27:01
Zak
No worries. Yeah, a bit of a weird one, but slightly, you know, slightly fun.
00:27:01
DailySaintsPod
It's been good.
00:27:17
DailySaintsPod
is there any optimism left at all?
00:27:18
Zak
How did you feel four years ago when they took over?
00:27:20
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:27:20
Zak
Did you think it was going change the world and that the Saints were going to do nothing but go up? Nothing up from here, baby, or not?
00:27:29
DailySaintsPod
Let us know.
00:27:31
DailySaintsPod
I would say on the socials, in the comments. We Daily Saints Pod absolutely everywhere. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, Blue Sky, YouTube. Hit us up, let us know. We love hearing from you. And while you're there, if you enjoy listening to us, why not give us a like and a subscribe? It goes a really long way to help us out. We notice it all. We've seen the engagement go up across the board and it just burns our day. It drives us to do this. And as a newly independent podcast, it just really helps and it's great. So thank you all so much.
00:28:06
DailySaintsPod
We will be back tomorrow preview our upcoming game against Charlton, which I'm sure will be a fantastic episode with lots of jokes about Nathan Jones. Until then, though, have a wonderful day, everyone, and we will see you then.