....... in the words of Mr. Schitt

_ Our very own Jack Schitt may not visit any more but his eloquent words carry on. His latest offering from Twitter tonight … thought I’d give him a thread of his own, he’ll like that. _

https://twitter.com/Mr_Schitt/status/875524808133554177

He doesn’t really say much at all that we hadn’t worked out anyway, … not a revelation in sight.

Made me smile anyway, you can’t fault his dogmatic approach

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If any of that end of season review business is true then you’d have to wonder about his original interview/s for the job. Did they for instance ask how he intended to play, what system he preferred; was it consistent with ‘the southampton way’ etc. I’m assuming he didn’t bore the shit out of Les during the process.

I for one won’t miss his press conferences or pre/post match interviews but think he has acted with class and dignity & wasn’t as bad as some made him out to be.

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Yeah as you say @steveintheforest not a lot we haven’t already heard.

Assuming the Puel stuff is true, I could have told you from day one that his demeanour and language difficulties would be an issue. As it happened I never really connected with him at all. At the time though I’m pretty sure Jack told us something along the lines of “don’t worry he’s much less boring in person and a real character on the training ground. He just hates the media side of the job”.

Jay leaving is no surprise and a shame that it has petered out for him in the way that it has. I doubt we’ll get much of a fee for him.

Sounds like Bertrand will be off.

I’m STILL not convinced about VVD being here on September 1st so will have to wait and see.

Some of those names on the shortlist are complete unknowns to me so should be deemed the front runners. That’s the way we tend to roll. The club needs to get it right though because clearly having a ‘presence’ or ‘gravitas’ is essential in order to deal with and command the respect of a bunch of adolescent millionaires.

Should be interesting.

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Mental that the default position of players is not to respect a new manager unless he comes in all charismatic and egotistical. What ever happened to professionalism?

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Oh, and not one of Jack’s best efforts I’m afraid. Much more ambiguity this time around - “their names slip my mind…”, “I may have had a bit to drink…”

Much too obvious as get-out clauses this time Jack - must try harder!

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By my reckoning professionalism left when the mega-money and super-agents moved in.

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Was that the default position of @themightyostrich not to respect a Jack Schitt’s account unless he comes in with total recall of all the names mentioned in a long and rambling, alcohol infused social intercourse. :lou_wink_2:

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Sadly now player power is a thing. They are paid very well for doing their job, not to sulk if they dont get picked every week. I can understand that communication can be a problem but if you are not sure of what you are being asked to do, ask for clarification. They are not building spacecraft, they are kicking a ball filled with air around and there are only so many variations of that. Fonte comes across as a total cunt. Perhaps he was left out of the European matches in an effort to get him to toe the line - but the fact that he was a prat from the start shows that he wasnt kicking off only for being left out of the European games.

I like Jack’s posts. I know he got a hard time on here from some but they do ring true and we should remember that they come from a third party. Not always easy to relay information as it is said when it comes through your own filter,

It wont sit well with many over on the Dark Side as it isnt “Hollywood” enough. No fist fights in the dressing rooms. No player conspiracies, just frustrations creeping in and fucking things up. I remember Claude speaking at the end of the season and remember thinking that if he says the same stuff to Les then I dont fancy his chances of staying. So talking himself out of a job makes perfect sense. Even those of us who supported Claude for another year were saying that something has to change. He seemed happy with the way things were going and clearly misread the mood. Again, maybe down to “communication” or lack of, although he was left in no doubt about how some fans thought in the last match against Stoke.

Those of us on here who have recruited people will know that someone can win you over in an interview or two, but things can be different when they are in the day job. I wouldnt be too hard on the Board for his appointment. Sometimes things just dont work out. And finishing eight and a great cup run was hardly a major disaster was it?

Is is a shame that Jack doesnt post here any more, but at least we still have his tweets.

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I don’t mind him having a nice time when he’s being fed his ‘unofficial but leaked on purpose’ info from his club source, but the least he can do is remember the names of all the shortlisted candidates! :lou_wink_2:

FWIW, I quite like his stuff, but this one just smells like he’s giving himself a number of get-outs in case Saints emply someone he hasn’t mentioned: “Oh yeah! That was one of the guys my mate mentioned but I couldn’t remember!”

@themightyostrich I think the fact that he empahsises the 3 “unknown” names whilst washing over the “forgotten” ones may be an idication that we should expect one of those 3

Can you see @jack-schitt 's words if you’re not on Twitter? If not, here they are :-

A word of warning in advance – this is going to be a fairly lengthy read, even by my standards. So if you’re one of those who’ve called me a liar, and think that I would for some bizarre reason waste my precious time in spending it writing all this up for you if it wasn’t genuine information I’ve been given – you may as well stop reading now. Don’t waste your time, this is not for you.
There is a fair amount to cover here, and this update will comprise a blend of information direct from my source, along with aspects of my own commentary and extrapolations on things that were rather more implied than explicitly stated.
Major boring schitt to many I’m sure – but for those who enjoy what I share, I hope the read will be worth your while. :slight_smile:

Recap:

Last week I stated there were “some things happening behind the scenes that are about to reach conclusions either way over the next few days, the outcomes of which affect all aspects of the Club Operationally” - about which there was some uncertainty, and that our future directions rested upon. The first obviously was the FA Premier League Board’s decision to greenlight the Lander bid. Until we knew the outcome of this, we did not know which of our meticulously crafted strategies for the way forward were going to be implemented, and this delay has effectively left us waiting at a crossroads for a few weeks. Now that we know, things have began to move rapidly into place. The second concerns the “potential takeover/buy-in” itself, and the third was the decision on the manager.

On Claude:

I’ve seen tonight that our friend Jeremy Wilson has already revealed a lot of what I had for you, but there is certainly still more that I can add. As I posted last week, I was asked not to share what I had been given yet, the reason being that [contrary to what many may believe] - there was still genuinely a “possibility” [though not a ‘very interesting’ one] of Claude still being our Manager next season – and as such a lot of what I’d been given was not sanctioned to be passed on by my source yet, as it would have undermined a ‘currently serving’ manager.

It is actually a very sad situation. We really did not want to sack Claude, and he was given every opportunity to defend his position. After our end of season review, the Board wanted him to inspire them that despite an underwhelming season in many aspects, that he had his finger on the pulse, and was full of good ideas and interesting opportunities to improve us next season.

We knew there were some underlying problems within the squad that would need to be dealt with in one way or another if Claude was to stay, but we were looking for some sparks and signs of life from Claude, that we were right to employ him, and that he was indeed the right man to improve our team going forward. We were looking for signs that he understood the fans’ [and Board’s] frustrations with aspects of our overly cautious approach and at times inspid style of football this season, and had ideas we could get behind to help us evolve [back] into the kind exciting brand of football we’ve become known for as our “Way” of playing.

Unfortunately, his response was as uninspiring as most of his press interviews. Claude is genuinely still bemused and baffled that the season he has just served up has not been appreciated. And to be fair to him, I have seen us play some of the best, flowing football I’ve ever seen us play under him; when it worked. But that is the problem. It so very rarely did.

So much of this, sadly, was simply down to communication, or more pertinently, the lack of it. Despite his efforts, Claude really struggled to improve his English, and whilst it was somewhat [marginally] better by the season’s end, he has cut an extremely frustrated figure at times, as even with Eric Black’s ‘leet’ “translation skills” – he has been unable to clearly impose his ideas on the training ground, or even coherently explain exactly what he wants each player to do. This has been all too evident in many of the disjointed performances we’ve seen this season at St. Mary’s.

Our “Boss” has not been able to effectively carry himself as such. He simply does not command the requisite authority.

It is not so much a case of Puel having “lost” the dressing room, as it is that he never actually “had” it in the first place to lose. He really was not helped in this right from the very outset by someone who as a manager, you really need on your side. I’ve already covered the whole Jose Fonte situation, back at the start of last summer, and more in my January update, so I don’t need to rehash that here. I’ll just say that when you’re starting out at a new club, and right from the start you have your Club Captain openly defying you and acting that you are beneath him and not worthy of trying to understand – you already have one hand tied behind your back. Convincing the squad he was worthy of their respect was already going to be an uphill battle.

Our squad needs a certain calibre of personality to harness and lead it, and sadly, and when compounded by the language and communication barrier – Claude Puel just did not have the necessary ‘gravitas’ to pull it off. Following on from a man who is as legendary a name in the footballing world as Ronald Koeman, was always going to be a big ask from the player’s perspective. Mauricio Pochettino wasn’t a “name” when he arrived either, and faired even worse on the language front – but he carried a charisma about him that the players could buy into. Without that aura about him to command instant respect, Claude had to hope that he could earn it on the training ground with his proffessorial demeanor and attention to detail; but in truth, it was not only the fans that he failed to connect with. There was no spark and no chemistry in the dressing room with him. He never really stood a chance. It was not only me/my source that was expecting Pellegrini in the summer. Players were, or if it turned out not to be him, then someone of a similar stature in the game.

Then in walks a stuttering unassuming Claude, who could barely introduce himself properly, speaking of interesting possibilities. The general feeling was “who the f*ck is this?!”

It never really “got going” under Puel. We worked our way through trying to learn three different variations on formation and style, but on each occasion, just when it looked like some of the players were getting to grips with it, Claude got frustrated at the squad’s inability to do it the way he wanted, and under mounting pressure over results – binned it off to try something “less complicated” [or “with more lucidity”] as Claude would say. :wink:

Add to this, during the first half of the season, the constant rotation and “dropping” of players when they themselves most of the time felt ready and wanted to play, and the issue is compounded even further. In short, there was a complete lack of cohesion, and the players never really understood what they were supposed to be doing, or bought into Puel’s methods.

The real killer for Claude though, was the debacle of our home “performance” in the Europa League against Hapoel, and the disastrous and anaemic exit from the competition it brought about. Puel did have a handful of senior players who were supportive and at least trying to understand and help him get his message across [Maya Yoshida, Steven Davis, James Ward-Prowse, Oriol Romeu to name a few], but that was the point that he “lost” Ryan Bertrand from that group, who is a very ambitious lad, and was particularly upset at not just the performance itself, but a lot of other aspects of Puel’s management of the team that day. There was a lot of ‘fall-out’ all 'round after that dire performance, the way we were set up, and things pretty much went downhill from there, team-spirit-wise.

Essentially, Claude was unable to motivate the squad sufficiently not only to perform consistently, but to be bothered to even try to work out what it was that he wanted. Most of them weren’t playing for him out there, but simply for themselves, and depending on what team was selected, maybe for their team mates. But gone of late has been that famed Team Spirit" of ours that drove us on when the legs were gone.

Still more detail I could add, but this is long already. Basically, up until February, confusion reigned. After that, it was just indifference.

The Board believed in Claude, and hoped that with time and support, a summer away to clear heads and recharge spirits, the right stategic removals from and additions to the squad and then a full pre-season without all his best players away on international duty, that he could still yet come good, assert himself, and justify their appointment of him.

There were a lot of mitigating factors for Claude. Most of his players away for pre-season and never had a proper chance to gel the squad together. Hampered by injuries to key players for long periods. The EFL Cup run was pleasing, and but for an officiating error, we could’ve had our first piece of significant silverware in years.
Some superb football was served up at times in amongst the abject negative dross, which offered encouraging glimpses of the potential of what he was trying to do, though that potential sadly failed to fulfil itself last season.

Though the Board were very much aware of the level of dissatisfaction amongst the fans, and were not exactly happy themselves, the feeling was that he deserved the chance to convince them and lead us into next season.

But as said, instead of doing that, his repsonse I am told was so uninspiring that he essentially talked himself out of his job.

There is no bad feeling between Claude and the Club surrounding his departure, just disappointment on both sides that it didn’t work out as planned. Mr. Puel is a very dignified and honouable man, but there is just no chemistry between us, and it was time to say our goodbyes.

On Managerial Candidates:

Mr. Wilson has already listed some, but a few other names I was given which I didn’t see mentioned that we’ve been considering are: Martin Schmidt, Julian Nagelsmann, and Ralf Rangnick. There were a couple more that currently slip my mind. I don’t really know much about any of them, but source says they are all known for adopting the high pressing game we favour. A plus for Martin Schmidt I’m told is that he is currently out of contract, which would make him a very Southamptonish kind of appointment.

I don’t know if they were only considered and not made the final list or if they’re still on it, they’re just names that were mentioned to me alongside the Tuchel’s and Pellegrino’s [note that ends in an ‘o’, not an ‘i’] in Jeremy’s article.

On Virgil:

As I said back then in my January Window tweets, the Club’s stance has always been and continues to be that Virgil will not be sold, as he agreed to give us at least another season [i.e. next] if he took the Captaincy. We expect him to stand by his word, get any sulks out of the way during the summer, and return motivated to lead the side in pre-season. Essentially we’ve invoked the “Schneiderlin principle”. You have Five years of a Six year contract left, Captain. Give us a great one and bow out as a Saints Icon with our best wishes next year.

£75 million may muster a flicker of interest, but otherwise he’ll still be here next season. We believe that if he has a good one, that’s how much he’ll be worth in the market next summer. If someone wants to give us that now, maybe we’ll talk, but otherwise if you’re not serious, stop tapping up our players.

Other Players:

Say goodbye to Jayrod unfortunately. His unhappiness goes further than the now departed manager, and he just wants to get away for a fresh start as a first choice for someone.

Some rumours of Ryan’s unhappiness have been accurate, but he is a very professional person and has not kicked off as I was told some have reported. Was unhappy with things relating to Puel’s management, but he does like our Club alot. Now Puel has gone, if Ryan doesn’t get a move to a top Club, source believes he will be happy to stay, if the new manager impresses him. Not saying that will happen as there is definite interest, only that he isn’t likely to kick off if he doesn’t get his move.

I think there was a bit more on players spoken about amongst other things, but I may have had a few alcoholic beverages whilst out, it is very late, tired, and I can’t recall everything. As I know people are waiting, I haven’t had time to put this all together as fluently and structured as I’d usually like, or edit to error and grammar check etc, so hopefully it still reads ok.

I’ll add more in days to come if I remember anything else

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You have to remember he’s not only is he a good writer, he’s also got a good eye for an outstanding picture.

As for covering his back when given an “inside line” from official sources, I think he’d be very naive if he didn’t include handy “get out” clauses…I know I would…i.e. don’t paint yourself into a corner. :lou_lol:

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I can barely remember my own name at times so I think he did well to remember three.

I see a few places are putting Ryan Giggs in the frame… to that I have to say a resounding - “Helllllllllllllllllllllll no”.

So I for one hope he isnt one of the ‘forgotten names’. He is somebody Sunderland etc should be looking at but not us in my opinion.

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