Heads Up For BBC Radio Solent - Saints Fan's Forum

This evening 7pm with Ralph, Les and Ron

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0358ppg

A question from “pap” in Liverpool to all three.

“When the fuck are you going to join Sotonians, fellas?” :lou_smiley:

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I’ll be in attendance. Have prepared a list of about 8 solid questions, knowing full well that I’ll probably only get to ask one. I’d rather be over-prepared though as I’m sure I’ll be beaten to the punch on most of them.

Be nice to get some straight, informative answers - otherwise I don’t really see the point of them holding an event like this.

All being said, it’ll probably be taken over by people complaining about the beer, or some other petty complaints that have no place being levelled at Ron, Les or Ralph.

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do they like Narcos?

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In case anybody’s interested in my working…

To Ralph:

  1. Incentives such as freezing season ticket prices and the ‘Kids Day’ for Norwich are great, but somewhat ignore that the cost of attending a Premier League match was already pretty grossly over-inflated. Will the club move to introduce more frequent ‘Kids Day’ events and will we be backing campaigns such as The Football Supporters Federation’s ‘20 is Plenty’ for away tickets?

  2. Does the club feel that fans are happy with the matchday experience and value for money compared with a few seasons previous, when a generally similar product was significantly cheaper? What plans are in place to improve this perception and satisfaction? Equally is it OK that some lifelong fans and fans that witnessed the rise from League One have been priced out of attending? It seems an unfair mark of success.

  3. What are the plans this season for the Away Fans’ Fund [a grant of £200k received by the club to spend as it sees fit on our away support]?

  4. Are there any plans to move extended match highlights away from the Saints Player platform to a bespoke solution better suiting the club’s and fans’ needs? It could be delivered via a subscription or pay-as-you-go model as demonstrated by BBC TV shows on Youtube, for example.
    Similarly, is the club happy with the current official website and if not, are there plans to replace it once the Football League Interactive deal expires?

  5. Though the club’s commercial revenue has increased in the past year, it still looks low when compared with clubs of a similar size and stature. Which specific actions are being taken to improve this?

To Les:

  1. We’re aware that all improvement must be gradual and sustainable, but are also anxious not to see our best players leaving every Summer. Even with the best scouting and recruitment, needing to rebuild each season seems a very risky game to play. How will the club move towards preventing this in the future?

  2. Has the club’s policy on loaning out youth players changed? I believe it was yourself, Les, who said 18 months ago that we do not favour doing this. But there have been 7 separate players sent out since then - some for more than one spell. Is there more that we could do to get our young players into the first team squad rather than buying from overseas?

To Ronald:

  1. The exit to Midtjylland in the Europa League went down as a bitter disappointment, especially given the potential difficulty in replicating qualification for next season. Can you identify what went wrong?

All them questions are too long + complicated Ant. Ppl will be shifting in their seats & rolling their eyes when you start droning on with long questions like that. It will be v.embarrassing for you. I would keep them more short + sharp. Be like:

To Ralph:

Q. What?

To Les:

Q. When?

To Ronald:

Q. Why?

You will have audience gripped if you grill them with more insightful questions like this!

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Sorry, Bear. Maybe I’ll just ask who’s had the best poo today instead. I’ll allow them to confer.

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i had one today and it had flakey white bits in it. It looked like I had eaten bits of toilet paper before having my poo, but i definitely hadn’t, even tho it’s quite a good idea when you think about it cos it prob saves time wiping.

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I would put that poo down to eating too much Nougat, Bearsy…

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A worthy exercise and we were given some clear, straight answers.

However it could easily be improved in the future by having more than 2 mics serving the room and perhaps just an smattering of structure.

Either way, good to have the club willing to open the lines of communication and to listen.

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When are we getting an ice rink?

Did anyone ask “Why the fuck do we have shit beer?”

Were the moomins related to the moonies?

Does Roger Moore really have an artificial left leg?

Liked Koeman’s answer to what would it take, for him to consider staying longer than his current contract. Not that it means much of course, but he handled it very aptly.

What did he say?

Originally posted by @Barry-Sanchez

What did he say?

He said VIP membership to Sotonians and a badge worth 10000 points

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Originally posted by @Barry-Sanchez

What did he say?

Said with a smile that it would take him being as happy with things as he is right now. The club, players etc should keep developing, we have continued belief that we can do better than even last season and he is happy with all those involved with the club. But it is too early in his contract to consider anything longer term, yet!

Very diplomatic, I suppose situations change so quick in football it would be unwise to.

It was a good open meeting. A fair bit on what the club can do to reward loyalty…supporting the away supporters by subsidising entrance fees and travel. Ralph said they have a team who constantly review the “Match Day Experience” and are open to suggestions. Also said he would follow up a couple of the related questions and would talk to those who raised the issues personally.

No intention to increase St Marys capacity yet…a few years of consistant performance and support might change that.