The Chinese Have Spoken

The Fiverweb crowd have already rubbished it so I expect our Barry will also give it some clog. Damned if they say something, damned if they don’t.

TBF I’m listening to the interview now and it is a lot of hot air and waffle.

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Good…it’s cold and damp here so a steaming hot waffle and maple syrup is just what’s needed.

Thanks Ralf. :lou_lol:

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Thanks @lifeintheslowlane , you had me checking the spelling of waffle then :lou_facepalm_2:

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Barry will be happy.

The Chinese have spoken (by proxy) and have _ Cleared *Everything Up. _

_ Adam Blackmore’s summary. _

There will be investment off the pitch in the coming year over the next year, 2, 3, 5 whatever the plan is.

There is no panic about the current situation in the league table or on the pitch.

MP’s job is not under threat because of extenuating circumstances wrt a VvD shadow hanging over the club for 6 months.

Everyone is doing their job and this is a phase - but Ralph says they each have to do their job better.

That’s what we needed to start 2018 - Ralph has pulled the wool from under Sanchez by _ Clearing Everything Up _.

Ralph has spoken for 20 minutes, said nothing, put no new facts into the public domain and now his job is done until 2019, or May or when we sack someone or buy someone.

Everything is cleared up thanks to a 20 minute…

…He said fucking nothing.

He said fucking nothing!

Ralph spoke about nothing for 20 minutes during a (presumably) planned “let’s get this out in the public domain to cheer the fans up” sort of a way, and he’s used weasel-words and euphemisms about aligning corporate-chakras whilst not looking in the moment, but holistically and retrospectively looking forward to solutions to leave us…exactly where we were.

Or has he?

There will be investment " off the pitch".

By implication, that means there _ may not be _ investment _ on the pitch _, but it might mean that SMS gets a coat of paint (presumably red - but you know these ‘foreign’ owners and their lucky colours).

Anyway, that was disappointing and a missed opportunity, but it changes nothing for me as I wasn’t (overly) panicking before.

*By everything I of course mean nothing.

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So are we buying Joey Barton?

I think I need a transcript of the interview, it was very mind numbing listening and I believe I switched off on more than one occassion!!

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Thank you Bletch. Not having listened I now understand I am equally aware of the situation at the club as those that have. Which is that much of the situation has been considered and acknowledged and that plans have been laid down to cope with all situations both now and in the future where the situation may change… or indeed stay the same, but that at no point should fans be concerned that the club does not understand the situation or have a strong strategy to manage it

clear to me

That is just mean GB

Hey, at least Ralph understands and loves the passion of the fans…

As he said nothing, I guess I should look into the things that he alluded to in the interview - the things we could imply from the things he didn’t say or at least didn’t deny that he didn’t say.

I love Ralph’s interviews - they’re just like a really cryptic episode of Sherlock when Moffat has been right on the drugz.

Claude - Seemed to suggest that we changed managers due to a sense of how things were and not down to performance. I guess you could read something negative into that.

VvD - Felt they wanted to make a stand re transfer but recognised it could be financially very risky. Also alluded to a negative atmosphere that everyone has had to deal with at SMS during the last 6 months. It appears as if VvD is being cast as the Golem roaming the St Marys area making our players play within themselves and giving Shane Long the goal yips.

Signings - talked about how people don’t really understand the nature and cost of transfers. Suggested that if you sell one player and buy two then that is two sets of wages instead of one. Good point and a revelation for me.

MP - has done a good job under tough circumstances.

League position - fine margins. Rivals have got better.

Its great to hear from Ralf that the new owners are going to both initiate and carry on the same goal of aiming for Europe by

  1. opening an international Southampton Saints takeaway in China

  2. employing a new window cleaner at St Marys

  3. repeating the fact we are a small club as many times as possible

  4. admitting that one player transfer is so complicated it is kinda understandable the soccer on the pitch has been shit

  5. admitting financially everyone behind the scenes are very happy with their bank balances

Indeed, which is why I dont understand why Barry gets his panties in a bunch about wanting to hear from the Board. How often do you get a Chairman or a SEO or an owner even coming out and giving an insighful speech about the state of affairs at any club and what they intend to do in the future? Of course it is all hot air and bollocks. That is all they will ever give us because they cant do anything else. We cant expect him to say that Pellegrino will be sacked if he loses his next two games. He has to be seen to be supportive but you can bet there is a contingency plan if we dont win soon. This isnt a village hall committee. It is a business and that is why we are fed business level PR bull.

According to Carl Schmitt society needs an enemy figure in order to function. According to Ralph Krueger, so does a football club.

It felt to me that Ralph nearly went full Harry Potter by not referring to VVD by name! A little childish I thought.

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How did Harry get into Hogwarts??

Through the Dumble door!!

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I do wonder if Ralph deliberately says this shit just to wind up the internet warriors. Poor old hypo seems to be getting himself in a right old state over on Fiverweb. The resident rascist is the only one who seems to realise that it is all bull and nothing to get yourself in a tiss about.

I said it before…and I’ll say it again…

We…the fans…demand, clearly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty. This is I believe what Ralf is trying to give us, a carefully worded reassurance that things will or will not change.

Poor performances have be laid to rest and the cause of them has been expunged from St Mary’s…about time I say! Bravo Ralf and the man from Goa, it’s good to see you care. :lou_lol:

If we put in a performance tonight and get the win, then perhaps there is real substance to the suggestion that ‘He Who Shall Not Be Named’ was a massively disruptive influence. Until then it will be too easy to suggest that he was the sole cause of why the team has been underperforming.

Otherwise, how long is that excuse valid for? Will we still be haunted by the ghost of Virgil in February? March?

OK, you lucky people. A bit of hacking and correcting et voila…

interview-southampton-chairman-ralph-krueger-back-mauricio-pellegrino-and-tells-adamblackmore-the-vv.mp3

Adam Blackmore: [00:00:00] Ralph if eighth and a cup final wasn’t good enough for Claude Puel. How on earth does Mauricio Pellegrino keep his job?

Ralph Krueger: [00:00:07] You know Richard Pellegrino from the get go has completely embraced the way we operate here. And you know the first half of this season. So I’m going to answer more questions than one here. The first half of the season was under the shadow. Of a stand in principle it emotionally threw us off balance and financially was a huge risk business risk that we took in the summer. A plan was put in place really right after the season to consolidate where we were and to also also the you know the transfer that’s just gone through is the end actually of a very difficult phase for the club. And Mauricio was a part of it. And we were all a part of it including the team and the players and I in no way shape or form. I’m angry at any one individual. For what has happened here in the last months. Because again it was bigger than any individual. In our club or outside of our club and the that chapter closes now. And again the cloud was there we allowed a certain negativity into our very fragile environment which is based actually on positivity you know looking at solutions on creativity and so on, on unity and I believe we can truly get back to that. Now this is this. You know to take a position or to take a cup final or to take an individual event in our long term strategic approach would be very dangerous at both ends in good times or in bad. And we just don’t operate that way. You know we operate on, on, on a feeling and our feeling was after last year that something had to change and our feeling is at this point that we have an excellent group of football people leading our club that we that we are well poised to attack the second half of the season out of a position that none of us wants to be in. There’s nobody happy with where we’re at right now but it’s our reality so we need it all from…You know and I’m I’m ultimately responsible for where we are today not not any other individual I’m ultimately in my role responsible for the culture of the club and the mood of the club and we knew when we made that decision that it was going to be an emotional burden. And again as a representative of ownership here I saw that responsibility and I felt it all the way through. And again trust me there was a huge financial risk in making the decision we did in the summer. We all know that and I think on the business side it’s played out brilliantly. I think you know are our leaders in those decisions. And all of us combined as a board ended up you know pleased with the way that went.

Adam Blackmore: [00:03:15] But the fallout has been massive then and what you’re actually saying is the business decision is good because the money’s good - we know that but actually maybe it was a mistake because we’ve had six months of this hanging over you and it’s affected the manager, the players and everybody of the as you’re saying and everybody.

Ralph Krueger: [00:03:27] A very good question. I would say that only long term can you truly analyze that kind of a stand on principle against which which involved arguably one of the top five clubs in the world. For a small club as we are in Southampton trying to maximise our potential on a daily basis to make a stand in principle like that. It’s going to it’s an earthquake and it takes it takes a while to figure out. Whether it was the right or wrong thing and I think today’s not the day to judge that. I think it’s truly you know let’s sit here in the future and talk about it. It wouldn’t be right to analyze it what I do know is that it was an extremely difficult environment because I was 25 years a head coach. I know what it’s like to work in an environment like that and I feel for the difficulties of that environment and I think he he you know Mauricio has dealt with the situation brilliantly and completely first and foremost in the best interest of the club. And not of himself he never used it as an excuse he is not an excuse guy and we really like the human being he is the the coach he is and the potential of our squad moving forward with him in the lead.

Adam Blackmore: [00:04:55] Well I will concur on a personal level because working with him he’s a very decent man. Genuine no problems and I never want to see anybody out of work but I know there will be fans who would sit here where I’m sat and say to you. Okay so you and Les made the mistake with not selling Virgil in the summer. Now the manager gets a let-off for six months because you’re saying that’s the reason they’ve not been winning games. He’s said to be a more attacking brand of football. We haven’t really seen it.

Adam Blackmore: [00:05:21] United looked like a veil was lifted.

Ralph Krueger: [00:05:24] Can I just take part of that and then finish your question?

Adam Blackmore: [00:05:30] Of course, yeah

Ralph Krueger: [00:05:30] Go back to the beginning of that.

Adam Blackmore: [00:05:31] Well he he he gets a let-off for six months and the fans say “hang on, it’s not been good enough you promised attacking football we’ve not seen it. You should have sold Virgil in the summer we’re saying and actually now the results are because of that.” So whilst I admire Mauricio as a person and I have a lot of time for him. I don’t want to see him out of a job I said. But fans would say to you “Hang on, he said it would be better. It’s not we’ve not improved. We’re going backwards.”

Ralph Krueger: [00:06:02] Yeah no. But first of all I just I love the passion of our fans. I mean they were at their best Man United. That was insane. I mean they they dominated that bit you know Old Trafford was 70 plus thousand very proud of our our fanbase on that day and it’s been it’s been not only difficult at times for the fans it’s difficult for all of us and and you know it’s interesting how in difficult times everybody wants to blame an individual and have somebody’s head. Taken as a result and that that’s east, that’s very easy to pick on somebody that you…

Adam Blackmore: [00:06:41] It certainly is in the Premier League.

Ralph Krueger: [00:06:42] …you don’t like or you don’t want to. Yeah that’s an easy target and I think that’s that. That’s not who we are or what we are. We all and I’ve already mentioned them once including myself sitting here in front of you. We are all responsible in some way shape or form some percentage point for where we are today it is not down to one individual that we are now in a challenging position that that is absolutely not the case. It is 100 percent each and every one of us that’s how we work in Southampton we’re all in this together we’re all speaking openly and honestly we’re not happy you know we’re working on solutions and we’re fighting and that our fans are going to target individuals is normal. And I respect that. And every single letter we’re getting right now and I get a lot more letters right now than we did when we were in the cup final and that’s just the nature of our world. [LAUGHS] So we have to remember if we take everybody out of the small picture that we are Southampton. And we are a small club I’m not going to recite the whole manifesto to you now but I am thinking about it and we are a small club and the reality is every time we finish in single digits is a fantastic year for Southampton football club and it is our reality that the competition in the league is increasing, that clubs around us are are improving dramatically along with us. And that it’s very very small percentage points that push you down the table or up the table and we believe we can climb back up the table with the group we have. We wouldn’t swap this team with any of our equals. We love the potential of the group and again to blame one individual right now and to take an easy cop-out is just the wrong approach because it’s just not how we work. And again I carry the ultimate responsibility for where we are today and in the good times. There’s a lot less blame going around and in the bad times there’s more but we we we we stick to our plan and we stick to our direction of believing that this bump in the road and this setback is just part of our evolution and that we know all of us know that the next level can be reached if we make the right decisions. Now when we learn from it and we begin right now in this transfer window.

Adam Blackmore: [00:09:15] Well the next level seems further away than it has been for a while. You have knocked on the door. We all know it’s so hard - it gets harder by the year to keep up with the top six or seven clubs commercially through financial fair play and everything else have an enormous advantage. I understand that. So the level of achievement, or does the level of ambition alter? Has it altered with regard to what’s acceptable in points, table position and anything else football related or is the ambition remain? Because obviously on paper you have gone backwards.

Ralph Krueger: [00:09:53] Well first of all the table only counts once and that’s on the 12th of May. We were we were in a similar position to the last two years. If you go back and look so there’s no you no it’s not. It’s not that we haven’t that we’ve always just taken easy rides into single digits. We fire away to single digits. We’ve been in we’ve had adversity in the four years that I’ve been here and of many different sorts many different sorts you know whether it was involving managers players just just health. All kinds of challenges. Which which which often gave us opportunity to to grow and to develop the next level and again we’re in our sixth season in the Premier League and in this in this new era. And it’s. It’s the best league in the world because it’s hard because it’s uncomfortable and because it’s difficult. And we enjoy that. That’s why I’m here. That’s why the people around me are here. That’s why we have an outstanding board. That’s why Mauricio Pellegrino took on this challenge because he wanted to grow and he wanted something difficult on his plate. And he enjoys it. Not where we are right now on the table. He’s enjoying the growth and development and you know it’s it’s a it’s a new environment for him too that he’s adjusting to. But our ambition remains completely intact and is wholeheartedly to find a way back into Europe. This year the reach is vague but trust me every single thing we do and every step we take is to find a path back to Europe and we know that the competition is many of them are thinking the same but we truly truly believe that this is a time of opportunity. But trust me we’re taking it seriously. This isn’t the lighthearted time of opportunity it’s not a it’s not a fun time of opportunity it’s it’s you know we’re re-evaluating everything. And as we constantly do also in the good times we’re revisiting the plan we’re revisiting our strategy we’re revisiting not only on the pitch but off the pitch ways of the club taking another level we’re looking at. You know the first phase of a stadium refurbishment beginning this summer we’re looking at you know opportunities out at the training ground and further development. We’re looking at you know obviously internationally looking at other places of growth through the ownership change. There are things happening behind the scenes that you wouldn’t do if you weren’t ambitious you would just status quo it and say leave the building leave the training ground forget about international growth. I mean why are we doing all those things is in the end to be a better football team. I mean it’s one of the things I realized in this process. Is that as important as the business side of it is in my role as a chairman it’s the football and the results of the pitch at the end are the most important barometer of everything else we do. I have the responsibility in my role role with the board together to manage the club responsibly which we’re doing and making decisions responsibly which we will. But in the end it’s it’s the wins that we’re after just as much as the fans it’s the results that we’re after. But they’re not given to us on a plate here. We have to earn them.

Adam Blackmore: [00:13:41] And two things spring to my mind as you say this one is we have an unknown factor for all of us which is owners we know nothing about particularly as we don’t know them as people. But you do obviously. Two, is you said, there’s a group responsible for everything we will make decisions is not one person. I accept that. But who, who overtime as a group you make the wrong decisions in time we say OK that’s struggling at the bottom of the table the end of the season. Who takes responsibility who are you accountable for. And I ask this because. who you are accountable to, because at the end of the day Les get to a lot of flack of supporters when things are bad. It’s not just the manager. Fans will say a lot to me about about Les to me on social media. They think he’s made decisions that haven’t been right. Now you’re saying it’s a group decision everything. So who ultimately could keep making bad decisions and nobody would and nothing would change.

Ralph Krueger: [00:14:36] Well I think I think with every single entity when you’re analyzing leadership you need to move beyond the moment. I mean just looking at the moment is just not the right way to look at the…

Adam Blackmore: [00:14:49] But I’m looking at the last 18 months since Ronald left. Things have gone backwards.

Ralph Krueger: [00:14:57] Sorry, the… You know the the cup final and a place last year for Southampton Football Club was a fabulous season. So that was definitely not a move backwards. We have specialists in every single area which makes us strong and they are able to make the decisions. But again they all of those decisions have multiple factors connected to them so. Just for instance a player transfer going out carries with it. Different burdens. Right? You have sell-ons, you have levies you have all kinds of things that change whatever that number was to a lower number. First of all and anybody understands then you know if you’re bringing two players for one player that’s also two salaries for one salary and so on and so forth. So everything has many many different layers as do the decisions that we make so we’re making a decision on a player. There’s the legal side there’s the financial side there’s there’s many different areas so the football experts will decide who that person is and then as a group in the board everybody in different percentages whether it’s our legal representatives or our financial side played a role in the final product. So you can you you have to understand that we built this team over over four years now and it’s an extremely efficient honest environment that we work in here at the club and so I believe can Southampton Football Club in general as well represented. Again. Ultimately I carry that responsibility so knock my head off first. But it’s it’s you know either people believe in our philosophy they believe in our culture. Walk into any area of the club and speak to the staff and find out what we’re made of. If you want to Adam, go ahead. You know I’m sure Jordan can set that up for you.

Adam Blackmore: [00:16:48] No no no I just want fans to not be booing on a Saturday night at 5 o’clock.

Ralph Krueger: [00:16:55] But that’s part of the game and that’s part of I mean you have to…

Adam Blackmore: [00:16:57] But 2017 has been tough at St Marys…

Ralph Krueger: [00:16:59] You, yeah, yeah, yeah… 2017 has been a really tough year. I agree with you. I’m not I’m not. disputing…

Adam Blackmore: [00:17:06] I’m just talking about football here, because everything else follows.

Ralph Krueger: [00:17:09] for sure I agree I agree 100 percent. Again your question was more along Who do we blame or who carries responsibility…

Adam Blackmore: [00:17:16] …well, who’s accountable?

[00:17:17] Yeah well that’s us that’s us that’s that’s me first me then from. You know that’s that’s it. It begins begins there. So it’s fine it’s fine and I understand that that’s a responsible you have as a leader and I love the passion of the people and I’ve said this to you before.

[00:17:34] I said it if you don’t have anybody you don’t have anybody cheering and and you know we need to also check the reality of who we are what we are as a club I think. I think we had an extremely strong run in four years which I’m not saying we’re not going to get back into single digits this year. We still believe in that we still believe that’s possible and we believe if you look at the table it’s very realistic if you if you if you play the way you can down the stretch. But in the end let’s never forget who we are and what we’re were and who we’re up against and how we’ve done in the past. There’s I think I think that needs to be included in the analysis. You know and and Yeah I just don’t get extremes now that that’s that’s normal. And again I love the passion of that and you know the potential of turning the building around very quickly is also in the air and we both know that.

Adam Blackmore: [00:18:34] OK so let me just try and summarize a little bit. There is investment going on with the new owners off the pitch going forward over the next coming year two three five whatever the plan is. There is no panic about the current situation in the league table or on the pitch. Mauricio Pellegrion’s job isn’t under threat because he’s had extenuating circumstances with this van Dyke shadow hanging over the club for six months. And as far as you’re concerned is Chairman everyone’s doing their job as well as they have been. And actually this just a phase. Is that fair enough summary of what we’ve just said?

Ralph Krueger: [00:19:07] Well, no, everything everybody has to do a better job because we are where we are and we can’t accept that. So no you know we’re not sitting here thinking how would the status quo do everything the same. No everybody needs to do a few percentage points better. Everybody everywhere in the club is going to be challenged by the leadership to do that to dig us out of this. This isn’t going to be easy. And secondly, Mauricio’s not in his job only because there was a cloud over the club for the last six months. It is because he is a very good coach and he’s running a super environment out there. The trainings are good the you know the conditioning of the club is in good in a good place. The you know the passion to grow our players is extreme through our whole supporting staff led by Mauricio

[00:19:54] So now he’s not only here because of that cloud he’s here because of many other things. And you know he just. You know I just want to underline that.

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Does Bazza write his script?