There can be no doubt that Sport Republic and those running the club on a day to day basis, but has the club turned the corner with the appointment of Technical Director Johannes Spors after the sacking of Ivan Juric.

It is fair to say that Sport Republic are not very popular with a sizable chunk of the Southampton fanbase after the debacle that has been this season, but the mistakes they have made can be pinpointed.

Just over a year ago things looked rosy at St Mary's. Director of football Jason Wilcox had steadied the ship and we were in the top 4 of the Championship and closing in on the top 2, hopes were high that we were at least moving forward after several years of treading water under Gao and the relegation of 2022/23 season.

But then Jason Wilcox left for Manchester United and Sport Republic sat on their hands, instead of appointing a replacement, they left it to those inhouse to run the club and whether it was the decision of CEO Phil Parsons or Sport Republic, is up for debate.

From afar it looks like Sport Republic made the mistake of trusting those in charge of the club and remaining hands off for too long, right from the start and they have paid the price for this.

Without an experienced Director of football at the helm, we floundered in the summer, we had no one calling the shots, the transfer window was poor, although we made some good signings, Russell Martin seemed loathe to play most of those who arrived, good or bad, he had no one overseeing him.

If we had a DOF in place then surely things might have been different, Martin would have had someone to counsel him , point out where he was going wrong and ultimately not let him continue with his suicidal possession football game.

Martin stayed in the job for too long and when it came to finally replacing him we still had no DOF in place, although I would suspect that by this time Johannes Spors was advising the club from afar.

Ivan Juric was a disaster from the start, whoever's choice he was, it is hard to find a positive aspect of his short tenure as Southampton manager, he seemed to divide the squad, ostracise players and generally although escaping relegation was going to be a tough task, he didn't just fail to take us forward, he moved us backwards when it came to having the foundations for next season.

So the sacking of Juric yesterday was perhaps the first time in a year that it showed that we had someone actually making decisions and more than that, the first time in a year it was someone actually with experience in doing the job they are tasked with on the footballing side of things.

So it could be said that Monday 7th April was ground zero for Southampton FC, the day that we reached rock bottom and wiped the slate clean and started afresh.

That is on the footballing side of things, to be fair off the field, Saints have finally started to get things right in terms of the commercial side of things, most fans don't care about fanzones, corporate sponsorship and hospitality etc, but without all of these things a football club cannot flourish, whether you are Liverpool and Manchester United who make multi millions from their foreign supporters or a League 2 club, even a local club like Eastleigh, AFC Totton or Sholing, what enables you to keep competitive is your ability to bring in money from off the field through sponsorship, hospitality & more.

So Saints do have some foundations to build on, things are not rotten to the core as some would have you believe, most judge how well the club is being run purely on the League position, nothing wrong with that, 99% of fans are only interested in how the team does on the field, not everything that goes on behind the scenes, but that just gives them a perception, not the actual reality.

So if the club is to start moving forwards again, the appointment of Johannes Spors is probably crucial and the fact that he dealt with the major problem now and not left it to fester is a positive thing.

Now hopefully under Simon Rusk & Adam Lallana the morale in the squad can start to be repaired and behind the scenes Spors can start to plan for next season.

So will this be the start of a new era or just a continuation of the old one, at this moment in time we don't know, but if we keep on dragging up the past, then we have a bigger chance of repeating it than moving forward.

Hopefully some of our players who were ostracised under Martin & Juric and who wanted away will take a positive viewpoint and now want to stay, likewise with us the supporters, yes mistakes have been made, yes they were bad ones and yes they will probably make more, no one is completely perfect, but we need to put that in the past and concentrate on the future.

The major reasons why we went to pot this season have been rectified, we finally have a football man again at the helm to make footballing decisions, we have to wipe the slate clean and give them a chance.

Toxic atmospheres never result in success, no matter how much we all moan in the pub or on social media, it will not change a single thing of the last 3 years or so, the only thing that can be changed is what we do next and how we do it and from that perspective the future is unwritten.

All Photos Via Reuters

mj887 added 09:17 - Apr 8 Not sure how Wilcox steadied the ship, what did he actually do other than bring in some youth players from city, most of which were already in place before he joined the club.
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Bowlercow added 09:40 - Apr 8 The only thing we have the ability to do is give our 100% support to the new boss whoever he may be Spors will have knowledge of many managers across Europe and even the world He may bring in someone with no previous experience in either the EPL or the championship. Regardless of that we must continue to support in the way we have this season I will hopefully enjoy the last 7 games and not be questioning every team selection as we did under Juic If you want an outsider to bet on try Feda Dudic

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underweststand added 10:13 - Apr 8 Nick ...(Headline ?) ..One can only hope. ..... It will be a chance to re-align the structure in all squads. (Sadly) we will lose KWP who does have Prem. class and others whose careers are on the edge (for various reasons). Ramsdale, Harwood-Bellis, Fernandes, Aribo, Sugawara and Dibling are likely departures. We will need to top up the squad with good talents in all areas. We started the season with a record 5 strikers, plus the likes of Fraser and Cornet. We finish the season with just two - neither of whom has hits the heights. Those on loan are unlikely to return and the ever-absent Stewart is perhaps the most expensive failure without ever playing 45 mins. The midfield trio Smallbone, Downes and Aribo have never really clicked, and the "Lallana-experiment" hasn't worked and there is little prospect of signing Ugochuka permanently. We haven't come close to replacing Romeu and JWP, and will need a new backline capable of defending properly. Aside from the deplorable points tally, the lack of goals is also a great disappointment to fans who recall days when we did score quite freely. Championship football will allow more chances to the latest Academy graduates, many of whom have been with Saints since junior school. On my count we have half-a dozen lads out on loan and it remains to see who may come into the first team fold, and those who may eventually stay with their respective loan clubs. In short, a major overhaul, the like of which we haven't seen in the last 20 years. Getting the right players is important, but not least signing the right coach to make it all work.

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Centurion added 11:16 - Apr 8 I think we should impose tariff based football. Saints have been exploited and taken advantage of in the past. Liverpool, for example, should have a 5 goal disadvantage against them every time they play us. Man City the same. The likes of Chelski and Arsenal should be 3.5 goals. Other clubs like Norwich should be at the base level of 1 goal disadvantage. P####Y are in the insignificant block so no football tariff for them.

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saintmark1976 added 11:59 - Apr 8 Nick, I hardly think that a prosperous and successful new era will dawn simply because a recently hired Sports Republic employee in Spors, does what he’s told by our owners and sacks another recently hired employee in Juric. Given their disastrous record of two top flight relegations in three seasons, a new era is only in prospect if Sports Republic depart the scene entirely. Unfortunately however, that doesn’t look very likely does it ?

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Saintjonah68 added 12:22 - Apr 8 Until, Saints cleave the deadwood from the Team and there is an awful lot of it, then it will be impossible to move on. Too many voices in the dressing room that have failed to perform over a number of years. Stephens, Aribo,Bednarek,Smallbone,Manning,Bree,Sulemana are just the main problem. How do you solve that? Till we do we are in big trouble no matter who is at the helm.

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JoeEgg added 12:41 - Apr 8 Far too soon to be shouting about the dawning of a new era. Not certain how much Jason Wilcox did for the Club and any of us could take the job and fire Juric. It's what happens next that will determine whether or not this is the start of a new golden era for Saints. s things stand at he moment the Club is in a dreadful mess and with Sports Republic firmly at the conrols it is far too early to welcome in a bright new dawn.

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Ali_Diarea added 14:15 - Apr 8 I’d argue that RM was also the wrong man for the job and our strategy has been flawed even before Wilcox left. Yes he got us promoted, but we finished fourth with the second best squad and conceded far too many goals. This wasn’t the sort of preparation we needed for life in the prem. In my opinion, the best way to prepare for life in the prem is to make yourself very hard to score against and assemble a squad that will out-muscle, out-fight and out-run any other team. Keeping possession for the sake of it is fool hardy.

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Colburn added 17:31 - Apr 8 I agree with Ali, Martin got lucky with his style in the Championship and finished 4th with the 2nd best squad. It was obvious to all pundits and fans pre season that Martin would have to adapt if he wanted to survive and he stubbornly ruined us as the players were scared to find row z when in game management. Juric didn’t have the players. Selles out of his depth and no experience and Jones again had the wrong players for his style and also out of his depth, so Spors needs to get this next appointment right and the club have to be prepared to pay a good wage to get the right man in. But I agree with Nick to an extent, we have someone with experience and connections in the game and it is a chance to start on a new Liebherr like journey if we get the recruitment right. We don’t need to sell everyone and can bring in good money for many of those we don’t want. Keep Fernandes and Dibling and tell them we need one more season from them to go back up.

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Cjay80 added 07:15 - Apr 9 I would like to see Danny ROHL, who some consider it was his leaving that started Ralph's demise. Frank LAMPARD has also gained more experience and appears to be doing a job at Coventry. The most successful club to be promoted to the PL in recent years is Nottingham Forest who splashed a load of cash to stay up and built from there. That is what we should be trying to emulate. Promotion, survival then growth. Teams that are afraid to spend in case they go down will be down anyway, the club needs to be bolder in the market, assuming we go back up first of course.

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SanMarco added 08:30 - Apr 11 Of course 'new dawn' talk is premature but I think Nick is basically being optimistic because the alternative is rather depressing. It is a grim old world out there at the moment and I would like my football team to at least cheer me up occasionally! There is an opportunity to build for an enjoyable season next year. I would say the main thing is to start with a set of players the new manager is happy to pick and who fit into his style. I don't know how good Charlie Taylor is but the 'why was he bought?' question is a good summing up of where SR have got us to...

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