On May 26, 2016, Southampton released a 23:08 long interview with Les Reed. I was out of town when it was release. When I returned home I taped it and gave it to my secretary to transcribe but she correctly assigned it a lower priority than my actual work. It took a couple of weeks for her to finish. I was very busy then so I didn't have time to spend the couple of hours or more it would take to listen to the interview over and over to get the transcript as accurate as possible. Time went by and the interview went out of date and I decided I would just let it go.
Then on a whim I posted a poll on The Sotanians forum asking if I should just go ahead and post it as is. By a two to one margin the vote was to post it so here it is. (I have no idea if the vote was 2 to 1 or 20 to 10. Also, I didn't vote--at least I don't think I did.)
By the way, there should be some entertainment value arising out of the fact that my secretary knows nothing about Football or Southampton FC and very little about understanding English accents.
The interview is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVjn7OzB0kM
Q:
The problem for the second season running we were waiting to find out
the result of the FA cup final had the ** Saturday evening.
A:
yeah, very pleased I mean obviously excited that it all went right down
to the last wire and anything could happen there and at one point you are
thinking there is going to be penalties there and it’s in the lap of the gods
then um ** in front a bit of a shock um and it was ** that did it thanks to ace
but um uh delighted when you actually come back for us it meant we went to the group stages of the
Europa League um which again is another step forward for the club.
Q:
yeah, just how big is it? To know we are going straight in to the group
stages?
A:
oh it’s massive because um you can do very little planning until you
know where you are in that context uh last season, you know, we were playing
Europa League qualifying matches while we still had friendlies to play and
essentially we were still in training camp um and you are also playing those
games during the transfer window um so there is a whole host of issues that
surround the fact that people have to play in qualifiers um you really got your
work cut out and obviously we to a certain extent were lucky last year because
we drove the ** and ** I really felt for the clubs that were traveling to **
and places like that so so to miss that stage and to be able to go straight
into the group’s current six games and um be able to plan all the travel around
it and get a proper preseason done is so important and it does give you a nice
bit of chance because you are far better prepared for it when it comes.
Q:
has it been a busy couple of days than since the FA cup final in that
now you can really start to plan for next season?
A: yeah, I mean obviously we have
been planning for quite some time because the preseason camps and um preseason
training uh but everything’s been uh on hold um and now we are up to confirm things
and particularly the sort of second half of preseason um where um we will have
a training camp and we will be able to complete that and get back and prepare
for the European games and start of the season in a much more logical fashion
then we went to it last year.
Q:
Certain seasons have progression than? Just how incredible has this rise
been?
A:
It’s been absolutely magnificent, you know, um we’ve had something to
celebrate virtually every year, well we have every year, something to celebrate
whether its promotion from League One to the Championship, back to back
promotions, record numbers of points, etcetera etcetera Europe qualifiers, now
Europe group stage um but that’s important because it’s what we intended to do
it’s what it’s what we set out to do was to incrementally get better and better
until such a time that the club has grown to the point where we were a very
well established and a very uh stable familiar club and we are in the last
three years we have established ourselves uh in the top player of the Premier
League. We always said when we got to
the Premier League we did not want to just survive, we didn’t just want to hang
on in there that we wanted to make an impact.
I think over the last three years we have done that. we’ve compromised from seven to six and
whilst you could look at it and say we’re only a few points off Champion’s
League um we know this, the capacity to that, we know that that is possible and
hopefully over the next five years we can continue to grow and build a club
that’s ready for the Champion's League if and when the door opens for us
Q:
I was going to say the progression hasn’t just been on the pitch has
it? The club has just built itself up
off it as well then? That is probably an
effect in the club’s rise?
A:
I think it is vitally important.
I think when we’ve hit troubled times when there has been a little bit
of scaremongering, a bit of turmoil being able to continually focus on the
vision, focus on the plan, not waiver off our plans stay on stay on track has
brought us through those times. We had a
shaky period just after, you know, Christmas time we had a run of bad results
but there was no pressure on no one yeah there was no major headlines and panic
and disaster we worked our way through that on the pitch and we came through
with a really good runs **** to achieve sixth position and did it off the pitch
as well. You know we, this really is a
club where every person in this club contributes to that sixth place finish and
that is the way we have to continue in order to remain stable.
Q:
One of those contributors is of course Ronald __, the manager, just how
impressed have you been with the job he has done over these two seasons?
A:
I think, again, it goes back to when you appoint a manager what you are
looking for in a manager and one of the major things is you look for a manager
who buys into the culture and the belief in the passion and the values of the
club and uh I, we have had three ** who have had that so that is important
because you can’t be pulling in different directions so um picking out managers
is very important in the first place and then you’ve got a chance to move
forward and Ronald checked all the boxes and met the criteria. Fans will probably remember when we recruited
Ronald it was done very much under the radar no big headlines um as we’ve seen
recently with some of the other clubs in the Premier League quietly done stick
to the plan get the manager in and then start building the team around them um
and cooperate with the manager in terms of player recruitment, you know very
quietly just get on with your job and um we found a manager who buys into it
and is a good coach and tactician we built a squad that meets the profile of
the club we want to play exciting football and want to play good quality
football *** all the things that Ronald is passionate about so there is meeting
of mind if you like there and that that’s very important um and uh he’s done a
great job and will continue to do so
Q:
you mentioned there would be talks between the two how are they going?
A:
The talks are ongoing all the time there is never a point where you say
on such and such a date we will stop talking so yeah, there’s negotiating
contracts and getting down to the nitty gritty and there’s conversations going
on all the time about planning for the future um and you know Ronald and I have
been talking for a long time about building towards a summer transfer window as
you seen the extension contracts with our own players to consolidate the core of
the team going forward is another big step forward you’re not just doing that
on any given day that is something that you know I would sit down with Ronald
and Russ Wilson, head of recruitment and we will discuss that um over a long
period of time so all those conversations are about the future about what we
are building for um and those things are very important. There has been a lot of talk recently, Ronald
himself has mentioned the idea that he sat down with us at a board level and
talked about the five year plan you know there is no point in going headlong
into contract uh negotiations about finance or money unless you are all on the
same wavelength about where it’s going.
Except Ronald, his commitment is to the club for a long period of
time. It’s important that we talk about
our ambitions being aligned and that we are all still trying to achieve the
same things. So those discussions have
been ongoing and we are now at a point, as Ronald has said himself actually
getting down to the detail of the contract which is where agents and lawyers
get involved is at the end of the season which is where we are now and they are
ongoing and everything’s going very positively at the moment.
Q:
How big of an impact could the news that Virgil Van Dyke, *** all
committed their futures long term to the club have been building this summer as
well?
A:
Very important and that’s not finished you know the the I am still
talking to agents of our current players to get more of those signatures on
paper. This is the next step for us is,
you know, we’ve had two summers where ** the focus has been on players leaving
and we want to turn that corner and look at the focus of players committing to
the long term, buying into the long term and uh the vision for the future and
signing longer contracts because they want to be here so we we’re in the
process of all of that as well and as soon as that final whistle blows at the
end of the season and me and my staff kick into gear on all of these things and
uh you really are ** around and meetings in London, moving around even gone
abroad to get things underway as quickly as you can before the transfer window
opens and it really gets to the silly stage and hopefully we can settle down
and be complete as near as we can to the front end of the window rather than
the back end so it’s very very busy at the moment even though the season is
over and everyone seems to think it all quiets down it actually gets very busy
but at the moment the focus is on getting our players to commit long term to
keep the core of the squad together and then fine tuning up that squad which
Ronald and I have talked about for some months in terms of what are
requirements are not massive requirements.
This is a good squad it’s a good team we got depth in the squad and the
important thing is to keep that together and then fine tune it with with the um
little bits that we are missing uh rather than wholesale change and big big
changes. There are enough teams in this
summer transfer window gonna have to do that hopefully we can just keep thing
nice and stable and prepare properly for next season
Q:
You lost a few, we saw a few early signings, so to speak, done before,
signed before the first of July almost ready to join could that perhaps then be
different this year?
A:
Yeah, I think it’s different in the fact that the early signings so far
are Virgil Van Dyke, James **, and ** Foster um and that’s a good sign, that’s
a good sign um and at the moment there are a few more that we would like to do
that with but at the same time we are starting to look at targets for the
summer and as I say hopefully we can do those things quickly. The only problem you get in a year like this
is a Euros and then people wait because if they’ve got players in the Euros
sometimes they think they could have a good Euros they might be better
interested in them but of course there’s always a gamble if you have a poor
Euros than nobody’s interested but the Euros will also throw because there will
be lots and lots of scouts out there um maybe scouts with doctors must do
diligence as we do. We know what we
want, you know, but some people do react to players who have a good tournament
or players who have just jumped out of the paper that they haven’t seen before
because they score a couple of goals in the early rounds and they attempt to
buy them so it does skew the transfer window a bit but we know what are plans
are and um obviously we will be scouting the Euros but we’ll be scouting
players we know all about anyway
Q:
You talk about the Euros obviously waiting on the group stage
qualification. How difficult has that
made things to plan for preseason and where we go and where we head off?
A:
Yeah, that’s that’s uh it’s not easy when you’ve got you know what you
would want to achieve is a lot of international players in your squad. I have always said to be on the top end of the
Premier League your whole squad has to be international players and that’s
where we are at the moment not just the Euros but the ** tournament where we
had three players in the mandatory ones last night um so that means that they
need a rest and they need to come back a bit later um so you probably have
quite a young squad of players in the first part of the preseason um and that
planning that first part is difficult because you’ve got players returning from
the Euros. You do not know when they are
going to get knocked out of the competition so you do not know when their break
is going to start and then you’ve got the UEFA League which are way in for
qualification stages etcetera um so we’ve penciled in a training camp early
early in preseason which will probably be a young squad with the players who do
not play in the Euros um that is likely to be in the U.S. it’s not confirmed
yet but it would be a short short shot one probably a week and then as the
players return from Euros duty back in for training at Staplewood and then
probably the Dutch camp that we did last year um which makes planning easy
because you have done it before you know the venue, you know the hotel, that
makes it a lot easier and now we know our fate in the UEFA league we can start
to nail those things down um so we are now at the stage where training camps
are ok we know what our dates are going to be and who’s coming back when now
its confirming things like preseason friendlies and so on um and uh the buildup
to the season once we get back to St. Mary’s towards the end.
Q:
Seen three first team players commit their long term futures we
obviously had the news last week of the five players signing professional deals
Marcus ** signing a four year deal. The
future’s looking bright and that also brings me on to the loan players and
sending more players out on loan this season.
Was that perhaps a change in the club’s philosophy?
A:
Yeah, it’s a consequence of sorts. When you strength, widen and deepen
the first team’s squad um and achieve success in the Premier League it’s harder
for players to actually get in the squad get in the team and play regularly and
what’s important at this stage of the development is that they do get good
quality games under their belt um it’s something we take very seriously we
haven’t loaned players out in the past, one because they’ve come completely
through on the journey and got into our team um um and secondly, because um you
have to be very careful about the kinds of loans that you do. Um and we were not
too happy with the loans we did last year um so we are looking into ways and
means of making a lot more systematic in a way we deal with things so at the
moment, part of what I am doing is meeting with um other clubs Championship
clubs, League One clubs who would like to develop partnerships with us so we
get a little bit more control over the number of games our players get when
they go on loan, the kind of club they are playing for, the kind of style of
play and the coaching that they getting because the loan is not just about the
90 minutes on Saturday. It’s everything
that they do from Monday to Friday at the other club. We’d like to think that we can find loans for
them which mirror the kind of work that we do which is difficult but because
we’re um we’ve got a stake this is where we are in Premier League and our
reputation *** is very very good the ability to loan players to quality clubs
is quite good. The other thing me might
look at or are looking at is the potential of a partnership with a club in
Europe so that our players can also get the benefit of a European type
experience and almost, if you like, by loaning them get the same kind of
experience as someone like Jody ** got whilst he was playing in Holland before
he came to us. So there is a lot of work
being done on that front as well to make sure the loans are meaningful and a
stepping stone into our team
Q:
What are the aims for next season than?
A:
Aims for next season? Uh well like, you know, again, we’d like to think
what we’ve done this season has taken us another increment or step towards the
establishing ourselves in the top six.
Um so that would be the first step in doing that so again we would like
to repeat a top six finish we would like to consolodate the fact that we can
play in Europe every year um but also build uh and develop in such a way that
um if there’s an opportunity to break into that top four um than we need to be
ready for it not saying we will do it next season but we need to be ready if an
opportunity occurs. I think it’s going
to be a very interesting summer a very interesting season actually because
probably five or six of the traditional top six clubs or big six clubs
including spurs who now have broken into that Champion's League spot uh are
going to have to build and rebuild quite significantly uh new managers at the
top end, you know, managers moving around normally is accompanied by big
changes in players and so on and those six clubs are all competing for the same
level of player and they are not all going to get them so the idea that they
are all going to buy their way back and become the normal pecking order again I
don’t think it’s going to happen and if it does it won’t be for a few years I
think there is a lot of opportunity there for clubs like us.
Q:
I was going to ask you about Lester City and their incredible season
that also comes into play next year.
What did you take from it this year from what they achieved?
A:
I think uh I think it for me it’s quite fascinating because um the kind of
** they were getting albeit from a very lofty position at first or second in
the league most of the season were the kind of ** we were getting three years
ago. We were kind of the upstarts who
shook a few people um and um and we were getting incredible ** because it was
kind of that’s really good and we always felt like there was more there was
more and I think with Lester um I think Lester Lester had an incredible
momentum that was very difficult to stop so so having gone on a fantastic run
to avoid relegation um where I think ** did a great job was he didn’t change
much he just kept the momentum going so during that run in the previous season
they developed a fantastic team spirit a real diehard attitude um which they
carried on into the next season with a very minimal amount of tweaking and so
their belief just grew and grew and grew but I think what happened was the
belief that the top big six clubs or whatever are in invincible died away and I
think we started that and I am not trying to claim the glory from Lester
because they had the ability to take that to another level but I think I think
one or two other clubs Westham for instance believed that they were invincible
and could beat teams and they could beat teams on the road and I think there is
a mentality shift which has been coming for three years. Lester have actually taken advantage of it in
the circumstances which is that we don’t believe there is a pecking order we
don’t believe that all we are here for is to survive in the Premier League and
take the TV money you know 1440 points mentality I think is changing I think
there are no five or six clubs Stokes is another one who have shown this year
that we can actually take these guys on and take them on in their own backyards
just think of some of the defeats that those clubs have top six clubs have had
at home and I think that’s an indication to me that things aren’t just going to
return to normal so I think Lester let down the gauntlet for all of us to try
and follow. A lot of people will believe
and I am sure our fans believe if Lester can do it why can’t we? And that is the worry for the big clubs um
that’s the kind of rebellion that they would like to put down and I can’t see
how they are going to do that. They will
spend a lot of money I am sure but I think the landscape has changed and I
think there is an opportunity for the top half of the Premier League to become
much more competitive that is used to be um and there will be teams who want to
join that there will be teams who have not had a great season ** will be one
looking to build a new ground that got new ownership looking to invest so I can
just see the Premier League getting better and better and I think that will
help the clubs that play in the Champion's League to perform better in the
Champion's League even though there is a contra opinion that says it’s too hard
in the Premier League you can’t do both but I think if you manage it right the
fact that you have a play and now is the top team in this league you are at
your best, I think that you should carry that into the Champion's League in a
way that Lester carried the relegation fight into winning the Championship.
Q:
I was going to ask the challenge of managing the Europa League and the
Premier League for us next season is that almost a challenge the club will
relish?
A:
Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think
the thing is if you talk yourself out of it you can talk yourself into well
it’s pointless trying we are going to have a bad season because we are in the
Europa League or you can talk yourself into it and say it can be done you can
believe you are good at managing your player’s rest and recovery time that you
are good at your sports signs, your backup, how you travel, pay attention to
the detail um small small mountains get those right and it’s manageable. After all Championship clubs do it every year
and the number of games that they play and and I just think that ** would have
c** six extra games so let’s see how we fit them in how do we recover the score
between games what are we doing in terms of travel and so on and work at making
it work because the alternative is that you just persuade yourself that you are
not going to do it and if you do that you won’t.
