Aye. Motivation and respect for your boss is one of the biggest "key performance indicators" there are.

So you're saying that their performances up to this weekend were deliberately poor, so that Royce was given the boot.

No.

But if a person goes to their regular job with the mindset that they aren't going to perform but instead let someone else do the work or just let the job go to rot then it is highly likely that person will eventuallly be disciplined and possibly fired.

Unfortunately, so-called professional players do not get fired for giving out very unprofessional performances, as per the senior players at Saints over the few weeks Roby was absent. And instead of disciplining the players, McManus sacked the coaching team; the same coaching team who enabled a 10 week winning run last season to get into the GF, and be in a winning position, with awful injuries and a number of off field issues to deal with.

What if half of the entire department was underperforming, workers that you know have shown a lot of quality in the past? Surely you'd have to wonder whether there was something wrong with the supervisor rather than the workers, especially if that supervisor admits on record to not knowing what his team are doing.

Nope, that's just crazy talk.

Spot on. But lets not blame the players. And for anyone saying Simmons is to blame, did you have access to the team briefs and training sessions?

No I wouldn't because I know people well. I know about gang mentality, for example.

I would meet with everyone individually and establish their perspective. There could be grievances (bruised egos being typical, especially if I was rotating the more attractive responsibilities), external pressures, misunderstandings or lack of communication on both or one side.

But he wasn't rubbish really was he? He got Saints to a GF and a CC semi despite having most of his first team squad unavailable for large parts of the season and he also put a lot of faith in the young players that have done so well in the last 12 months and to be frank they repaid him by playing like they couldn't be d. The recruits he's brought in on big money have also let him down.

Simmons was a well respected player with a good coaching record and he seemed like a good bloke. IMO the players let him down at the end.

You wouldn't even consider it a possibilty?

I would consider ALL possibilities.

Well, you do seem so open to reason.