December 1, 2022

If you’re reading this, you probably already can guess what I am sad about. Developments in recent days involving the Sailors have really left me scratching my head and wondering – what is the direction for our Sailors moving forward, and why has all this change happened? If you need some context, perhaps read this article in the Straits Times (https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/football-stars-key-backroom-staff-depart-lion-city-sailors). Fan favourites Faris Ramli, Gabriel Quak, Hassan Sunny, and Shahdan Sulaiman were among 6 players confirmed to be released, along with Iqram Rifqi and Naqiuddin Eunos. Of course, the Straits Times perhaps chose to focus on the four bigger names because they are some of the “highest-paid local footballers” – implying that the motivation for these decisions was mostly financial. But was it? Cost-cutting? Or something more? So the Straits Times subtly implies that it has to do with costs. This is a natural inference, given that SEA and Shopee have been laying off staff, pulling out of markets, and having their financial woes reported all over for large parts of this year. In fact, we tried our best to see for ourselves what the situation was like, when we wrote an article and released a podcast (https://sailorfantalk.com/2022/11/19/should-fans-be-worried-about-forrest-li-sea-losing-money/). We tried to remain optimistic back then – and perhaps that was the responsible thing to do, especially when we didn’t have any evidence to speculate the worst. But the worst has materialised. Besides the players being released, a significant number of backroom staff have been released as well. This was the saddest part of it all for me, but more on that later. The statement put out by LCS (https://www.lioncitysailorsfc.sg/sailors-ceo-chun-liang-a-rollercoaster-2022-but-smooth-seas-never-made-a-skilled-sailor/) suggests that this is a “strategic reset”, and no mention is made about cost-cutting. In fact, more mention was made about how the failures this year have led to the club taking drastic action. A few players I can understand, but backroom staff at all levels? Besides those mentioned in the article, I know of several other staff who were let go, or voluntarily left. If you talk about the need for a reset, why is there a need for Logistics staff to go? I can’t really think of a reason for needing to change things around in the Logistics department. Is there even a need for a reset? And then we look at whether there is even a need for a reset – or such a drastic one. This is a team of playing staff and backroom staff who not just won the title last season, but also performed pretty well in the AFC Champions League barely months ago. On the pitch, the players did not look out of place alongside Daegu FC’s players. We beat them once 3-0, and then in the second game, lost it in pretty extraordinary circumstances. When we came back, we also managed to avoid the pitfalls that Tampines Rovers went through last year. The team’s physical workload seemed to have been well-managed, and they did not look fatigued when they returned to league action. This was a major problem for Tampines last year as they really struggled when they returned from their Champions League campaign, so I was glad that it was not repeated in LCS. In fact, we went into the final months of the season with a good lead over Albirex Niigata (S). We will dedicate a whole article and video to our speculation as to why we did not win the title, but suffice to say, it seemed that for a long time this season, the playing and non-playing staff seemed to have functioned at a pretty high standard. To cut almost all of them seems pretty drastic. And of course, I think I might be ignoring the elephant in the room here. It seems pretty apparent to me (and many fans) that in this “reset”, it seems that one of the key elements of our failure last season, was how quickly things went to shit after Coach Kim was sacked and Coach Luka took over. I am not blaming him entirely for it – I do think the players have to take some responsibility for this as well, but how come it seems there are no consequences for him? Who was let go? Many people were let go, but let’s focus on a few of them. Take Firdaus Massar and Mario Jovanovic. These are coaches who have worked with world-class stars – Firdaus with EPL clubs like Liverpool and Wolves, and Jovanovic who was Strength & Conditioning Coach with the Croatian national youth teams. When they came in, Firdaus said – “The Sailors are currently working to put in place a well-structured sports science department, and have improved their backend and technical capabilities immensely, which is a clear sign that they are serious about becoming one of the best teams in the region.” Now that you cut both, what gives? What happens to this “well-structured sports science department”? Are we promoting staff from the academy? And if you do that, are they qualified enough to do the job? Even if they are, then what happens to our much-vaunted academy? Are they double-hatting? So many questions, so few answers. The “Staff” section on the Sailors website has also seemingly been removed. Then our physios. With Kak Fizah gone, will there be a full-time physio taking charge of the players, or are we moving back to the system in the past where we had team doctors who did not work on the premises full-time? If she is replaced, will it be someone of a similar stature? Is there someone in the local scene of a similar stature and with the depth of experience dealing with professional footballers as she does? And I haven’t even discussed those who voluntarily left. Although some did move on to better opportunities, I wonder if this is all a coincidence, and if it is a symptom of something happening internally that we fans should be worrying about. What it means to support a club When