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The Blame Game


Guided Missile

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...is very popular on this site, but it has unfortunately been focusing on those that were responsible for our relegation. Now, I don't think that particular pastime will be settled or concluded. In an effort to move on, I think that posts on this site, rather than predictably degenerate into who caused our relegation, should now concentrate on who was responsible for our failure to gain promotion.

 

 

My initial list is not exhaustive, but in some order of where I think the blame should be aportioned:

  1. Michael Wilde
  2. Leon Best
  3. Jack Daniels
  4. George Burley
  5. Steve Howard
  6. Leon Crouch
  7. Keith Wiseman
  8. The Saints Trust
  9. A random selection of Championship referees
  10. My Wife (on the basis that in the absence of a scapegoat, things are always her fault)

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Right GM, I'll go for:

 

1. George Burley - some of his selections couldn't have been more bizarre if George had run with the teamsheet and a bottle of JD and created crop circles on the SMS pitch. We could have had Micah Richards in the squad and Burley STILL would have picked Jermaine Wright at RB. To think I defended Burley on TSF as well - cheers George!

2. Jim Hone - the pre-match Charlton statement sent us into freefall when we had built up some form. Prize idiot appointed by Wilde. The fact Hone recruited John Barnes as Celtic manager says it all.

3. Leon Best - awful own goal and awful penalty. Has been a complete tosser for Coventry as well

4. Michael Wilde - Football First - COYR!

5. Leon Crouch - the man who paid Euell £15k p/wk

6. Pele - for that shocking display in play-off first leg

7. Redknapp - partly to blame for a wasted 05/06 by being so negative and not bringing in better players

8. Lowe - sorry GM - for tinkering with the whole SCW experiment when we should have been putting the first parachute season to better use! He talked Harry into staying and then made him report to SCW - I don't like Harry but that wasn't smart from Rupert. Also cleared the appointment of Simon Clifford...

9. Simon Clifford - helped to destroy morale in the key part of 05/06 and wound up the first teamers and staff with his attitude as much as anything else. I know an academy player from that time and Clifford was not popular with the younger age groups either!

10. Askham - is at the root of SFC's problems in the last 20 years. Continues to glue together one share proxy that along with Wilde in the middle blowing to the prevailing wind, rivals the Crouch camp and all three share groups ensure that SFC is unattractive for investment and that the boardroom has been an utter mess long before Rupert even rode in on that motorcycle!

 

No blame for Mrs M though, I'm sure she's sweetness and light!

Edited by saint1977
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Guest Hacienda

We had the £££ to go up and the squad.

 

However the £££ was spunked on dross and the manager didn't seem to know his best team or what players to play in what positions.

 

The manager takes the blame for me.

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I haven't seen too many negative posts in the last few weeks, which is good considering mos fans are looking forward to the start of a new season.

 

Why continue the debate that about something that happened months ago? Does anyone really give a toss anymore?

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Lowe, Redknapp and Burley have to be up there for the wasted first season down whilst we still had parachute payments. Lowe spending 90k on Fuller alone was a joke, Redknapp couldn't give a monkey's and Burley dismanted the team 1/2 way through the season (madness).

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end of 03/04 season fans and directors block hoddle appointment. Lowe forced into compromise candidate

 

04/05 season:

Bad signings by sturrock

Lowe Bad Managerial decisions

 

05/06

bad management by redknapp, former pl players playing terribly

 

06/07 season:

too weak in defence but still unlucky in play off final

in hindsight burley's spending on wages was allowed to spiral out of control by weak board

 

07/08

wage bill was allowed to ascalate rather than being slashed.

No cb at start of season, not replacing burley immediately

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I think Redknapp could have done it if he'd been arsed stuck around, but likewise, he could have kept us up pretty easily if he'd put as much effort in as he has with other jobs.

 

I don't like to blame just one person, it's never that simple, but there's no doubt George Burley has cost this club a huge, huge amount.

 

If we get back up it'll be because a manager has formed a good team on a shoestring and got the best out of the entire squad. Burley had a lot of good players anyway, an excellent youth team to develop, AND a huge amount of money to spend for this league, along with silly wages being offered. Add to that having a couple of years to work with, and the benefit of having Rupert Lowe there to take all the blame and remove focus from your own mistakes and conduct.

 

Burley never formed a team. Never got everyone playing to their potential, nor even comfortable in their positions. He fell out with people, he set his sights low when we'd gambled on promotion. He was negative, he made excuses early on, as redknapp had. I haven't heard JP make any and I didn't hear Pearson make any. Some managers are just more positive, more proactive, and overall just better at their jobs. They look to do the best with the resources they have. If there's no money, get a loan player, build the confidence of an out of form player, call on a reserve, look to the youth team. Don't moan about it, carry on with the same old rubbish and blindly hope all will be ok. Already I've heard JP make more insightful post match comments in 2 months than GB did in 2 years. All that "bad luck" nonsense and "it'll come right" crap. How about MAKE it come right, do your job. People have differing opinions on him, fine, but I'd be absolutely amazed if anyone truly believed he had got the best out of the resources he had. Surely that's all any manager, at any level can do?

 

Truth is Adrian I don't think Burley put his heart into the job either, any more than Redknapp did. Both Pearson and JP are more positive characters but as I've said to many people on the forum let's not put JP on too much of a pedestal early on as the season isn't underway yet and he's got a very tough job on his hands. That said, he has impressed me with his attitude and discipline - I think players at SFC are prone to thinking "provincial club, a backwater, let's mess around, not train properly and not take it seriously". So a mix of coaching, mentoring, and discipline against some strong benchmarks of what is expected should stop this from happening.

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04/05 season:

Not backing Sturrock, otherwise suitabilty was evident earlier and no action taken

Board appoint Wigley and cap it with Redknapp

Killer injury

 

05/06

Wrong time to experiment with Woodward as DoF

Board put strangle hold on Redknapp which doesn't suit his one dimensional management style.

Players more interesting in jumping ship

Money spent updating good training facilities to state of the art

To many other distractions than focusing on the one objective to return to the EPL

 

06/07 season:

I thought Burley was a good appointment but it turned out to be a financial disaster where it seems he had free reign to sign players in the summer regardless of team requirements

Too weak in defence but still unlucky in play off final (agree)

Wilde's broken promises

 

07/08

Lack of defence, defence, defence!

Burley again

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Spot on Saint1977.

 

3 and a half seasons of management by managers who did not want to be here,appointed by Lowe.

 

Lowes legacy endured even after he was kicked out.

 

However,i praise Lowe for what he is doing now,even if it was forced upon him by financial constraints.

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Spot on Saint1977. 3 and a half seasons of management by managers who did not want to be here,appointed by Lowe. Lowes legacy endured even after he was kicked out. However,i praise Lowe for what he is doing now,even if it was forced upon him by financial constraints.

We could, of course, still have Crouch in the chair,and the other failed directors of the past 2 years - who allowed Burley to spend money the club didn't have and who nearly took Saints down to the 3rd Division for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Lowe and Wilde have had nothing forcerd on them that they were not prepared to face. They did not have to return and as shareholders, they were well aware of the financial situation. They could have let Crouch get on with it, or let the club go into administration. Neither have so much invested in SFC that it would have damaged either of them in terms of wealth. Both deserve some credit for being prepared to try to rescue the club, despite the abuse that Lowe in particular must have known he would have to endure from some quarters.

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We could, of course, still have Crouch in the chair,and the other failed directors of the past 2 years - who allowed Burley to spend money the club didn't have and who nearly took Saints down to the 3rd Division for the first time in nearly 50 years.

 

You speak as if the jump from Premiership to 3rd tier was only one step. We were in the Premiership for over 27 years before we dropped a division. The further drop would have had a lot to do with the loss of the Sky money and parachute payments when we failed to gain promotion after two seasons.

 

Lowe and Wilde have had nothing forcerd on them that they were not prepared to face. They did not have to return and as shareholders, they were well aware of the financial situation. They could have let Crouch get on with it, or let the club go into administration. Neither have so much invested in SFC that it would have damaged either of them in terms of wealth. Both deserve some credit for being prepared to try to rescue the club, despite the abuse that Lowe in particular must have known he would have to endure from some quarters.

 

They might well both be wealthy enough men in their own right, but not mega wealthy. As such, I doubt whether either would be able to just shrug their shoulders at the potential loss if the club went into administration when there was an opportunity through their allegiance to regain control and influence themselves the direction the club took. So let's not kid ourselves; they came back purely for selfish reasons, so on that basis they deserve no credit. There is no evidence that the two failures are back here for the good of the club rather than for the good of Rupert Lowe and Michael Wilde. As for the personal abuse they might get as a result of their return, I suspect that Lowe would shrug it off as the opinions of the Neanderthals and Wilde is hardly ever here, but of the two of them, Lowe is Lowe and hasn't changed his spots. It's Wilde who is worthy of the greater derision, as he is a turncoat, a Quisling.

 

But his past record is such that he could turn yet again given the circumstances beneficial to him.

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It was all Matthew Le Tissier's Fault if he had not in my opinion kept us up for many seasons at the Dell we would have already been relegated and would not be having this sensless debate.

 

 

However the main reasons to relegationwere injuries to key players are the start of the relegation season and the inability to appointment a suitable manager after Strachan's departure I and many others did not want Hoddle but in hindsight his appointment may well have kept us in the Premiership as realistically there were not any outstanding canidates that is why Wigley was eventually appointed.

 

The main reason for us not being promoted were that other teams were better than us Derby deserved promotion they won more games than us.

 

We never had a settled team so how could we really compete I feel Jan P understands this and we will do better this season

Edited by John B
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1. Rupert Lowe. The buck stops at the top i'm afraid, his erratic experimentation with management structure cost us dearly in the relegation season and following Championship campaign. He appointed Sturrock and failed to back him, he appointed Redknapp and it backfired. HE appointed Burley. Had he retained better focus back in 2004 we wouldn't be in this mess. I just hope he has learned from it.

 

2. Crouch/Wilde. Throw everything into plan A, it always works doesn't it....

 

3. Fickle fans. Who wants to play for a team who boos their own players? Turns on them at the slightest sign of poor things to come. I hope we are done with that now.

 

4. Redknapp. As stated before, he just couldn't be ****ed with us.

 

5. Burley. Again, posts above cover this one really.

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Lowe was well gone when Wilde gave Burley the family silver to put on black - he put it on red. He bought his old mates then played everyone out of position. His dropping of Rasiak for the second half of the play-off season is for me one of the greatest unanswered questions in the history of SFC....

 

Wilde gave Burley enough transfer funds to get us promoted in the play-off season. Burley blew it.

 

Therefore, Burley is number #1 in a list of guilt about not winning promotion by a long, long, long way...Wilde and Lowe are only guilty of giving Burley too much respect and lattitude. Wilde is guilty of taking a big risk, and Lowe probably the opposite in our first CCC season.

 

For me, not much blame can be ascribed to the likes of Crouch, Pearson, Dodd and Gorman - we werent even at the races last year thanks to the damage Burley did the previous season and over last summer.

 

Number #2 for me is Leon Best - reasons obvious.

 

Number #3 is Idiakez - ditto

 

Number #4 is Baird for not playing to the whistle in the Derby home regular game. It went downhill from there.

 

Number #5 is Pele for giving away that peno.

 

Number #6 is Steve Howard - but the fukker was doing his job...

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...is very popular on this site, but it has unfortunately been focusing on those that were responsible for our relegation. Now, I don't think that particular pastime will be settled or concluded. In an effort to move on, I think that posts on this site, rather than predictably degenerate into who caused our relegation, should now concentrate on who was responsible for our failure to gain promotion.

 

 

My initial list is not exhaustive, but in some order of where I think the blame should be aportioned:

  1. Michael Wilde
  2. Leon Best
  3. Jack Daniels
  4. George Burley
  5. Steve Howard
  6. Leon Crouch
  7. Keith Wiseman
  8. The Saints Trust
  9. A random selection of Championship referees
  10. My Wife (on the basis that in the absence of a scapegoat, things are always her fault)

 

 

Is it ok to blame Lowe if we ever get promoted again

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