Topcat

That is the key problem. Where is the good Manager?

and that Window Cleaner hits the nail on the head about Kreuger. He appears to be all talk and no action. One of the worst types of Leaders.

Window cleaner, if Saints goes t**s up under Kreuger he will no find much demand at the top end of speaking. More Ratner than Gates.

Agreed.

The Club tried to get RL to go to West Ham some months ago so you cannot blame him for sorting his own future out asap.

We also started the season with Wigley a rookie Manager who was way out of his depth and a shortage of Prem quality fit centre backs..... If Lovren is offski....

The formal approach was in or around 17th May. Two weeks ago - see the media reports. Kreuger said in an interview that they knew about Spurs interest in MP in january. The discussions on likely player sales/purchases would have happened about 4 weeks ago. At that point MP seems to have told them about his unhappiness with their plans.

The problem is that Ralph's plan seems to have omitted a short list of who they would offer the Saints manager job to once MP started meeting the Spuds.

One big example is Davos. "He is also known for his involvement in the World Economic Forum, where since 2011 he has been a Member, Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership.[7]" This is where most Heads of State and Heads of the largest global companies meet up. Ralph is rated worthy enough to attend. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Economic_Forum

Ralph Kreuger is a real puzzle. He is not behaving as a top flight exec should do. He had all the right platitudes in the interview but has no sense of understanding how to manage in a crisis which needed swift immediate action (Manager appointment) when he had months of notice that he would need to appoint one!

What should we expect from a well run Company that hears 4+ months earlier strong rumours that a key employee (MP) maybe poached. 1. They decide if we want them (if yes better terms) 2. They draw up a short list of exactly who to start negotiations with if the employee starts to leave. It is now 2 weeks after MP/Spuds will have notified the Club formally of their interest. They probably knew that MP was off when they had the discussion with him some weeks earlier about likely player sales and purchases. Yet the replacement appointment has not been made. Where was the February short list Les Reed? We should expect that this has been rumbling since the start of May, 4 weeks ago. The failure to appoint by now is therefore a strong indication of a badly run organisation. Reed maybe the cause, but Kreuger has an international reputation at risk. He is falling far far short of his "CV". At some point the UK papers are going to dump on Kreuger and Reed big time. They are running out of time to salvage their reputations. Reed should know that, Kreuger is about to find out.

I agree that 3 games is too early to judge. We have 4 points which should ease the pressure until at least late Sept. That said if we look back at these 3 games and the previous 6 in the Prem, then we have a run of form with just 1 win. 8 points from 9 games is relegation form. Picking up 4 points from this season's 3 games and two were away games, could look good, but all three were against teams that are not in the top 6. We even dropped points in our only home game to Sunderland, a team that has lost its other 2 games. Overall this season's form is probably equivalent to 40/45 point season based on these 3 opponents. But if we beat WHU and CP in 2 of the next 3 then the concerns will go away.

Those attacking the thread seem to have little understanding of the necessity for a Club to maximise its profit and loyalty through all its services. Taking £10 less per customer is circa £300,000 a game and £6m less in a season. That £6m would pay the wages of a top player (or several).

After Pardew left the team's performance did slump for 5 games and we picked up just 1 point in 5 games*. A slump like that would probably bury us in the PL as we could not expect to then get from 11 remaining games, 4 wins and 3 draws. * Adkins in charge for just 3, 2 losses and a draw.

People understand when someone is sacked for poor performance. But when it is not done for those reasons the new appointment and the decision taker are tainted by the action.

Delldays, it is widely perceived that Adkins had extensive support from within the team. Several openly stated how shocked they were. If a popular team leader is suddenly removed and someone unfamiliar to them takes over, it does cuase a dip in morale. The question is how short will be the dip. A win tonight would remove that dip and help players move on ... the same with supporters.

Yes and the random money has judged that the change has made our chances worse. The bookies follow the money.

Yes, IF several new players come in that the new Manager wants.

GlasgowSaint raises the most important facts we are facing. A point a game is probably what we need to stay up. Anything less and we will probably go down and Cortese's decision will be widely ridiculed.

The one thing Cortese got right is that he had found Adkins replacement before he fired him. But to disrupt team morale at this point just seems to be stupid. He will need to beat Everton tonight to turn around the dip in morale.

You left out his "stunning" record as Charlton's manager.

At least one bookmaker has shortened the odds on us being relegated after the change of Manager and Everton are evens to win tonight. These are independent people risking their money on the impact of the change.

What I would like to see is a thorough evaluation of the finances of Southampton based on a pessimistic scenario of getting relegated. There are reliable reports that Cortese has loaded £20m+ of debt onto the Club and assigned future ticket sales to fund it. For the statement at the top of the thread "Cortese has invested well" to be justified, it would have to be on the basis that any debt could be funded in the short to long term based on scenarios that include relegation.

Fitzhugh Fella, your post at the top of this thread ignores one key commercial problem. A business funded to a large extent by customers cannot afford to operate in a way that is offensive to the moral beliefs of a large part of its customers. Starbucks felt the heat on that and Ratners dissappeared. The Club now has two main suppliers of cash, Sky and the customers, the Markus money has stopped.

If only that was the facts. The true picture is that this season there has been very little inward investment to fund the Club and the Club has borrowed a very large sum £20m+ backed by next seasons ticket sales. If we did go down at the end of this season we may have a dangerous financial meltdown.