Topcat

Yes time for a poll to see what the split is. Have 3 options, Yes, No and don't know. It would be yes for me.

Basset has been at 10+ Clubs and Lowe was clearly the biggest meddler. Basset clearly regarded Lowe's actions as much much worse than any other Chairman he has had.

Drop on last year 5,628. Drop on that year and the prior one when we chased promotion was less than 1,000! Difference = Lowe.

NickG, you are really doing a sterling job in backing Rupert Lowe but at some point you will recognise reality, maybe down in L1? The facts are that the Club he is leading is doing a far worse job in attracting punters than any other one that was in the CCC last season. FACT. A fish rots from the head down and Lowe is the head of this fish. You make the point that low attendances are solely down to the team? A team full of home grown players? A team not built (until recently) of loanees and other outsiders.

But Lowe is linked to the catastrophic decline in attendances. That is something that has a major impact on finances. In the above I have made no mention of his meddling in team matters as a reason for Bank intervention so why raise it?

How much have attendances dropped compared to last season when we were also in a relegation fight? Last season average = 21,253 This season average = 15,625 Drop on last season = 5,628 Therefore the new regime has lost us 5,000 attendees. PS we have suffered the biggest loss in attendances of any CCC Club which was there in the previous season. Must be a reason? Cannot be the threat of relegation as we are getting used to that!

The Club can only continue to trade with the support of the Bank. With the return of Lowe, the attendances have fallen below the break even point. At what point is the Bank going to say enough is enough and that Lowe must step down and that someone else take over as Chairman/CEO of the main company? It is impossible to have a "spirit of Southampton" when the Club is headed up by someone who is so despised by some that they will not attend home games. The Club needs the cash and the players need the support from the missing thousands of supporters. In my view the Bank has to act right now and the best way to pressure them maybe through the Echo.

What does Jan know about the opponents? Nothing! Does Jan know why he keeps changing the CBs? Does Jan understand what a full back looks like? Or is the truth that he has to wait until he gets Lowe's "PickNmix list" to see who he is allowed to select from?

"Well it did not work out but we must not focus on blaming anyone, we have a relegation battle to win so its all hands to the pumps for victory, your Club needs you and we must all unite behind (my) latest appointment".

Stthrobber, Lowe has had this desire to play the youth in the first team earlier than the Manager wanted for years. Just one example was in Redknap's 2nd season when Lowe was pressuring Redknap to play more youngsters and Redknap resisted it by throwing them into a League cup game which they lost. The truth is Lowe is using the dire finances to justify this youth experiment. Yes the right word is "experiment". Just like the £1m squandered on the Woodward/training circus in our 1st CCC season.

Games played = 15 Different centre back partnerships = 8 Conclusion = Too many changes Yet again we wet into this season with an under manned defence and a Coach/Manager who did not create a solid defence in the off season. So why the surprise with the results? It is one thing to build a team of teenagers but why so many changes?

36m and he is still top. :-)

Why could Rupert Lowe not do the right thing for the good of the Club and leave? That would at a stroke remove the most divisive figure and would enable these calls for support from Killer and others to be heard without having to overcome the Lowe factor. Lowe must go, end of.

Lowelife has made so many fundamental mistakes that it is impossible to pick one that is the worst. Just look at recent years... 1. The strategy of quantity instead of quality (um pahars posts) 2.Failing to keep WGS 3. Selecting Sturrock when he did not fit the "Lowe style" 4. Sacking Sturrock. 5. Appointing Wigley. 6. Hiring Redknapp then blocking his wheeling dealing to build a defence by making a profit in that Jan relegation period rather than providing a £1m or 2m more to Redknapp. 7. Only providing £120k for a striker in the 1st year down in the CCC which is the best year to have a chance of promotion. 8. Hiring Woodward & the ball juggler to undermine Redknapp and wasting £1m on that rather than investing in the 1st team. 9. Hiring Burley with his poor recent record in the CCC. 10. Reneging on his promise to Higginbotham of a new deal. 11. Sacking NP. 12. Hiring JP.

So did Lowe popping in motivate the team? Well we drew at home. That is relegation form. Lowe therefore contributed to the failure to win.

We have a lot to thank Leon Crouch for. He has (like Wilde) put his own money at risk by purchasing shares in Saints. He was maybe too loyal to Burley (Lowe's appointment) and was too decent in being prepared to back the inhouse Dodd and Gorman. Pearson was a brilliant appointment. I hope that he is putting together a rescue consortium should we be relegated. At that stage the shares (including his own) will be worthless and the bank will be looking to see if anyone is willing to take on the debts in return for ownership of the Club that I would call a "Saints 2009". He will need 1. An able CEO. 2. A new deal with Saints Trust mk2 3. A solid team Manager 4. A credible group of former Saints players. Channon etc. I suggest he looks at some kind of long term purchase of STs over a 5 year period which also carry a value in shares in a "Saints 2009". We need a Club part owned by supporters committed to STs.

Reading the above posts that Lowe hands JP a list of players to pick from leaves me dumbfounded. Can anyone tell us what other Clubs in the Championship are run in this way by their Chairman? Also we do not put out the best team from our squad, we put out the team that will cost the least in match day appearance money. That chimes with the reason Stern John left, his appearance money was too high to meet Lowe's game day limit. Meanwhile in the real world 5,000 supporters stay away because of the poor team/Lowe and cost £250k a home game. Madness.

9,850 people that actually turn up.

The difference is there may not a Club to support in a few years time.

Good post cambsaint. I note that no one has disagreed with you. We knew we had financial problems, but to remove Nigel Pearson was just a plain stupid move by Lowe. It was another one of Lowe's "bright ideas". All those "bright ideas" have brought us down. To get more supporters to attend matches would require a Chairman who treated them with respect (as Graffito writes). Removing Nigel Pearson looks like it will be a contributing factor to the demise of this Club. Just as removing Paul Sturrock on flimsy grounds partly contributed to our relegation.

So that is the problem. Portaloo is used to training teams for far fewer games than we play as the Dutch league has less games, so his training schedule does not suit the Championship. Maybe the solution is to rotate in the reserves for all away games and just play a first team for home games so the young lads legs can last 90 minutes?

"We are not going to do a Leeds" (relegated twice and put into administration.) Oh yes we are under Lowelife.

s0108787 wins my vote for d***head poster of the month.

Portaloo sounded like a dead man walking. If he loses the next one he will be gone. Trouble is that Lowelife who has the worst record in picking Manager/coaches will be making that decision. (Fact based on the number of Managers Lowe went through that was worse than any other Chairman of any League club.)

That is what scooby said about Pearson. After 13 games Portaloo has lost 7 games, 4 more than Pearson did in 14 games. Pearson also won the same number 3, but he did draw 7 whereas portaloo has drawn 3. Portaloo has a worse record than Pearson. Pearson took over a demoralised team in free fall and managed to eke out enough results. Portaloo took over before the season, decided what players he wanted to retain and had weeks to get the team ready before the season started.