CB Fry

I think he should be saluted for recognising that he couldn't quite cut it at the very highest level, and sensibly bailed out before he embarrassed himself. The Kevin Keegan of Chairmanship if you will. No question he could do a job at his level, where you don't need to engage big corporate shirt sponsors or be prepared to work alongside demanding owners. He's the perfect man to drag a club like Sheffield Wednesday out of the Championship for example.

100% this. The post - Denmark late eighties hummel stripes kit was absolute perfection IMO.

At least we would look completely unique and not like Stoke and Sunderland, though.

Spectacular overreaction to the club putting the club crest on their twitter feed. The silver badge was a "new dawn" was it? Diddums. In other news we are currently mid table in the top division, a place we have been many times before with a full colour badge and everything.

Well, if I may be so bold, that would be total fu cking sh it. Jeez, lets hope not.

Just watched the news and it looks like they have identified a new suspect, who seems to be have been wearing the Arsenal "redcurrant" home shirt from their centenary season or whatever it was. Except C4 News too scared to actually say that so painfully described as a "burgundy long sleeve top". Odd.

The diagonal pinstripes? Would probably look okay if we had black shorts/white socks. How do you know anyway?

As others have said, the interview doesn't make that 'pretty clear' at all. Secondly, can't actually remember a specific occasion when Cortese had 'stuck two fingers up at a the big boys'. Which player and which club, when? I don’t think we've had a formal bid from anyone, except Lambert/WHU which if we believe some reports NC was quite keen on anyway, and either way the player said no.

Was he interviewed? Do we know this for sure?

This is a reference to our current ticketing policy, not expansion, right?

But you don't need to build more seats to "grow the fanbase". You need to attract more fans through clever marketing/pricing and, crucially, success on the pitch. I know all you ever do is this cart - before - the - horse routine but as ever you are wrong. Once we have "grown the fanbase" to, say, 26 thousand season ticket holders, a waiting list and a sell out of every single game then we have a case. Over - supply doesn't in itself create demand. Especially when stadium expansion is a gigantic capital commitment.

Actually, entirely possible that three seasons of Europa football might depress average attendances - loads of Sunday kick offs, plenty more games for the casual fan to spread about. Anyhow, we won't be in the Europa League campaign for several seasons in a row.

Selling out pretty much every match. Significant waiting list for season tickets. Consistent European football might bring that about but that's unlikely anyway.

Krueger only wants us to win the divisional conference play off or something. And then go for the play offs. Do you realise this Krueger man has absolutely no idea that there are any differences between American Football (Football) and British Football Association Soccerball (sometimes known as Gridiron or Lacrosse). People on here needed to tell him. The man is a Yankee redneck hillbilly fool or something.

I would say this is the kind of thing RK has been talking about. This, and replacing the pitiful shirt sponsorship deal our previous outstanding businessman negotiated, is the start of realising our "untapped commercial potential". Not becoming an internationally renowned football giant as some of the dribblers on this forum have started to believe he meant. We're, like, gonna win da Superbowl and everything.

An eye - watering amount of strawman nonsense crammed in to one forum post. Brilliant stuff.

You are getting awfully het up about something our new Chairman said we could be "A little bit like". But really well done on the deep analysis that throwaway line really needed. It's like listening to an autistic teenager struggling to deconstruct a proverb. But funnier of course. Ralph Krueger: member of the World Economic Forum. Strawlock: utter dinlow on football fans forum.

Nobody needs to mention it because only you seem to be thinking that RK thinks that Saints are going for the Superbowl. Everyone else took his couple of quotes as they were intended, especially as it was an interview contextualising Saints for a US/international audience, rather than contextualising the GBP to to a Southampton audience. I hope you do drop our Ralph a quick email, because I reckon he has no idea whatsoever that there are different "constraints" in the English Premier League compared to the NFL until you've mentioned it just now. Because if you don't he's going to look a right chump on Monday morning when he starts asking Poch about his upcoming draft picks. Thank god you're here.

"We can be a little bit like the sentimental favourite in the organisation, like the Green Bay Packers". Key phrase there is "little bit". But really riveting stuff about the NFL draft system, Strawlock. Apparently it's all different and that to the Premier League. Who knew? Oh. Everyone. Everyone knew.

Odd. I was in the middle of replying to Frank's piffle about glass ceilings and how we can't possibly replace Luke Shaw with eight million pounds. Oh, and generally laughing at his seemingly desperate need for the SFC chief exec to pretend we can get to the top four, regardless of actually having the means to achieve it. And merely finishing twelfth in the Prem is now beneath Franko. Let's see how that plays out in the next few years. He's a funny old chap.

Sounded a bit chaotic at the end but a nice win, and a brilliant start to our exciting new era. A fantastic time to be a Saints fan again.

I called him a quitter because he quit. On my planet we call that a fact. I inferred he didn't have skills to progress us further because he refused to accept a change in emphasis. Getting to the highest level involves facing onto adversity, change management and getting your head down and going again. That's what top level sports and business people do. That ain't what Cortese did. He was so driven to take Saints to the Champions league that he ran for the hills the minute he stopped getting his own way. Or, if you will, he quit. He quit. He quitted. He quitified. He is a quitter.

What? I am saying Cortese left because he couldn't have total control over everything. That is a fundamental flaw because it stopped him taking us further. He's quit you know. Had you not noticed?

You don't see anyone agreeing with me? Apart from Badger, Saint Richmond (about as far from one of my "yes men" as you can get) and, I think, Ottery too (difficult to tell with his posting style). So two posters with the same theories as me posting within the last half hour or so. But yeah, no one shares my view. Grasp that stick, or have we all got "flawed judgement"?

Hilarious you accuse me of grasping the wrong end of the stick. He does lack the skills to take the club into the Champions League because the key skills he needed was to "manage upwards" to give him the room to achieve that goal. Being pig - headed/single minded etc is plenty to haul the club out of the lower divisions but in the billionaires row of the top six you need to have a little more in your kit bag. He couldn't cut it. So he quit. Grasp that stick.