CB Fry

Underwhelmed if I am honest. This man is walking into a pressure cooker and will be expected to deliver promotion, probably automatically, by May. Dragging a team from oblivion to promotion to L1 is dealing with a different kind of pressure for sure, but it sure as hell isn't expectation, which is the key source of pressure at SFC this season. Hey, whoever gets the job gets the job, but Howe doesn't fulfil the criteria for me, like to see someone with big club experience looking for a way back - another Pardew if you will. I wonder if anyone will challenge your info today, FF?!

Hmmm. I work in FMCG Brand Marketing and we all laud what Coca-cola can do in terms of distribution and awareness. We can strive for it, and we can take the principles from it but my brand despite being pretty famous is never going to be Coke. One of the assets football club "brand" has in its credit column is acres and acres and acres of free advertising, locally and nationally. Very low cost, very high value. That is the kind of PR coverage that money literally cannot buy. Walking away from that for control, or for "profit" is simply not a very bright strategy. We are not the Champions League. We are not any league. Anyway, I think we all know this is not a commercial decision or part of a commercial strategy, so it's a bit of a redundant argument. It's about a control thing driven by pettiness and paranoia. Maybe our new marketing hotshot will set him straight.

Well, as long as they let the Echo photographers back in, that's fine by me*.

Yeah, and? As I said, what will be will be. Cortese is replaceable. Southampton Football Club will not die if Nicola Cortese isn't involved in it. I'm not desperate to see him go, but I don't subscribe to the needy messiah worship that has taken over on this forum.

Not really. If Blackpool and Burnley can get to the Premier League, no reason we can't. Cortese is definitely replaceable. If he goes, he goes and what will be will be. They'll still be a Southampton Football Club and we'd be perfectly capable of getting promoted to the Championship. We're not Yeovil or Leyton Orient - we've got a massive fanbase and great facilities and infrastructure, esp for this division.

The ban on photographers isn't a commercial decision, and wasn't taken for commercial reasons, and wasn't taken on the advice on some bright spark from Marketing. One of the first rules of marketing is about "reach" and getting your brand/product in as many faces as possible as efficiently as possible. Intentially withdrawing your "brand" from circulation does not benefit said brand in any meaningful way, especially when said brand is L1 no-mark team every national media outlet can live without for at least two more years. We might be "successful", but the Sun/whoever can run six lines on us every Monday all season with no effect on their circulation. If it were last season, we'd be getting full pages with photos. Oh well. Our marketing bright spark is clearly some kind of genius and will soon be off to Man United or Chelsea as these two, along with every other club in the country haven't followed our revolutionary way of thinking. They must have right thickos in their marketing departments what with us having the expert in his field......

Keegan as manager I really don't think would be too bad. Pretty sure he'd get us out of the division this season with no bother. Not sure longer term, but would be an instant lift.

If you think it is the "perogative of the chairman" to deny access of photos from home matches to the local paper then fine. My view is slightly different - I see the role of Cortese as custodian of the club, not dictator of it. He can make decisions, but if those decisions negatively affect the experience of supporting the club for a significant section of the fan base then no, I don't think "Nicola Cortese's perogative" should swallowed without challenge. It's not much to ask for the thousands of Saints fans reading match reports in the Echo to get to see a picture or two from the match. Really not an unreasonable thing for a fan of say, forty years standing, to be able to enjoy that, especially the older fans who don't go along anymore. So.....Any objection to us turning out in blue at home next season? Or renaming the team the Solent Swiss FC? Or installing himself as manager? When does "Nicola Cortese's perogative" run out in your world, or is he just allowed to do anything he likes, unchallenged, unquestioned, unthinkingly obeyed? But, at 49 years old your response to these things is "it doesn't affect me, I don't care" then no, I don't think you are ever going to grow up. God save us from the Cortese lapdogs.

...that's its not as good as a full page report plus pictures of our next thumping home victory in Britains biggest daily paper? ....that pointless bad publicity about a childish ban is not as good as good publicity about us storming up the league? ....that it's not as good as allowing the local paper to print pictures for their readers, thousands of saints fans, to see? No clearly, being in the papers for an arcane argument about photographic rights is far better publicity for our football club to have. Far better.

Why are you asking me - I don't. But plenty of people on this thread clearly do, you can read it yourself. And why on earth do you think this is Saints v The Sun? Why keep going on about the Sun? I can attack Cortese for his pathetic, childish and pointless action without being a cheerleader for the Sun. And no-one can "only get their Saints news via the Sun". Grow up.

The only person whining about "don't take piccy wiccys" is Cortese acting like a selfish infant wahhhhh I'm bigger than Man United and a picture of Dan Harding taking a throw in is worth more than gold wahhh wahhh wahhh. Pointless, infantile, pathetic. The Sun aren't whining, just mocking the utter stupidity of this pointless action. You people making out this photo ban is the greatest business decision since the invention of powered flight are the foolish ones.

I thought my thread about spoonfeeders was narrow and unintelligible but you've knocked it into a c o cked hat with that masterpiece.

Why, what's your take? If we do appoint this idiot you'll be first on this forum bleating on about how we must give him three full seasons before anyone is allowed to judge his performance and he must not be sacked under any circumstances even if we get relegated because that's what happened with Lawrie Mac and after all Sir Alex Ferguson went through much the same and look at them now and anyway blah blah blah etc etc blah blah. In your dopey world we're locked in until 2014 whoever we appoint next regardless of whether they win any games whatsoever.

So you bend over backwards to make out how awfully difficult Zola's "impossible" job was but write of Jewell at a stroke. Glad to see you are consistent. And, err, Mowbray and co make my point, not yours. You're saying that average managers at Prem level would definitely be good lower down - like Zola and Pearce. Mowbray and co earnt their shot at the top division, your heros Zola and Pearce were just parachuted in. Rubbish managers at Prem level does not equate to success lower down. Mowbray and co are proven managers lower down and struggled with small clubs in the top flight. That is a completely different career path than Pearce or Zola. You seem to think that just having a job fall in your lap at a Prem club makes you a cert to be a success at any club. It simply isn't the case. You're wrong.

True - this happened with Waigo last year which got announced the following lunchtime out of nowhere. I think there is a player in the pipeline.

The spoonfeeder in chief speaks out

The only response to this is Eh? Mowbray, Davies and Jewell got jobs in the top flight by being promoted to it, ie earning the right to be there. They weren't just parachuted in like a Zola. And Jewell's record is actually very good in the top flight. Better than Pearce who you seem to be salivating over, and far better than Zola. And don't bring Curbs or McLaren into it, again managers with excellent records everywhere they've been. Stuart Pearce is, and always will be, a sh*t manager. Zola is unproven and I will not accept your premise that he will definitely do well at L1 because he was average at Prem level. It doesn't work like that. Ask Luca Vialli.

Anytime. Happy to take the odd bullet. I just had a look back at that thread, and to be fair to me, I did open up the "outside parties" can of worms. Funnily enough those outside parties included the Echo and MLT for daring to suggest Pardew's job was under threat. The three pages of bile came from my favourite spoonfeeders telling me that because Nicola had released a statement and everything that there was no way Pardew would be sacked because the OS said so and that's that. No other information source should be required or trusted because the chairman would never lie to us and is a man with no agenda whatsoever. Which brings us nicely up to date. (takes cover).

You really are mental. Saying a successful manager at Prem Level would be successful at L1 is not the same as what you are saying, which is a rubbish manager at Prem level would definitely be good at L1 because it's lower down. Bryan Robson took his sparkling ability to be average-bad at Prem level and turned it into a sparkling ability to be average-bad at L1 level. It's the Eric Djemba-Djemba rule. So nice try in making up opinions for me - I didn't say successful Prem managers wouldn't be successful at L1, neither did I say successful L1/Champ managers would definitely be sucessful at Prem level. Just look at the singular point you are making - lack of success at Prem equates to lots of success lower down - and think again. You're wrong.

You seem to live in a universe where not very good at Prem level = definitely very good at L1. That's seriously deluded. And don't bundle all the managers in together to make your lame point. Curbishley is not comparable to Stuart Pearce.

What is "gutter journalism" about some verbatim quotes from MLT? I think when you see the quotes on the sun website, I don't think MLT is "loathe" to slate Cortese at all. Just because Le Tiss doesn't share the view that Cortese is beyond criticism doesn't make it gutter journalism when quotes from MLT are used reporting the opposite. "I do feel for Pards but in a way I think he will be quite relieved that he doesn't have to work with him anymore. "He told me he was exasperated at some of the decisions that were made and some of the things he was made to do. "What we could find now is that we'll end up with a manager who will only take the job because he is desperate. "That's because some managers may not fancy working for a regime with such an iron fist." "This sacking beggars belief after the 4-0 win at Bristol Rovers and the day before the transfer deadline. "I have worried about my club for a long time and I have made my feelings clear. "I know the fans have quite a high opinion of the chairman, but this will probably bring into the open just what kind of man we have running the club." The only spinning going on here is people making out the newspapers (boo hiss) are making up MLT's opinion for him. Maybe, just maybe, these quotes are precisely what he thinks.

I like the way in your world everyone seems to be "having a pop" at something. The Echo have reported some fairly stardard quotes from MLT. No one is "having a pop" at anything. Calm down dear.

Stuart Pearce has a pitiful record. He can't cut it at League one because he is a dreadful football manager. And anyway it's far more true that managers who did "okay" with the plentiful resources in the top flight then proceeded to be god-awful lower down the scale - Vialli, Ray Wilkins, Bryan Robson. It's the Djemba-Djemba theory - just because someone wasn't good enough for Man U, that doesn't automatically make him good enough for a club lower down. He just wasn't good enough for anyone.

So basically the Echo have ased Matty a couple of questions, mainly about "Was their player unrest" and MLT has replied to the tune of "well it didn't look like it, they won 4-0". And then someone like Jonnylove reads this pretty tame article and works himself into a fury about the Echo making out MLT is having a pop at the club when there is not a word in that article of anyone "having a pop at the club". Well done again JonnyLove. Reading stuff that just aint there.