SW11_Saint

It actually did - gates were up as we moved into the relegation dogfight last year and the spirit and togetherness was there to be seen by all during the season run-in. All of that dissolved when Lowe came back and inflicted yet another barmy experiment on us.

There are cost cutting measures and there are false economies. The problem with Lowe is that he cannot see the difference. Anyone can reduce a wage bill, but true leaders can see beyond that - making cuts where required, but also identifying a path forward and taking your customers (fans) and shareholders with you... Lowe fails on these counts.

However I still think Dowie has an awful lot to offer and I think he has been unlucky to be dismissed by Charlton, Coventry and QPR. Also he has an affinity with the club and although not the most gifted of players was always one of the hardest working and most committed. I think he could work with Lowe (although I still think we need to see the back of Lowe before we can truly move on), as he's fairly open to alternative ideas. I'd like to see us act this week, sack JP and appoint Dowie. Was there ever a club that needed a bit of 'bouncebackability' more than ours...?!

Clearly the phrase is somewhat subjective, but I was meaning those who patently had the best interests of the club at heart, and have, over the years, exhibited clear affection for it, as well as concern about it's well-being and how it has been run (and had the backbone to speak out against it).

Terrific post Halo, and one that sums up my feelings, and the feelings of the vast vast majority of Saints fans. Sadly, nothing will happen immediately as Lowe and Poortvliet are in total denial, and Wilde is presumably hiding in a cupboard somewhere, sucking his thumb and rocking back and forward. One day we will be back, but the sad truth is that unless action is taken NOW (i.e this week) things will get much much worse before they get better...

This is life under Chairman Lowe I am afraid. Anyone who does not blindly follow party propoganda, or dares to criticise is castigated or driven out. True Saints such as Merrington, McMenemy, Channon, Ball, Case, Armstrong etc. who dare to challenge the running of the club are branded as agitators or worse. The only one he daren't take umbrage with is Le Tiss, although of course he has a Saturday job now anyway...

So you have the same opinion of him that he has of himself then?!

I do wonder whether it's time to turn the heat up on JP... while most of us are calling for Lowe's head (because that ultimately is what is needed if we're to save the club), it's water off a ducks back to him. JP is a nice guy, but frankly he is FAILING. And his failure is going to land us in League 1. Time to formally start an active "POORTVLIET OUT" campaign and force Lowe's hand?

I'd go for Dowie - let's have some of that Bouncebackability!!!

I thought exactly the same thing. I read it twice and couldn't believe the lack of fight, and, more worrying, the patent lack of a clue what to do to turn things around (other than just hope things get better and we 'make a goal'). A nice guy, with best intentions, but hopelessly out of his depth. His language lacks spirit and motivation (mirrored in the team). While pretty much every other club around us has now changed manager with a positive result (bar Charlton who seem to have "done a Wigley"), Lowe continues to fiddle while SMS burns. We have an impotent, clueless boardroom leading a hopelessly floundering coaching setup directing a bunch of talented yet dispirited, disorganised unmotivated kids. A "masterplan" indeed...

"We" didn't. Rupert Lowe did. Because he knows better than us...

He's in denial - refusing to even admit there's a problem. Lowe and the board are doing exactly the same. It's like being an alcoholic - until they understand and admit they have problem, and decide to do something about it, nothing will change. With Lowe, Portvliet & co. we are f*cked.

Short answer: they won't.

Actually, mention of Lordswood and buses reminds me of similar story - I used to get the 2A to school in the mornings and Danny Wallace used to get the same bus. He was about my age - I knew well who he was (when I first saw him it was before his first team debut), but never quite plucked up the courage to chat to him. Many many years later met his brother Rodney in a bar in Leeds (with Brian Deane, Chirs Fairclough and possibly Noel Whelan - memory fades!). Had a quick chat, nice guy - good memories of Saints (although said he'd never come back when I posed that question). Also distinctly remember him calling Barry Fry a w*nker when I asked how Danny was doing (this was pre his MS diagnosis and he'd just had his s/t contract cancelled by Fry at Birmingham (again if memory serves)). Also helped interview a few players for Redstrip Fanzine which a mate ran - interviewed Jeff Kenna and Jim Magilton in Greensleeves Cafe in Bedford Place (presume that's gone too Duncan??); Bally in his office at The Dell (made us feel like kings, inviting us into his office and "holding all calls") and Glen ****erill at Brisbane Road when he played for Orient. All of them were absolute gents. The only less than savoury player experience I can remember is (trying to) talk to Terry Hurlock at a London Saints Xmas Do - he was with a bunch of dodgy South London mates, and really wasn't all that pleasant...

Absolutely right - although Jim McGowan was an inside right I think, not a goalie.

Funny how so many of these stories involve the same old characters. Mine does too. A very close friend of the family (an "uncle" in the way you called people Uncle/Auntie in those days - does that still happen??) ran a pub in Portswood. Dare say many of you from that era will know the one I am talking about. Jim Steele, somewhat famously, lived there for a while, and many of the Saints team were regulars for early or late drinks. My mum worked there too. Jim Steele, Gerry O'Brien, Eric Martin, Jim McCalliog etc. etc. were regulars at the pub and often would come back to parties at our house. We were pretty close to Jim S, Eric and Jim McC and their families. My best memory has to be the day after the semi-final v. Palace - Sunday in this aforementioned pub with Steely, Jim McCalliog, Mick Channon, Peter Osgood and little Bobby - in for a day long session and all singing "Yesterday" at the top of their voices. I can still hear Mick's Wiltshire burr now... Happy days. PS Also grew up on the same estate as Franny and my family knew his well.

What a little ray of sunshine you are... Best wishes for 2009.

Bingo night at the Cotswolds Branch of the Referendum Party...

The Saints Trust meet in Room 101.

With due respect (and welcome to the board by the way), absolute codswallop... Not every regime faced such derision - I am one of Crouch's bigger critics, and DO NOT think he is the right long term Chairman for SFC (to be fair, I don't even think Leon thinks he is) but the vast majority of fans were behind that regime, and what they were at least trying to achieve. The club definitely pulled together last year - culminating in the last day nailbiting win of Sheff Utd. I remember feeling positive then, for the first time in years... until of course you know who came along and decided to inflict another of his bizarre experiments on the club. No one will ever convince me that the Dutch duo were so signficantly cheaper than Pearson to make a material difference (and even if they were, what a ridiculous false economy that has turned out to be!). With regard to Wilde, I don't think anyone who had faith in him retains it now - he has proved himself to be spineless and ineffective (other than throwing his shares behind whoever pats him on the head and throws him a biscuit). I do agree that our problems are greater than any of the clowns we have now, or have had in the recent past, can deal with, and that a cash injection (and change of leadership) is required. If only the board had realised the scale of our potential problems while we were still in the Premiership and had a chance to save ourselves (ref. Steve "1 win in 14" Wigley) - oops there I go again - another "if"... what an awful backward-looking lot we fans are!

Would be nice to have a chairman who didn't make critical strategic decisions by "guessing"...!

Sounds like daylight robbery, but who gives a f**k - 3 very very valuable points. Need to follow it up with another win now! COYS!

Because of who we have doing the appointing... (and the last guy we replaced was perfectly adequte!)

That's right, that's right, keep repeating, it's all just down to luck, it'll all come good, that's the ticket, good, good... See you in League 1...

and you think Jan is the man to do that do you?