Daren W

And I'm not after a freebie. Hopefully advertising will bring in the printing costs we need... If, and it's a big if, we can deliver this I'm thinking of doing BS again, with all monies raised going to local Southampton based charities. But only if the printing costs are covered first...

Sold to the man in, erm, red and white!

If we do get taken over then the money goes to local charities and as you've suggested it then a local community charity sounds a good bet...

Not looking for controversial though Stu, well not for this issue anyway, I'm looking for articles that make people sit and up and think about how ****ing great this club is... This of it like a big 60 page advert for prosopective buyers...

Just sounding off an idea but does anyone know of a printer or a business that might sponsor a charity edition of Beautiful South with all procedes going to whatever charities there are there to help stave off adminstration. I'm looking at a 60 page, full colour edition. Articles to cover the history of this club rather than aimless mud slinging etc Anyone got any ideas?

Difference is, I'd happily shake GM by the hand... You, I'd happily shake by the throat...

Oh that's what it is! Your challenging us! You're not being an offensive attention seeker, you're challenging us! Now it appears you've conducted a gallup poll and only 1% of the attendance/200 people rate Pearson! Utterly laughable. And of course, you're not wrong are you? No chance of admitting that Pearson IS a good manager and we WERE wrong to get rid of him?. More chance of us getting back to back wins at home methinks.... But please carry on on... We aggresive myopics have no retort for stunning use of statistics/cut and pasted quotes... You really do have delusions of adequacy don't you? lol

Ah, nail on head time... A thread to praise a well respected manager whose team passes us by going up as we go down is ruined by a sad pathetic attention seeker throwing his toys out of the pram as the management team set up by his employer, sorry, hero is shown up for what it was by the man Lowe kicked out.... It must really hurt mustn't it? To be shown up so often and so easily? Nigel Peason; decent man, loyal, full to burst with integrity and passion. A man who I think was treated very shambily by this club, lead to believe he stood a chance with the job only to be shown the door in favour of someone Lowe obviously had in mind from day one. A man now in charge of a championship winning side whilst the side assembled by Lowe's dream team goes down.. Everyone's laughing at you Sundance, a sad, bitter little man with no relevance what so ever....

No. I tend to think that if we're still in business then the spirit of Southampton will kick in and we'll actually surprise a lot of people and pull in crowds of 18,000 plus. The absence of Lowe Wilde and co might actually mean some sort of feel good factor and if the club can reduce prices, get kids in the ground and actively go on the charm offensive then I think we'll be just fine and dandy...

I'm not sure if fate's got a sense of humour but I'm watching an episode of Murder She Wrote on Alibi and they're showing a funeral scene. There's when the Saints Go Marching In playing the background.... The irony wasn't lost on me...

John, the point is you were right then and I was wrong. I have no problem admitting that, Wilde was a ****ing chancer and you saw that, I didn't. I have never had a problem with you as I always suspected/knew that issues aside, you were red and white through and through and if we ever met for a beer we'd get on, deny it later and argue online later... Your thread is just what the board needs, proper positivity, no more pro Lowe/anti Lowe crap just looking forward to the next season... Good on you fella....

Was it built for comfort?

I'm not so sure you're right there. I can see where John's going with this. We've become a soft , corporate whore of a club that seems to just attract ridicule like a moth to a flame. It's not about the obvious Lowe/class conatation, but more of a shift to bringing football back to the people. It's been a "rich" man's plaything for far too long. Get rid of the big small club mentality and bring the club back to the heart of the city... Good posts John, damn good posts...

Now wouldn't it be good for 32,000 fans to line up and give Lowe a good kicking as he goes from one end of the queue to the other?

Without a shadow of a doubt the single most stupid decision in the recent history of this club. To get rid of the established manager, riding on the crest of a last minute wave and replacing him with a man with no experience of British football whatsoever... The fact that Pearson has gone on to raise a championship winning side just rubs massive salt in the wound... Without a doubt the most stupid decision Lowe has ever made.... and there is really stiff competition...

lmfao... Genius...

Sorry to butt in on your post Robbie, but you just know the rabidly pro Lowe brigade will ignore all of the rest of your post and just pick away at the highlighted piece. "He buys statues" ... I'll put money on the usual accountants with season tickets being all over that like a rash... Sorry mate...

Oh I agree frank and I think if any fan was criticising Lowe after Cardiff and before Strachan walked then they really would have been numpties but I do feel, with hindsight, that the way the club was run was a recipe for disaster. All too often we bought cheap and yes, sometimes they proved to be absolute bargains.... But sometimes they proved to be absolute donkeys. It's been often refered to on here that whilst in the premiership, transfers in equalled transfers out so if you look at the very high profile big transfers out we had (Wayne Bridge, Dean Richards, James Beattie, Peter Crouch, Kevin Davies) then surely we must have had a fair amount of players we gave away. Now whilst £6million for Wayne Bridge obviously sounds great business, it's not if his replacement is a step backwards or if another 6 players are given away. We are talking about £1 million here, the sort of sum that some now think if Crouch would give gift wrapped we'd all be happy as larry.

You had me at troll....

I think the point here is why should he? After being singled out by Lowe as almost the only reason why Saints are in the financial schtuck, why should he pay £2 million of his money which will basically vanish?? If i was Crouch, no way would I just give away a fortune just on the say so of... 1) Rupert Lowe, the man who will preside over TWO relegations and 2) Michael Wilde, the man who apart from his shares has contributed nothing to this club. I'm sure that all three parties are all culpable in all of this but to me the rabildly pro Lowe brigade are really ****ing up stream in trying to slag Crouch off for not WASTING £2million whilst the other protagonists do nothing! Hell, why not! Let's build a bonfire of £2million in £20 notes! Is there no end to the amount of people Nineteen Beast will try to blame before he finally realises that presiding over one relegation could be viewed as unlucky but two is just plain careless?? But why let that get in the way of good Lowe arse licking? I'll say one thing. If Nineteen/Sundance thinks dwindling attendances are primarily to blame for our finanical plight, I'll counter that by saying that perhaps, just perhaps, it's blinkered happy clappy fans like him, who stuck their heads in the sand, that are just as culpable. Many, many fans have posted on here stating that they felt Lowe didn't know what he was doing towards the end of both tenures and were roundly told that they knew nothing, were thick, were rabid anti Lowe numpties who had no grasp of the finer financial details. They may have been a bit extreme in their dislike of Lowe... but were they wrong? To some the club's ever increasing distance from the common fan was what alienated people. The feeling that they were a number, a customer, not a fan whose voice or opinion really count. Lunatic fringe anyone? Now if people staying away is to blame for our plight (which is rather like blaming the customers for Woolworths going bust) what share will the "heads stuck in sand" fans take? Nah, let's just pin the blame on Crouch not burning money eh?

Right, lets cut through the crap and get to the point shall we? You see this is why you and I have a problem. You make everything personal.. "It's about you throwing your toys out of your pram about your charity, your mother..." Now, I'd feel somewhat uneasy about the club not bothering to reply to a request from anyone in regards to, how did you phrase it?, "rattling tins" on club property. I'd feel uneasy about the club not bothering to help arrange a shirt signing visit for anyone with a illness, terminal or not. It is not about me. It's about a club that has lost its soul. A club that obviously doesn't feel it has to help people. You obviously don't seem to think so. The club "gives at the office" so why should it help anyone else?? I've got news for you, but with money raised for cancer won't help my mum. She's dying. That horse has bolted. Cancer research can't help her but it can help other people. Only on this messageboard can someone get slagged off for trying to raise money to help other people as it conflicts with their pro Lowe/ anti lowe agendas... This ludicrous notion you're peddling that I threw a wobbly over people using the word cancer? Absolute rubbish. A lie. I'm not some word nazi. I'm not banning the word cancer, it's perfectly acceptable, perfetly applicable... but in the right context. Social ills are a cancer at the heart of society, crime can be cancerous, violence people can be cancerous. I feel Robert Mugabe is cancerous, Sadaam Hussain was, hell even Tony Blair was cancerous, but an old man you feel may or may not be earning too much? Oh plur lease! It's about perspective. I had an email from someone criticising me about the use of the C word. They told me an horrendous story of how cancer had devastated their family. It was far, far worse than I could ever imagine. And they then went on to defend their right to call Rupert Lowe cancerous. All that they'd dealt with and yet they still hated Lowe that much that the use of the word seemed applicable. So much hatred, so much of it ingrained and permanent. But it's all about perspective. My perspective is that this club has lost touch with us, the fans. It's lost its soul. Its that notion that I tried, and obviously abjectly, failed to get across. It's not about me or even you. It's about a club that somehow feels that it can just throw a charitable request in the bin and not bother to just issue a polite rebuff. It's about a club that just couldn't be bothered to give a dying woman ten minutes of their time to get her shirt, which she paid for, signed and have a few photos taken. It's about a club that since relegation has needed to earn it's respect rather than expecting it blindly and has so far managed to alienate itself from the fanbase quite spectacularly. You seem to think that dwinding attendances are down to fans staying away beacuse of Lowe or down to apathy or meaness. But the sad truth is that is mainly down to people losing faith in the club, losing touch with a club that doesn't seem to feel it has to answer to them. I didn't renew my season ticket because the club couldn't be bothered, not because they said no but because they couldn't be bothered to say no and I've met with many, many other fans whose faith in the club has been chipped away slowly. And now they expect fans to bail the club out. They've sytematically pillaged the club, asset stripped it through corporate whoring, business expenses, pay offs and compensation. And now the pot's empty and it's up to the fans to bail this club out... In the meantime, pleae feel free to misquote me, twist any posts you want and more importantly, please feel to slag me off on other messagboards in regards to, shock horror, cancer. You see that is why you and I have a problem and why one day, sooner or later, we'll "discuss" it face to face. I don't take too kindly to people taking something so personal as my dealing with cancer or raising money for cancer and having it twisted and used against me. I don't take kindly to people like you trying to paint me as some grief ridden weirdo obsessed with cancer, flailling out against the club in some blinkered act of grief and hatred. There is a line and you crossed it and one day you will face the consquences of it.

ouch... Now that's embarrassing.... lol

But again, with the loyalty argument, why hire Poortvielt? Did Wotte not want the responsibility? If he didn't why take the reins when we're nailled on certainties for relegation? It just doesn't add up..

Manny, I'd say that if no buyer could be found then how about a £500 season ticket with £250 going to part onwership of the club? £250 should be the maximum in terms of paying for what we're going to be watching ie League One football.

Have a look at Sundance Canteen' posts Nick. It would appear that all Pearson can do is shout, employ aged loanees who hoof the ball up field. I don't think anyone thinks he's the next Alex Ferguson but the way the two paths will cross at the end of the season, his promotion/our relegation, would indicate he was right and we were wrong...