Fitzhugh Fella

Those of us who have lived in or around Southampton at some stage must have got to know some of the players over the years or even seen them around the town so let's hear a bit of name dropping with some stories. I've probably told this story before but what the heck it beats arguing about the pros and cons of Chairman Lowe. Growing up in Archers Road and spending my formative drinking years in the Fitzhugh Pub in Milton RD (at one stage the Corner Post) I could count myself lucky that I got to know most of the *stars* from the 1976 FA Cup win. To get the ball rolling let me name drop just one - Peter Osgood. To think a footballer with a big a reputation as Peter Osgood would drink in a little backstreet boozer like the Fitzhugh is mind boggling but he was often in there with Jim Steele, Gerrry O'Brien and others from the Dell. Those three however were all good darts players and were members of the Fitzhugh darts team that played matches all over the city. The captain was a bloke called Brian Arthur but I was vice-captain and one match Brian was absent so I took over for an away match in Shirley (can't remember the pub but it was full of tough looking Irish blokes - as they all were!). It was great opening the pub door and walking in with Ossie, Steele and Gerry behind you. Jaws often dopped but all 3 loved a pint and a craic and soon were just one of the lads enjoying a Monday night out supping lager around a dart board followed by some dodgy curled up cheese sandwiches at the end. I got a great thrill that night shouting out "OK Ossie you're on now". He was one of the nicest footballers I ever knew and incredibly modest and humble. He invited and paid for a coach to take all the Fitzhugh regulars up to his local nr Windsor for a darts match and later they brought a coach down to us, with his Mum and Dad and his gran if I recall correctly. In 1976 I started flying as a steward with BOAC on 747s (soon to be BA) and coincidentally Peter was at the time "seeing" a pretty stewardess called Pippa. He always took an interest in where my next trip was etc etc but at the end of our conversation he would always say with a grin as he tapped his nose "well Dunc, if you see Pippa, make sure you give her my love and not yours". Before he joined us from Chelsea I remember seeing him on the Big Match once fooling around with the actress Raquel Welch who was visiting Stamford Bridge. They were pictured kissing and cuddling and I always meant to ask him what happened afterwards but never plucked up the courage. His early death was a real shock, just weeks beforehand as I left one of the Ted Bates diners I remember watching Jim Steele and Ossie on the stage singing some old Sinatra song and recalled those old darts matches with a smile.

Burley by a million years because he was the only manager who in my opinion never really cared. He was only ever in it for the wages especially in the final 12 months when we financially imploded pandering to his whims. All the others, Branfoot, Wigley, Gray and even Redknapp wanted us to be successful and had feelings for the club.

Mark - you and I have long disagreed about the benefits or otherwise of Lowe's continured presence but I admit you were quite right re Wilde. Unfortunately I did not heed your wisdom because I honestly thought you were just stirring it because you didn't want Lowe to be ousted. I guess a lot of others thought the same and closed their ears. My excuse is, in hindsight lame, but trenches had been dug at that stage and there wasn't much appetite for trench swopping going on, back then. I have to admit surprise at the lack of diligence conducted by the Crouch camp but I think very quickly on they were too wrapped up in their own battle with the executives. They certainly made mistakes (Mary Corbett was good enough to hold her hands up at the AGM and say as much) and for that reason have probably blown any realistic chances of being given another go. As for Crouch's promise I believe it to be genuinely made - and in writing too - but if I was him I would not want to fork out 2m of my private money merely to keep Wilde and Lowe in power. I guess you wouldn't either? If Crouch's £2m is the only thing between us and administration surely even you would swallow your antipathy to the man albeit on a temporary basis? Like most on this forum I think we have all had enough of the whole farce and its participants but right now I have tethered my horse on the outskirts of the Crouch camp due to it being the best positioned - in my opinion - to survive the winter intact. But who knows what the future holds. Rgds Duncan

Hand up John - you were right and many of us including Crouch and friends should have been as diligent as you were in checking Wilde's credentials (how is he keeping himself afloat). However i would plead an element of mitigation. Lowe had made himself so unpopular by that stage that normal reasoning and judgement was put to one side such was the desire to see him gone. In other words he created the feeding frenzy. A couple of months ago Crouch told me that when he purchased that 10% it was by no means a certainity that it would be Wilde who got his support. Indeed right up until that last week he was unsure as to whether he was backing the right man. What swayed him in the end to eventually support Wilde was he saw Lowe's relationship with the fans as having gone past redemption and because of that his (Lowe's) position was simply untenable. Of course had he he had your foresight (and of course he should have done the homework you did) then he would have been faced with an awkward decision.

"we got our club back" when Wilde rode into town - will never be allowed to forget that.

I have to admit you have a point - and to be fair those people should shoulder blame BUT in mitigation I will say that Lowe had created an atmosphere where he was so abhorred that it is almost understandabe that in the clamour to get rid of him the process of "due diligence" was set to one side. Almost like a drowning man does not check the seaworthiness of a passing lifeboat.

The latter and I can remember because he called me it at least 20 times.

For the record I thought Burley's appointment a good one at the time but hey what do I know? Thanks Stanley for proper quotes there must be loads more out there how about "its just a blip" during our relegation season

Watching that clip from 1997 after Souness and L Mac quit made me realise there was a lot of footage and interviews with our illustrious Chairman I have either missed or forgotten. Now although I am anti Lowe, I don't want to turn this into another Lowe out thread but I would be interested to hear some of his more memorable quotes, possibly to use in an article. So if you have any authentic ones that are verifiable post away. Some actually are quite good - I particularly warmed to him (briefly) when he called Tottenham's Board "a bunch of North London yobboes" during the Hoddle departure - or was it the Dean Richards' transfer. And then there was that cling ons on the starboard bow which for the life of me I can't remember the context. Darn I wish I had kept a record - too busy writing ITN, I guess.

I don't remember this but watching it now, this morning, I felt a cold shiver and a little bit nauseous. Can it really be 11 years? And the sight of Askham lurking in the background didn't help my mood.

To be fair Alpine - I know Suewhistle and she isn't the sort to score cheap shots - I think the remark to be very tongue in cheek, mate.

I have to concede the book would have to be written by someone other than me - I long ago succumbed to the temptation to be impartial when it came to Rupert Lowe (one of the reasons I took a sabbatical from this forum). Perhaps my colleague, David Bull (who always manages to sail Nelson like through the political maelstroms) could do a decent job. I am always nagging him to shift his arse off the fence but there again he is much more of a diplomat than me. I am quite happy now to be allowed to say what I think and hopefully I will keep to my New Year's resolution to keep it civil and polite. So may I wish Sundance a belated and sanctimonious Happy New Year.

There is no doubt (and Mary Corbett has publicly admitted as much) the Crouch camp (Pat Trant, Mary C, Lawrie Mac etc etc) were very naive in not doing due diligence on Michael Wilde and his promises when he arrived on his white charger. I know Mary greatly regrets this and is prepared to shoulder her share of the blame. As for investment I know very well why they were at first taken in re the potential Paul Allen interest. Tom McLaughlin pitched up, using his connections with PA, claiming that Allen was interested and, as it was well known that he did have links with Allen, he was originally believed. Crouch and others even spent their own private money paying McLaughlin a consultancy fee to ensure McLaughlin could deliver the investment he was continually promising. OK Tommac was later proven to be no more than a tyre kicker with an eye to make a few bob, in the final fallout and everything then went boots up but I think the only allegations we can level at Crouch and co is they allowed themselves to be succoured in - first by Wilde and his execs and then by Tom McLaughlin. Naive? Undoubtedly. Yes, but I would not go much further when looking who to blame for this very sad situation.

My take on this, Trousers, is this has been leaked by Lowe to prepare for his absolvement of blame when the club goes into administration later this month. Lowe is simply getting his "not my fault guv" excuse in early. Whilst certainly most of the excesses took place while the execs and Wilde were running the show it is also fair to say his previous mistakes laid the not so fertile ground into which Hone and Co wasted what litle crop we had to sow. (A farming analogy rather than a nautical one for a change). Leon Crouch himself told me the circumstances of Euell's arrival. He was at Staplewood and had a meeting with Hone (with Burley present) to discuss whether or not to sanction the signing. Crouch maintains he was against it due to the prohibitive cost but the board was split 50/50%. Hone and Crouch had a blazing row. The impasse only ended when David Jones sweet-talked Keith Wiseman into believing the club could afford the wages etc and Wiseman's vote sealed the deal. This was the start of the Crouch/Hone battle which culminated in Crouch's removal from the PLC board - only to mount a comeback (aided by a payoff) to remove the execs in December 07. Why the execs were so hellbent on supporting Burley (who by then had already been spoken to by Hone over his lifestyle problems), I have no idea except perhaps they had no long term interest and were happy to gamble. (I can confirm Hone had spoken to Burley - in case anyone accuses me of spreading rumours -because Oldknow told me in person on one of the many times I was summoned to SMS to discuss my anti execs postings on the previous forums). David Jones is the man Lowe (and us) should be blaming the most - he has been there more than 10 years and was the person most responsible for the finances. At the recent AGM he tried to weasel out of the "81% accusations" by rather ingeniously saying that Euell and Co would be gone in a couple of years and the percentage would then drastically lower. It was a pretty tame and limp explanation and one Lowe did not invite him to expand upon. So as the club lurches into administration the blame game continues to be played and whilst no one is free of culpability some are certainly guiltier than others. For me Lowe, Wilde and Jones are the main villains alongside the execs but as the latter group have already ridden off into the sunset with their saddlebags full of cash is it not time for the former group to take their leave too? It is my honest belief having spoken to him that if Lowe and Wilde resigned, Crouch would put enough cash in to stave of administration but Lowe would rather the club go under than hand back the reigns to the man whio engineered his first forced removal.

Oh dear! I thought the original post quite funny - the day we stop laughing at ourselves is the day we stop laughing.

Ignore Buctootim, Trousers - your point was very valid and yet he could only answer it with sarcasm, irony or whatever. Sometimes people are more interested in point scoring than debating.

I must admit people who know him have always said that compared to Lowe he was a reasonable sort of chap but in the couple of phone conversations I had with him last year during the SoS initiative I found him perfectly polite but his manner did remind me a little of Lowe himself. The relationship between the two men must be an interesting one - I have heard of times when Cowen has been a steadying influence on Lowe especially when things have got a little out of hand but when all said and done he has not been able to prevent some of Lowe's more "excessive or extravagent" decisions. Lowe is very capable of brow beating people - he has a forceful character that gets belligerent when opposed. I did have a few minutes talking to Mary Corbett prior to the AGM and was quite shocked when she told me how on quite a few occasions she had been intimidated by him.

My reading of this now is you need to go into voluntary administration before you are relegated (unlike Leeds) to trigger the 10 points this season rather than next. This is why there is a very strong possibility that Southampton will go into administration sooner rather than later. Things are critical, I believe.

You make a valid point.

Perhaps to help you out I can use a political analogy. If Rupert Lowe is Southampton's Maggie Thatcher then Andrew Cowen is Southampton's John Major. Incidentally I hear Andrew Cowen is heartily sick of the present situation and is looking forward to "getting out" asap.

I believe this story and have heard similar which sort of negates Jan's claim that he picks the team 100%.

So now we know why "his international clearance didn't come through in time". I wish the OS would just give us the truth instead of all this subterfuge.

Roger - my e mail address is duncan@duncanholley.co.uk

I won't be renewing my son's ticket next year. He has lost complete interest.

Too many stories about Ron you couldn't publish Andy. There's still a few blokes in So'ton on the lookout for him