ooh it's a corner

Trying to be objective about this; Lowe bought us something that no previous Chairman had bought, despite strenuous efforts, and that is a new stadium. He was able to do this because he understood financial management and the needs of those institutions that lend multi-millions to business. He was perfectly skilled to establish credibility with the money lender and £30m of their money (or whatever the stadium cost). He tried to generate further revenue streams for the club, with radio station, credit card, concessions on beers and pies etc. He wasn't especially successful in these ventures, but at least had the imagination to try. On the footballing side, he always wanted to buy cheap, or perhaps more accurately, buy within the financial constraints of the club. This frequently meant buying players from lower divisions, with a mixed bag of success and failure. At a managerial level he knew the financial constraints of the club meant he couldn't attract a manager and give them free reign over transfer fees. This limited his managerial candidates to people who were tolerant of a "selling club". Naturally this caused friction with the higher profile managers (Strachan/Redknapp etc) but seemingly caused less friction with the guys who were happy to be managing SFC (Dodd/Wigley/Poortvliet etc). It was almost inevitable that a continued buy cheap/sell high approach to recruitment runs out of luck eventually and we got relegated. At this point any goodwill aimed at the board disappeared and Lowe became the target man (with a huge amount of justification). Lowe was well reimbursed for his services at Southampton, and being a posh bloke, who admittedly preferred hockey to football, was never a hit with the fans. We couldn't relate to him, and he couldn't relate to us. He left as hated as Brantfoot. Compare the Lowe era to Les (or perhaps more accurately Les and Ralph). Ralph has so many similar traits. He is not a football man. He clearly is able to achieve credibility in certain spheres. He struggles to relate to the fan base, as we do to him. He has tried to raise the profile of the club in overseas markets. I am not sure any of these financial efforts have born much fruit. He is articulate and a credible figure head to put in front of the national press/cameras, but he comes across as an aloof, out of touch, distant, Chairman. He too is well paid for his services and I doubt we would miss him one iota if he jacked it in tomorrow. Les has a history in professional football. He will understand and appreciate the operational needs of a professional football club. This does give him a slight advantage, however any operational leader worth their salt would pick this up very quickly, so I don't see his football experience as a massive advantage (other than the perception that he is a "football man" as opposed to a "hockey man"). Les has followed a model of buy cheap and sell high, married seemingly with a promote the youth policy. However the promote the youth policy seems to depend on who the manager is, rather than a mandated "you must play at least.......youth players". Les has come unstuck over recent seasons with both managerial appointments, player retention, player contracts and player recruitment. I cannot understand how repeated record buys have been bought to bolster the first team squad, rather than become first team regulars. This seems odd. Anybody who oversees a relegation is going to be unpopular. Under Lowe's stewardship, his reluctance to spend money on footballers cost us our premier league status. The 11 players assembled were simply not good enough at that level. Under Les's stewardship, his reluctance to fire the manager could cost us our premier league status. The 11 players are clearly good enough at this level, but are being mis-managed. If you look at legacy. Lowe definitely has a legacy. that of the stadium. Les has overseen a meteoric rise from League 1 to Europe and a major cup final. However we have enjoyed Europe before (and presumably will do so again). If we get relegated this season and Les retires, there will be no legacy. Thanks for your hard work Les but adios. Les is probably just about as unpopular now as Lowe was in our first relegation season. Lowe hung around and outstayed his welcome by a long way. This compounded the hatred for him. If Les is here when we get relegated from the Championship, he will be just as unpopular as Lowe. I understand the OP question. I would imagine most fans think Lowe was far worse than Les, but I think if we judge the pair of them after they have both left, I think we will view them both in equal dislike. If we go down Les will be comparable to Lowe on the dislike barometer. If we stay up, Lowe will continue to be perceived as the biggest villain we have ever had as Chairman. Right now, I would guess that Lowe would be comfortably ahead on the dislike stakes.

I have clung to the hope that the board wanted the window to slam shut, before announcing the replacement manager, using the excuse that they gave MoPe the best chance, the most time they could afford, but it hasn't worked out. I fully expected just the one signing in the window, and the new manager to come in after it has closed. Here's hoping today is the day. But if it is not, then I think my season's depression will reach a new low. we cannot survive with this guy at the helm, he simply isn't capable of picking up enough points.

We need to doctor the image of Dejan's daughter in the Nou Camp, holding up a sign that says "Where's my Daddy's friend Virgil?"

That is very funny. £75m and presumably not match fit (coz he has been ambling around the pitch for 6 months). I would be bloody furious if I had signed a £75m guy, playing in the same league as me, and he can't manage a couple of games in a week.......

Rory Delap for £4m. The stuff that dreams were made of. (or a hugely underwhelming record buy). But not quite as disappointing as the back page of the Echo headline from 1986, "Saints sign World Cup star"...... thoughts of Maradona, Burruchaga, Rummenigge, Beardsley even, but oh no, Colin Clarke..... Not a record signing and in fairness to the lad he did well for us the following season, 20 goals or so, but not quite the headline act I was hoping for. Wind forward 30 plus years, and not much changes.....

the trouble is, if you play sport at the highest level, you have to give 100% each game, concentrate each game and really think that any lapse will cost you. VVD was injured for a good 6 months, came back and got used to giving 90%. He thought that would be good enough for a move, and it proved it was. Unfortunately, he will now take 3 months to get back to 100% game speed. I doubt he will achieve that this year and it wouldn't surprise me if Klopp "rests" him before the end of this season. He is a great player, but he has no idea how much he has damaged himself by playing half-heartedly since he came back from injury. No sympathy. You reap what you sow.

I agree. Him and Pochettino can do no wrong, yet Mourinho and Wenger get slated, but they win trophies. why the media has a hard-on for Liverpool and Tottenham that doesn't appear to be there for similar clubs, I don't know

That counts for nothing. Most the people that shop in my local supermarket are too canny for Pellegrino. All we need to do is employ a pretty young thing to wink her eye at Pards as he's getting of the coach and we'll take his eye off the ball. Matron.

Perhaps Pochettino has had his head turned by Real Madrid? Good manager, better than our incumbent, but not the fecking mesiah many think he is. He is likely to add another trophy-less season to his CV. And I think given their team, and Europe's best goal-scorer, maybe he should be doing better

I'm with you on this. I have absolutely no inside track to SFC whatsoever. Coming onto a forum where people do (or may, or may not, or may even make it up) is fun. You get to hear a snippet of a story and regardless of whether it comes to fruition or not, it makes for an interesting read and it does allow your own mind to drift into a fantasy based...."I wonder if that could be true".......state. I don't understand the constant picking of holes in anyone or everyone who voices an item of news. The whole ITK thing is irrelevant. If people have heard something from their nan's taxi-driving neighbour, I couldn't care less, get it up on the forum. It leads to debate and conjecture. It is MUCH more interesting than "have you heard anything?", "no, me neither". Let's lay off the criticism of the ITK-ers, take everything with a pinch of salt and enjoy this place for the light-hearted, source of information, mis-information, news/fake news, right and wrong opinion that it ought to be. We are not trying to create a Wikipedia folks.....some of it is allowed to be hearsay, or even downright made up. AR-10, thanks for the post. :-)

"they left for more cash, they left for more cash, you're not f*cking special, they left for more cash", I think works slightly better, but hat doffed for the original thought :-)

I think we were all in agreement that we would be bottom three, if not bottom by the end of January. Let's see if the owners/board/manager/coaches/players have got the ability or imagination to do anything about it. I think the fans have. It generally involves buying a couple of very very good footballers, and for some fans, changing the manager, but the powers that be seem to think that status quo is the right answer, and that, unfortunately, will only lead to down, down, deeper and down.

When it comes to negotiation, we are not in a strong point versus perhaps ten clubs in the premiership. (Let's assume that is the current top ten). When it comes to everyone else, we have as much to offer as pretty much all others (although I do accept we are more precariously positioned that those teams above us in the bottom half). So, it could be argued that it will be difficult to recruit when competing with a fellow premier league outfit (that sits above us in the table). When you look at our recruitment strategy, for the past few years it has not been to recruit from fellow premier league clubs, it has been to recruit from other, typically, European markets. When it comes to competing on these scales, Southampton 17th in the Premier League, will sit probably somewhere near 17th in the richest, highest paid footballers, in European football. If you are a good footballer earning less than 40k per week we can pay you considerably more. If you dont like the prospect of relegation, insist on a sell clause. Come and earn twice what you are earning, for six months and IF we stay up and you are enjoying it, you may choose to stay, and IF we get relegated you leave. It should be a really easy negotiation, providing that Les understands that a) He will have to pay more in salary to attract someone b) He will have to compromise on exit clauses, possibly to the extent on suffering a sizeable loss should we be relegated c) He does not have the same negotiation power he had 3 seasons' ago. All seems fairly logical, but I can't help but feel we don't have the desire to buy the quality we need because of the costs....

I agree with the support being required inside the ground, but I think you have mis-judged the player reaction. Most of our team are experienced grown men, many of whom are non-British, international footballers. They won't **** a brick, but what they might do is think "feck this for a game of soldiers, I don't need to work here, I can work for 100 different clubs throughout Europe, I'll go through the motions for the next few months and this evening I shall instruct my agent to find me a new club in the summer". And at that point, they start dreaming for their next pre-season elsewhere.. They are paid professionals. They are all in it to pay the mortgage and feed the kids (with plenty left over on today's inflated wages). Making them feel apprehensive about picking their Bentley up after the game is completely counter-productive. (Don't get me wrong, the players' application this season has been very poor, regardless of managerial frailties. I would like to stick a rocket up their collective backsides, but that has to be the manager's job, not mine).

Four wins this season. He has to go or we are down. I cannot fathom why Les and Ralph and Mr Gao cannot see it. Never mind sack the board, let's go straight for the new Chairman, maybe then we will see some action.....

I do hope so, but can't see it. If the ref had seen it, it would only be a yellow card for deliberate handball. But always annoying to be cheated out of something......

I see that the BBC are now reporting Everton are in negotiations with him. This thread feels pretty 50/50 whether we want him or not, with perhaps most "no thanks" being concerned with value for money rather than whether he would improve the first team squad. But, if he goes to Everton, then I think 99% of this board will see it as a Les Reed failure......... funny how the human mind and ego works.......

Normal human beings don't earn £100K + per week. But I get the point, if someone offered me a job in Southampton, or £50k per week more in another English city, I would be packing my bags.....

"Now then Les, the last two experiments haven't worked very well, so who do you think we need to choose as our next boss?" "Meee, meee, meee, meeee"

that's Dirty Sanchez....Diego's randy cousin

Arsenal refuse to sell for less than £30m My Arsenal ST holding mate reckoned for £20m most Arsenal fans would drive him here themselves...... Can't see us stretching to £30m and nor would I want us to. Just sack MP and get the players to determine their best formation......

Assuming that the "winning" formula of 4-2-3-1 isn't Les's idea and the only way we are going to play, regardless as to who is in charge. I cannot believe the current manager has stuck with it, unless he has a clear remit from above, or he is really, really, really stupid.

I think this looks a tad tenuous. Midas Sports is owned and operated by Steve Wood, who played 46 times at centre half for SFC from 1991-1994. His employees/associates include Andrew Reed, but also Mickey Adams and David Hughes, both of whom have history with the club. Midas sports last published accounts are those of a small business, and therefore quite limited in what they reveal, but debtors (money owing to them) of £1.2m and creditors (money they owe to others) of £1.1m, plus about 350k cash in bank, would imply their turnover is probably somewhere in the £7-£10m bracket. Which is pretty good for a small business and a small number of employees/associates. Given that SFC is not a public company, it is at liberty to spend its money wherever it chooses. It is also at liberty to recommend to its youth players one agency over another. The only thing that may be amiss is if the shareholders are unaware of any relationship that could be perceived as a conflict of interest. If they are aware of the relationship between SFC and Midas and any individuals that could create a conflict of interest, then we're all good. Also, interestingly, Les is now 65 and whilst I appreciate you no longer get shown the door, I wonder what his retirement plans are?

Does anyone know the name of the agency that his son works for?

Did he think Grobellaar intentionally let goals in whilst playing for Southampton? Has he ever been approached for a bung? Did he ever want to swear/kick a bottle of water at/wade into the supporters giving him bantz behind the goal? Which away supporters behind the goal were the best/worst? What was his career highlight?