Capel Saint

Would be a risk to appoint a man with no management experience. Great players do not necessarily make great managers. A whole different set of skills required to do a managers job.

Unfortunately we will never know for sure but I think the blame has to be aportioned to Lowe and Wilde as between them the club has been mis-managed since a plc was formed and eventual relegation from the Prem with some poor managment appointments, poor Board appointments (Hoos, Dulieu etc) frittering away of what money we had on average players and far too many pipe dreams of not facing the reality of surviving in the Championship. A very sad day but lets up with it brings an opportunity of some fresh faces to turn this club around.

Hopefully the players would be motivated enough to win as many of the remaining games as possible otherwise a good number of the players will be looking for other clubs, most likely in the Championship or even League 1 & 2 which in turn would probably mean less wages for themselves.

From what I remeber he spent most of his spare cash buying shares to oust Lowe and that once in charge there were supposed to be investors ready to put the actual cash in. Funnily enough they soon disappreared when they were asked to stump up the cash they had promised once Lowe was gone!

I'm hoping a brand new person comes in with fresh ideas and money who can turn this club around and we'll be rid of the tosspots who have caused this mess in the first place!

Yep, I think that is the case.

I believe that the Fulthorpe consortium are waiting in the wings and may put in an offer if administration does occur. Unfortunately I have also heard the Lowe would also put a bid in, backed by cash from Guernsey based businessmen and from the City. According to a guy I know who used to do the books for Saints, Lowe would want the club for the re-development possibilites of Jacksons Farm and possibly the land around St Mary's. He certainly wouldn't care about getting the club back on its feet and therefore wouldn't care if fans boycotted the club or not. Mind you, let's hope any other investors/consortium outbid Lowe if it comes to that.

I think it is the general feeling that the club has been going backwards since relegation from the Prem. The ongoing war in the Boardroom, a plc structure that deters outside investment and gives too many oppotunities for people to play with the club and the fairly rapid decline of the quality of the squad and the continual change of managers has all taken its toll. I don't want administration but I see it as the only viable way to get rid of this viscious downward spiral the club is now in (along with Lowe & Wilde) and hopefully will get a new Chairman/consortium in who can move the club upwards and strengthen it back towards the Prem.

Yep, pretty much. Troubling times ahead methinks!

Have to go with a positive 2-1 win to Saints. Here's hoping!!

The trouble is FC is that, if my understanding is right, an individual cannot just give a plc money, it would have to be a loan in which the club/plc would have to pay back. Also, as we have seen, it allows people who may not be best qualified to run a football club, the keys to the office. As you say, the most important thing is what happens on the field of play. Lets hope Saints get back to winning ways!

Pretty measured post. On the whole I think Rupert Lowe has had his time and has run out of ideas at the club. He was an effective Chairman in getting the new ground from paper to a reality and very good at getting top cash when selling players, investing in training facilities etc. The main problem was setting up a plc to run the club. This has proved disastrous on many levels such as Boardroom wars (as we have and continue to see) with shareholders who cannot agree and all have different opinions of how they think the club should be run. This detracts any chance of outside investment and generally the club continually slides backwards rather than forwards. He has also managed to split the fanbase, has turned the official site into a 'spin' machine which has lot all credibility and sometimes his business arrogance gets the better of him as has been shown from time to time. The reality is though is that the current structure of a plc running the club will not change unless firstly a consortium/rich individual us prepared to fork out enough money to buy the shares. Extremely unlikely. Or the club goes into admin which will most likely happen if Saints are relegated this season. The only bright hope is if Wotte can keep us up and build and improve the team on a very limited budget and not forced to sell the better players in the squad. Otherwise we will go the same way as Crewe, Luton etc where they kept selling their best players, which weakened the team and they couldn't stay in the CCC. So loathe/put up with/admire Lowe, although we as fans can rake over old ground, past mistakes/glories, nothing will change until one of the above happens.

I believe that he was told after the operation that he faced a 12 month recovery period however it seems he is recovering much more quickly than this (6 months ahead of the original recovery plan) and could start training again before the end of the season. Even with this good news, it is highly unlikely he will be fit enough to feature in any games this is season but should be ready for the next campaign.

Strachan for me. As has been said before. he got the side fitter and put some of his transfer budget in attracting youth players to Southampton of which some moved onto bigger clubs giving the club much needed finance (albeit a lot of it wasted on average players).

Yep, have to agree it was an excellent performance by the team and the crowd rewarded them by getting behind and cheering them on. It was nice to see them all giving 110% and defending from the front with Euell and Saga running their socks off and is what I want to see from a Saints side. Was even impressed to see the whole team come together after we had let in a goal to give each other a boost. Nice to see them reallty fight to get the three points. Slightly different scores to you Chez Davis 7 Did well, making some imprtant saves in the second half when Preston went more attacking. James 8 Is really improving and very important goal line clearance. Seis 10 Absolutely brilliant and very solid. Just what Saints need to start shoring up the leaky defence. Perry 7 Played well although got turned a couple of times by Parkin. Skacel 7 Had a good game and got forward to support Surman. Gillett 6 Didn't start off too well and gave the ball away too much at the start. Much improved second half and helped get in some good tackles in midfield. Surman 8 Ahain an improvement. Ran forward well and got back to help the defence when Preston pushed forward. Goal well taken. Lallana 7 Slowly improving but sometimes was trying to hard. Got forward well to support the attackers. McGoldrick 8 Played very well in midfield. Very intelligent passes to find a player to get Saints attacking up the field. Made good and timely tackles and got forward to support the strikers. A great improvement. Euell 9 Great battling display and supported Saga up front. Unlucky not to get a goal and he ran his socks off and helped gee up the team when the Preston goal went in. Saga 10 Faultless. Scored two very good goals, ran his socks off putting Preston defenders under pressure and defending from the front. Man of the match for me. If they can put in the same level of commitment and energy in the next few games then better results should follow and there is just a chance we could get out of relegation.

Yep, have to agree it was an excellent performance by the team and the crowd rewarded them by getting behind and cheering them on. It was nice to see them all giving 110% and defending from the front with Euell and Saga running their socks off and is what I want to see from a Saints side. Was even impressed to see the whole team come together after we had let in a goal to give each other a boost. Nice to see them reallty fight to get the three points. Slightly different scores to you Chez Davis 7 Did well, making some imprtant saves in the second half when Preston went more attacking. James 8 Is really improving and very important goal line clearance. Seis 10 Absolutely brilliant and very solid. Just what Saints need to start shoring up the leaky defence. Perry 7 Played well although got turned a couple of times by Parkin. Skacel 7 Had a good game and got forward to support Surman. Gillett 6 Didn't start off too well and gave the ball away too much at the start. Much improved second half and helped get in some good tackles in midfield. Surman 8 Ahain an improvement. Ran forward well and got back to help the defence when Preston pushed forward. Goal well taken. Lallana 7 Slowly improving but sometimes was trying to hard. Got forward well to support the attackers. McGoldrick 8 Played very well in midfield. Very intelligent passes to find a player to get Saints attacking up the field. Made good and timely tackles and got forward to support the strikers. A great improvement. Euell 9 Great battling display and supported Saga up front. Unlucky not to get a goal and he ran his socks off and helped gee up the team when the Preston goal went in. Saga 10 Faultless. Scored two very good goals, ran his socks off putting Preston defenders under pressure and defending from the front. Man of the match for me. If they can put in the same level of commitment and energy in the next few games then better results should follow and there is just a chance we could get out of relegation.

I think you are right that Lowe may try to gain ownership of the club from the administrators but it will largely depend if he is outmuscled by another consortium. My take on the situation is that the Fulthorpe consortium and possibly others are just waiting in the wings, gathering their strength for when the club does go into administration and then the bidding will start, therefore it is not wise at this stage to make a sweeping statement that Lowe will never be gone. No investor will come in whilst the club is run by a plc as they would have to buy shares to gain ownership, which would have been a very expensive way of buying a club. That is why there has been no viable investor who has come forward. I know we had a bid from SISU but they were a hedge fund and I haven;t seen them splash the supposedly £20m transfer budget that was alledged to have been available at the start of this season. Therefore when administrators are appointed to sell the club as a going concern, we as fans must hope Lowe is not successful as he has no love for the club and will only want it so he can develop Jacksons Farm etc and hopefully a consortium or investor will gain control who wants to take the club forward again and rebuild it.

I think the main problem that causes us fans the current negative feelings is that the club just keeps going backwards. Under Pearson last season it looked like we had turned the corner and were starting to go forward again. Unfortunately with Lowe returning and creating turmoil within the club and the fanbase it shows that the club has started to slide backwards again and the speed is increasing towards League 1, administration and an uncertain furture. A very sad state of affairs.:mad:

True, you do have to be carful what you wish for but it is clear that the club is not surviving in its current state of being run by a plc and all will happen is the continual decline of the club. The Board clearly have no money to put in themselves, the squad just gets weaker and weaker due to no investment, which in turn means wea re losing games, dropping attendances etc. It is a viscious spiral. Administration unfortunately is inevitable and possibly what Lowe wants when he will no doubt try to make a bid to buy the club on the cheap from the administrators, so he can then make money by developing Jacksons Farm. That is unless the Fulthorpe Consortium/Crouch/ Oversea Consortium can stop him!

Unless Lowe manages to get hold of the club from the inevitable administrators. Just hope that nightmare doesn't happen!

Probably because the confidence has gone from the squad and recently the defence are leaking to goals a game.

Yep, that about sums it up and also that we are run by a plc which deters investors putting money into the club and opens up the opportunity for power struggles in the Boardroom, as we have seen since relegation from the Prem.

I think it boils down to that whatever you read on here you have to make up your own mind whether you believe it or not or whether you agree or disagree with their opinion. On the whole I enjoy seeing the good banter that goes on along with some very funny humour mixed in and although I don't comment much on the issues, that is mainly because someone else may have already written the same thing as I think on a given subject. The only time I tend to scroll through some of the posts is when posters start a slagging match with personal abuse which although is mostly reactionary, it is still not necessary. Sometimes poster on here need to appreciate that other people will have a different point of view and should respect that. Nuff said!

Indeed. To expand on the above point, Lowe, Wilde and Crouch have all made mistakes whilst being Chairmen. Unfortunately there will always be players that don't fulfill their full potential for whatever reason. The problem is that at Southampton is that none of these guys are rich enough to dip into their pocket and are able to buy a different player. Which means that when Saints pay a lot of money for a player who doesn't perform, the effect is a lot more noticable. Think of how many players have failed, you will find a whole bunch of them at every club. Unfortunately Skacel falls into this category at Saints. It's the nature of football!

Unless the gate receipts continue to fall and/or we are relegated. Then I would think things would be rapidly 'reviewed' by Barclays.