Tamesaint

... and he must now be turning in his grave at our current predicament. He died in November 2003.....and it has been downhill ever since then!!!

I think the key word here is "Unofficially". Officialy he only started after the Lions tour. The news that he was coming however was an open secret. Everyone knew he was coming. As I said in an earlier post on this thread Gary Linekar even said that he was coming on Match of the Day's first programme of the 2004/5 season. So technically you are correct. He only turned up in the late summer of 2005. In practice you are not, as the shock of his appointment and the disruption that it caused was well known well before then.

You raise some interesting points. I do not know enough social workers / probation service people to be able to reply from a position of knowledge. However I do worry that we are now burning out our young stars. In expecting them to perform every week & take the criticism that they get, are we really doing the best for their long term development? Interestingly, the first thing that Wenger did when he bought Walcott was to rest him for the rest of that season. He recognised that the mental and physical pressures that he had been exposed to at Southampton was probably retarding his development. I wonder whether the same is true now of our youngsters. Lallana for example has not seemed the player he was at the start of the season. I am sure that he could do with a rest and the expectations on him to be lowered but a rest is not what he will get under Rupert's mad strategy. I would love to know what the young players think. Are they grateful for the chance to play in the first team .... or do they hate any criticism that they get and are they worried that they could suffer from burn out???

I wonder how many other fans would have been prepared to put up with the dross that has been served up this season? To my mind it was amazing last Tuesday night, when so many fans turned up despite the weather. It was obviously in hope rather than expectation yet we still cheered on our side. Most of us must need our heads examining for still turning up. We do turn up and we will but to turn the fans who have sufferd so much into scapegoats is laughable!!

Nineteen Canteen's story about the Donny game is so far from reality it is quite funny. Tell me, was this when you were called Nineteen Canteen or were you known as Sundance Beast in those days?? How is your young son now?? Do you have a made up wife as well??

... and maybe we could have afforded a proper manager like Pearson without these payoffs. :-) :-)

Can you give any details??

Excellent post. I would not hold my breath expecting a sensible answer from him if I were you.

Brilliant!!!!

Nickh You started off by saying that when Lowe left we had £m's in the bank. That is a fallacy that Lowe has started and is very misleading.

In the 2008 accounts he wrote: When I, and five of my fellow Directors, resigned from the Board in June 2006, in the hope that it would bring unity, we were required to warrant that there was £3.4m cash on deposit at Barclays Bank. His chairman's statement was certainly misleading.

I have no idea of what we had in the bank on 29 June 2007 or 2008. Unless you are Dave Jones or work for Barclays Bank, I suspect that you do not know either. Cashflow planning is an important feature for any business. Companies can be in financial trouble but still have money in the bank if you choose a paticular day just after they have been paid and just before they have to make their major payments. I think that this was the situation on the day that Lowe left. Please do not say that I am obscuring fair debate. Lowe is obscuring the truth by talking about money in the bank on the day when he left power.

I think that we nail this myth about there being plenty of money in the account on the day when Lowe left. Lowe left just before the end of June. The majority of the season ticket money had been received and was in the bank. The season ticket money is the biggest source of revenue for the club and has to be used to keep the club going in the months when there is not so much income . In addition players are due their signing on fees // loyalty bonuses on 30th June. This is one of the main sources of outgoings. Lowe left a couple of days before this money was paid to the players. It is a bit like you saying that you have plenty of money in the bank - the day after you have been paid and just before you have to pay your mortgage, your council tax and all your other bills. Technically you do have money iin the bank but realistically you do not. Just another example of the Lowe spin machine!!

& Nonsense??? I would have thought that the likes of Simon Jordan at Palace, the Golds at Birmingham, Marcus whatsisname at Ipswich, Delia at Norwich , Whatsit housebuilder at Wolves , & mega bucks at QPR all go to prove that the thought of having people who invest in the club is not nonsense. Why does Rupert have to be different?

QUOTE=VectisSaint;195579]Don't get me wrong, I agree Lowe is insane, but blaming Woodward for our relegation is a bit daft, given he joined AFTER we were relegated. He was cause of much disruption when we were first in CCC, because he couldn't work with Saggy Chops, and introduced Simon wahtever his name was, who was clearly completely off his rocker. Lowe has done some stupid things, maybe the Woodward experiemnt was one of them, but it wasn't the cause of us being relegated... Maybe. I certainly note that he was appointed after we were relegated. But it did seem to be an open secret in our last season in the Premiership that Woodwood was in Rupert's mind. From memory, Gary Linekar said something to that effect when we were on Match of the Day for the first match that season against Villa. Such an unusual proposal must have had an effect on the club. With hindsight, our best chance of returning to the Premiership was in our first season down when we still had the parachute payment and players like Delap, Higgy etc who have since proved they were Premiership quality . The disruption caused then by Woodwood cannot be underestimated.

A couple of questions Jonah?? 1. How much cash diid Secure Retirement bring to Saints??? This is a genuine question. I would like to know the answer. 2. How does the cash that Lowe put into the Rights Issue compare with the money that he has received in dividends, payoffs, salary etc ? I think I know the answer to this one. What many people object to is Lowe and his cabal taking so much from the club. In comparison to nearly every Premier League club and the majority of clubs in the Championship, we have a chairman who does not appear to invest in his club. We have a Chairman who sees the club as a money making opportunity for himself. The majority of chairmen do not. No wondere the football club is failing when we are having to compete on such an unlevel playing field. .. and I am not referring to Yeovil's old ground :-) :-)

I know - we are doing soooooowell under him aren't we??????

Have you heard about Rupert's latest idea?? Apparently he was so impressed with the way that we played with 10 men against Swansea and Sheff Utd played with 10 men on Tuesday that next season Saints are only going to play with 10 men. If you only have 10 men you can make do with a smaller squad ... and this will keep the bank happy!! Its a cracker. He is going to announce this proposal later this week after first trying to persuade the FA to adopt it in all competitions. The OS is preparing an article trumpeting "what football can do to protect itself against the credit crunch." Nineteen "Jon Marland" Canteen is penning a 5,000 word essay on why Crouch and Mcmenemy are soooo antiquated in not accepting this proposal.... You think I am joking???? Well it is not any more far fetched than the idea of bringing a Rugby coach into your club and preparing him to be manager. It is no more far fetched than sacking a good, young, up and coming manager and replacing him with a non league Dutch manager. It probably makes more sense than lending the top scorers for the last 2 years to your rivals - one of whom is in direct competition with you to avoid relegation. It is no more far fetched than refusing to play the likes of Euell, Scacel and BWP in a "footballing revolution". Rupert's crazy idea about Woodwood and the disruption that it caused to the club was a major factor in our relegation and in our inability to bounce back when we had the parachute payment. The Dutch experiment looks like taking us down again. Why not play with just 10 men & see if a hattrick of relegations follows???

Oh no????? Mind you .... I can fully understand why nobody wants to admit that they are Lowe or Marland!!

Go on Jon boy. Why don't you put some money in??? The ECB don't want you so you must have some spare cash.

PMSL The man who will not pay a fiver to the Saintsweb claims he would buy 2 season tickets???? I think you are telling porkies now Jon. Even you admitted yesterday that you used to be a Charlton fan. Tel me, who did you support in the 76 Cup Final?? Who were you supporting in the late70's // early 80's ?? If it was Saints you would not be holding your current views on Lawrie. Would you still be buying your 2 tickets if Leon was our Chariman?? After all you have "supported Saints all your life. " Or does your support depend who is the chairman ? Too many rum punches sitting in the Jamaica sun watching the cricket methinks???

I also have missed two home matches. Our only win and the 2-2 draw against Ipswich. So thats 4 of the oh so many goals we have scored at home.

"I really don't give a sh1t" is an unfortunate term to use after last night's match. Presumably Jon, they didn't show last night's match in Jamaics. If you had managed to catch it, you would have seen 13,000 Saints fans braving bitter cold & treacherous conditions to be let down by the Saints team. These fans DO give a sh1t. Please do not patronise them.

So Jon, when did you start to support Saints?? When Rupert appeared on the scene??

They say that you can judge a man by the company that he keeps. In which case Lowe is definitely a loser. First there were his chums who persuaded him to stand in the 1997 General Election for the Referendum Party - the BNP in blazers. Even though Lowe stood in the Cotswolds , he couldn't persuade enough retired colonels to vote for him and he lost his deposit . An expensive way of being told that your views are those of a pill**k. Then there is his friend David Ross from Carphone Warhouse. Despite making millions, he has now been accused of fraud. Ross's buddy Simon Jordan has proved himself to be a football man but Ross is not a great bloke to be seen hanging around with. Now we have Lord Marland - Rupert's best friend. First he tried to become boss of the Football Association .... but they could tell he was a tos**r and rejected him. Then he decided that he preferred cricket but despite the current fiascos with the current English team (eg the Pietersen / Moores affair & the Stanford series) he couldn't persuade the counties to even talk to him in his latest bid to become head honcho !! Nobody could take him seriously. This guy is a serial loser. Come on Rupert. Drop dead beats like Ross and Marland. Associating with them does you no favours at all!!