Rebel

I nominate StuRomseySaint!

DIY like this season!

Wilde, Wilde and Wilde - for the situation we find ourselves in now! he failed and should have left it at that - sold his shares and left us alone - not come back and bring Lowe with him! first he ousted Lowe (not a necessarily a bad thing), promised £7 million, appointed Hone, Hoos and Oldknow, let them kick him out, never delivered the £7 million which had already been spent, didn't sack Burley, let Hone rule without a mandate - leaving us with an overpaid squad, £5-6 million in debt, a terrible manager and a wage bill we couldn't afford and a sqaud fit for relegation and then when Crouch and Pearson seemed to have finally started to sort things out on and off the pitch he comes back hand-in-hand with Lowe - forcing the Double Dutch experiment on us, putting bling faith in kids and kids alone, and splitting the club into many parts and factions - oh and put us in yet another relegation battle a meddling old professor - and yet another academic who should have stuck to his unreal world and left us in the real world alone! would we still be in the CCC if Lowe had been left in charge 2 years ago? - yes but we wouldn't be £5 million in debt - and we would probably be in mid table obscurity (please!) Would we be better off if Crouch and Pearson had been left in charge last year - yes - undoubtedly - we would be mid table, maybe even pushing for a play-off place. We'd probably still be in debt - but probably not staring oblivion in the face as we seem to be now Wilde had done far more harm than good - and twice over now do us all a favour Michael - sell your shares in the Summer - to Lowe if nobody else wants them and leave SFC well alone! I'm sure Liverpool need rescuing!

particularly as Hampshire was originally the 'county of southHAMPton' as its so named on many old maps!

if they price it right people will go - £15 for an adult, £10 for Students, OAPS and teenagers and £5 for kids and if the team starts winning more people will go its that simple as for the Stadium no one else would want it so thank god we are stuck with it - maybe they should extend the mortgage or simply remortgage it - reduce the annual cost of it the bank will have little option but to say yes - it cant excatly turn us down as its not exactly a saleable asset right now is it!

actuall share ownership is a capitalist concept - socialism would take a different approach - making the club owned by its membership - one member one vote - now that would be a socialist approach uberfan!?! a term that means nothing but stirs up feelings - are you a young tory but any chance? the supporter representation could simply be an observer on the board - or it could be more than one person with voting rights open your minds and think! Barcelona FC is run but its fans with the board elected by its fans - now we wouldn't want to see Saints in their situation would we? - what with the Nou Camp stadium and Messi, E'to, Henry, Xavi in their team! Would we?

have to say the fans Parliament idea is pure PR - spin and nothing more if Michael Wilde really listened to the fans he woudln't have broguth Lowe back to power - and he would have sold his shares or donated them them to charity and crawled all the way back to Anfield! can you really see Chairman Lowe listening to the fans parliament when we all know he sees us as nothing more than a bunch of mugs who pay his inflated prices and his inflated wages - he more or les despises us! as it was he used the qaurterly fans group forums to divide and rule - how many of those regional fans actually existed for a start Scottish Saints lived in Southampton if I remember correctly - and some only existed for the tickets deals they got in return for agreeing with Lowe if certain people are to be believed he'll just do the same again - because all the power will be with the clubs board yet again

and why is that? because you didn't invent it? ignore the people who may or may not be involved and look at the stuctures and the set up - and a supporters trust is the best way by miles and miles to give fans a voice - any voice - at their football club

it failed to some extent because people like Alpine Saints and StuRomseySaints wanted it to fail and its far easier to throw stones than it is to build something some of the abuse directed on here and in other places at people involved in the Trust made them give up on supporters groups in general, and not just the Trust but Basingstoke Saints, London Saints, the Ted Bates Trust and Saints Away Supporters

crap idea - do you realise some of the people behind this forum were involved in setting up the Saints Trust and sat on the committee - as did a number of the more regular posters we wouldn't want any of those lunatics having a say in the club

I have to say - much like the City Council buying St Mary's - the Trust's latest idea is not a great one Crouch represents the clubs and the fans best bet in the immediate future the only real future the club has is one without Lowe or Wilde the Trust does need to take a strong view on things like this - which is fails to partly because the commitee doesn't always agree on what it should do and partly because some people on the committee don't want to burn their bridges with the club for many different reasons

and what did it actually achieve - sweet FA! its easy to spout of on here - or shout out like SISA, Chorley and McMillan - but what does it actually achieve plus his photo in the Echo made all the Skates at work go on an on about inbreeding for some reason! I don't think people on here or Saints fans at large actually realise what the original committe of the Saints Trust actually achieved in setting up an organisation that could be used as a vehicle or mechanism for giving Saints fans a real say in running their club in the long run - and possibly something that could one day save it from extinction it simply due to circumstances tried to do to much far too soon

but that's the point - he's not is he he's a local wealthy businessman who wants to be the saviour - he may have some of the same objectives - but not always the cult of Leon would be high on the agenda - along with thye cult of Big Mac

I still don't understand why some people are so against the Trust when they put forward the exact same ideas under a different banner is it because they didn't think of it first - or because they are not in charge there is an easy answer to the second one if that's the problem - get involved in the Trust as for who represents fans on the board at SFC- Crouch thought he was the fans representative on the board Lawrie Mac thought fans were there just to support the club and its managers/directors/players (and worship)

the Saints Trust was trying to negotiate something along those lines with the club - but still giving non-season ticket holders the option to join as members and have a voice at the club also giving a mechanism for the small shareholders to have a larger collective voice and all fans a chance to own shares in the club through the Trust as a Saints fans of 30 years who apart from joining the Branfoot protests and shouting a bit too loudly at games never got actively involved in supporter stuff until I joined the Saints Trust working group it looked (and still does) like a great idea to me which club do I aspire Saints to be like - Barcelona for all its stands for - and because its owned and run by its membership (although that's not always worked either!) I was never involved in SISA or the TSA although I passively joined both I have to say I now think most Saints fans have got the directors and the club they deserve - and I've learnt that through bitter experience - of egos, of vitriol, of not invented here syndrome, and of messageboards!

GK: Darryl Flahavan, Paul Smith, Alan Blayney, Andre McNeil RB : Chris Baird, Martin Cranie CB's : Gary Monk, Martin Cranie, Mathew Mills, Mike Williamson, Baird LB : Bridge, Bale RM : Dyer, Walcott CM's : Brian Howard, Jay Lucas, Tim Sparv, Yoan Folly LM : Bridge, Bale, Leandre Griffit CF's : Best, Blackstock, Walcott, Scott McDonald, Cedric Baseya

Um Pahars, Steve Grant, Exit2, Ladysaint, and fos1 were all on the Saints Trust working group, committee and then the board - all have since stepped down along with myself for a number of reasons Nick Illingsworth is the only original committee/board members still on the Trust Board many others have come and gone since then there has long been an argument over whether the Trust should be a social organisation setting up quizes etc and organising away coaches, an organisation focussed on big issues affecting Saints - or both personally I think we wasted too much time on things like the Saints Trust bar and tried to do too much at once one of the main reasons the Trust has failed to fly is because hardly anyone else wanted to get involved in helping - the idea was to have sub-committees or whatever looking after the Trust Bar, Away day travel, regional supporters groups and things like that - but no one else stepped forward some people also failed to step up and deliver on what they promised - or what they took ownership off - but not the responsibilty that goes with it

Maybe the Saints Trust should invite them to an open meeting to discuss the past, present and more importantly the future or Southampton FC with its supporters!

In short no - certainly not a right back as a midfielder maybe have to say playing at right back in destroying him

I never really understood why we brought in Stern John and Jason Euell when we should have been cutting our costs (and wage bill) insted of adding expensive players to the squad Euell has turned out to be an expensive free transfer that's for sure and we probably got Stern John instead of a sell on clause in the Kenwyne Jones deal Lee Hoos and Jim Hone really were cr*p at buying players - and managing a football club I'd have played Saga over John every time - a far better passer, much better striker and a player who actually moves off the ball and defends from the front - a much better team player by far

I agree with you about the Trust trying to run before it could walk - unfortunately it was cause of the times! Similarly the Trust wasn't the only one fooled by Wilde - a lot of people were and like Crouch the Trust preached caution and called for Crouch and Wilde to work together Other clubs have supporters representatives on the board - and in Germany I think it is - clubs are 51% owned by their members - and Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain are 100% owned by the members A significant supporter shareholding or supporter representative on the board would ensure that decisions are made in the favour of the club and not its major shareholders or directors, it would also make the operating of the club more open and honest things that would have made a real difference to to the way things have turned out for SFC over the last few years

that's exactly what the Saints Trust is - and if it had enough members and bought enough shares in SLH as a result - that is in effect what the club would be!

That's exactly what the Saints Trust set out to do - but Saints fans didn't want to know The Trust was registered as an Industrial and Provident Society with the Registrar of Friendly Societies. As such all its actions and conduct are regulated by the Financial Services Authority under the provisions of the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts, 1965 - 1978. The Trust therefore has to be run democratically by an elected committee - with all major decisions put to its members to vote on the Trust has failed so far simply because Saints fans didn't want to get involved and put their money or their time where there mouths are The Trust was set up to use its memberships fees to buy shares in the club - giving its members collective ownership of shares in the club similarly the Trust was also set up so that exisiting supporter shareholders could proxy their shares to club - giving a stonger collective voice for fans about 40% of the Shares in SLH were owned by small shareholders - for the most part fans I would guess Unfortunately SLH chose not recognised the proxy forms on an ongoing basis as other clubs have done but required a proxy formn for each vote or AGM (severely weakening the Trust) the Trust found a solution to this but it would have cost c. £15,000 a year to administer - money the Trust simply didn't have

we never really recoverd from selling Bridge and not rebuilding our left side Marsden on the left of midfield without Bridge at leftback was simply not going to work Le Saux was a reserve at best long past his sell by date Van Damme was a £2.5 million gamble that didn't work Perhaps Van Damme and left back and Le Saux at Left midfield might have worked if they'd ever been fit enough at the same time McCann was a last resort as we couldn't or wouldn't buy Malbranque and/or De Pedro Phillips was a last resort - and he didn't really want to come to Saints anway - plus he was too similar to Beattie in position if not in playing style - both wanted to be the main man so it never worked! We also needed a right sided midfielder with a bit more end product than Fernandes who seemed to have reached a plateau! would we have taken the next step forward if we'd spent the Bridge money on Konchesky, Van Damme and De Pedro, used Le Saux as a reserve and pushed the boat out for Malbranque - possibly - and in my opinion probably

I have to say I agree with you completely on this - the reason the Trust failed in the past is because saints fans just wanted to criticize the Trust but not get involved or help in anyway there was an open invitation to saints fans to get involved - to shareholders to proxy their shares to the Trust to give Saints fans a voice - for people to join or donate money so the Trust could buy shares in the club to give saints fans a bigger voice I joined, got involved in the committee, bought £500 of shares, proxied them to the Trust, gave out leaflets at games (mostly to hostile abuse from saints fans) - at least I tried - the reasons it failed were mostly due to the apathy of Saints fans for some reason at other clubs like Reading and Derby the supporters Trusts have worked well - why not Saints - ask yourselves that! I would also like to point out that fos1, ladysaint, exit2, and stevegrant were all members of the the Saints Trust committee in the past along with Um Pahars - and all of us stepped down for various reasons - so I am not totally sure why some of them are criticising it now