Rebel

Posted by a Coventry fan on PompeyOnline: "There is a certain irony about the situation. SISU (Hedge Fund) wanted to buy Southampton but were turned down by Lowe et al. Ray Ranson took over CCFC 15 months ago instead. We could have been Southampton because it really was only 20 mins before we were due to go in to admin. We do not own our stadium. The previous chairman Brian Richardson carried something like 60m debt associated with the construction. We were relegated before we even started to build it and could not build it unless helped ...Coventry Council funded the bulk of the completion of the Ricoh Cov Council and another company own it 50-50. Ray ranson is trying to buy some of it. A contract for 125million has just been signed with Compass Catering. But I don't know if CCFC have any cut on it. Over the year, the Ricoh has 100 plus days of exhibtions and is becoming an international setting for rock stars. There are 64 hotel rooms on site. If the club owned the ground we would be well off.... Although Cov are said to be losing 80k per week, we apparently have no debt becasue SISU are coverning it until we get back in the Prem. This will not be for a few years. The plan is to do something like Pompey/Reading and stay there a few years. So..... We are apparently debt free, waiting patiently to have few good seasons in our league and then move up and stay up. We have not challenged at all over the years. We have a first team squad of 24 and have disbanded the reserves. Hopefully the bad times are behind us. The Likes of Norwich, Charlton, Southampton, Leicester and Leeds have all struggled over the years. We are better off than most of the teams in the Championship and it has been said that we are one of the few clubs without major debt." I am not so sure that in the long term they are in a much better position than us. What happens when SISU decide to pull the plug or cut their losses on their investment and there is no buyer for the club Saying that I would rather be them than us right now by a long long way!

I already did - I bought £500 of shares in SLH when I joined the Saints Trust steering committee and proxies them to the Trust. More fool me!!!

For some strange reason none of the Skates at work have dared say anything to me in the last two days sure some people who have no understanding of football have taken the p*ss - but none of the Skates and not any other football fans either even had a Leeds fan offered me sympathy (and we don't exactly click) is it because the look in my eyes is a little bit like 'give me a reason.....!' or is it because only other fans can understand how we feel right now or maybe they are worried they're next - and are simply thinking but for a few points or maybe an overdraft it could be them right now

there are a lot of fans like me who don't got to every home game - but pick and choose depending on various things (girlfriend/holida/family stuff/work/etc) I've been to about half of the home games this season so far and bought tickets for a bunch of friends last week for the Charlton game - because for me it was a always going to be a 9 pointer! I've never had a season ticket but there are many season where I've been to every home game (doesn't make me a better fan then anyone else though) there will be lots of fans/supporters like me/us who will be probably decide to go on Saturday now - maybe because it might be there last chance to support saints or just maybe because they think there £15 might make a difference whoever they are (apart fropm Wilde and Lowe) they will be welcome by me - and if they've come back after staying away for whatever reason - I don't care - they are all Saints fans to me - and that is what matters I actually admire those people who have stayed away because of Lowe - they are stronger at dealing with an addiction than me (and you could argue at least they've got principles - and maybe it worked as he's gone now)

Steve I'm not so sure - we had several conversations with Jim Hone, Lee Hoos and Andy Oldknow about the right way forward for the club - I think they were incompetent - that or so focused on takeover bonuses they might get they didn't care about anything else We argued with them quite strongly that the only way was to run the club was within its means - whereas the fantastic four (lets inlcude Jones!) thought the only way was to spend money we didn't have to push for a play-off place and secure a takeover they didn't even listen when we pointed out we were falling into a relegation battle and not a promotion fight they all should have been sacked without a doubt and probably for gross incompetence looks like we were right and they were very wrong! As for Lowe's Warchest - they discovered that didn't actually exist - and they told us that but spent the money anyway!

why not just call it St Marys FC! Or go back to Southampton St Marys! Or merge with Trojans rugby and hocky clubs to form Trojans AC! AJax Amesterdam, Hercules (of Spain somewhere), Sparta Rotterdam, Blyth Spartans and Trojans of Southampton! After all SLH has been a bit like a Trojan Horse!

what do they say - never trust a scouser!

you'll have to ask Hone, Wilde and Hoos that one! As we couldn't afford the fees or the wages - and probably should have sold Rasiak and Skacel at the time instead of buying anyone I think it was something to do with the £5 -£7 million Wilde promised to inject into the club and Hone started spending before it arrived - and then it never did - and then kept spending thinking it was the only way to secure a takeover No - I didn't understand his thinking either!

Now would be a really good time to come up with that £7 million you promised particularly since the people you brought in to manage the club - Hone, Hoos and Oldknow - went and spent it! Do the right thing for once Michael!

we need to win this one that's why it'll be the first game I've been to since the Man Utd cup game - its time for all they stay aways like me to show they still care - and maybe be part of the crowd that makes the difference like in the old Dell days I haven't been for a while as the Forest and Doncaster games sucked the heart right out of me! And the Man Utd game just felt like a sham - a pointless exercise if you like time for a rallying call perhaps! a protest march against Wilde and Lowe before the game even - if it makes the difference

I thought that after the 23rd March - i.e. yesterday - the points deduction that came with going into administration applied to next season so if we go into administration on Thursday but stay up we would start next season on minus 10 points the gamble being that we would then finish 10 points above the bottom three next season! that makes more sense to me than taking the 10 points this season and guaranteeing relegation if we stay up this year we will get an extra £2.1 million from TV money next year for being in the CCC that's worth the gamble!

maybe its a really good time time for Wilde to come up with that £7 million he promised, and that Hone and Co then spent, and he never delivered! go one Michael, do the right thing, you know you should! or maybe Lowe and Co should issue some new shares - I am sure Crouch would buy them

the move to St Mary's was thr right thing for SFC - beyond a doubt. the problem is where the extra money it generated went. In 2003 we were something like the 10th largest club in England based on attendance over the season and something like 7th in terms of revenue due the the FA Cup run we qualified for the UEFA Cup, appeared in an FA cup final but then failed to take the step forward Bridge was always going to leave for Chelseas and the money - but we simply failed to replace him or strengthen the team a total failure to sieze the day we should and could have replaced Bridge with Konchesky and Malbranque instead we bought McCann and Phillips in Lowes first reign we spent as much on players as we made on selling them - we failed to invest in the team time and time again and yet over that 10 year period our revenue was roughly £50 million more than our wage bill - so where did it all go we didn't pay off the stadium as at least £23 million was still to pay when he left so where and what did it go on?

Pompey have something like 14 players out of contract in the summer (including Kanu/Campbell/etc) - and will lose most of those whether they go down or not as their wage bill is simply too big for them to sustain they are also £40 million or more in debt still - so even if they stay up they'll have to sell players like Kranjkar and Crouch to raise money if they do go down they will lose nearly all of their current squad - so I'll think they will struggle in the CCC if it comes to it

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