Dig Dig

Graham Le Saux made it for him

Saint Charlie and Tokyo should head down to stapelwood to confirm and have a little bonding session along the way.

Chill out Miss Marple

Great news for the club and another demonstration on Cortese's ability to build and leverage business realtionships for the benefit of the club. We can all feel good about being Saints fans today.

It's very poor to be fair. My last experience was **** food on tiny plates, poor atmosphere and a stomach ache.

Well nothing revolutionary but a good balance between short term and long term planning, more investment in infrastructure than in players and player wages, solid protection of our player assets, continued emphasis on the success of the academy, improved global scouting, ability to implement visions and back to back promotions to the prem 2 years whilst slowly evolving the squad in a sensible manner. Not just any old CEO would have done it in the same way and I have no complaints from a team perspective at all really. People also say the same about Adkins when it suits then but we've all been watching football long enough to know that things don't just happen because you throw money at it. It takes far more than that.

Bit laughable that this is your stance now when we've all seen your hissy fits over poor results in the last few seasons.

The classic "anyone could have done it" fob off

Success on the pitch is what it's all about. We pay our money to watch us win as many games as possible and guess what, we've won a lot of games with NC as chairman. All the other stuff is important for some to arbitrary for many others.

I know it's your opinion but doesn't mean I have to agree and I don't. Blackburn have been on a downward spiral the second they were taken over and the decisions of their owners have been disatrous, one after other. As much as you'd like there to be, there is clearly no comparison to be drawn at all between Cortese's unpleasantness and what as happened there. From a football perspective, NC has done little wrong to date.

It makes for a good sideshow in a book promo though.

The "unpleasantness" would be more of a minor concern in most peoples book in comparison to having a successful team to support which is trying to be the best it can be. Also, the unpleasantness hasn't stopped the enjoyment of the the overwhelming majority of fans over the last 3 seasons. Go and complain to Blackburn or Forest fans about "unpleasantness" and watch them laugh in your face.

Yet you want him out

I think a lot of people will see the point you make, it's quite straight forward and reasonable IMO but Sour Mash is blinkered by his blind love of MLT so you can't really debate properly with him on this. He usually has some good points to make but on this subject, it's simply not possible to say anything other than what a bell NC and what a hero MLT is in order for him to not try and belittle you.

a lot seems to have been as a result of Benali's letting agreement which started right as the start of the takeover so it seems to have been a personal issue which has escalated from there. I doubt NC was sat in his office one day and thought "you know what......I might start treating MLT with disrespect for a laugh"

It was probably a utopian dream. Matty as the fans favourite chairman, only really needed to front up as the chairman but with those with a bit more business nouse, running the club in the background so plenty of time for a few rounds golf a week. Lawrie and Flash Gordon on 275K retainers PA for corporate entertainment with Mike Osman pitch side at half time and Franny with a nice little ambassador role on the side. Would have been perfect for them all.

Some ex legends are part of the club, it's not a blanket policy by NC. This clearly only extends to a particular circle of Ex Saints and there is a reason for that. Whether it's valid or not is another discussion but would you say that every former player with legendary status should have a part in the club, regardless of their behaviour and very public thoughts on the current chairman?

Yes of course it was never going to happen but MLT clearly thought that it could happen for a period of time and you can imagine that a lot of MLT's mates were anticipating some involvement as well which was quickly quashed by NC. Not hard to see where the grudge comes from.

And what respect does he deserve? Free and unfettered access to St Mary's a club role etc? You can't realistically expect to get that if you're going to use your media position to leverage some coverage on behalf or your mates re a very personal dispute.

You don't need to "be involved" to love the club. Going from potential chairman to fan in the stand would be a bit of a kick in the teeth for anyone but that's not all NC's fault IMO.

Well it seems NC was willing to attempt at "clearing the air" under the provision that it's kept out of the public domain. Not only has MLT almost immediately disregarded that, he's continued the digs in public. He obviously was never that bothered about the meeting in the first place and is probably a good result for MLT as it even with a meeting, it's unlikely that all the issues extending to MLT's mates would be resolved anyway. NC doesn't seem to have much choice here, would you meet with someone for "clear the air" talks if they were to continue to make personal digs in the public domain?

I think so as well but the CoMLT won;t have any of that. It's all or nothing.

Well I think it's been widely known for a while that this doesn't stem from NC's general running of the club, how could it? Tne success we've had under NC has been there for all to see. The fact that a group of ex saints (not all but some) are involved is a series of personal disputes which have escalated to this extent is a shame but when the players cross the line on a Saturday, none of it matters one little bit.

in relation to a lease dispute and lost ambassadorial fees. Of course this all about what's best for SFC and absoultely nothing to do with personal losses or noses being put out re past priviledges and financial arrangements.

You're not a true saints fan if you love a man in a suit more than our greatest ever player IMO. You CoC muncher