Lord Duckhunter

Invested, not spent If I was a Leiberr I'd be pretty pleased with how Nicola was managing my investment.

Pretty pathetic and a bit disrespectful towards Nigel if you ask me. There was never any doubt in my mind that the players will just get on with it. They are used to changes, managers coaches other players leave all the time. They will still want to prove themselves to the new guy as they will want to play in the Premiership. For every player sad that Nigel's gone, there will be one pleased that he may now get a chance or be used in the proper position. You don't get 20 Argie caps and play in la liga by being a mug, so he'll know a bit about the game, how to run a session, and also have a decent touch if involved. Early doors, they'll be respectful and enthusiastic, it's whether he can maintain and grow that ,which will make or break his career here.

I can see the open letter now. Dear Liebherrs That Nicola that your Dad put in charge of the club, you know that club that he took from League 1 with -10 to the biggest money making league in world football. Well he doesn't know what he's doing, and has just sacked a really nice man.We are really really upset about it. How on earth can you let this man continue to manage your investment, apart from making loads of Premiership TV money for you,so you can sell at a massive profit, what else has he done?. Regards Saints fans. PS, we want a fan on the board, some of us are Ebay sellers so are used to business.

Come on!!!!! Getting out of League 1 was a given, a lot of Managers could have done that on our budget. Out of the Championship, pretty good , but any better than Phil Brown at Hull (who also kept them up), Owen Coyle at Burnley, Hollowhead at Blackpool. I would suggest that getting Hull, Burnley and Blackpool up was equally as tough as getting a quite expensively assembled Saints squad up. I'm not knocking Nigel or what he achieved at this club, but the over reaction from some of our fans is like we've thrown out the English Mourinho. Time will tell how good he'll be, but personally I doubt he'll get another Premiership job and will have to take a team up from the Championship to manage at this level again. Premiership history is littered with guys who did a great job getting up, even in some cases staying up, but failing after that. George Burley, Paul Jewell, Phil Brown are three off the top of my head. Paul Jewell even did it with two clubs, yet you'd be laughed out the room if you suggested he was England Manager material.

Spot on. He's running the club and under his leadership we've gone from -10 in League 1, to spending £12 mil on a bright young talent. All in just 3 and a bit seasons. What a ride we've had. But some want to say "this is where I get off". There's been a hell of a lot of casulties on the way, from Mark Wotte to Billy Sharpe, Nigel is just the latest. A great guy and a fantastic gentlemen, but NC has yet to put a foot wrong, so I'm giving him the benefit of doubt.

Makes you wonder how we ever got by without Eastern European's picking our fruit, serving our meals, cleaning our offices ect ect ect. As Nigel Farage pointed out on QT, veg got picked prior to Poland ect joining the EU, it's just that British people did it and got paid a higher wage. Here's the rub, we have no choice. You could decide that you think it's right to pay slightly more for your veg, for your pizza in Prezzo, for your fruit, if it meant British people off the dole queue and into work. You might prefer cheaper services with more Brits on the dole, and higher taxes to pay for them. But, the choice is not ours to make.

Reminds me of this one, I couldn't be arsed to listen to some of our fans reaction to our Lady Di moment, but I hope and pray they weren't as bad as this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=s_JVekPzUVo

Did Nigel ditch Deano the right way or the wrong way?

Does all this moral outrage apply to players ditched and moved on or just Managers?

Does the "riding roughshod over employees" extend to Nigel's treatment of Dean Hammond and Dan Harding. "After all the Lowe times I thought we had hit rock bottom and things couldn't get any worse, perhaps I was wrong". No you were right, the summer before Cortese and Marcus rode into town, was slightly worse than the time that a Argie international with a half decent reputation in Spain was appointed as Manager of our Premier League side.

I love the way things have been twisted and rewritten as if we were going to be safe under Nigel. It was going to the wire with Nigel.

Exactly, had Saint Nigel been approached by Liverpool last summer, he'd have been off like a shot. This is turning into our very own Lady Di moment, some need to get a grip.

So you think the Manager should stick with players he doesn't believe are good enough for sentimental reasons? What about Kelvin, great story, from turning down West Ham to captaining us through the leagues to redeem himself in the Premiership. In Nigel's eyes he wasn't quite good enough, so he ditched him, same with Deano. NC doesn't feel Nigel is quite good enough, but has to keep him so you can be proud of the club?

I wouldn't have done it, but then again I wouldn't have sacked Pardew or even appointed Adkins in the first place. It's NC's job to make these sort of decisions, not mine, and so far he's done a ****ing good job. He knows more about running a football club than I do, and all of the posters on here do. Had Marcus put one of us in charge of the club, I doubt we'd be where we are now. NC is no Lowe when it comes to managers 2 wrong for every one right. He's been spot on every time. In my eyes that affords him time to be judged this time round.People are saying it is wrong, before a ball has been kicked.

So were you up in arms when Nigel displayed this "win at all costs" attitude towards Dean Hammond, surely he deserved a chance in the Premiership. Or Kelvin, surely he deserved better that being dumped for a kid and then a Nutter. He may have cost us a few goals, but football's about more than just winning.

I don't know if it's the right decision, what I'm going to do is wait and see whether it was or not. The alternative is to do what?

Makes me laugh. I've lost count of the "best 2 years of my life" supporters, bemoaning NC's treatment of Nigel after the wonderful 2 years he gave us. Yet they dont want that evil NC running the club, they want the sucsess he bought, they matched his ambition to get back to the Premiership, but now we're there, "can we get off now, can you tone your ambition down Nicola". Had Leon Crouch cobbled together some sort of consortianum, we'd have our club back. Lawrie could get in for free, Matt could wave on the pitch, Osman do the halftime nonsense. We wouldn't sack decent people like Nigel, we would be respected in the press and on SSN. Does anyone seriously beleiev we'd be watching Gaston and drawing with Chelsea.

I would suggest that having had no dealings with him themselves, their minds have been made up for them. If he's that evil why do they sing about the man who put him in charge. Or are you trying to say that Marcus didn't really know his personality or that NC was a top bloke, who changed once Marcus died.

Should he run every decision by you, you then decide if it's damaging to the club and then inform the fanbase of your decision. How do you decide whether the decision is damaging to the club, do you. a) Decide it is. b) Wait and see if it is.

There's certain things about most of our fan base's thoughts on Cortese that I can't get my head round. They sing about Marcus Liebherr, they go on about what a wonderful man he was, how he ran his business on a real ethical basis, yet he was the one who appointed NC, was a friend to NC. Did Cortese change after ML die, did he hide his real evil side from ML, or was ML fully aware of NC's personality and NC has been like he is now all his working life. I would suggest it was the later, that ML was a hard nosed businessman, who believed that NC was the best man to run Southampton FC . Onto his record. There is not anybody who can seriously say this is not impressive. Whatever people say about Nigel's 2 promotions in two years, applies to NC. His choice over managers, impressive. His funding of transfers, impressive, his commitment to the academy, impressive. Fineally, the sacking of Nigel Adkins. He obviously felt that he could get somebody else in, somebody who was better, he obviously felt that Nigel was not quite up to the task. Subsittute Adkins for Hammond, and NC for Nigel Adkins and what's the difference? The only difference I can see is that Nigel was given half a season to see if he could match NC ambitions, whereas Deano was shipped out before even getting the chance. Football's a ruthless game, when Rickie Lambert's time is up, it's up. Do we expect the Manager to keep him out of sentiment, to keep him out of respect for 2 promotions, or would you expect the Manager to make the decision to shift him. Please do not confuse this defense of Cortese as an attack on Nigel Adkins. I'm extremely sad that Nigel has lost his job, he appeared to be a fantastic fella, and I would have kept him had the decision been mine. What I object to is the vilification of Cortese, some of the language used towards Cortese and quite frankly some of the bitterness towards him. His record deserves a bit of respect, he's done as much, if not more for this club, than Marcus and Nigel.I dont expect people to sing about him (that's a bit sad), but he has enough crdeit in the bank to have his decisions judged after a length of time and not before a ball has been kicked.

Whether it's a good decision or not only time will tell. My point is that it was Nigel's job to decide which players were "up to it" and get rid of the ones he felt weren't. It is NC's job to do the same with the Manager and senior staff. Yet some are coming over all moral, and all " a part of my club died today". Adkins made a hard nosed decision to get rid of Deano, NC did the same. The moral's behind both decisions were exactly the same, yet NC is evil and Nigel a great guy.......................I dont get it.

There was one chump who texted talksport saying he was our greatest ever manager.

I just hope there's a bit of balance and not an anti NC hour.

But Nigel decided he wasn't up to it and shipped him out. NC has decided NA isn't up to it, so has shipped him out. I'm really struggling to understand why NC is being called all sorts, when he's basically done to Nigel what Nigel did to Deano and Sharpe. Personally I wouldn't have sacked him, but I'm not running the club.

Really? So what happens if the new guy takes us into Europe next season?