sadoldgit

You are quite right FC. It is just my opinion. That is what we do, come on here and share opinions. My opion up to a coule of weeks ago was formed by what littel he "puts out there" and I understand that he needs to be here longer before he can be properly judged. However, it didn't help my perception of him when I was told by a Saints fan (who hated Lowe by the way) that he son works at SFC and the Cortese does not like to be addressed directly by the staff and is not popular there, that we may have another CEO with an ego bigger than St Marys. Of course if he delivers, no one will care. If he doesn't, we may have another bout of witch hunting a la Lowe going on! I am pld enough to remember the days when people only talked about the players. Then the managers became as big if not bigger, and nowdays it is the "suits" who get a lot of attention. Inter did a great job last night and through the whole season, but who got the headlines? A bloke in a suit, not a bloke in shorts. Football is a big business now. All you hear about Blackpool's success is £90m. The money men will be sniffing arond that aready. CEOs are as newsworthy as players nowdays.

Some people put pillow's over their babies faces and suffocate them!

I'd be very worried if the local newspaper was in the pocket of the club/CEO. The club has its own websire and matchday programme and can publish wht it wants. The newspaper should refelct the issues and concerns of the supporters rather than spoon feed them nice morsals of spin. Both Lowe and Coretese fell out with the Echo which is probably a healthy thing = shows that they are not going to bend up and drop 'em. Some of the stories will b unhelpful but don't they ask the same things that we do on here? Isn't that there job? ASk difficult qiestions. If the club then chose not to respond people can draw their own conclusions. If they draw the wrong conclusions the club have had an opportunity to put that right. Take the recent debacle about Pardew's job. It came about because of Cortese's lack of public support for the manager - not because the Echo was mischief making. All he had to do was to congratulate Pardew on the cup win an say that he would be working with him to ensure promotion next season but no, he only came out and said something once the world and his dog were parading their support for the manager. His statement when it came was not great either. Hitting out at Saints legends when you were the making of the whole mess isn't going to win you many friends unless you are in the minority who want Pardew out.

Maybe, or maybe it just proves the point that spending money does not guarante success. I watched Inter Milan win the biggest club competion this side of the planet - how much didthey spend on their team compared with the likes of Barcelona, Real Mdrid, Chelsea even? What about the othe managers who failed to match Hollway even though they spent more money or had a more expenive team? Strachan is seen as being a better manager for us than Burley...where did his team end up? Pardew spent money and had a good season but didn't finish about teams with cheaper players. If putting a successful side togther was an exact science the teams would cancel each other out. Managers get two chances a season to put a side togther and if this do not gel quickly they are going to struggle. Burley was pragmatic enough to realise how tough it is to maintain a strong, consistant campaign. That is why he said that the target was the play offs. Ver, very difficlut to deliver automatic promotion and he knew it. He did deliver the play offs and that Sanits side were as good as any of the top 6 teams, just not as consistant as the top two. Redknapp, who many think is an excellent manager, told us that we would "go up f'sure" - during his stint as a CCC manager for us was that ever likely? But you don't have a pop at his feeble efforts. In the last few years the Saints have only been a decent competitive side in two seasons. Pardew's season and Burley's only full season. No doubt if Pardew doesn't get us up next up next seaosn he will be slagged off too. If only it was that simple.

Yep, and they are just opinions based on what little I know of the bloke so far, which is pretty much the same as what has gone on with Lowe, Crouch, Wilde etc isn't it? Very few us of have met, let alone know these people yet we form opinions based on what we think we know. I accept I might have completely wrong idea of Nicola Cortese. What I am sure of though is that his lack of public support for the manager he employed was there for all to see (or not see as was the case) and that is my major problem with him so far. And to come out in a statement on the OS and pretend that they have slumber parties together was spin worthy of Mandleson himself was it not?.

But we can only judge his judgement on what we know he has done so far. An ill judged and petulant spat with The Echo. Pulled the plug on the Ward deal. His less than lukewarm "support" for the manager he employed. The Spin Doctor piece on the OS. His appareent arrogance and rudeness toward the staff at SFC. Yep, he provided tea and coffee to the queues on one occasons so perhaps he does have an eye for the occasional PR opportunity... Truth is we don't really know this bloke at all well. He could well have done lots of wonderful things that we don't know about behind the scenes, but what little comes out in public hasn't shown him a great light so far. Still so long as he backs Pardew in the transfer market, supports him 100% in the promotion drive next season and runs the club on a sound financial basis (i.e. does his job) then that is fair enough.

I did not think that Lowe and Burley were the "dream team." Now if you had said Bates and McMenemy then it would showed that you have been paying attention all these years By the way, if you have bothered to read my posts properly you will see that I think that Pardew has been a better manager for us than Burley, but that doesn't quite fit with your agenda does it? As for the rest of your statement, sorry but it doesn't make any sense to me.

Spot on.

I am behind the manager. I wish I could say the same for the CEO.

I don't agree John. Cortese couldn't do what Pardew has done this season. There are plenty of CEOs who could come in and run SFC just as well as Cortese. The manager is the most important person in the club. They are the ones who deal with the end of the business that we follow the club for..the football. I don't see any cups given out for a splendid performance in the Boardroom

Oh I see, so Lowe is a thief now is he? You really do need to grow up. Anyone would think that it was Cortese's own money the way you carry on. Lowe wasn't the only one who failed to find investment. The people you put your support behind failed too remember? It is also strange to see you so behind someone so similar to the person you profess to hate so much. Still Alps, a reasonable balance argument is not something you come on here for is it? I can tell how much you are waiting for Cortese to sack Pardew...you have probably already got your posts down in a litle notebook ready. But then you will have another quandry. That will make Cortese even more like Lowe! Oh dear...what to do?

He was indeed, and that is why it is so odd that he choses to distance himself from the apparent "failure" this season. As his appointee you would like to think that there would be this "we are all in this together" thing going on. Cortese appointed Pardew but I can't remember one occasion when he has come out and shown any level of support him or the job he has done.

I speak of him in the same breath as Lowe DD because I am an adult, not a child. Why can't the two be compared? Frankly the only difference I see between them is that one has manoney and the other didn't. Cortese no longer walks on water as Lowe ate babies. They are both businessmen. They are both arrogant. Both fell out with the Echo. Both have no PR savvy. Neither had football backgrounds before coming to the club. Cortese has had one season here. Lets see what he has achieved in 5. If he does walk on water we shall be back in the Prem I just think it is a little previous to start the hero worship already. By the way, I think that the success on the pitch is down to the manager more than the CEO. Perhaps it is Pardew you should be bigging up and not the "suit".

They are different. But Cortese seems if anything to be more arrogant than Lowe and less media/PR savvy yet he seems to have many people eating out of his hands whereas they wanted to hang Lowe. My point is though that we cannot really judge Cortese in terms of having "success" until he gets this club up and competes with the big boys.

This is theissue thoug isn't it? Their working relationship. I hope it was all speculation but I have a feeling that it wasn't and that more rifts are likely. It is good that Cortese wants it, but if it wants it a 100 mph he will have to put a serious amount of dosh in to pay the kind of wages that would attrcat decent CCC level players to the club. People like Danns are not going to come for peanuts and we need several players of his caibre to drop a divison if we are going to go up next season and be really competitive in the season after. If Cortese has doubts about Pardew deep down, will he back him to that level of keep his powder slightly dry until Christmas an save the mega bucks for someone else?

It depends how you define success doesn't it? Yes we won a cup, but under Lowe we stayed in the Premiership for 10 years, made it to an FA Cup Final and into Europe and had our highest Prem finish. These are the sort of things that Corest will be judged on if he is deemed to be a success. As for managers staying. If there is money available and a plan to take the club forward why wouldn't a manager want to stay? Manager tend to move on if they have no cash to build and are offered some elsewhere.

Life is to short to answer all of your responses Wes but I shall a couple. People like me adding 2 and 2 and amking 5? I think a lot of people did that and why? Cortese hardly showed any ringing endoresement of Pardew last season or in this statement. The hugs at Wembley...what was he supposed to do? The cameras were on him, he was hardly likely to blank Pardew was he? A media frenzy is when all of the national media pick up on a story not just one national newspaper and the local rag. None of us know for sure but I don't think it unreasonable to get the impression thta Pardew was out of the door, not from the speculation in the media but from Cortese's own actions. Perhaps thje media speculation and fan based support changed his mind? Who knows? I don't believe his statement though and I certainly don't believe it is all lovey dovey between them. Either way, the manager stays for a while, hopefully Cortese has leaned something about how to conduct himself and we have a summer of rebuilding to look forward to. The only real worry I have is that if Cortese feels he has been backed into supported Pardew, then perhaps he wont be backing him 100% in the transfer market and will look to unload him the minute that results allow him a window of opportunity. Interesting season ahead methinks!

Good to see the clear out starting and looking forward to the rebuilding process. Slightly surprised at James as Pardew seemed to be bigging him up ealier in the season but we need better so no problem there. Still some I'd like to see move on to make room for better players but the aeson has just finished so plenty of time yet. Does Pardew know what he is doing? Of course he does though no doubt those who have problems with him will look to pick over his every decisions looking for something to pull him up on. We shall start the season with a stronger squad that we finisished this season, that is for sure. How we fair next season, who knows. It will be tough but if Cortese backs Pardew in the transfer market and we bring in more player of the quality of Lambert and Fonte, we should be in for a cracking season.

Money has little to do with anything. Few managers spend a ton of it and get success in the same season. Burley only had one ful season with us and did make the play offs. Pearson has done very weel at Leicester but didn't set the world alight with us. Burley did a great job for Ipswich and Hearts. Some people work well in som eplaces and not so well in others.

Snodin wasn't at Ipswich when Burley took them up and into Europe the following season. Snodin wasn't at Hearts when Snodin broke the Old Firm stranglehold on the league. Burley was let down by certain players in the play offs but it is history now. Pearson was let down by a player and a joke penalty. It highlights that managers can only do so much.

I think that the two parties are too far apart to form an electoral coalition, but stranger things have happened. I get the feeling that there are a lot ot Tory and Lib Dem voters who are not at all happy about this situation. I am one. I voted Lib Dem and would rather they had sised with Labour as much as I dislike Brown. For the sake of the country I hope it works, but I hope more that the Lib Dems retain their identity and fight the next electiona as hard as this one for themselves.

Pardew went into this on weak ground but after today's statement he is in a much stronger position. I think Cortese threw his toys out of his Ferrari designed pram because the less you come out and say the more you are in control. He has now given the media actual quotes that they can hold him to, and that works in Pardews favour for now. The summer and the start of the season will be all about Pardew and not Cortese, and that is the way it should be. If he doesn't deliver by Christmas though I think he will be out of the door. The definition of "deliver" will be what we will all be debating on here from August until December. I have a feeling that Cortese's definition of "deliver" will be well clear at the top of the table.

I think he could have worded his statement a lot better. He might be the face of the new SFC but he will NEVER be in the same league as the people he chose to have a pop at here. Why did these people come out and say what they did? Because the really belived that Pardew's job was on the line. Blimey, even a blind man could have seen that. But not Mr Cortses apparently. You can get away with this stuff if your are successful, but as Lowe found out, you can't if you fail. Lets hope our new leader is the former.

All I can say is that if he wrote that piece then, once he is finished with football he could walk in into a job as a top political Spin Doctor! Perhaps not an accountant or maths teacher though because he obvioulsy doesn't know how many months make 12. No Nicola, you have not been at this club a year yet. There are a number of very simple issues here. The media "frenzy" (a couple of stories here and there is hardly a frenzy) only came about becuase of his very lukewarm response to his manager earlier in the season, no well done when he won us the cup and no resposne when the rumours started. He could have ended this stuff in a heartbeat but he chose to let it go on. Why? Why did Pardew feel that his job was not secure? Why did people such as Le Tiss, McMenemy and even Keegan for goodness sakes feel the need to come out and support Pardew in the media? It is a bit rich for Cortese to kick off about all of this when it was down to him in the first place. He seems to have a bit of the Mourhino about him Does anyone here really believe that he and Pardew have a warm and fuzzy realtionship? No, of course not. There is often no smoke without fire. I do wonder whether the huge support for Pardew has swayed Cortese and pushed him into keeping him on. Still, the main things is that Pardew is staying (for now). We shall have stability and a summer to build further. I see little difference between Lowe and Cortese except that Cortese has got money to play with (and how much he allows Pardew to spend this summer will be the real litmus test of his intent and trust in his manager). But frankly I don't care to much about his behaviour and his obvious arrogance. If he does deliver Premiership football in 5 years no one will care about his faults. If he desn't though you can bet your life that everyone else will get the blame. What he needs to remember is that he employed Pardew in the first place. If he is so hacked off that we didn't make the play offs and thinks that Pardew is at fault, perhaps he ought to consider his own judgement call. What a week, we have two squeeky clean clones running the country and now a slippery Johnny Foreigner has Saints fans eating out of his hand because he is forced into making a statement that should never have been necessary in the first place. Happy days.

Pleased for Dave Jones tonight. A decent man and I hope he gets Cardiff promoted. Feel sorry for Pearson. Another decent man who has done a great job for Leicester. But for all those people who slagged off Burley and said that Pearson was the better manager - when it came to it both were let down by one or two of their players when it really mattered. The same is true of Pardew. For the few here who have slagged him off this season. It is not him but the players who need to shoulder the blame for the results that have gone against us.