sadoldgit

If there is any truth in the rumour about Cortese personally intervening and telling the announcer not to praise Pardew after the last game of the season, surely that is something that even the likes of Lowe would not have stooped to? Of course it may not be true, but you do get the hint with NC that he is capabale of such a thing.

It is just me that thinks that the Saints should play in red and white stripes then?

Yes Alps it is true that he doesn't go in much for long statements on the OS, but his actions often speak louder than words, and his lack of support for the manager is still very obvious IMHO.

To be fair the same has happened with every other CEO, why should Mr Cortese be treated any differently?

I think what we want is to know that the club is safe in the hands of the people who run it. We have had the Lowe saga raidly followed by the Wilde Bunch saga and I don't think it is too much to ask for a period of stability. If Cortese had come into the club and got on with his job quietly and effectively I doubt if these threads would spring up every day. The reason they do is because of the way Cortese has conducted himself so far. Someone called him Lowe with Money. The insecurity over the team manager's position continues to cause concern at a time when we should be pulling together as a club. What I'd like is a CEO who supports and back his manager and gets on quietly with the job of turning this club around. As for the FL. Cortese has been in football 5 minutes yet he now knows enough to stand alone and preach about the rights and wrongs of how it is run? Hmmm.

So he won the cup did he? I thought that was more down to Pardew, the "excellent manager" who he seems to find so hard to praise in public? Lets not forget about the childish spat with the Echo - and getting rid of the installment plan!

So you have not read the threads about Cortese so far then?

On the old Saints List Lowe was a hate figure from the time of the reverse takeover Nick. He was taking flak before the Final and after, not just when we were "crap."

I don't see the problem with "rumours." Some turn out to be true although most are rubbish - surely we are all big enough to take those that seem unlikely with a pinch of salt?

Funny isn't it, if this was Lowe no one would question the validity of the thread, but because it is Cortese he gets backing. I don't know whether it is true or not, but given his track record it sounds about right. I also know from someone who works there that Cortese is not well liked at SFC and tends to rub people up the wrong way. It will be interesting to see if this is true.

He would have found it very difficult to sack Pardew after all of the support that he got at the end of the season. It obvioulsy got his back up as he had a pop at a few Saints Treasures. Time will tell.....

M*nge

As if I care Duncan, I have a thick skin. If he stays, it will be on Cortese's terms, I personally hate some of the crappy long ball stuff we default to at times, if we do develop a passing style under Pardew I will be delighted. If we don't it won't matter because it will mean another manager is. I just think Cortese has it right. His autocratic thin skin may be a bit hard to handle but I do know from somebody who has worked closely with him that he does look after people he values. That may be so Derry but I have spoken with somone whose son works at SFC and I can only assume that he doesn't value many of the staff who work for him.

Having just read Frank C's post I don't disagree that the CEO has to be liked, he just hs to do his job well. At the end of the day that is how Cortese's reign should be judged. I think what worries some of us is that he is showing signs of not being very good with people, PR and the way he handes his relationship with the club manager. The latter is what concerns me the most. Ok, we didn't make the play offs last season, but there were good reasons for that and there is no point in going over that ground again. We made good progress and actually won something. We should go into this season bouyed by the progress we have made but instead you sense that things are not quite right at the management level and that can only be down to the CEO and the way that he sees fit to handle things. I hope I am wrong, but if there are still problems between the CEO and manager that is not going to help our quest for promotion.

No one here knows what is going on behind the secens to strenghten the squad so why then the automatic assumption that it is nothing? Decent players are going to sought after by several clubs and not all (surprisingly) will want to come to L1 and SFC anyway. Let's wait and see and then comment shall we? It wasn't that long ago that AP was being pillioried for not strenghtening the defence.

But Cortese has hardly given Pardew his concrete backing has he?

It is a free world. If people want to post rumours fine. WE are all (well most of us) grown ups and know what the word "rumour" means. If some people take issue with the rumour spreading that is down to them. Isn't it time that people just accepted that no matter what you post, someone somewhere will find issue with it - isn't this what this is all about? Exchanging views? At some point most of us will write something that will get another's back up. If we all gave up and took the ball home when a bit of stick sarts flying there would be no forum. What happens here is no different to what happens in the pub after a game (without the booze sadly). I for one am pleased that the likes of Duncan and Weston share what they hear at times. It gives us something to talk about. Given that many of us think that Cortese does not rate Pardew I don't have a problem with Duncan sharing that rumour at all. Pardew will go at some point, it is just a question of when. If we are doing well and he stays after Christmas, no harm done. If the two are not in harmony at the start of the season that does not bode well for us. All good stuff to debate. Everyone has an agenda. Take that on board and realise that we are just exchanging banter here, not trying to rewrite the Gospels.

I am sure both Leibherr and Cortese know a lot about business. Whether they know as much about getting a team promoted from the third division of English football is questionable. Could either of them manage the club? No. They may not like the style of football (do we know that for sure?) but they hire someone to look after that business. If they don't like the way he does his job then they should discuss it with him and if things do not change to their liking, find someone else. Frankly, apart from the slow start last season I don't see what they have to complain about.

It all seems a bit silly. New season, fresh start for both parties perhaps? No matter what you think of the Echo, the local paper should be involved with the local team. Time to kiss and make up methinks. Cortese will have to get use to the media taking a close interest in the way he operates in the same way his predecessors had to. Some things he can control some he can't. Welcome to the world of football and business in the UK Nicola.

If Cortese was backed into a corner over keeping Pardew against his better wishes then I wouldn't be surprised to see him sack the manager the minute he gets a good excuse. Hopefully none of this is true. We have had too many problems with people pulling in different directions and if we are going to get promoted everyone needs to be pulling togther. I still can't work out what Pardew has done that seems to rankle with Cortese so much, but rumours or no, it really doesn't look like the CEO backs his manager 100% does it?

No matter how pig headed and stubborn the CEO is, he would find it hard to sack the manager if we were playing well and top of the league. Mind you, we won a cup last season and did well and he still found it hard (nee impossible) to praise Pardew for the job he did so who knows?

If Cortese really does not think that Pardew is the man to take the club forward then he should sack him now, not wait to Christmas. Still, if the rumours are true about the gulf between the manager and the CEO I think it is the CEO who needs to look at himself rather than the manager.

It just heaps more pressure on the manager. Surely Pardew has enough to do to get us up without having to worry about how we do it? I agree about the stripes too.

I wonder if Cortese know what he is talking about?

Playing with a red sash on the shirt?