sadoldgit

So much so that they still dine together? How is that that everything that goes wrong is down to him and everything that goes right is down to other people??? THis is where your arguement falls apart. Lowe put the structure in place for WGS to do what he did, just as he did when Redknapp took us down. A lot of people were horrified when Lowe chose WGS after his time at Coventry but it didn't work out badly dd it? Yep, other appointments not so good, but you really can't have it both ways mate. I would also suggest that Lowe had the players at the club to beat Arsenal at Cardiff but WGS bottled it and paid Arsenal too much respect (in fact they effectively beat us at Highbury) but that is for anothe thread!!!

And when you have the cash in the bank to do the above

Indeed mate! I think if AP had been able to have a pre-season and put his team together in the summer we would be out of the relegation zone by now. He is doing a good job and I think he has shown that he is the man to take us forward. Not as fast as some would like garnted, but Rome wasn't built in a day and we are currently winning football matches on a regular basis, something we haven't done for several seasons. Rock on Alan.

So, no Pardew out, but when thread today?

LMs big talent for us was to bring so many "big names" to what was then an unfashionable club. No mean feat and a great testiment to his personality and desire to put us on the map. As for coaching, didn't Channon say that he just bought good players and let them get on with it? Something that worked for us then but I can't see that working nowdays.

I do see the logic though. We couldn't afford the best players therefore we had to get a few % more out of the ones we had. Why Woodward wasn't even allowed near the 1st eleven when we were struggling is beyond me but that was Redknapp's ego for you. I guess the reason he hasn't turned up at another club is because he turned to athletics. As for Clifford, no loss to us but he seems to have made an awful lot of money out of football. We can have a view on Woodward's appointment but sadly will never know what he could have don for us as he was never given a chance to do what he is good at. Redknapp took us down as bottom team. If Woodward had been involved in some capacity we coul have done no worse!

Fair do's, we could carry on this discussions for hours! At least now we seem to have a decent stable set up and apart from the fact that I would prefer we were still in the Premiership, there are many reasons to be optimistic about our future prospects.

Gordon Banks was by far the best goalkeeper I ever saw play, followed by Peter Shilton. I don't think there are any recent keepers who come close.

Indeed!

As you say, good and bad and I too was not happy about the constant changes at managerial level. I did however think that SCW would have added a new dimension to the club and regret that he was ditched by Wilde before he had a chance to show what he could do for us, still, all done now. For better or worse I believe that Lowe made decisions for the club based on financial prudence and in what thought were in the best interests of SFC, as the new owner will. All clubs of our size are faced with exactly the same problems and it is no different for the Norwich's and Charlton's of this world. The people running them make decisions but whilst money rules you can't afford to make too many wrong ones. Lowe and the people who followed were all governed by financial constraints. Lowe's prudent approach finally failed but then the fans approach of taking a punt and spending money also failed big time as it turned out. Fortunately now we do not seem to have a financial straight jacket and with luck, a sustainable business plan that will take us forward. Amen to that!!!

This is what I don't understand. Was the revenue from these other business venures going to go into Lowe's pocket or would they go to support SFC? Lowe and CEOs like him do not have a brand like Man Utd therefore have to try and bring in cash from other sources if they can surely? And if you are happy with SMS then surely, by extension, you are happy with the people who delivered it, by whatever route it happened to arrive for us?

Lowe's greed or a better financial set up for SFC? It wasn't as if we didn't need more revenue streams was it? Are you unhappy with SMS? To me it is a fantastic stadium and the people who worked on delivereing should be commended. I think you will find that many original plans end up changing for any number of reasons. We could have stayed at The Dell and would have been financially stuffed years earlier.

No doubt, but it happened and someone has to drive these things forward and make them work. Threads like these are a bit pointles though now aren't they? We all have our own opinions and no one is going to change their mind. Isn't it better to let the past be and deal with the now and the possible future? I don't get this constant picking at scabs? What was was. We can't change anything. Under the new regime there will be good and bad too (already we had people complain about the relative lack of spending and about the choice of manager). I just hope that debates in the future will be balanced and that we don't regress to the old witch hunting style. I have been reading about Henry V111 recently, consider by many of a "great" man who laid the foundations of moder Britain. He also butched thousands of his own people and lopped the heads off of hundreds of people who were close to him. Not a very nice man at all. I am afraid that many people who rise to the tops of the various professions are not very nice and upset people with their decisions. SFC is not immune to that and to carry on bleating about it is a bit silly really. We are better off than many clubs of similar size. I have mates who support Crystal Palace who have nothing like the memories that I have to look back over, many of which came from Lowe's time here. And for that reason I am not going to join the Lowe Hate-In.

And football isn't a business? Anyway, I won't spoil your morning Robbie, I know how much you love a session of Chairman bashing!!!

There are awlays issues in any deals where something happens or it doesn't. The important thing is that it happens. It happened when Lowe was here therefore he should take credit, just as he should take responsibility in his last year here. As much as it suits the agenda to pretend that nothing worthwhile happened during his time here, that just isn't the case and makes the debate pointless. It is called balance.

Given the decline of Britain as a manufacturing country you could go through the Chairmen/CEOs of the majority of British industry over the last 30 years and point to their last year as as big a "disaster" as Lowe's last year.

What difference does it make, it happened and that is the only thing that matters.

If you want the forum to kick off all you have to do is to post that Lowe was the best ever Chairman or Burley the best ever manager.....wink wink

It is easy to take a year of anybody's career and show them as a poor performer. Perhaps you should take it to a decade as running any business cannot be judged over 12 months. Of course that will not fit in with your agenda in trying to show Lowe as some incompetant fool. By any standards, keeping SFC in the Premiership on crowds of 15k was no mean feet. Of course we had an FA Cup final, European football, a new stadium, our best ever Premiership finish....(what have the Roman's ever done for us?). Yes of course the last year was a disaster. With no money to play with most people would have struggled wouldn't they? Certainly clubs like Charlton and Norwch, similar sizes to us, had disasterous years too and Lowe was not their Chairman! So then, good and bad, like many Chairman of many clubs. But why not continue a witch hunt against one bloke if it makes you happy?

Hmmm, top 20? How do define a succesful manager? For us certainly the most successful in my lifetime, carrying on form the excellent work of Ted Bates and taking us to a higher level. People like to put our "demise" down t Lowe but I think it started before that. When Lawrie Mac left we were never te same club again. I thought at the time that Nicholl was not the right person to tae us on and I still think that - but that is for another thread.. Whilst his achievements for us put him in a "great" bracket for us - he never repeated any real level of success elsewhere. When I think of great managers I think of people like Robson, Shankley, Paisley, Nicholson, Ramsey, Clough, Revie (although he didn't do himself any favours managing England)...people with big characters who delivered on certain levels year after year. I think people like Redknapp have a long way to go before they could be considered great, as much as he did a great job at Pompey. Still, whatever, Lawrie put Southampton on the map as a real footballing force for a period of time and gave us, possibly, our best ever team. For that he deserves his after dinner speaking fee and his place as a "great" Southampton manager.

LOL, and I am the stalker!!!!

The point I was trying to make is that, for some, Pearson became a hero by winning 3 matches in 13 (which, lets be honest, is rubbish). Pardew has done the same yet there have been threads suggesting that he should be sacked sometime soon. Of course it is ridiculous judging a manager over 13 games. That was my point. Yet it was done in a postive way for Pearson and a negative way for Pardew. Go figure. I would argue that calling Pearson a "great" manager through what he has acheived thus far with Leicester is a little over the top though. The truth is, is he doesn't get promotion this season or next, he will be sacked in all probability.

She seemed happy enough to flash her trout pout all over the papers when shehad it done. I guess it was only when people made fun of hr that she actually realised how awful it looked! I can understand why some people want surgery to improve their looks, but she wasn't unattractive was she?

Hmmm not so much obsessed as saddened. He is quick to criticise and is the most negative bloke on God's earth as far as I can see. And for someone so ready to fire off an opinion he is very shy when it comes to answering questions. There used to be lots of people worth reading on here but I think that people like Alpine have driven them away. I did have him on ignore for a while but so many people had his posts in their quotes it was impossible to avoid his unpleasant (in my eyes at least) brand of support. It doesn't bother me so much that he actually really seems to hate some people that he has never even met just because they didn't live up to his lofty standards, it is his hypocracy. It is apparent even now. I am supposed to be obsessed yet I am responding to his inability to leave the past behind. Any opportunity to pour scorn on his old adversaries and he is in like lightening. It is so tiresome and no matter how many people pick him up on it (and I am not the only one who takes exception to many of his posts and his unique "style") he just carries on churning out the same old Alpine agenda. Still he seems to have some support on here so I guess I am wasting my time! It would be nice to have a forum where you can exchange views without having his type of comebacks but it looks like those days are long gone.

Get some what? Sorry, I don't know what you are on about.