sadoldgit

The negativity is a killer. Also those with agendas and fixed ideas who keep banging on about them day after day after day after day.... When it comes right down to it, this is a football club. Nothing more nothing less. It is run by people who go to work like us and make decisions like us and who make mistakes like us. You should be able to come on ad have som elight hearted banter about things, but no, it is now much more serious than adolescent knife crime, the failing economy or Global warming. There used to be a joy in supporting a football club, even when things were not going well. Now it is as depressing as one of Alpine many negative threads.

There are plenty of other clubs who have made even bigger mistakes or are suffering worse than us. Charlton might not have gone down "the Dutch route" but they have had a quicker decline than we have for example.

I wish that were true, but given that there are certain people who continue to drag up previous managers names and give them a good slagging I fear the negativity will run for years. It is like a drug for some, they have to come on and get their fix. The negative people here (and we all know who they are) thrive on it and were slagging the club off even when we were fighting for a play off spot. That ain't gong to change with our fortunes on the field sadly.

LOL, Duncan plays this forum like a well worn fiddle. A little snippett of "inside information", leave 'em hanging, light the blue touch paper and retire and watch the fun unfold from a distance. If a Lowe PR plant had pulled such a stunt he would have been ripped aprt on here, but a Crouch/Corbett plant get the hornet's nest all stirred up adding further weight to his agenda. Dontch just love plants? Better than Eastenders this!!!

What it does mean that we are now more likely to bombarded with misinformation. What would take ages to spread by chinese whispers now spreads in seconds. One PR plant for either side can, and do have a field day on sites like these whereas, in the old days, you would have had to put a plant in every pub in Southampton. It is a perfect tool for those with an agenda that they are hell bent on spreading. You would like to think that most people could sort the wheat from the chaff, those with an agenda from those without, but adly all too often anything bit of thord hand old tatt on here often get swallowed as the truth and deabted for days. I used to like going on the old Saints List where there was, for the most part, good natured banter. There were also decent match reports and reports too from the training ground which were always very interesting. Yep, there would be the occasional bit about a chairman, but in the main we talked about football. How much of this site is dedicated to football, the team and training now? We all know that most threads are all about you know who. Having said that, the threads that pull in most views are the ones about the game or aout transfer speculation so it seems that there is a huge silent majority here who log on to read that stuff and don't bother with the ploitics. As with most things in life, it is the people who shout loudest get the most attention. Sadly the people who shout loudest here are the ones with the biggest agendas and many of them are the most negative people on God's earth. Oh for the days of good natured banter....

It is probably a question of us not being able to afford not to play him now. At the start of the season we did not know we would be 2nd from bottom now. Decisions were made on keeping the club afloat which meant off loading the high earners. That was done. Obviously we have managed to avoid administration so the financial juggling must be working. Saga and Rudi have not found clubs elsewhere so they are back here. If we can't find another home for them it makes sense to play them doesn't it? If they are up for it (which apparently Rudi wasn't for part of the season). But once more we spend ages looking back, time to look forward. We have some players capabale of keeping us up, at the moment that is the only thing that matters.

Nail on head time FC. Wotte's association with Lowe will do him no favours, just as Burley was tarred with the same brush. I had little doubt that if Lowe had appointed Pearson, who only managed 3 wins in 13 and was 20 mins away from relegation, Pearson would no have the apparent hero status he has now. Stats don't lie. 1.14 points per game - only .03 more than Branfoot and .09 more then Gray. Yet he is the one that got away? Makes you wonder...

Well whatever you think about Lowe, let's hope that his new "Head Coach" can do the biz and keep us up eh?

Sacking, resigning, leaving my mutual consent....whatever...fact is he is gone and I suspect that there was a discussion beforehand...

To be fair StRobbie, I don't think that either Lowe or Wotte are "putting this club down". It is in both of their interests to be successful with SFC is it not? I doubt very much if the people at Charlton are interested in putting their club down. The problem is every club is desparate for success or to stay up. No one is going to roll over and give SFC an easy ride, and why should they? I want everybody at SFC to be successful because if they are then SFC is. It is a shame that some want certain individuals to fail so they can glory in their own brilliance and foresight.

No it won't, but it will sort the men out from the boys. If we can keep a steady nerve and fight for every point we could just turn this awful season around.

My thoughts too, but they still eventually rally round and find a nice juicy reason to bring up the evil Chairman or some other muddy negative thread to peddle their own brand of "support". Can you imagine being in the trenches besides these guys? Not exactly the types to instill some fighting spirt or morale are they? Unless it is in-fighting of course.

That is your opinion. If I was that obsessed with him why do you think he is on my ignorel list? Sadly though i still get to read his negative offerings through people's replies. I think the fact that you seem to have some kind of affinity with the wise words of our Austrain based friend that says for more about you than it does me. Frankly, if Alpine had been based in Austria in the 2nd World War I suspect that the Von Trapps would have handed themselves willingly over to the Nazis well before the closing credits.

I will never get the anti Burley thing. In his one full season he did a good job. We were in no danger of going down at the point he left. He didn't throw his toys out of the pram when he lost Jones, Baird and Bale and if he was hacked off about it, kept his own counsel. And as much as Alpine would have us belive he was a rubbish manager, he manged to achieve an average of 1.54 points per game, the best performancer out of managers dating back to Ted Bates and probably before. If that is a rubbish manager give me another one like that please.

Once Pearson left he became Alpine's hero as he had been dismissed by evil Count Lowe. No doubt if Lowe had hired him in the first place Pearson would have got the usual treatment from the bunker in Austria. Let's fact it, Alpine isn't overly complimenatry about anyone is he? I suspect on his wedding day, when the Vicar asked if anyone objected to the marriage the, whole of Mrs Alpine's family rose to their feet as one and shouted "We do!"

You have to hand it to Alpine. He can certainly make a sow's ear out of a sile purse. If this forum had been around in 1966 I bet he would be on for weeks after we won the World Cup berating Ramsey for dropping Paine and not playing wingers. We won but still he finds an excuse to pedal his own peculiar brand of negativity. Alpine, we won, knock yourself out why dont you and celebrate the fact!

By sacking JP doesn't that indicate that mistake has been made, recognised and dealt with?

I don't disagree about McGoldrick. As to getting things wrong, if the backers told the Board they would have to save x amount of face administration what should the board do? Yes, save x amount. That meant either selling off the best youngsters or getting rid of the high earners didn't it? The board were damned either way. As it is, we have kept our best youngsters and have got Saga back and Skacel didn't find a move so he is still here. So lets be thankful that we have a decent mix at last and still have managed to stay out of administration. And whilst on the subject if the cyber jockeys, it wasn't that long ago that Euell was useless and had no place at SFC. Remember?

I have worked in several management teams when decisions have been made that I have not agreed with and said so. But once the decision has been made you, as part of the team, have to support it. He may find now that he has more freedom to do things his way. Alternatively, he maye have realised that was not the way forward and has decided to be more flexible. Who knows? All that matters is that things are now showing signs of turning round.

You couldn't make it up could you Nick? We get three pricelss points and Alpine still manages to get in a dig in at George Burely. You know, the manager who averaged 1.54 points a game against Alpine's hero Nigel Pearson who averaged 1.14 points a game (Alpine for the record that was a massive .03 point a game more than that footballing genious Ian Branfoot). No doubt if Lowe had employed Pearson he would slag him off to as it is very apparent that Alpine has a very very large chip on his shoulder about our dear leader and anyone associated with him has to be cr*p. Well me dear old Alps, I know that you have made up your mind about Wotte already but let's see how he does shall we? And if we are safe before the end of the season, which would be a better performace than last year when we were safe 20 mins before the end of the season, then let's see what you have to say about Wotte then. Saga is a decent player but went through a down period. I don't recall many people being particularly happy when he returned but all of a sudden, he has found his goal scoring touch again, and these Cyber Jockeys are now all wailing about how he shouldn't have gone in the first place.

Oh dear, I see that your frequent the same charm school as Alpine. Were you privvy to the meetings with the backers? Do you know who much money we were told to trim off the wage bill? McGoldrick was scoring goals pre season, did you know for sure that those would dry up and that we would struggle to score goals with the players we had? Good for you mate. I take my hat off to you and can I borrow your crystal ball for next week's lottery numbers. It might have passed you by, but we were (and supposedly are) in serious financial poo. Or perhaps we should have just let the club go under eh? Call me all the names you like mate, but until you start attending board meetings I will treat your comments the same way I treat Alpines.

Was it a flase economy if it prevented us from going into Administration? Surely we would have been in a worse state? Still, hindsight all all that stuff....

Well the perceived wisdom was that Pearson should have stayed as he kept us up, so Wotte should stay logically. Even if we go down and he shows signs of being good for us he should stay. We need some kind of stability. As for Lowe, I expect he will stay until such time as we find a buyer, which could be a while.

Whatever went on in the past didn't work. What he is doing now seems to be making a difference. Instead of picking holes perhaps we should just support him now?

No sign of Alpine then? What a surprise. I bet he would have been typing his fingers down to the bone this morning if we had lost. Terrific result. Keep it up Mr Wotte. At this rate you might even convince those that think Pearson was the CCC equivalent of Sir Alf Ramsey to have a rethink! But we need much more of the same please.