eelpie

Wotte's ending was sad for him, and we have almost all acknowledged what he did for the club during the darkest weeks. He must have thought then that every day was going to be the club's last. So it was a crucial decision by the new management to sack Wotte. His results simply weren't good enough and we all knew it. So I am hopeful that they will get it right and not appoint a manager who has a record of failure. We shall see.

I am not criticising that SMS was built (though I have reservations about the design because I have always felt that it did not generate the crowd atmosphere of The Dell - but that is a different topic) and it is very beautiful and comfortable to be in. But the point I was trying to make was that money was spent excessively on luxuries, like for example improving Staplewood when we desperately needed to spend on key players. Especially during our first year down when we lacked a decent striker, for example. Yes, Lowe's personnel decisions were poor at crucial times.

Without trawling through them all I'm willing to bet it's between Big Ron's best and Le Tiss's best.

Well, St Mary's only sells Tetleys, which I don't rank as a beer worthy of the name..

No, he's Alain Perrin - ex Pompey manager.

Wrong forum

One blip too many put us into admin with minus 10 points and ended his regime. It will all be history if we survive those docked points. If not he will continue to be discussed.

Those were the days when we had teeth.

An interesting article here on coping with the drop. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8050784.stm

Why don't we all just see what effect the new manager is going to have on Adam's performances? He will be told that his future is in his feet and brain and to do what he is capable of doing and nothing less. Also, let's not make knee-jerk judgments for a few weeks. They've nearly all done extraordinarily badly and it's a case of having to do much better -or else!

If he were that committed we would ned to replace him with someone else willing to die for the cause every match.

Lowe did us enormous damage through his inability to understand footballing priorities, so he spent on buildings and luxuries which were not pertinent to success. Crystal Palace, Portsmouth and other clubs got (temporarily) to the Premiership by focussing their spending on players and managers, rather than their poor facilites. How ironic that we have narrowly escaped obliteration and find that our new owner was attracted by, among other things, the very facilities that Lowe built - our stadium and Staplewood. We move on. Crap team. -10 points with the League 2 trapdoor open. Shiny half-empty stadium. No debts. Starting from scratch. Forget the past. We build for the future.

Any manager who takes us on with our current squad is going to find it tough going. And it will take time to get a rebuilt squad up to speed. So Pearson back would not get any better a start than anyone else. And he would soon lose his Messiah status. But he is a sound manager who kicks butts and that is what we need,

Well, he does like it in Southampton and didn't want to leave.

The crunch will only come when Premiership clubs do eventually go bankrupt, which will happen as sure as tomorrow will come. Football's economics are simply not sustainable.

My feeling is that Strachan will be DOF, with a talented young (but experienced) manager or coach in charge of the team. Or that, he will be given the manager's job and in couple of years move up to DOF.

Dowie at 140/1 For all those who don't want Dowie, this could soften the blow!

But as you said, when we are chasing for promotion to the Premiership we could be sold for more than we have cost. (If ML has been prudent and skilful like Madjeski has at Reading). Much more if we got there. (Not that I'm suggesting ML would sell. He said he's here for the long term). It is because he is a footie fan. We are fortunate to have been spotted by a billionaire who wants a hobby. And also a base near where he has business interests. Cortesi has done a good job introducing us to him

(I was going to say infraction if his name was mentioned)

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I hope he wasn't looking to the church for Saints footballers.

For around 13 million pounds a club with potential has been bought. In contrast along the road there is a club 80 million in debt that like many others has over-stretched itself. Compared to many other clubs we were not such a bad buy after all. Two people saw a good business deal plus all the positive things he has already mentioned. So it's up to us to be positive too and prove they were'nt wrong. Our recent history has given us good reason to be suspicious of all things. But we have to get out of the habit of looking for negatives and conspiracies. New Era. We are on the way up!

No, it was your posts wot dunnit, GM

So interestingly this thread is teasing out negatives of some of the more serious contenders. Perhaps younger guys like Tisdale come more into the spotlight. We hear of his advantages, being young and successful. What might be his negatives (so that we have a fair balance) anyone? Do we (sorry, our new owners) need to know?

I'll ask for my money back.