Our Club Was a Joke...

[Guided Missile]

...and here are some of the best:

 

"It is very rare I am lost for words but I saw the statue last week and it is awesome - a tremendous tribute to a great man. Fans have waited a long time for this and it is going to be fantastic. I really believe it will be the best football statue anywhere both in size and the amount of detail"

 

 

"I can't wait to give Matt the keys to his office and say Matt off you go - get to work."

 

...and further quips:

 

“I have seen stories myself and clearly they are a very cursory look into the background of the individual concerned. As far as I am aware that individual is from a substantially wealthy family."

 

“Let’s be very clear, if the club goes into administration the club will be deducted 10 points. But if the holding company goes into administration then they won’t be.”

 

"The Wilde team will formally recognise The Saints Trust as the official point of contact with supporters. They will reserve a position on the Football Club Board for a supporters representative."

 

"Saints trust members enjoying a pre match drink on Saturday before the game with Derby County were surprised to see a familiar face at the bar. Saints Trust members and their guests have been enjoying the hospitality of the pre match venue for the Trust at the Solent University Students Union as often promoted on this site, and it's becoming popular with members of the regional supporters groups. On Saturday, many members of the Jersey Saints branch were visiting and so it was that the highest profile Jersey resident, in Saints fans eyes anyway, after bumping into them at the airport came along for a drink. It wasn't just a cosmetic exercise with the Chairman looking to score a few PR points either, arriving at 12.15 he stayed and chatted with anyone who wanted to speak to him, eventually leaving just before 2pm."

 

"Prior to and immediately following the momentous events of last summer, which culminated in several new appointments to the boards of SLH and SFC, Michael (Wilde) led the initiative to secure the new investment monies necessary to ensure the long-term financial stability of Southampton Football Club.He has been unsuccessful in those endeavours and no new investment funds have been injected into the business during the course of his tenure as a director and Vice Chairman of SLH. In consequence of this, the board reassigned the task of raising new funds to other directors of SLH."

 

You've gotta larf...

[Saint_clark]

People say this, but fans of clubs outside of Hampshire didn't have a clue what was going on. We were not the "laughing stock of the nation" as some people made out.

[Turkish]

some more, from Rupes...

 

“The whole experience of relegation and the aftermath has been very hard to take but I do believe things are now looking up.”

 

The purpose of developing the best academy in the country is not to sell scholars to larger clubs.”

 

“In George and Clive we have got a management team of undoubted quality with strengths in complementary areas, who share the same vision and give us the best chance of returning to the Premier League in the shortest possible time.”

[doddisalegend]

People say this, but fans of clubs outside of Hampshire didn't have a clue what was going on. We were not the "laughing stock of the nation" as some people made out.

 

Well considering many fans of other clubs still think we're in admin when you talk to them I think your right. Most football fans are very inward looking and really don't now much about the other teams they play.

[farawaysaint]

People say this, but fans of clubs outside of Hampshire didn't have a clue what was going on. We were not the "laughing stock of the nation" as some people made out.

 

I have seen supporters all over England label their club this, half the time I had no clue about their own worries as I was too wrapped up in my own club to care.

[Cabrone]

...and then there is the infamous quote:

 

'I liken the situation to that of the Starship Enterprise. The shields are up and the Klingons are shooting at us every time they land a punch they sap our power.'

 

What a muppet.

[saintjay77]

some more, from Rupes...

 

“The whole experience of relegation and the aftermath has been very hard to take but I do believe things are now looking up.”

 

The purpose of developing the best academy in the country is not to sell scholars to larger clubs.”

 

“In George and Clive we have got a management team of undoubted quality with strengths in complementary areas, who share the same vision and give us the best chance of returning to the Premier League in the shortest possible time.”

 

To be fair to those that quoted these and the quotes above,

 

They were hardly going to say different when they were either trying to get there own way or trying to make everyone think the right decissions had been made.

 

I cant see how anyone went to look at that statue and actually thought it was that good but with the money already spent someone had to speak out and try to big it up. If it was me I would have left it to someone else but the someone thought it was best that he did it so he did and we can all laugh now.

 

I havnt seen any club unvial a management team and say they are undoubtedly the worst thing that has ever happened to the club and only compliment each other when downing another drink from the back of the company limo.

 

Bad decissions allways look funnier in hindsight.

[70's Mike]

Key is in third word of thread title

[for_heaven's_Saint]

...and here are some of the best:

 

"Saints trust members enjoying a pre match drink on Saturday before the game with Derby County were surprised to see a familiar face at the bar. Saints Trust members and their guests have been enjoying the hospitality of the pre match venue for the Trust at the Solent University Students Union as often promoted on this site, and it's becoming popular with members of the regional supporters groups. On Saturday, many members of the Jersey Saints branch were visiting and so it was that the highest profile Jersey resident, in Saints fans eyes anyway, after bumping into them at the airport came along for a drink. It wasn't just a cosmetic exercise with the Chairman looking to score a few PR points either, arriving at 12.15 he stayed and chatted with anyone who wanted to speak to him, eventually leaving just before 2pm."

 

You've gotta larf...

 

 

I don't get it :confused:

[Guided Missile]

I don't get it :confused:

The joke was that our former chairman had a few pints with some anoraks, ignoring the customary pre-match socialising with his Derby County counterpart....classy....

[Master Bates]

*Edit

[Legod Third Coming]

Please don't post pictures of that statue again. Keyboards and tea are not comfortable bedfellows and it still cracks me up every bloody time!!!

[scott_saints]

F**k me. I reckon I have forgot about Rupert Lowe for the first time since he arrived in the last few weeks. This did remind me of the c**t, but still.....

[OldNick]

...and here are some of the best:

 

You've got to give it to the sculptor he certainly got a very good likeness

[saintjay77]

Please don't post pictures of that statue again. Keyboards and tea are not comfortable bedfellows and it still cracks me up every bloody time!!!

 

im glad we can laugh about it now. Imagine walking up to SMS and it still being there!!!!!

 

I wonder where it is now? Will it turn up one day in some Saints museum after we have won the champions league for the 3rd time? Or has it been melted down and turned into the pipes that feed water to my toilet?

[Legod Third Coming]

You've got to give it to the sculptor he certainly got a very good likeness

 

Stop reposting it, I have work to do!!!!

[Turkish]

...and here are some of the best:

 

"It is very rare I am lost for words but I saw the statue last week and it is awesome - a tremendous tribute to a great man. Fans have waited a long time for this and it is going to be fantastic. I really believe it will be the best football statue anywhere both in size and the amount of detail"

 

QUOTE]

 

That was a class comment from Mr Ford, still makes me laugh even now, i am sure that it'll all come out in the wash as a Jeremy Beadle type wind up TV show.

[for_heaven's_Saint]

The joke was that our former chairman had a few pints with some anoraks, ignoring the customary pre-match socialising with his Derby County counterpart....classy....

 

Ah yeah cheers, think I misread it at first.

[stardustonmyfeet]

The joke was that our former chairman had a few pints with some anoraks, ignoring the customary pre-match socialising with his Derby County counterpart....classy....

 

Michael Wilde? Rupert Lowe wouldn't hang around nerdy football-supporting plebs, surely

[speculator]

'Southampton were not in a much different position to the rest, other than minus 10 points'

 

'Norwich City and Charlton Athletic had no money to spend in the transfer window.'

 

Laugh a minute

[hypochondriac]

'Southampton were not in a much different position to the rest, other than minus 10 points'

 

'Norwich City and Charlton Athletic had no money to spend in the transfer window.'

 

Laugh a minute

 

Stop it 19C

[skintsaint]

...and then there is the infamous quote:

 

'I liken the situation to that of the Starship Enterprise. The shields are up and the Klingons are shooting at us every time they land a punch they sap our power.'

 

What a muppet.

 

I thought it was a good tongue in cheek comment.

[Paul Chuckle]

 

Daily Echo reporter Simon Walter's three-page interview with Ted Bates statue sculptor Ian Brennan appeared in the weekend Pink. Here, we reproduce the feature in the wake of Saints fans' reaction to the £112,000 bronze portrait.

 

From his trademark wave and smile to the Saints programme in his jacket pocket, the Ted Bates statue lacks nothing in detail.

 

Since beginning full-time work on immortalising Mr Southampton in bronze 18 months ago, sculptor Ian Brennan has hardly stepped foot outside the workshop at his home in Warsash to ensure the statue would be ready for tonight's unveiling.

 

As a Saints fan, dedicating so much time to the memory of the man who served the club for 66 years as player, manager, director and president has been a labour of love for Mr Brennan, who was commissioned the job by the Ted Bates Trust following the great man's death in November 2003, aged 85.

 

"I've literally worked on it for seven days a week for the last 18 months," he said ahead of tonight's ceremony at St Mary's, where Ted's widow Mary was due to unveil the gargantuan sculpture in front of other family members, Saints fans and club officials.

 

"Even when I wasn't working on it I was thinking about it - was Ted, Ted, Ted all the way through," continued the father- of-three.

 

"Sometimes I'd wake up at 3am in the morning and go and do some more work. It's been mentally shattering but I want ed to do it so much."

 

The project began at the end of 2005, when Mr Brennan was reliant on photographs of Ted Bates to get the best likeness.

 

"Normally you need a mini mum of 15 measurements of the face but because that wasn't possible I was photo hungry when I first started."

 

To put it in context, Sir Bobby Robson was still alive when his statue was unveiled outside Ipswich Town's Portman Road five years ago, and the sculptor responsible for the bronze statue of Margaret Thatcher, which was recently unveiled in the House of Commons, had the same luxury.

 

"He had seven sittings with her which I envied, but I just had to get on with it and look for as many images as I could," continued Mr Brennan.

 

"Sculpting from photographs is not the cleverest way of doing it - Madame Tussauds would never work from photos alone because its difficult to get the 3- D effect - and I had nothing to go by at all.

 

"I saw him from a distance at the Dell but unfortunately I never met the man, which did n't help. His widow Mary told me about his mannerisms, like the way he held his thumb when he waved, but finding the right pictures was a real problem. There were lots of photos taken of Ted but mostly from an angle and not showing him from ear to ear.

 

"Fortunately, the Echo library saved the day. I needed a straight face-on profile with him at the right age and with the right expression and they went right through the archives and came up with a straight profile of Ted with Mary and that was brilliant - but I still needed more.

 

"I eventually found a little black-and-white one taken at more or less the same time. That helped but it was terrifying as I only had one hit.

 

"I used a calculator to get the measurements and the lines exactly right because if, for example, the mouth was two millimetres lower than it should be it would have thrown everything else out."

 

Eventually, Mr Brennan decided to also focus his work on two photographs taken on the day Ted received his MBE for services to football in 1998, and on a pose that will be instantly recognisable to every Saints fan over school age.

 

"I've never seen a smile on a statue before but after a lot of research we decided to go with a pose of him waving and with a smile on his face.

 

"Generally that's a no-no because most people remember your face as it is most of the time. A smile only lasts a few seconds but Ted was always smiling and if his statue had a straight face and he was still waving, there was a risk of him looking like Stalin or the Saddam Hussein statue that was pulled down.

 

"Ted was always such a friendly bloke and when he waved to the fans he meant it, it wasn't a politician's wave.

 

"He also had a natural, I'm pleased to see you' smile so we decided to more or less break new ground and try and get that smiley face. Hopefully I've captured that."

 

Unlike most statues, the sheer size of the immortalised Ted Bates - he is 11ft high and weighs more than a tonne - meant he had to be sculpted piecemeal.

 

"Usually you do it all in one piece but this was twice as big as anything I'd done so the hands, the feet, the head and the arms were all done in sections and welded on separate ly," said Mr Brennan, who worked with wax, plaster and clay before the various body parts were sent to London to be cast at the Bronze Age Foundry in London.

 

"To complete it on time, the separate pieces were taken to the foundry for the moulding and casting process as soon as I'd carved them.

 

"We were breaking new ground because the foundry had never done it quite like that before and I certainly had n't. At the back of mind was always the worry that the different parts wouldn't fit.

 

"The jacket and trousers went to the foundry in October, but the head didn't go on his shoulders until late February. If any thing had gone wrong we would have been put six weeks behind, but fortunately it all fitted."

 

At 16 feet tall on its plinth, Ted Bates is bigger than statues at other football grounds.

 

"Usually they're made life size or around eight feet tall, which is what we were originally going to go for, but with it being on a slope against the backdrop of St Mary's stadium we decided to increase it," explained Mr Brennan.

 

"He's huge. At 5ft 9in he was never the tallest footballer in the world but he's certainly one of the tallest footballing statues.

 

"I couldn't believe how big he looked when I first saw him standing in the foundry last week - my head came up to the middle of his jacket, which in clay weighed over half a tonne and needed four men to get off the ground.

 

"He stood tower ing three foot above the Margaret Thatcher statue, which was being cast at the same time."

 

While Ted Bates was a giant of a man for Southampton FC, Mr Brennan was always conscious of the need to retain his subject's character in every aspect of the £112,000 statue.

 

"We made him tall but at the same time we didn't want him looking down because it would be like he was looking down on people, and Ted didn't do that, so I decided to make his eyeline focus on Britannia Road, so he is waving to the people as they drive past."

 

A former cabinet maker, Mr Brennan has sculpted statues professionally from his home in Warsash for over 23 years and has been commissioned more than 90 projects by the Royal Household, but has never worked on any sculpture the scale of the Ted Bates statue.

 

He is used to sculpting wood but the use of clay meant his latest project was a constant work in progress. There is even a tale behind the slightly deflated football that is held in Ted's left hand.

 

"As the 'hot-wax football' came out of the mould, it dipped slightly as it cooled so that the ball looked like it needed a little air,but that looked more realistic somehow, so we left it as it was."

 

Incredibly, the whole project took just 18 months (the rela tively diminutive Margaret Thatcher statue took four years), but Mr Brennan would have had longer if he had his way.

 

He admitted: "The foundry workers had to physically drag the head out of my hands just before the deadline.

 

"It was like doing an important exam paper, it was just made of hollow wax at that stage and I was sat outside the foundry in my car at 7am, trying to tweak it and doing bits and bobs to his smile on my lap.

 

"It probably wasn't necessary but it was almost an obsession by that stage. I'm no Michelangelo but I could have gone down that route. I could have given him the most beautiful shoes in the world but taken many years to do it!

 

"The shoes are what people are closest to so I made sure I put lots of creases in them. People won't see the waving hand in as much detail because it's so high up but they've got lenses so I made sure I put the right lines on it.

 

"It wasn't necessary, but any artist will tweak and tweak their work as much as they can - often until it's broken. Sometimes you can make it worse. I might have tweaked it to destruction if I had more time. My wife Sue sometimes has to tell me I've done enough, otherwise I wouldn't get any thing else done!"

 

Now have your say on the Ted Bates statue ....