Lowe's Biggest Mistake

[alpine_saint]

a) Wigley

b) Pearson/Poortvillet

c) Burley

d) Sturrock/Hoddle

e) Strachan/Wayne Bridge

 

You choose....

 

In final analysis, I reckon b) because it is going to cost the club its very existence.

Edited 26 October, 2008 by alpine_saint
By request

[Weston Super Saint]

Aren't d) and b) intrinsically linked?

[Saintandy666]

What a provocative post, and shouldn't there be an F, nothing...

 

This post is like a leading question.

 

But if I must choose;

 

Why B? If we want to look at mistakes, Wigley was a mistake, he just wasn't up for the job. Pearson was.

[simo]

Was not convincing the lunatic fringe he didn't exist!

[saints_is_the_south]

Where's not giving Strachan enough money after the cup final?

[equalizer]

I think A) but its a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Would we have survived if he hadn't appointed Wigley? Probably but we wll never know for sure, personally letting Strachan go was his biggest mistake! IMO

[alpine_saint]

Aren't d) and b) intrinsically linked?

 

Not really, he could have got rid of Pearson and appointed Billy Davies.

[alpine_saint]

Where's not giving Strachan enough money after the cup final?

 

Wayne Bridge, of course..

[ponto1963]

I would say getting rid of Sturrock, was the major mistake.

[alpine_saint]

What a provocative post, and shouldn't there be an F, nothing...

 

This post is like a leading question.

 

But if I must choose;

 

Why B? If we want to look at mistakes, Wigley was a mistake, he just wasn't up for the job. Pearson was.

 

Thought you were going to choose ?

[saints_is_the_south]

Wayne Bridge, of course..

 

Ah, E then for me!

[70's Mike]

Where's not giving Strachan enough money after the cup final?

 

not strictly true , WGS had enough money but it was wasted on squad players who did not make first 11 better.

 

i do not know whose fault that was but believe it was down to RL not wanting to change wage structure , which bearing in mind ,and with hindsight, the increase in sky money was the biggest mistake

[alpine_saint]

What a provocative post, and shouldn't there be an F, nothing...

 

This post is like a leading question.

 

But if I must choose;

 

Why B? If we want to look at mistakes, Wigley was a mistake, he just wasn't up for the job. Pearson was.

 

So you reckon Lowe hasnt made any mistakes with your "F" ???

 

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Long Shot]

Lowe's biggest mistake (as far as the club is concerned) is befriending and then coniving with Guy Askham - it was all downhill after that.

[saintwarwick]

I would say getting rid of Sturrock, was the major mistake.

 

I would go with getting rid of Sturrock followed by employing Wigley.

[Lowestoft-Saint]

a) Wigley

b) Pearson

c) Burley

d) Poortvillet

e) Wayne Bridge

 

You choose....

 

In final analysis, I reckon b) because it is going to cost the club its very existence.

 

 

Im not sure what Wayne Bridge really has to do with it, but i guess you must have your reasons for including it, probably similar reasons why you have left out other options that have had an impact on our club...

 

So if i have to opt for any of your choices then id go with (A).

 

However saying all of that, for me the biggest mistake was allowing the other board members to out vote him and not allow him to give the managers job to Hoddle.

I like many others hated Hoddle for walking out on us for Spurs but, I was willing to accept him back.

 

One thing im god darn sure of is that Hoddle would have made a better job of things than the fishy C **t from down the M27.

Had that happened we would not have had to go through, Lowe being Ousted by the fans and those same fans falling for the anyone but Lowe crap and ending up with Wilde and his BullS**t and everything we have had to suffer ever since....

 

My conclusion is that a hell of a lot of people have played a part in our demise & sadly I include fans as well as Board members in that.

However as they say its the responsibility of the Chairman so Yes Lowe takes the blame, but things could have been different with hindsight.

[solentstars]

Im not sure what Wayne Bridge really has to do with it, but i guess you must have your reasons for including it, probably similar reasons why you have left out other options that have had an impact on our club...

 

So if i have to opt for any of your choices then id go with (A).

 

However saying all of that, for me the biggest mistake was allowing the other board members to out vote him and not allow him to give the managers job to Hoddle.

I like many others hated Hoddle for walking out on us for Spurs but, I was willing to accept him back.

 

One thing im god darn sure of is that Hoddle would have made a better job of things than the fishy C **t from down the M27.

Had that happened we would not have had to go through, Lowe being Ousted by the fans and those same fans falling for the anyone but Lowe crap and ending up with Wilde and his BullS**t and everything we have had to suffer ever since....

 

My conclusion is that a hell of a lot of people have played a part in our demise & sadly I include fans as well as Board members in that.

However as they say its the responsibility of the Chairman so Yes Lowe takes the blame, but things could have been different with hindsight.

i think you are spot on with that post but its all in the past now.

[Saintandy666]

So you reckon Lowe hasnt made any mistakes with your "F" ???

 

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

 

 

No, I think Lowe has made lots of mistakes. I just think this post is very one sided and leading. To make it fair there should be an f. (i.e nothing)

[Pat from Poole]

a) Wigley

b) Pearson/Poortvillet

c) Burley

d) Sturrock/Hoddle

e) Strachan/Wayne Bridge

 

You choose....

 

In final analysis, I reckon b) because it is going to cost the club its very existence.

 

 

 

Agreed. Pearson will clearly be a top manager, can't believe Lowe has let Mandaric get one over him yet again.

[Whitey Grandad]

I vote for 'a' because most of the others had some grain of sense in them, apart from perhaps 'b'.

[ottery st mary]

Getting rid of Pearson a personal spiteful act by a very strange revengeful person.

[Causer]

e

losing bridge buying mcann we were doomed

[hamster]

..the biggest mistake was ... not ... to give the managers job to Hoddle.

 

I like many others hated Hoddle for walking out on us for Spurs but, I was willing to accept him back.

 

Have you not heard the news today!

 

Hoddle would have done exactly the same thing as Harry has done to Pompey (eventually). There is absolutely no loyalty in football now, and he would have got an offer at some point which would be 'too good to refuse'. It may well have been them laughing at us today.

 

I would like to say though, that I would not dismiss the suggestion that he may one day be offered the job here again. There are certain managers that I would welcome back with open arms though as they left in a gentlemanly manner on good terms with the fans.

[Chez]

Wigley. what a nightmare.

[derry]

Lowe's biggest mistake was getting into a football club. The club's biggest mistake allowing the directors to engineer a takeover by Lowe.

[rocknrollman no2]

Definately Wigley,closely followed by Rednapp.

[Badger]

A,without a doubt.That was the appointment that set in motion an irretrievable decline.

 

The Sturrock/Hoddle selection was also a watershed in our history,and in hindsight I believe the wrong choice.Having appointed Luggy,he should have been backed by the board IMO.

[SW5 SAINT]

Selling Fitz Hall to Palace (good business) just as the season (relegation) started, and then when realising the lack of defensive cover panic buying that Swedish guy( forget his name) at the deadline for nearly the same money!

[Toomer]

Turning up at the club in the first place.

[SFC Forever]

I think that the biggest mistake was getting rid of Lowe and letting him keep his shares. If the new board members couldn't afford them they shouldn't have taken over. Without his shares he surely wouldn't have been able to get back in would he?

[Badger]

I think that the biggest mistake was getting rid of Lowe and letting him keep his shares. If the new board members couldn't afford them they shouldn't have taken over. Without his shares he surely wouldn't have been able to get back in would he?

 

He was entitled to keep the shares,there was no obligation on him to sell.Don't think Lowe was prepared to sell,rather than others being unable to afford them.

[Charlie2008]

1st:...was ever leaving his Cheltenham pile.

 

2nd mistake: daring to tread on our hallowed ground (or even anywhere in Hampshire).

 

3rd mistake: OUTSTAYING HIS WELCOME (by approx. 10 years)!

[docker-p]

E. Not Backing WGS and thus watching him leave was the act of a fvckwit.

[CB Fry]

Lowe's biggest mistake (as far as the club is concerned) is befriending and then coniving with Guy Askham - it was all downhill after that.

 

 

I wouldn't call vastly improved league finishes in the first seven years compared to the previous seven or so before and a cup final "all downhill".

 

I want Lowe out and he takes huge amounts of blame for relegation, but will you children please stop making out it was all doom from day one.

 

None of you have the faintest idea where we would have been if something different happened in 1997, and not having Lowe didn't stop Forest, Sheff Weds, Coventry, Derby, Leicester, QPR, Norwich, Ipswich, Leeds, Man City, Wolves, West Brom, Charlton, Palace and all the rest from being relegated in the same period.

[Fan The Flames]

I wouldn't call vastly improved league finishes in the first seven years compared to the previous seven or so before and a cup final "all downhill".

 

I want Lowe out and he takes huge amounts of blame for relegation, but will you children please stop making out it was all doom from day one.

 

None of you have the faintest idea where we would have been if something different happened in 1997, and not having Lowe didn't stop Forest, Sheff Weds, Coventry, Derby, Leicester, QPR, Norwich, Ipswich, Leeds, Man City, Wolves, West Brom, Charlton, Palace and all the rest from being relegated in the same period.

 

I wouldn't call three places 'vastly improved league finishes'. Thats 3 places using your timescale of 7 years or 1 place if you use the proper timescale of 8 years (the top flight years of Lowe).

 

How many of Forest, Sheff Weds, Coventry, Derby, Leicester, QPR, Norwich, Ipswich, Leeds, Man City, Wolves, West Brom, Charlton, Palace and all the rest have the same muppets in charge now.

 

I would agree with LS that Askham and Lowe meeting up and creating the PLC hasn't been good for Southampton.

[SFC Forever]

Badger I agree that he was not compelled to sell. However if the people removing him couldn't get his shares they should have left it alone. They made a bad mistake coming in and once found out they allowed him to get back in. Empty promises have been made over and over again. All I know is that given the choice I would not have allowed it to happen if it had been me doing the ousting. If he didn't sell his shares I would not have moved in. Plus if I was unable to afford the extra purchases I would not have gone ahead either.

[Colinjb]

Sacking Sturrock. From then on everything was sh*t. And has been now for 4 f*cking years.

 

What happened to my club. I used to be proud. Now I'm f*cking embarrassed.

 

Lowe had a sniff of the big time and got deluded by it. He believed his word was gospel and got stung for it, now he is back trying it again. His ecentricity is alienating thousands from something they once held dear. I hope that he gets off on that, because no-one else is.

Edited 26 October, 2008 by Colinjb

[Torrent Of Abuse]

If this forum is indicative of the fanbase (and I really hope it's not) then his worst mistake was not quitting after the stadium was built. Because if he had done, this forum would be filled with people convincing themselves that "we wouldn't be in this mess if Rupert was still here" - whereas we had all that last year and unfortunately he's come back and is showing us why he got chucked out in the first place. We just love looking back misty-eyed and reinterpreting our own history. Strachan made a great decision leaving while we remembered him for the Cup final instead of the years he would have struggled afterwards with no money and limited success, dabbling with relegation a little more as each year passed.

 

Of course, instead of discussing past mistakes, it would probably be much more use for us right now to discuss what we can do right and what we can do right now to stop us from disappearing into the abyss that is relegation and administration.

 

That would probably involve coming up with ideas, though - as opposed to pointing the finger of blame, complaining about how awful things are right now, predicting the exact hour of our eventual destruction and continually telling each other that we're so uninterested in Saints that we're even considering not being logged onto this message board 24 hours a day.

 

So, back to the finger-pointing and reminiscing then...

[Colinjb]

So, back to the finger-pointing and reminiscing then...

 

With respect, what else do we have?

 

We are no longer a football club, we are a bank's play thing. All with the acceptance of our 'leader' who treats the fanbase as a resource to be tapped rather then the lifeblood of the club.

 

We don't even have the good times to look back on, at least Leeds had europe. European finals and the time they took it to the top 3 (as it was then)

 

What do we have? Broken dreams and squandered opportunity. It has all been downhill for five whole years. And there is only one common denominator. Only one man who has dictated the stranger things we have done. At least Wilde and co ran us as a football club in the traditional sense, rather then an eccentrics plaything. Many clubs are worse off then us, yet here we are paying 24 quid a week to watch a youth team.

 

I AM F*CKING SICK OF IT

 

Rupert can bite my hariy arse. He is getting no more of my money to invest in his folly. I will not return until Southampton FC is a football club once again. As things stand now, we are a joke. I will not let it break my heart any more. I cannot afford to let it break my heart anymore. I shall investigate the non league scene in the midlands and find a club to follow there.

Edited 26 October, 2008 by Colinjb

[Fan The Flames]

If this forum is indicative of the fanbase (and I really hope it's not) then his worst mistake was not quitting after the stadium was built. Because if he had done, this forum would be filled with people convincing themselves that "we wouldn't be in this mess if Rupert was still here" - whereas we had all that last year and unfortunately he's come back and is showing us why he got chucked out in the first place. We just love looking back misty-eyed and reinterpreting our own history. Strachan made a great decision leaving while we remembered him for the Cup final instead of the years he would have struggled afterwards with no money and limited success, dabbling with relegation a little more as each year passed.

 

Of course, instead of discussing past mistakes, it would probably be much more use for us right now to discuss what we can do right and what we can do right now to stop us from disappearing into the abyss that is relegation and administration.

 

That would probably involve coming up with ideas, though - as opposed to pointing the finger of blame, complaining about how awful things are right now, predicting the exact hour of our eventual destruction and continually telling each other that we're so uninterested in Saints that we're even considering not being logged onto this message board 24 hours a day.

 

So, back to the finger-pointing and reminiscing then...

 

What are you talking about, we are in the bottom three and you don't expect any finger pointing, you are such a better person. Read the other posts there plenty of ideas floating about, people are allowed to vent their frustration. Go join in one of the positive posts, if you can find one, better still start one instead of coming on here having a go.

[Tamesaint]

Lowe's biggest problem is his arrogance.

 

Only supreme arrogance and the belief that he knew better than the rest of the football world led to the Lowe inflicted farce of Sturrock / Wigley / Rednapp / Woodwood.

 

Only supreme arrogance could lead him to continue with the revolutionary new coaching scheme and the appointment of fifth tier Dutch managers.

[Torrent Of Abuse]

What are you talking about, we are in the bottom three and you don't expect any finger pointing, you are such a better person. Read the other posts there plenty of ideas floating about, people are allowed to vent their frustration. Go join in one of the positive posts, if you can find one, better still start one instead of coming on here having a go.

I'm fully entitled to post what I like where I like thanks - and I'm pretty sure I don't need to ask you for your permission just as I'm sure I don't need to find a thread for like-minded people. But thanks for suggesting it.

 

Don't kid yourself that there are ideas floating around here. There's only 101 threads about who is to blame. What is the point in discussing the past? What does it achieve? How do things change? If Rupert Lowe needs to go then the time and energy would be best spent protesting outside the ground for him to go. Instead we have same old threads popping up with variations on the subject of "I told you this was going to happen". It does nothing.

 

I am certainly no fan of people like Richard Chorley but the one thing he had in his favour was that he got off his butt and did something. In his absence, we're left with people who are content to wail and gnash their teeth on here but who will do nothing. They'll rail against the "Lowe Luvvies" but won't actually vent their anger anywhere other than on the forum. It's no wonder that the old UI/SISA meetings only used to pull in 15 fans and a stray dog: Everyone's too busy posting about their feelings of angst.

 

Instead of discussing how we got here, why are there no real discussions of how to get out of here? The answer could be because anything constructive requires actual effort whilst finger-pointing is easy and requires zero effort.

[alpine_saint]

I'm fully entitled to post what I like where I like thanks - and I'm pretty sure I don't need to ask you for your permission just as I'm sure I don't need to find a thread for like-minded people. But thanks for suggesting it.

 

Don't kid yourself that there are ideas floating around here. There's only 101 threads about who is to blame. What is the point in discussing the past? What does it achieve? How do things change? If Rupert Lowe needs to go then the time and energy would be best spent protesting outside the ground for him to go. Instead we have same old threads popping up with variations on the subject of "I told you this was going to happen". It does nothing.

 

I am certainly no fan of people like Richard Chorley but the one thing he had in his favour was that he got off his butt and did something. In his absence, we're left with people who are content to wail and gnash their teeth on here but who will do nothing. They'll rail against the "Lowe Luvvies" but won't actually vent their anger anywhere other than on the forum. It's no wonder that the old UI/SISA meetings only used to pull in 15 fans and a stray dog: Everyone's too busy posting about their feelings of angst.

 

Instead of discussing how we got here, why are there no real discussions of how to get out of here? The answer could be because anything constructive requires actual effort whilst finger-pointing is easy and requires zero effort.

 

Why the f**k should we come up with the ideas to rescue the club ? Your Messiah Lowe is paid a kings ransom to do that, and considering his share stake, he should also be well-motivated

[Saint Billy]

I'm fully entitled to post what I like where I like thanks - and I'm pretty sure I don't need to ask you for your permission just as I'm sure I don't need to find a thread for like-minded people. But thanks for suggesting it.

 

Answered your own gripe there fella.

 

There have been plenty of suggestions and idea's on how to rectify the situation on this board, more I'd say than what seems to be coming out of the mouths of the present board.

 

How about these for a start or have you turned a blind eye.

 

Remove JP as he seems to be clueless.

 

Lowe stop meddling.

 

Don't sell our only proven striker.

 

Bring Skacel back and play him in his correct position.

 

Reduce ticket prices.

 

Open the corners.

 

Don't play MG.

 

Lowe get out.

 

Stop playing the lone striker role.

 

So on and so on.:smt102

Edited 27 October, 2008 by Saint Billy

[SOTONS EAST SIDE]

not strictly true , WGS had enough money but it was wasted on squad players who did not make first 11 better.

 

i do not know whose fault that was but believe it was down to RL not wanting to change wage structure , which bearing in mind ,and with hindsight, the increase in sky money was the biggest mistake

Share divi's over club progression anyday!R.LOWE

[Mole]

I would go with getting rid of Sturrock followed by employing Wigley.

 

Paul Sturrock had as much chance of keeping his job as Nigel Pearson did.

 

Lowe was over ruled on appointing Hoddle so revenge was only a matter of time. Likewise he couldn't tolerate Pearson who was chosen by Leon Crouch.

[Wopper]

Lowe should have sold out to Leon Crouch when he had the chance.

[dubai_phil]

Thinking this through, my vote is none of the above.

 

I think it could be that he believed he could come back and reduce the wages by getting rid of ALL the high earners in the pre-season.

 

I wonder if he felt that simply by telling all those on contracts to "clear off you're not wanted" they would up and find new clubs, leaving him with his (at that time) viable business plan for survival

 

If he'd known we'd continue to pump 2million quid a year into 4 players who have made what about 8 appearances between them so far, I wonder if he would have been quite so gung-ho.

 

Them staying gives the fans rallying points when the youngsters can't hack it, allows us to all start off again on depressing doom and gloom and question decisions.

 

Because they didn't go, the fans believe we were left with a choice and that has accelerated the discontent and probably the attendance fall.

 

Lowe felt he had unfinished business here, he wanted to make it work. I think he may just have over-estimated things somewhat, and THAT could be far more dangerous than ALL the other mistakes put together......

[Thedelldays]

Lowe's biggest mistake (as far as the club is concerned) is befriending and then coniving with Guy Askham - it was all downhill after that.

that is right...ir was all downhill to cardiff...lol

[Frank's cousin]

Calling us 'klingons' - never have I been so insulted.....

 

Believeing that you could compete in the premierleague, buy running the club within its income - eg a logiocal and sensible approach. Trouble is when alll about you are ****ing money down the drain from either sugar daddies or borrowings, you get left behind very quickly as we saw... whatever we like to think the answer to our 'crap' is money.