Bring back Cortese.

[shurlock]

The COCs vs the Leslieites, a battle for the ages

[doddisalegend]

Nik-Nak has become like one of those players who gets better when he doesn't play....

[Badger]

I enjoyed the Cortese era as fan but even if hypothetically this were an option, it wouldn't seem sensible as:

 

- We wouldn't have an owner willing to spend large sums of money, as NC comparatively had in L1, NPC and first season back

- Approval of expenditure - this appeared to be the issue causing NC's departure. Owners will want some accountability and in places, some joint decision-making

- Trajectory: We appeared to be piling up some quite alarming debt and doing some things the club said wouldn't happen

- Commercial income; I'm not fan of Kreuger's overall but this does appear to have improved significantly, shame relegation will harm much of this e.g. UA, Virgin Media

 

Having said the above, where I think the OP is coming from is the corpulent nature of how the club is now run and the total lack of urgency or vision currently. Cortese might not have had the money - and was relying on the funding of others to achieve it who probably didn't have it either in retrospect - but there was a vision and I can see how it became alluring to some fans.

 

Part in bold was the critical issue as I saw it, he didn't want KL monitoring his managing of the club, and putting a sensible brake on things before it went 'Peter Ridsdale' on us

 

Can't see Gao allowing a CEO a free reign without accountability.

 

But must add, I'd welcome some direction at the club from the top.

[trousers]

Anyone know if he's still at AC Milan...?

[Colinjb]

Now, here was a man who could really spend other people's money.

[Lard]

I’d welcome him back with open arms. 

[maysie]

He’s made that much of a name for himself since leaving that when you search his surname in google you get a wine grape variety.

[Turkish]

[Saint Fan CaM]

The guy had a vision for the club - in conjunction with Markus - and knew how to deliver it. He got results and provided a brief glimpse of how a small (by comparison) club could grow to challenge the elites. Four seasons of complete joy for supporters. [sighs]

[Matthew Le God]

19 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

The guy had a vision for the club - in conjunction with Markus - and knew how to deliver it. He got results and provided a brief glimpse of how a small (by comparison) club could grow to challenge the elites. Four seasons of complete joy for supporters. [sighs]

We finished higher after Cortese, Pochettino, Lambert, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lovren, Lallana and Clyne left and we needed a rebuild with Pelle, Tadic, Mane etc.

Edited Wednesday at 08:00 by Matthew Le God

[trousers]

14 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

The guy had a vision for the club - in conjunction with Markus - and knew how to deliver it. He got results and provided a brief glimpse of how a small (by comparison) club could grow to challenge the elites. Four seasons of complete joy for supporters. [sighs]

Indeed. For all his faults (of which there were no doubt several), he gave fans a sense of hope that we could compete with the 'big boys'. None of this 'be happy with what we've got' small club mentality that Semmens brought to the table. Yes, I accept that it transpired that the 'empire' he was building was probably unsustainable (do we have categoric, rather than anecdotal, evidence of that btw?) but I'd swap his no-nonsense approach with the Sport Republic 'experiment' every day of the week.

Edited Tuesday at 12:31 by trousers

[trousers]

2 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

We did better after Cortese left and we needed a rebuild.

"Momentum curve"....

 

[sadoldgit]

Even though he told us that he had some jobs lined up in football after he left us, did he actually get any of them?

Maybe there is a reason for that? Surely, if he was such a hot shot, clubs would have been queuing up for his services?

[rallyboy]

He certainly made a nice omelette.

He also broke every single egg on the farm and killed all the chickens.

[Saint Gifford]

That’s our downfall when he left. Being thinking that for a long time. 

I know players are pampered and earn far too much money. 

But his attention to detail was another level. If you believe it even down to bringing players own mattress to away games. 
 

Him and Markus a real dream team tbf

 

 

 

 

 

[Harry_SFC]

Just now, Saint Gifford said:

That’s our downfall when he left. Being thinking that for a long time. 

I know players are pampered and earn far too much money. 

But his attention to detail was another level. If you believe it even down to bringing players own mattress to away games. 
 

Him and Markus a real dream team tbf

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah as trousers has said, he had his faults but give me Cortese over any of the current lot any day of the week. 

[S-Clarke]

He was a total knob, I know people who were at the club at the time and it really wasn't an enjoyable environment. There were no easy roles or slot in and take the salary in quiet.

He took no shit, no one got an easy ride. If you didn't do what he wanted, you'd know about it. He had the ego the size of a planet.

However, that approach did enable us to ensure we had people running at their maximum when they were here, whereas in the years after Koeman and co (once his involvement was totally removed) it felt like everyone had a free ride and roles were being given to less qualified individuals. Kruger was the most polar opposite you could have found really.

Edited Tuesday at 12:53 by S-Clarke

[Midfield_General]

The pioneer of the private executive toilet. Paid for by someone else, of course.

The Hannah Ingram-Moore of the football world. 

[Matthew Le God]

7 minutes ago, rallyboy said:

He certainly made a nice omelette.

He also broke every single egg on the farm and killed all the chickens.

 

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

The pioneer of the private executive toilet. Paid for by someone else, of course.

The Hannah Ingram-Moore of the football world. 

Remember when one a spoon in his private cutlery collection went missing and he made a load of staff spend the afternoon looking for it 😂

[trousers]

Despite all his faults, don't forget that a certain Katharina Liebherr never wanted him to leave....

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/southampton-fc-appointment-of-chairman-1296942.aspx/

"With great regret we have accepted the resignation of Mr Cortese. He has done a wonderful job at the club and we very much wanted him to stay"

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 12:59 by trousers

[trousers]

3 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Remember when one a spoon in his private cutlery collection went missing and he made a load of staff spend the afternoon looking for it 😂

Whereas, under Sport Republic, they don't give a toss how many spoons they lose as they can always buy another set from Poundland at the drop of a hat.... vive la difference

 

[ecuk268]

Frannie Benali wasn't too keen on him.

[John Boy Saint]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Said at the time, and since, that was a statement by him “I’m the boss here!”.

Pretty sure later that week he sold Oxlaide Chamberlain to Arsenal, whos parents had been touting him to. they thought in secret. Arsenal grassed Mum & Dad up to Saints on the quiet, obviously not wanting to queer any chance of any possible deal later. I heard from a reliable source that when Arsenal turned up to officially discuss buying Ox, Cortese apparently told them “if you want to buy him let’s negotiate, and if we don’t come to an agreement today, you walk away and never come back to us again for him in the future. 

Certainly got a lot of good things done albeit spending someone else’s money, given the precipice we had been stood on the edge off before he popped up with Markus, most Saints fans were more than happy with what he did because it showed on the pitch. 
Would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Markus hadn’t left us so soon and been keeping him in check.

[Turkish]

3 minutes ago, John Boy Saint said:

Said at the time, and since, that was a statement by him “I’m the boss here!”.

Pretty sure later that week he sold Oxlaide Chamberlain to Arsenal, whos parents had been touting him to. they thought in secret. Arsenal grassed Mum & Dad up to Saints on the quiet, obviously not wanting to queer any chance of any possible deal later. I heard from a reliable source that when Arsenal turned up to officially discuss buying Ox, Cortese apparently told them “if you want to buy him let’s negotiate, and if we don’t come to an agreement today, you walk away and never come back to us again for him in the future. 

Certainly got a lot of good things done albeit spending someone else’s money, given the precipice we had been stood on the edge off before he popped up with Markus, most Saints fans were more than happy with what he did because it showed on the pitch. 
Would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Markus hadn’t left us so soon and been keeping him in check.

all true, you heard correct. However the parents went behind his back as Cortese refused to speak to Arsenal whatsoever. Some might say thats a great approach but if you refuse to even entertain any approach from any club for any player you soon have a lot of disgruntled players on your hands, especially when the approaches are from the countries biggest clubs and we were a newly promoted championship side

It's sad that we will never know what might have happened if Marcus hadn't passed away, however i believe the deal was Marcus would provide funding to get us back to the premier league, once there we were to become self sustaining club so i doubt we'd have been that much different to how we always had been. Corteses biggest problem was he was great with a credit card but not great at the self sustaining bit. The lack of non match day revenue coming in was a problem, remember our sponsors were the largest recruitment consultants in chilworth for example

[Saint Fan CaM]

Who said “football is results business”? It wasn’t Cortese - but he understood what that meant and how a small provincial club could potentially grow into something more. Markus trusted him as a friend to run the club with his money - good enough for me.

[S-Clarke]

11 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Who said “football is results business”? It wasn’t Cortese - but he understood what that meant and how a small provincial club could potentially grow into something more. Markus trusted him as a friend to run the club with his money - good enough for me.

But the problem came when the taps ran dry, he hadn't developed enough partnerships (no one wanted to deal with him) or commercial revenue at that point, so he was still totally reliant on the so called trust fund. Kat rightfully pulled him up on that and regained some control. 

We still had some momentum which carried us through the next 2 seasons, but once the money taps had dried up it was obviously going to start going downhill, and it became very much a sell before we do anything model. 

The problem which compounded all of this is that once we did get some money, we splurged it all on the wrong sorts and big mistakes, PSR then came in and made it even more difficult because of our lack of commercial revenue. I include SR's ill-fated windows and also Ross Wilson and Les Reeds waste of the VVD fortune.

I said it at the time but it felt as if Cortese had built everything on sand really, without a genuine stream of money there was no foundation and it didn't take much for the walls to start crumbling down.

[pimpin4rizeal]

Was the best thing at the club since le tissier. What a difference it made to have someone who actually gave a shit about what happened on the pitch and wasn’t just interested in profits and values .. the way the club is run at the moment there’s absolutely nothing to hope for in the future .. people getting happy about it being good business  when we sell  our best players is about all there is gonna be to be happy about 

[ErwinK1961]

2 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Was the best thing at the club since le tissier. What a difference it made to have someone who actually gave a shit about what happened on the pitch and wasn’t just interested in profits and values .. the way the club is run at the moment there’s absolutely nothing to hope for in the future .. people getting happy about it being good business  when we sell  our best players is about all there is gonna be to be happy about 

Utter drivel.

[pimpin4rizeal]

37 minutes ago, ErwinK1961 said:

Utter drivel.

Why ?  It was nothing but good times for us under his guidance took us up two divisions, made strong calls like bringing in poch brought in great scouting like Mitchell. Had ambitions and stopped us being treated like some soft feeder club   It’s not some fluke or coincidence we did well under him   he run the place like De Niro  in casino and wouldn’t settle for failure 

It’s honestly mental to me that some people still don’t appreciate what he brought .. all we are now is some shit conveyer belt club where players come in hope of getting a move to a better club 

Edited Tuesday at 17:54 by pimpin4rizeal

[Saint Fan CaM]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

But the problem came when the taps ran dry, he hadn't developed enough partnerships (no one wanted to deal with him) or commercial revenue at that point, so he was still totally reliant on the so called trust fund. Kat rightfully pulled him up on that and regained some control. 

We still had some momentum which carried us through the next 2 seasons, but once the money taps had dried up it was obviously going to start going downhill, and it became very much a sell before we do anything model. 

The problem which compounded all of this is that once we did get some money, we splurged it all on the wrong sorts and big mistakes, PSR then came in and made it even more difficult because of our lack of commercial revenue. I include SR's ill-fated windows and also Ross Wilson and Les Reeds waste of the VVD fortune.

I said it at the time but it felt as if Cortese had built everything on sand really, without a genuine stream of money there was no foundation and it didn't take much for the walls to start crumbling down.

I think you’re forgetting how (relatively) short a time Markus was in control (sadly). Had he lived, I don’t believe he would have put the brakes on Cortese as Kat did. She clearly felt she had little or no control…was not friends with Cortese in the same way Markus was…and felt she needed to reign in control of her inheritance. Cortese knew that the impetus gained would quickly be lost in the shadow of the big hitters in the Prem and the club needed Markus’ investment for another 3-5 years to really establish the club at the top in a self-sustainable way.

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

I think you’re forgetting how (relatively) short a time Markus was in control (sadly). Had he lived, I don’t believe he would have put the brakes on Cortese as Kat did. She clearly felt she had little or no control…was not friends with Cortese in the same way Markus was…and felt she needed to reign in control of her inheritance. Cortese knew that the impetus gained would quickly be lost in the shadow of the big hitters in the Prem and the club needed Markus’ investment for another 3-5 years to really establish the club at the top in a self-sustainable way.

It's impossible to know really, it was all a bit tragic. We kept the momentum and completed the dream he had, but the money wasn't going to last forever - we needed alternative streams and creative ways of generating it, we're a tiny club in comparison with most in the PL so it was becoming more and more difficult to complete - esp with FFP/PSR coming into play, which kills clubs like us. We needed external investment and we tried so hard to find it, and ended up with Gao which was a laugh.

What I would say is that Markus would be turning in his grave right now though, his entire vision has been bulldozed and demolished by SR. There is a genuine possibility we could be back to where we started if SR don't sort their shit out.

[Lighthouse]

16 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Why ?  It was nothing but good times for us under his guidance took us up two divisions, made strong calls like bringing in poch brought in great scouting like Mitchell. Had ambitions and stopped us being treated like some soft feeder club   It’s not some fluke or coincidence we did well under him   he run the place like de Niro in casino wouldn’t settle for failure 

It’s honestly mental to me that some people still don’t appreciate what he brought .. all we are now is some shit conveyer belt club where players come in hope of getting a move to a better club 

He did some good things, granted. He also went way over budget on the training ground and wasted even more money on what I regard as a personal vanity project Dani Osvaldo.

That said, p*ssing The Sun off to the extent that they posted a double page spread on how they were going to ignore 'South Coast Team' was quite funny.

[SaintsLoyal]

A clueless vile scumabg that was a total charlatan and the likes of Les Reed did all the real work.

Obviously many fell for the media PR, that was given to him by consultant David Bick

Not sure he paid for anything whilst he was employed here either.

 

I mean who has there own personal toilet built to use  😄

 

 

 

 

 

[Monk]

8 hours ago, Turkish said:

On reflection, that's a rather poorly tailored suit for an Italian. 

[Miltonaggro]

28 minutes ago, Monk said:

On reflection, that's a rather poorly tailored suit for an Italian. 

An assistant probably fucked up the dry cleaning! 

[Colinjb]

40 minutes ago, SaintsLoyal said:

A clueless vile scumabg that was a total charlatan

Without whom there would have been no Liebherr rescue package.

[Saint Gifford]

Like it or not. He brought a Corporate approach to the club, which was exactly the right thing. 

Yes he didn’t play the “old school Racing Post Rednapp style”

Maybe he pissed a few people off. But jeezzzz how many players have we got in the squad now that are going into the England team. 

It hurts to say it, but we are where we belong.

Both my boys are Gasheads, and constantly tell me that we are no longer a decent Europe chasing club since the NC and ML days. 
 

Even they are comparing the shambles of the ownership of Rovers, to us. 
 

Yes we had it good in the NC and ML days , and will always be a what if moment. 
 

Dear god, don’t let us become the same as the Gas, I don’t think I could cope at home. 
 

 

 

 

[Willo of Whiteley]

I remember listening to a pod where Rickie Lambert said that he, Jos Hooiveld and a few other senior players hunted down Nicola Cortese when Nigel Adkins was sacked; and threatened to leave.

Although he finished by saying that Mauricio Pochettino took them to a whole new level once he’d embedded his ideas and training.