Lowe/Wilde Chat (Split)

[Gloucester Saint]

10 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

I'm fairly sure Bale's debut was also Pahars' last ever game for us. Might have been Cardiff at SMS but it was definitely under GB.

IIRC it was Millwall home. Sent them down I seem to recall.

[Badger]

13 hours ago, Turkish said:

. I remember he threw the young players under the bus when he was here. We got drawn away at a a lower league club, possibly Southend? played a few of them, lost and his post match interview was people keep telling him how good the kids are here but that proves he was right and they weren’t. 
 

He’s full of shit, got lucky with Bale who suddenly blossomed and Walcott was one of the most wanted young players in Europe at the time and he was reluctant to play him but then after he scored a few he had no choice but to play him and suddenly was taking the credit for their success 

I think that interview was intended to make Rupert release the purse strings a bit more for transfers.
But one thing to credit Rupert for is that he kept control of transfers and funding them during ‘arry’s time with us. HR would have had no qualms about nearly bankrupting the club. 

[Saint Fan CaM]

6 hours ago, Badger said:

I think that interview was intended to make Rupert release the purse strings a bit more for transfers.
But one thing to credit Rupert for is that he kept control of transfers and funding them during ‘arry’s time with us. HR would have had no qualms about nearly bankrupting the club. 

To be fair Lowe made a pretty good job of fucking the club over financially in the end.

[Saint_clark]

12 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

To be fair Lowe made a pretty good job of fucking the club over financially in the end.

Wasn't that Saints go Wilde! that did that? 

[hypochondriac]

24 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Wasn't that Saints go Wilde! that did that? 

Didn't they make shirts of that? 

[Lighthouse]

39 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Wasn't that Saints go Wilde! that did that? 

More specifically the absolutely batsh*t summer of 2007, which has got to be up there with last summer as one of the most mind-boggling in our history. We lost the parachute payments, money was tight and we had no defence... so lets by a bunch more really expensive midfielders/strikers.

[Saint Fan CaM]

16 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

Wasn't that Saints go Wilde! that did that? 

Wilde and the subsequent years were a necessary thing to purge the club ready for Markus’ take-over. Lowe had already basically run the club into the ground through lack of investment as an PLC and poor footballing decisions.

[Saint_clark]

5 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Wilde and the subsequent years were a necessary thing to purge the club ready for Markus’ take-over. Lowe had already basically run the club into the ground through lack of investment as an PLC and poor footballing decisions.

I think you're misremembering. Wilde came in for the Burley playoff season and the season after, massively overspent and then Lowe came back to try and cut costs to a minimum and we ended up with the Poortvliet season where we went down. 

[Saint Fan CaM]

3 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

I think you're misremembering. Wilde came in for the Burley playoff season and the season after, massively overspent and then Lowe came back to try and cut costs to a minimum and we ended up with the Poortvliet season where we went down. 

Not atall. Your description is accurate however through inaction as much as actions, Lowe started the downfall of the club prior to Wilde’s involvement. At the time of Lowes demise I was ‘close’ to certain people involved with the club and had a modest number of shares in the PLC myself which contributed in the voting out of Lowe - I know what went on.

[Dark Munster]

6 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

I think you're misremembering. Wilde came in for the Burley playoff season and the season after, massively overspent and then Lowe came back to try and cut costs to a minimum and we ended up with the Poortvliet season where we went down. 

The first thing Lowe did when he came back was to sack a perfectly good manager in Pearson (appointed by Wilde, so he couldn't have that), and replace him with the "revolutionary new coaching set up" consisting of two non-league level jokers.

He then took us into administration a few days after the cut off date ensuring the 10 point deduction would apply the next season in L1, rather than a few days earlier which have made the points deduction not carry over (we were going down anyway).

Edited Sunday at 20:00 by Dark Munster

[The Kraken]

20 minutes ago, Dark Munster said:

The first thing Lowe did when he came back was to sack a perfectly good manager in Pearson (appointed by Wilde, so he couldn't have that), and replace him with the "revolutionary new coaching set up" consisting of two non-league level jokers.

He then took us into administration a few days after the cut off date ensuring the 10 point deduction would apply the next season in L1, rather than a few days earlier which have made the points deduction not carry over (we were going down anyway).

You’re neglecting his flawed ruse whereby he thought that the points deduction would be null and void as Southampton Leisure Holdings went into administration, and not the football club. He was so confident of it as well.

The geezer was, and still is, a complete cunt.

Edit: I may well be wrong but I thought the this year / next year thing wouldn’t have applied to us anyway. As in, if you get relegated through natural points total, ban is next year. Cant really remember it al that well tbf.

Edited Sunday at 20:23 by The Kraken

[Sparkkyy]

On 31/05/2025 at 09:04, Gloucester Saint said:

IIRC it was Millwall home. Sent them down I seem to recall.

Also David McGoldrick’s league debut. For years I misremembered that game as the last of the season. Fuller rolled the ball into an empty net to make it 2-0 after the Millwall keeper went up for a corner, I think. 

[RedArmy]

On 31/05/2025 at 17:03, Lighthouse said:

More specifically the absolutely batsh*t summer of 2007, which has got to be up there with last summer as one of the most mind-boggling in our history. We lost the parachute payments, money was tight and we had no defence... so lets by a bunch more really expensive midfielders/strikers.

Did we? I don’t remember that happening. 
 

We got Stern John as part of the Kenwyne Jones deal but I don’t remember us paying money for another other “expensive” midfielders or attackers. 
 

 

 

[Saint_clark]

58 minutes ago, Dark Munster said:

The first thing Lowe did when he came back was to sack a perfectly good manager in Pearson (appointed by Wilde, so he couldn't have that), and replace him with the "revolutionary new coaching set up" consisting of two non-league level jokers.

He then took us into administration a few days after the cut off date ensuring the 10 point deduction would apply the next season in L1, rather than a few days earlier which have made the points deduction not carry over (we were going down anyway).

I remember all of that. However I still think it's unfair to blame him for overspending when the majority of that happened in the time in between his two stints. Lowe was consistently criticised for being too tight with money, not overspending. 

Slight correction though, he didn't really sack Pearson - his contract was up and he never renewed it, again allegedly at the time because Pearson wanted too much money. 

[SaintJackoInHurworth]

27 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

I remember all of that. However I still think it's unfair to blame him for overspending when the majority of that happened in the time in between his two stints. Lowe was consistently criticised for being too tight with money, not overspending. 

Slight correction though, he didn't really sack Pearson - his contract was up and he never renewed it, again allegedly at the time because Pearson wanted too much money. 

Lowe initially overspent on the stadium then became incredibly tight with player recruitment. The impact of that was that we were relegated. That in turn left us without the Premier League money and up the creek without a paddle.

He had no clue about how to invest and spend wisely; he had no plan, no heart, no commitment. Just failed dogma. Just like his political views and those of the people with whom he has been associated, arguments and fallouts aside.

Defending Lowe is to defend the indefensible.

[Saint_clark]

2 minutes ago, SaintJackoInHurworth said:

Lowe initially overspent on the stadium then became incredibly tight with player recruitment. The impact of that was that we were relegated. That in turn left us without the Premier League money and up the creek without a paddle.

He had no clue about how to invest and spend wisely; he had no plan, no heart, no commitment. Just failed dogma. Just like his political views and those of the people with whom he has been associated, arguments and fallouts aside.

Defending Lowe is to defend the indefensible.

Jesus Christ, how am I defending him? I marched in protest of him and happily chanted about him being swung from the Itchen bridge. All I'm saying is the overspending in the championship didn't happen while he was in charge - someone else said that Wilde came in after Lowe had overspent and cleared the club out in the lead up to Markus takeover, which I replied saying wasn't correct. 

Fucking hell. 

[Lighthouse]

1 hour ago, RedArmy said:

Did we? I don’t remember that happening. 
 

We got Stern John as part of the Kenwyne Jones deal but I don’t remember us paying money for another other “expensive” midfielders or attackers. 

John was a separate deal to Kenwyne. We also signed Saganowski, Euell, Safri and Hammil that summer.

[Tamesaint]

1 hour ago, Sparkkyy said:

Also David McGoldrick’s league debut. For years I misremembered that game as the last of the season. Fuller rolled the ball into an empty net to make it 2-0 after the Millwall keeper went up for a corner, I think. 

Fuller rolling the ball into the net was against Stoke. Towards the season end but not the end of the season. Bale made his debut in the final match of the season which may well have been against Millwall. At 16 he showed that he was a good player. 

[leesaint88]

12 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

John was a separate deal to Kenwyne. We also signed Saganowski, Euell, Safri and Hammil that summer.

Hammill was a loan signing, at the time I thought he looked pretty good. 

Totally forgot we had Euell, he stuck around for a few years too...at least Safri went at the end of the season. 

[RedArmy]

17 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

John was a separate deal to Kenwyne. We also signed Saganowski, Euell, Safri and Hammil that summer.

I don’t think it was, and his goals kept us up that season so it wasn’t a bad signing at all. 
 

Euell was free. Hammil was on loan and Safri was better than what we had which shows just how shit the rest of our centre midfielders were. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

Rupert Lowe is a nob.

Thats it. Thats completely it. Absolute prat.

[Turkish]

19 hours ago, Dark Munster said:

The first thing Lowe did when he came back was to sack a perfectly good manager in Pearson (appointed by Wilde, so he couldn't have that), and replace him with the "revolutionary new coaching set up" consisting of two non-league level jokers.

He then took us into administration a few days after the cut off date ensuring the 10 point deduction would apply the next season in L1, rather than a few days earlier which have made the points deduction not carry over (we were going down anyway).

what is it about this fucking club that sees us attract people running it who think they can reinvent football?

[Turkish]

On 31/05/2025 at 16:47, hypochondriac said:

Didn't they make shirts of that? 

yes and it was utterly cringeworthy

[Turkish]

19 hours ago, The Kraken said:

You’re neglecting his flawed ruse whereby he thought that the points deduction would be null and void as Southampton Leisure Holdings went into administration, and not the football club. He was so confident of it as well.

The geezer was, and still is, a complete cunt.

Edit: I may well be wrong but I thought the this year / next year thing wouldn’t have applied to us anyway. As in, if you get relegated through natural points total, ban is next year. Cant really remember it al that well tbf.

The then chairman of the Football league screwed us, he said that if we stayed up we'd get the points deduction this season, if we went down then it would apply next season. 

[Turkish]

17 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

John was a separate deal to Kenwyne. We also signed Saganowski, Euell, Safri and Hammil that summer.

Didnt we also signed Wayne Thomas? Burnley wanted 300k, we got him for 1m. i kid you not.

[Turkish]

17 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

I don’t think it was, and his goals kept us up that season so it wasn’t a bad signing at all. 
 

Euell was free. Hammil was on loan and Safri was better than what we had which shows just how shit the rest of our centre midfielders were. 

Euell was on mega money for us though at the time in terms of wages plus he had some big loyalty bonus as part of his deal. He was absolute shit for us. 

John was decent, scored a lot of goals including one in the final game of the season v Sheffield United which we won 3-2 to stay up.

[Lighthouse]

29 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

I don’t think it was, and his goals kept us up that season so it wasn’t a bad signing at all. 
 

Euell was free. Hammil was on loan and Safri was better than what we had which shows just how shit the rest of our centre midfielders were. 

I’m almost certain the John transfer was a separate deal, agreed in conjunction with the Kenwyne transfer, for about £1m. In any case, it was clear that we needed to tighten the belt financially, not indulge in more lavish spending. All of those players were on pretty meaty wages, regardless of their transfer fees and signing on bonuses.

We had Wright, Viafara, Skacel, Dyer, Surman, Licka and Idiakez in midfield, plus Rasiak, BWP and DMG up front. We should have signed one midfielder (probably Safri) and either Saganowski or John.

12 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Didnt we also signed Wayne Thomas? Burnley wanted 300k, we got him for 1m. i kid you not.

We did, it was a ludicrous panic buy far too late in the window.

[RedArmy]

24 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

I’m almost certain the John transfer was a separate deal, agreed in conjunction with the Kenwyne transfer, for about £1m.

So part of the deal then? 😂 

 

25 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

We had Wright, Viafara, Skacel, Dyer, Surman, Licka and Idiakez in midfield,

Yeah like I said, better than what we had in the middle. Some of those are wide players and Licka was in the reserves ffs. 
 

We sold FAR more than we spent that summer. The previous summer was the problem, gambling cash we didn’t have on utter shite that only just managed to get in the top 6 when it was promotion or bust. That’s what did the damage, not the 2007 summer. 

[Lighthouse]

5 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

So part of the deal then? 😂 

No, a separate deal. We could very easily have not signed John.

7 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

We sold FAR more than we spent that summer. The previous summer was the problem, gambling cash we didn’t have on utter shite that only just managed to get in the top 6 when it was promotion or bust. That’s what did the damage, not the 2007 summer. 

In the summer of 2006 we spent money we earned from selling Walcott and some of the income we received from parachute payments trying to get promoted. It would have been fine if we'd made cutbacks the following summer but we didn't. The income dried up and we kept spending, that's why we went into administration.

It was a relatively small amount of debt that put us into administration in 2009. Not signing Euell, loaning Hammill and choosing one of Saganowski or John would easily have kept us solvent.

[Gloucester Saint]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Didnt we also signed Wayne Thomas? Burnley wanted 300k, we got him for 1m. i kid you not.

It was even more than £1m, £1.2 or £1.3m IIRC. My friends in the NW scouting network were shocked, put it that way. 

[Gloucester Saint]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Euell was on mega money for us though at the time in terms of wages plus he had some big loyalty bonus as part of his deal. He was absolute shit for us. 

John was decent, scored a lot of goals including one in the final game of the season v Sheffield United which we won 3-2 to stay up.

I remember someone posting on S4E that they’d been sat near MLT at the Plymouth home game which Saints lost 0-2 and should have been many more. Euell was subbed and the crowd chanted ‘wanker, wanker’ and jeered him.

MLT allegedly turned around to some of those jeering and said ‘that’s a bit harsh. Mind you, he was total crap tonight though’  😂

[SaintsLoyal]

Nobody goign to mention how Lowe and his cronies stopped a new share issue to invest money from wilde and trant ?

 

 

[Sparkkyy]

20 hours ago, Tamesaint said:

Fuller rolling the ball into the net was against Stoke. Towards the season end but not the end of the season. Bale made his debut in the final match of the season which may well have been against Millwall. At 16 he showed that he was a good player. 

I’m not sure you are correct there. Saints beat Millwall 2-0 in the penultimate home game of the season which was Bale’s full debut and McGoldrick’s league debut. Millwall relegated that day and Fuller put the final nail in the coffin when he scored with their keeper nowhere. We did play stoke towards then end of that season but it was away and Raziak scored both in a 1-2 win. I can’t find any of these games on YouTube unfortunately but 11v11 has been very helpful. Does anyone else remember any of this or did it not happen? Match report? 

[Saint_clark]

24 minutes ago, Sparkkyy said:

I’m not sure you are correct there. Saints beat Millwall 2-0 in the penultimate home game of the season which was Bale’s full debut and McGoldrick’s league debut. Millwall relegated that day and Fuller put the final nail in the coffin when he scored with their keeper nowhere. We did play stoke towards then end of that season but it was away and Raziak scored both in a 1-2 win. I can’t find any of these games on YouTube unfortunately but 11v11 has been very helpful. Does anyone else remember any of this or did it not happen? Match report? 

That Fuller goal was definitely Millwall. I remember him basically giving a big "fuck you" to the fans in his celebration as he'd been subject to abuse all season. 

[Sparkkyy]

53 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

That Fuller goal was definitely Millwall. I remember him basically giving a big "fuck you" to the fans in his celebration as he'd been subject to abuse all season. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/4906698.stm

[RedArmy]

50 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

That Fuller goal was definitely Millwall. I remember him basically giving a big "fuck you" to the fans in his celebration as he'd been subject to abuse all season. 

Gave it loads when he came back with stoke the next season too. I’m sure that’s the game he tried to lob the keeper when he was meant to give the ball back. 
 

Cant really blame him though, decent striker who was never accepted here a) because he came from the skates and b) because he was our only ‘money’ signing after being relegated. 

[Colinjb]

1 minute ago, RedArmy said:

Gave it loads when he came back with stoke the next season too. I’m sure that’s the game he tried to lob the keeper when he was meant to give the ball back. 
 

Cant really blame him though, decent striker who was never accepted here a) because he came from the skates and b) because he was our only ‘money’ signing after being relegated. 

He did deserve better. He was good, his form when returning on loan was critical in keeping us our of a relegation fight at the end of that year. 

And as for money signings.... the £90k we paid for him the was daft then, and even more mad now.

[Saint_clark]

1 hour ago, RedArmy said:

Gave it loads when he came back with stoke the next season too. I’m sure that’s the game he tried to lob the keeper when he was meant to give the ball back. 
 

Cant really blame him though, decent striker who was never accepted here a) because he came from the skates and b) because he was our only ‘money’ signing after being relegated. 

Yeah the atmosphere got proper nasty in that game. Drop ball after the game stopped for an injury and he tried to boot it into the empty net while the keeper was down in the fullback position waiting for it to be rolled back. I vaguely remember someone grabbing him by the throat and the referee luckily missing it. 

Edited Monday at 21:29 by Saint_clark