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Martin Samuel (Mail) The Saints, The Sinners...


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The Saints, the sinners ... and the Lord above

 

Lord Mawhinney and the board of the Football League began the day at 9.30am yesterday with the subject of Southampton’s administration high on the agenda. Not detailed in the minutes, but certainly of eager interest to the chairman was that other burning question: how do we get away with this one?

By 1.50pm they had the answer. 'The League Board has instructed its legal advisors to commission an independent forensic accountancy report in order to clarify the legal and financial position of Southampton, as a matter of urgency,' read a statement.

 

'The board will reconvene once that report is available.' By which time, you never know, Southampton might be relegated and the immediate problem will have as good as gone away. We have travelled this road before.

 

The difficulty for the Football League is simple. If the directors of Southampton manage to avoid a statutory ten-point deduction by placing the holding company, Southampton Leisure Holdings, not the football club, into administration with debts of £27.5m, a lengthy line of aggrieved chairmen will begin beating a path to Mawhinney’s door.

 

He has, after all, clobbered every similarly stricken club with a savage penalty in recent years, leading to relegation, demotion and ambition cut off at the knee.

 

Mawhinney who, like the new breed of football administrators, comes from a political background, is not quite as sharp as he thinks. Indeed, sifting through the wreckage of this train crash, he is not very sharp at all. Rupert Lowe, Southampton’s former chairman and chief executive, may have made a career of getting relegated and pointing fingers, but even he may have got the upper hand this time.

 

Lowe deduced that Mawhinney’s rulebook contained a loophole so large it could lasso an ox and went about exploiting it. His clever use of a technicality — quite possibly the cleverest thing he has done at Southampton, apart from resigning — is what has sent the Football League into this nervous huddle.

 

Bandying about big words like forensic make the Football League seem decisive, but the fact is if their rulebook had allowed them to proceed against Southampton yesterday they would have done so to save face.

 

This is a stalling measure but, even if Southampton are down by the time the board reconvenes, the problem does not go away. In those circumstances, the penalty should be carried over to next season, when a new set of complainants will demand to know why Southampton are not starting bottom of the league, minus ten points.

 

An extensive list of clubs, including Darlington, Luton Town, Leeds United, Rotherham United and Bournemouth, have been deducted points for financial failure during Mawhinney’s tenure, and already other endangered clubs are threatening to avoid censure the Southampton way.

 

It is a huge embarrassment for the Football League because it is their fault. Lowe cannot be blamed for his act of cunning, no more than a speeding motorist is responsible if he walks free due to incorrect police paperwork. It is up to the authorities, those who make the rules, to ensure their system functions. Yet Mawhinney appears to care more for grandstanding than attention to detail; which is why he is in this mess.

 

The ten-point deductions are draconian and unpopular anyway. In times of recession, when many clubs are struggling despite trying to be prudent, they seem horribly unfair.

 

Still, Mawhinney has sailed imperiously on, despite dissent. If it transpires that he did not marry his rulebook to his soapbox, it will infuriate; but it should not surprise.

 

The Football League does not have regulations governing third party interference or ownership, even after the chaos of the Carlos Tevez affair. It has ‘silent rules’ that allowed Jermain Defoe to sign for Tottenham Hotspur midway through the Carling Cup semi-final with Burnley and then play in the second leg. In other words, it makes it up as it goes along.

 

Mawhinney talks a good game but he is passing through football and lacks the diligence to execute his lofty role in a way that is useful. Without this, decisions and sentences become random. Luton Town were flattened by punishments handed out by the Football League and Football Association, while Southampton may now escape on a detail.

 

This is not justice and it is certainly not good for the game. The problem is a man like

Mawhinney can make changes that knock on through generations. This could happen to Luton Town, now destined for the Blue Square Premier because they fell on hard times and lousy management in an era that coincided with swingeing penalties.

Last month, Karren Brady, chief executive of Birmingham City, revealed that Mawhinney had written to Football League clubs proposing to salary cap all but three players in each squad.

 

‘It would seriously affect our club,’ she said. ‘Mawhinney sets the cap at £6.4m each year which isn’t even a third of our salary bill. It is also about the average wage of a Chelsea first-team player. He wishes us to enter the Premier League armed with peashooters.’

 

This was a serious point lightly made. Mawhinney already had the deterrent to reckless spending in place — the 10-point deduction — so why order further restrictions?

 

A salary cap might not have troubled Birmingham City, who should be free of Mawhinney’s clutches by winning promotion this season, but what of promotion hopefuls next year?

If Mawhinney’s proposal had become Football League law, the teams that were promoted in 2009-10 would have arrived in the Premier League at a major disadvantage with an under-strength squad that would have necessitated a panicky summer spending spree.

 

And what of the relegated clubs newly arrived in the Football League? They could not have been required to demand wage cuts or jettison players on free transfers merely to comply.

 

They would have had to be given at least one year to reorganise, during which time they would have held a sizable advantage over their competitors, already condemned to the ambition-limiting drudgery of Mawhinney’s salary cap system.

 

To nobody’s surprise, Mawhinney abandoned his scheme yesterday due to lack of club support. Mawhinney seeks a high profile but these are not good ideas. They are poorly conceived, poorly executed and reek of attention seeking, rather than sober forward planning.

 

Under Mawhinney, the Football League, for so long in the shadow of the Premier League, has strived to reinvent itself as the home of real football. ‘The podcast for those who think pre-season in the Far East is a friendly with Norwich City,’ said one teaser on its website.

 

All good nose-tweaking fun: but with this re-branding has come an increasingly pompous desire to be regarded as the soul of the game and guardians of morality.

Talk of forensic investigation is meaningless when combined with nonsense such as silent rules. No doubt it sounded impressive in the draft statement, though, and for Lord Mawhinney and the Football League, that is often enough.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1168373/MARTIN-SAMUEL-The-Saints-sinners---Lord-above.html?ITO=1490

Edited by .comsaint
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Don't like the guy, but I think he's absolutely spot on.

If we get deducted ten points it will not be because we have broken rules, it will be to placate the masses. Which is of course, completely wrong.

 

The Football League would have to find that we had broken the rules if they were to impose a 10 point deduction. Even they couldn't say, "You haven't broken any League rules but we still intend to impose a points deduction". Either way, the administrator would have the opportunity to challenge that decision through various means such as the High Court, Judicial Review or the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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I know someone at the CAS - Iain Blackshaw, if it went that far, i reckon he'd take pity on us, spoke to him the other day and told him i thought admin was due v soon, he told me about the loophole and that because sfc is a plc, we'd be fine.

 

The CAS do things by the book.

 

http://www.tas-cas.org

 

Chris

 

Please don't say that SFC is a PLC. That's our cover blown!;)

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basically what i was saying yesterday....

 

if the football league thought they had a strong enough case they would have acted today,they havnt got a case so they are dragging it out to make it look like they are investigating.

there is no case to answer,we wont be getting the 10 point deduction the football league are too lightweight to enforce anything against us.....they know it and so do the club.

 

going back to the original post,we do deserve the points as we have conned the league with a loophole,but this sort of sh1te goes on all the time in the legal world,criminals walk free all on a daily basis because of a loophole or technicality....... so **** the rest of the league,they are just p1ssed off cos they never thought of it.

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A very good article and spot on IMO.

 

I especially likes these bits:

 

Rupert Lowe, Southampton?s former chairman and chief executive, may have made a career of getting relegated and pointing fingers.....

 

Lowe deduced that Mawhinney?s rulebook contained a loophole so large it could lasso an ox and went about exploiting it. His clever use of a technicality ? quite possibly the cleverest thing he has done at Southampton, apart from resigning....

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An interesting summary by Samuel and goes to demonstrate that the likely outcome is far from concluded. I have to agree that they are stalling for time in the hope that we'll go down and then they'll be able to close the loop hole for future, similar scenario's.

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basically what i was saying yesterday....

 

if the football league thought they had a strong enough case they would have acted today,they havnt got a case so they are dragging it out to make it look like they are investigating.

there is no case to answer,we wont be getting the 10 point deduction the football league are too lightweight to enforce anything against us.....they know it and so do the club.

 

going back to the original post,we do deserve the points as we have conned the league with a loophole,but this sort of sh1te goes on all the time in the legal world,criminals walk free all on a daily basis because of a loophole or technicality....... so **** the rest of the league,they are just p1ssed off cos they never thought of it.

 

Well said! (Clapping smiley thingy.)

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Lowe was also astute enough to have relegation clauses insereted into most contracts so perhaps he is no mug afterall if we get away with this?

As for him making a career or being relegated, that would be once then.

There are plenty of other Chairman who have seen their club get relegated more times and who have not made a Cup Final in their reign, but hey, why spoil a good rant eh?

Lowe may be many things, but he is not stupid. He was not here when the cash that could have saved us from Administration was blown and did some great financial deals for this club when players moved on. Her certainly was not the best, but there are many far worse out there.

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A very good article and spot on IMO.

 

I especially likes these bits:

 

Rupert Lowe, Southampton?s former chairman and chief executive, may have made a career of getting relegated and pointing fingers.....

 

Lowe deduced that Mawhinney?s rulebook contained a loophole so large it could lasso an ox and went about exploiting it. His clever use of a technicality ? quite possibly the cleverest thing he has done at Southampton, apart from resigning....

 

My estimation on Samuel has just gone up, brilliant article :-)

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basically what i was saying yesterday....

 

if the football league thought they had a strong enough case they would have acted today,they havnt got a case so they are dragging it out to make it look like they are investigating.

there is no case to answer,we wont be getting the 10 point deduction the football league are too lightweight to enforce anything against us.....they know it and so do the club.

 

going back to the original post,we do deserve the points as we have conned the league with a loophole,but this sort of sh1te goes on all the time in the legal world,criminals walk free all on a daily basis because of a loophole or technicality....... so **** the rest of the league,they are just p1ssed off cos they never thought of it.

 

Fair points.

 

Additionally, although I don't have any real evidence, I always got the impression that Lowe always played things by the book (which is praise BTW), e.g approaching clubs re their managers & players in the correct manner and when negotiating with players and agents, whereas I reckon many othe clubs weren't as honest.

 

So if we get by because their rules are loose, then I won't lose any sleep over it, and I certainly won't be worrying what other fans think of us.

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and where are all Samuels articles regarding his beloved WHU docking of points and relegation for playing Tevez?????

If fans think that by finding a loophole that may save us just because Lowe did it amaze me.Lowe got it right in his interview on Sky, whatever he does is criticised.

If the loophole does save us from a deduction then the PLC did have its positives.

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If the loophole does save us from a deduction then the PLC did have its positives.

 

...and of course the PLC came in to being many years before the points deduction system was introduced so any benefit that comes is purely by chance and not intentional?

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Lowe may be many things, but he is not stupid.

 

Of course he was stupid! He always knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. He often abused the paying customers of the business. He knew his way around the City, but not around a football pitch. His policy was never mind the quality, feel the width. Either his man-management skills were extremely poor, or he was the unluckiest Chairman in football to have gone through so many managers in so short a time. He was prepared to embark on bizarre experiments when nearly everybody predicted their failure.

 

What do you deduce from all that, Sherlock? :rolleyes:

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...and of course the PLC came in to being many years before the points deduction system was introduced so any benefit that comes is purely by chance and not intentional?

 

A very good point. When some clubs became PLCs, the FL's legal eagles should have spotted this eventuality and acted accordingly. They have been negligent, so why should we be victims of their inneficiency?

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Of course he was stupid! He always knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. He often abused the paying customers of the business. He knew his way around the City, but not around a football pitch. His policy was never mind the quality, feel the width. Either his man-management skills were extremely poor, or he was the unluckiest Chairman in football to have gone through so many managers in so short a time. He was prepared to embark on bizarre experiments when nearly everybody predicted their failure.

 

What do you deduce from all that, Sherlock? :rolleyes:

 

There are clubs that have been through more managers. The average in the CCC is one per season now isn't it? How many people running football clubs know their way around a pitch? Nowdays you need to know your way around the City and we hae found to our cost in the last week. Football has been about finance for some time now. No one is immune to that, especially in an economic climate such as this.

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Lowe deduced that Mawhinney’s rulebook contained a loophole so large it could lasso an ox and went about exploiting it. His clever use of a technicality — quite possibly the cleverest thing he has done at Southampton, apart from resigning — is what has sent the Football League into this nervous huddle.

 

Have to laugh at that bit.

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There are clubs that have been through more managers. The average in the CCC is one per season now isn't it? How many people running football clubs know their way around a pitch? Nowdays you need to know your way around the City and we hae found to our cost in the last week. Football has been about finance for some time now. No one is immune to that, especially in an economic climate such as this.

 

The way that you defend the old tyrant is almost heartwarming. Especially as he takes no blame upon his shoulders and has not one ounce of humility in his body, as witnessed his nauseating attempts to whitewash his record of failure here and paint it as some golden era in our history.

 

I notice that you don't dispute my assertions that he knew the price of everything and the value of nothing, that his policy was never mind the quality feel the width, that his public relations record with the club's customers was atrocious, etc.

 

Regarding your other responses, football has ALWAYS been about finance. The economic climate affects all clubs equally in terms of attendances through the turnstiles. No part of the UK is immune. Sensible clubs make offers and incentives to increase turnout, something which this club had not done to any real extent. Those club owners who do not know their way around a football pitch are mostly astute enough to surround themselves with advisors who do know their way around.

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Just reread that article. Its actually very clever in that the blame for us avoiding a point deduction will fall on the out going Mr Lowe (a channel for all other chairman's anger) and on the FA and Mahwinney (a man who, largely due to his harsh treatment of Luton, many in the footballing community believe may shortly need to fall on his sword).

 

Clever, very clever.

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Of course it has always been about finance, but not to the exent it has become. There is no way now that a club like SFC could sign the European Footballer of the Year or finsih 2nd in the Prem. Once upon a time you could get relegated and keep most of your squad, not now.

As for tyrants, that word should be kept for the likes of Hilter, Stalin and Amin not some bloke who ran a football club.

Give that Lowe has been blamed for every ill to befall this club, can you really blame him for fighting his corner? Wouldn't you? Yes he is to blame for a % but not for all. So he hasn't help his hands up, have Wilde or Crouch?

As for your last sentence, do you know that for a fact?

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Radio station anyone?

How about an insurance company?

Demanding the final say on signings with Strachan and Souness?

Wasting money on Clifford and Woodward?

:smt082

 

Funny that, elsewhere he was slagged off for not bringing in other revenue streams???

How many CEOs do not have a say in signings? (ps we got Neimi and not Strachan's first choice keeper)

How many other clubs have not "wasted" money on people who haven't worked out for whatever reason?

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Lowe was also astute enough to have relegation clauses insereted into most contracts so perhaps he is no mug afterall if we get away with this?

As for him making a career or being relegated, that would be once then.

There are plenty of other Chairman who have seen their club get relegated more times and who have not made a Cup Final in their reign, but hey, why spoil a good rant eh?

Lowe may be many things, but he is not stupid. He was not here when the cash that could have saved us from Administration was blown and did some great financial deals for this club when players moved on. Her certainly was not the best, but there are many far worse out there.

 

 

Don t be a **** he squandered millions

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This is the nail-on-head comment for me from Samuel's piece:

The ten-point deductions are draconian and unpopular anyway. In times of recession, when many clubs are struggling despite trying to be prudent, they seem horribly unfair.

 

The Football League came up with the flawed points penalty system at a time where money was no object and it was felt necessary to somehow cap 'caution-to-the-wind' expenditure on players' fees and wages.

 

As someone pointed out on another thread yesterday, our financial downfall has come about not because of extravagant player acquisitions but through an "investment" in bricks and mortar (SMS) that has inadvertantly gone pear shaped due to our relegation and the credit crunch is varying measures.

 

In other words, the League's rules penalise clubs in 'genuine' financial difficulty and not just the clubs that the rule was introduced for in the first place. It's a sad reflection of the law making in this country which is always designed to deal with the lowest common demoninator but ends up affecting everyone due to the lazy, wide brush strokes used by law makers.

 

The law is an ass.

Edited by trousers
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Bl**dy Hell!

A good article in the Daily Mail!

Whatever next - an honest man on the board?

 

LOL. It's a superb article and mirrors my own feelings exactly - for a change!

 

The Football League is simply a collection of bankrupt businesses - broken on the inability of the organisers to fund and run the league at a level which is sustainable for its members.

 

We need some collective bargaining agreements, tighter controls over how the league is marketed and viewed, wage caps maybe (certainly minimum values for players sold to Premiership clubs) a larger and fairer share of revenue from the game - demands made of the FA for cup competitions, for release of players for internationals.

 

Where is the League's pot of money to help ailing clubs?

 

Instead it sits there sanctimonious, blows thousands of worthwhile cash on nonsense and calls time on clubs who are hamstrung by relegation from the Premiership which sees 70% of a businesses revenue withdrawn in one foul swoop (and thinks that the parachute payment is sufficient to exonerate itself from any further responsibility).

 

The rules regarding club ownership are a nonsense (fit and proper my ass), and the people who pay for everything (including the failure of good and bad management) are the FANS. US - every fecking time.

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Lowe deduced that Mawhinney’s rulebook contained a loophole so large it could lasso an ox and went about exploiting it. His clever use of a technicality — quite possibly the cleverest thing he has done at Southampton, apart from resigning — is what has sent the Football League into this nervous huddle.

 

I'm not so sure that this was really down to Lowe's 'cleverness'. (Something vaguely oxymoronic about that). The PLC structure, and SLH, were surely intended to be part of Lowe's empire - a leisure behemoth with a nice football club attached. At the time of the reverse takeover, I seriously doubt that he thought: 'Oh, this'll be a clever wheeze when it all goes tits up.' By the time the bank pulled the plug - and long before - there was nothing left of that ambition except the club itself...or what was left of it. It must have been blindingly obvious to put SLH into administration.

 

Hardly rocket science, is it? And the idea that it fooled someone as pedestrian a political hack as Mawhinney shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

 

Hi, by the way!

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Of course it has always been about finance, but not to the exent it has become. There is no way now that a club like SFC could sign the European Footballer of the Year or finsih 2nd in the Prem. Once upon a time you could get relegated and keep most of your squad, not now.

As for tyrants, that word should be kept for the likes of Hilter, Stalin and Amin not some bloke who ran a football club.

Give that Lowe has been blamed for every ill to befall this club, can you really blame him for fighting his corner? Wouldn't you? Yes he is to blame for a % but not for all. So he hasn't help his hands up, have Wilde or Crouch?

As for your last sentence, do you know that for a fact?

 

In my opinion Lowe is to blame for getting us relagated and also for the sheer amount of very bad decisions the man made (a ludicrous amount considering he is supposed to be a sucessful business man) He attempted to limit expense in the years coming to our end by gambling on cheap, inexperienced managers who after all the sackings and relegation cost us more than if he had appointed an experienced manager and stuck with him.

 

He failed to show some ambition after the cup final (not saying we should have broke the bank but you need to speculate...etc etc)

 

I agree i believe that legally he is very astute (as we have seen by his countless non-disclosures and sueing journalists) and yes if he manages to pull off the points avoidal then i for one will be pleased, but thats it, IMO getting rid of the PLC and avoiding a points deduction will be the least he could do for what he has put us all through in the last 10 years.

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As for tyrants, that word should be kept for the likes of Hilter, Stalin and Amin not some bloke who ran a football club.

 

I think that the Wikepedia dictionary defines it quite well:-

 

In modern usage, a tyrant carries modern connotations of a harsh and cruel ruler who places his or her own interests or the interests of a small oligarchy over the best interests of the general population which the tyrant governs or controls. However, in the classical sense, the word simply means one who has taken power by their own means as opposed to hereditary or constitutional power (and generally without the modern connotations). This mode of rule is referred to as tyranny. Many individual rulers or government officials are accused of tyranny, with the label almost always a matter of controversy.

 

The word derives from Latin tyrannus meaning "illegitimate ruler", and from a non-IndoEuropean loan word in Greek, τύραννος tyrannos, meaning "sovereign, master", although the latter was not pejorative and applicable to both good and bad leaders alike.

 

One can make various connections regarding the reverse takeover, his titchy 6% shareholding propped up with the support of those like Askham, Richards,etc, his unwillingness to relinquish control even if the wider interests of the club were involved. Also, I can never ever remember any actual tyrant like those you mention admitting that they had ever been wrong, or apologising for any of their actions, a trait that our ex-Chairman also shares with them. As the article concludes, the label is almost always a matter of controversy. But if in the modern idiom it is allowable as a label for Governemtn officials, I don't see why it should not apply here; in my opinion, of course.

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A very good article and spot on IMO.

 

I especially likes these bits:

 

Rupert Lowe, Southampton?s former chairman and chief executive, may have made a career of getting relegated and pointing fingers.....

 

Lowe deduced that Mawhinney?s rulebook contained a loophole so large it could lasso an ox and went about exploiting it. His clever use of a technicality ? quite possibly the cleverest thing he has done at Southampton, apart from resigning....

 

 

I liked those bits too. haha. Say it as it is son! Next thing, you'll get Lord Nineteen welly boot bleating on, smearing the hack's name, berating the fans staying away from the utter tripe football...all because Rupert's faultless! ;)

Edited by Gordon Mockles
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Funny that, elsewhere he was slagged off for not bringing in other revenue streams???

How many CEOs do not have a say in signings? (ps we got Neimi and not Strachan's first choice keeper)

How many other clubs have not "wasted" money on people who haven't worked out for whatever reason?[/QUOTE]

 

I guess it's partly a matter of how many mistakes you make !

Try Poortvliet, Gasmi, Pulis, Smith, Robertson, Pekhart, Forecast for example and that's just in the last few months FFS !!!!!

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Great article by Martin Samuel.

 

If Lowe's parting salvo is to save us a ten point penalty through a cleverly exploited loophole, then fair play to him. Doesn't mean I'm going to forgive him for his previous sins, however.

 

When Lowe took over from Crouch last year, I wasn't as opposed as some. It seemed to me that a severe auterity package was what was needed to save the club. Even if this involved us having a team of such poor quality that we got relegated to League One. But to execute a half-arsed austerity package in such a ham-fisted fashion and end up with SLH in administration anyway is just unforgiveable.

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Radio station anyone?

How about an insurance company?

Demanding the final say on signings with Strachan and Souness?

Wasting money on Clifford and Woodward?

:smt082

You are wrong about the Radio station. That made much invisible earnings that cant be quantified. Having the clubs propaganda/news/PR being broadcast over the south of England was superb.

If Pompey were the first to do it and we had Southampton violated by their radio waves we'd be up in arms. We could well afford it at the time and it was a long term investment.

Nothing wrong with showing confidence in our future.Another medium to sell match tickets merchandise and feel part of a successful club , all part of the package.

I would like you to stand up to WGS's and Souness's face and tell them that they let RL dictate and i will call the ambulance. I doubt they would like their integrity or standing questioned

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