posted Jan 9, 2009

I have mixed feeling regarding Mr Lowe, for sure he has given us a fabulous stadium and facilities.The year we moved into St Marys we went into free fall, he recognised the problem(or was it the fans) and replaced the management. I pesonaly enjoyed what i thought was one of the most sucessfull periods the club had seen. The manager was let GO, or was he pushed? ask Mr Lowe, then i think we may get to the roots of the problem at our club, but i fear it will be too late to avoid the drop into div;1

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posted Jan 12, 2009

" I have mixed feeling regarding Mr Lowe, for sure he has given us a fabulous stadium and facilities. "


Borrowing money you can't pay back is not the work of a competent man and

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posted Jan 12, 2009

.....we will be paying for that borrowing for a long time to come.

The stadium is on a last resort plot with no retail support because of very poor chairmanship by Lowe and is of the cheapest flat-pack design available.

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posted Jan 12, 2009

It is still a UEFA 4 star stadium though one of only a few in England! Also we were looking for A new stadium site for years even when Lawrie was in charge.I believe it could have been near the railway station at on point in the 80's.So without St Marys I don't think we would have found anywhere else, its the old cliche of not in my back yard here in the south!

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posted Jan 12, 2009

Absolutely incorrect, you clearly don't know the history of why we are where we are.

1. The Stoneham site was near the M27 and included proposed retail and leisure outlets and facilities.

2. Those outlets pay rent which covers the ground mortgage payments.

3. Lowe angered the planners to the point they threw the whole proposal out for good.

4. Lowe had already agreed the old ground sale and time was pressing.

5. Lowe was saved from total humiliation when Southampton City Council came up with a plot in a run down industrial area right next to the gas storage units.


We are where we are through his arrogance and incompetence and cannot support our stadium costs without selling everything.

Lowe has never acknowledged the Council saved his bacon and our stadium is nothing special at all.

Still, all the many Uefa games we have staged has been really handy!

Go and see Derby's ground to see what might have been, cinema's, shops, pubs, hotels, restaurants a plenty.

The stadium is nothing to what the right man could have achieved.

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posted Jan 12, 2009

Yes but do we really need more retail,pubs,bars and cinemas in and around Southampton and to do all of this would have cost more.
I expect most of the bars in Southampton are dead during the week, cinemas are A thing of the past as everyone has massive LCD's and DVD and all these little outlets are closing at present all over!
By putting it in a run down industrial part of the city meant there would be very little objection. Anywhere else and people are up in arms look at Brighton!
Nobody really wanted to move to Stoneham in the first place!

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posted Jan 12, 2009

Look pal,

as long as you are happy then that is all that matters but it's like explaining fiscal policy to a child.


"No one wanted Stoneham"....

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posted Jan 14, 2009

rupert has both hands tied behind his back - and he's the one who tied the knot. he sacked pearson because he decided he wasn't worth the money. he then decided on the youth policy and brought in the 2 dutch jokers. it is clear to all that poortvale (or whatever he's called) is utterly inept as a manager, but lowe cannot get rid of him as he always used to (11 managers in 10 years). firstly he cannot afford to, and scondly, doing so would be to say 'my plan has failed, i was wrong', which is something he cannot do.

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posted Jan 14, 2009

lowe also blames the current plight of the club on the board in place when he was away: the board headed by michael wilde - who he has now teamed up with! is he so moronic that when he continually criticizes the 'previous' board, he fails to realize he is condemning the current one?!

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posted Jan 17, 2009

For Southampton and Charlton's plight (stuffed at Hillsborough 4-1 today), read Sheffield Wednesday 2000 onwards.

Relegation form the Prem is an absolute killer -it instills massive debt that is very difficult to escape from. All the overpriced/overpaid and undelivering players left over form the Prem days have to be jettisoned. These are generaly sold off at a loss and then you have to rely on youth and journeymen - the wrong mix to survive in one of the most competetive leagues in the world. Gate receipts drop and the club starts a spiral of debt and poor form.

Before you know it you are in the old 3rd Division and if you don't get out quickly you end up like Leeds - stuck in midtable and unable to attract decent players with a revolving door policy for managers. The result is an unsettled atmosphere which is bad for all concerned.

Wednesday are improving both on and off the pitch but the club hasn't been in the Top Flight for 9 years now and it is only just starting to get to a situation where it can possibly start to challenge for a place in the Prem.

It takes years to sort the debt etc out and turn these big clubs back into a competetive force. Unless an Arabic Fairy Godmother appears, I'm afraid the road ahead is long and dark for the Saints and the Addicts

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