Topcat

"Statement from Nicola Cortese essential now....." You seem to expect a professional approach from the Leader of the Company. Looking back at how Cortese has ruined relations with news papers and ST holders wanting to pay by installments I think there is little hope of Cortese even understanding what the right thing a Leader should do is.

Cortese has made enough mistakes in his decisions and their communication that we should not be surprised to see a similar mess around the AP+ coaches sackings. He is an inexperienced business manager floundering around. His background as a banker was not what you need in a business manager. Let alone the Leader of a Company. I would not have hired him to run a dept at SMS let alone be the CEO/Chairman.

"the decision was taken by the club it had nothing to do with the players" This is the team captain going on the record denying that there was any major player revolt. I give this a lot more credence than the rumours which indicated that was the main reason for dismissal. It also is in line with the players reaction in the Swindon game where they were clearly not overjoyed to see the back of Pardew.

No, but that should be grounds for instant dismissal. But not for the dismissal of 2 other coaches.

I think that what Deppo refers to is this allegation. So when was this training ground incident? They played on Saturday and by 8am on Monday morning AP was fired. Training on Sunday? Unlikely after a 4-0 away win. Therefore the training ground incident had to be before the Bristol game. So we are asked to believe that the team was so traumatized that it then went out a day or 2 later and won 4-0 away? It makes no sense. The usual time for immediate dismissal for an act of gross indiscipline (fighting) is right at the time it happened. You do not wait X days before suspending or firing the person and you do not fire their other staff unless they were also throwing punches. If AP was fired for this reason he would also not be subject to an NDA as he would receive no compensation for bringing about his own dismissal.

Deppo, why are you talking in riddles rather than being nice to all readers and just re-state something you or some other poster has stated elsewhere? The sticky you refer to has 1,000+ posts! Or just provide a link to the precise post which explains everything?

According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southampton_F.C.#Non-playing_staff Executive Directors Nicola Cortese (Executive Chairman), David Jones (Company Secretary) According to the Saints website, Les Reed also has the title of Executive Director.

An able Businessman would not have sacked his team Manager at this time. He would have sacked him at the end of last season to give the new man time to be selected and build the squad ahead of this season. An able Businessman would also communicate better with customers and not alienate them in the ways that Cortese has done. Cortese is not an able Businessman, he has a background in banking which is about investing in businesses run by able Businessmen. Cortese picked the right business to invest Marcus's money in but made the mistake of thinking that made him the right person to run it.

But if that is the reason for his firing, why fire 2 of his coaches as well?

Torres the term "Executive Director" is a convention that usually means that individual is one of the Executive Directors on the Board.

Saint Fan CaM, it all has echos to Lowe's empire diverting vital cash from the 1st year in the Championship. Anyone noticed the vast leap in first team talent since Reed was appointed in April?

Reed is actually an Executive Director which usually indicates that he is on the main Board. More powerful than a DoF. http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/Management/0,,10280~1640469,00.html FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT & SUPPORT CENTRE Executive Director Les Reed Administration Manager/PA Lucy Green Elite Under 21 Coach Martin Hunter Under 18 Youth Coach Jason Dodd Development Goalkeeping Coach Vince Bartram Scouting & Talent Identification Scouting & Talent ID Manager David Burke Scouting Administrator Vicki Cobb Senior Squad Scout Bill Green Youth Recruitment Scout Rod Ruddick Academy Recruitment Scout Chris Welman Analyst Stephen Corns Analyst Andrew Stone

No one player has that much power. Or should have. Lambert is the most important player for us last season and has often praised Pardew for taking his career to a higher level. As to the team, if they are as you say "in general behind the sacking", why last night did so many of them play so badly? If Guly, then there is the Reed connection through the scouts and transfer panel.

So what is it to do with? New players signed through the transfer panel that Reed sits on and by scouts that report to Reed? Do tell Mr Deppo.

That is why I have pointed the finger at Reed. The Club leads the Echo into printing that it is about "morale at the training ground". The Club know that it cannot spin the argument about team performance after 3 games. Who works out of there apart from players? Answer Reed and his team. Also why did AP's 2 coaches also go? The answer points to things at the training ground at which Reed has overall control.

What Source? The Echo website. "However, the Daily Echo spoke to sources close to Cortese and the executive committee yesterday, who claimed Pardew had been sacked because of concern over morale at the club’s Staplewood training ground. " "Finally, it was also suggested last night that the timing of the sacking, after a 4-0 away victory, at Bristol Rovers, was intentional, with the club wanting to show it was not a decision based on results" http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/8361492.Le_Tiss_hits_out_at__bizarre__claims/

Thanks Benji, that adds further weight to the proposition that it was all about a power struggle. A struggle that Lowe often created. But with the transfer period almost closed, this side of January they should have just given AP his chance with the players he had selected for the squad.

The Echo has been advised by the Club that the decision to sack AP was not driven by performance reasons. The two main rumours are:- 1. That there is a fall out over Guly and other players scouted by people reporting to Les Reed. 2. That there was friction between some of the training staff and AP (and his coaches). These training staff are the ones who report to Reed. Not only AP left but also his coaches. Has Cortese simply decided to back Reed over AP? Reed often sits with Cortese and they seem to get on well. It would explain the awful timing of the decision with team performance being well down the list of priorities.

From the Echo So now we have Managerial changes made which are not based on results.... That is the road to failure. Advisor on this? Step forward Les "the Managerial failure" Reed.

A person with no experience in managing a Club.

The right time to replace the Manager was a minimum of 6 weeks before the season started to give the new Manager time to put together their own team. After that the next best time is after 10 to 15 games have given the old Manager a chance to prove themselves. This decision meets neither of those criteria and that is why it is wrong. The new Manager has no opportunity to buy/shift players this side of january. All they can do is get in a few loans and guess at the attributes of the current players. Cortese did not clearly communicate to Pardew last season that the League was to take priority over all cup games. Consequently we wasted effort on the cups and failed to get into the playoffs. Pardew also failed to understand that the day at Wembley was a diversion that contributed to him losing his job today.

He has a captain who seems incapable of dominating the midfield and driving his fellow players on. He has 2 strikers who have forgotten where the goal is and had multiple shots/headers off target. He plays 2 short ar**s as strikers and bases most attacks on crosses..... Apart from that no problem...

a result that led to Bryan Gunn being sacked as manager a week later. ....

These provided 50 of our goals last season. A massive gap to fill. Anyone have the stats on the game? I reckon we had 12 shots of which only 2 were on target. It is the lack of shots on target that is the problem.

You are right. We are going into this season probably in better shape than at least the previous 5. In many seasons we were short of centre backs at this stage and often were down to 2 fit centre backs which then led to a severely weakened defence (when one got injured) and the inevitable poor starts to the season. Sometimes this happened even when we had the money and we had Manager's like Burley that also disliked specialist full backs and preferred lots of midfielders...