CB Fry

Why is this even new news to anyone? The entire subtext of Lowe going on about the kids and Arry resisting it was blown apart when Arry played a team full of kids in the League Cup (against, remind me, Mansfield?) and they got gubbed. And Arry's post match was basically "I told you they weren't good enough" which sounded odd at the time, but of course revealed pretty clearly what was happening, and why Arry had only spent the £90k that summer. The good (ish) news is we are now reaching endgame on this stupid chairman and his arrogant ideas. In a couple of weeks time we will be stone, rock bottom, and he'll have nowhere left to go, because finally it'll be proved that his dopey notion is not going to work. Let's just hope someone, anyone saves the day before the Ajax of Hampshire find themselves in League One.

Hang on a minute - you're the one who got mortally offended and asked me to name 10 charities more important than the Legion. Glad to see you've come round to my way of thinking. The British Legion, although a fine organisation, is not the be all and end all of charities, which was my bloody point in the first place. But the legion does get pheonomenal annual exposure, more than any other charity I can think of, and more than pretty much any other charity of equal size and equal worth. I'm adult enough to appreciate that fact, whereas you seem to think its an offensive thing to say and come back with snippy remarks about cats (WTF?). Anyway, this is barely about football, let alone Saints, so lets draw a line.

I've never read this thread before. The death of this forum is not much to do with the performances on/off the pitch - in the old days defeats brought the forum into meltdown more than victories did. There is plenty to moan about, and the default position for football forums is moaning. It's the five pound charge, and the three post rule. My experience was I decided to hang back when it was brought in, see how it panned out. Then, I realised the three post rule was brilliant in controlling the amount of time I spent on here. So I stuck with it, with the three posts serving as daily addiction prevention. And now I spend less time arguing about the same old sh it. And so does the vast majority of other users, leaving a tiny hardcore of regular posters creating an incredibly dull forum of the same old, same old. Can't see too many £5s next year, because the current full members are fed up and the potential members really aren't missing anything. Oh well.

What a ridiculous response. Lets hope you or no-one in your family suffers the slow devastation of losing someone from cancer, or heart disease. Let's hope no-one you love dies of lung disease, or kidney failure. Let's hope that all your children and grandchildren are born 100% healthy and go on to live a life free from disability, leukaemia, blindness, deafness, celebral palsy. Lets hope no-one you know disappears from view through alzheimer's, or Parkinson's disease or any other dihabilitating disease. Let's hope no-one you know is killed in a road accident and you're left to pick up the pieces you were never expecting. Let's hope your house or workplace catches fire. But, hey, fu ck all the do-gooders wasting their time working with those organisations that might help people, and give every single spare penny to the British Legion. Silly boy. Well, as expected, more "I care more about the war than you do" **** measurement. Well done. I'll happily bet I know more about the first and second world wars, cause, effect and legacy than you ever will. Seriously, the Poppy Appeal is not marginalised, its bloody everywhere. And so it should be. Some of us are clever enough to be proud, wear our poppies, remember and be thankful. You should try it, because the tripe you're writing suggests all you want is another bloody war. And finally, it has been proved that SFC have, over recent years, done more for the Legion than any other club in the country. And still you moan. Seriously, get over yourself.

Sorry, what is this simple fact? We're in the financial poo, but so are huge numbers of other clubs, many of which are worse off than we are. Some Saints fans need to get over the "simple fact" that we are not unique. I'd like to see you telling, say, a Luton fan how our "truly catastrophic situation" (I mean pur-lease) is so much worse than theirs. I love this forum.

It's worth making the point Pearson didn't actually keep us up though. We stayed up because Leicester couldn't score against Stoke. Relegation was out of our hands on the last day of the season. I wanted Pearson to stay but fuc k me I can't believe the way people talk about him on here as some kind of mangerial messiah. He achieved bare, bare minumum in his time here. Nice bloke, probably be a decent enough Leicester boss, but enough bloody hero worship please.

So what was the minutes silence at every single sodding football ground in the country all about this weekend then? You've got a funny interpretation of being "overlooked" Poppy day and the legion get blanket coverage everywhere for a fortnight every year, year in, year out, in every newspaper, television station across the land. Rightly so, but no other charity on earth gets the same amount of exposure. And there are plenty of charities that have just as much worth as the Legion and get nothing like the exposure they get. And don't bother giving me a "they died for us..." lecture either, I know, and I don't need an overexcited dullard like you telling us like you're the only one who "cares". Get over yourself you wally.

I do hope you're not one of those fans who whined and grizzled like a ***** about how horrid Derby were under billy davies? I take it they never ever shook hands with anyone.

I always wear my poppy with pride etc, but I think we're getting a bit worked up here. Saints players wearing shirts with poppies embroidered into them doesn't in itself raise "lots of money" does it? And for those playing the "Southampton wouldn't be here but for the sacrifices etc etc" card is all a bit silly. Embroidered Poppy shirts didn't really exist until a few years ago. So do we say "shame on you" to the Lawrie Mac Saints team of, say, 1984? They didn't wear poppies embroidered into the shirts either.

I don't think Strachan signed a confidentiality clause. You're thinking of Sturrock. Strachan's book is pretty frank about Lowe. What people like you can't stand is that Strachan and Lowe worked well together for the entire time they were at the club together, and they still get on today. Anyway, who gives a fu ck about this drivel. It's over. We came back from the dead today and the march to a glorious sixteenth place finish is well and truly on.

Whatever. All I know is that day in Cardiff was a delicious day and easily the best day of my football supporting life. Laughed and sung in the pubs all day, cried for abide with me, and stayed in the Millenium until they virtually had to drag us out, drinking it all in. I don't need a no mark like you telling me it was some fluke or an abberration. I don't need you telling me it was all luck of the draw. So are you going to answer - if our current idiot chairman had "nothing to do" with a cup final and a season from a manager he employed then surely he had "nothing to do" with our subsequent relegation from the other managers he employed. Personally I think he takes nearly all the blame for relegation. You obviously think he doesn't. Right? Because sorry my homophobic little friend, the only stupid agenda on display is yours. I absolutely loved that cup run, only a fool with an agenda would disown our second greatest day for the sake of slagging off a posh chairman. That's an agenda. Seriously, grow up.

I know you are well known on this forum for posting infantile drivel, but this is one of the finest of the genre. You've surpassed yourself. What absolute tosh. Your disowning of the FA Cup run purely to make some pi ss weak point against the chairman at the time runs against why anyone supports a football team. FA Cup draw is random, and we had favourable draws to get to the final. No sh it, sherlock. And we did in 1976 too - we played a third tier team in the fuc king semi, and won with an offside goal. So do we disown that one too? You can say the chairman had "nothing to do" with it, but only if you say he had "nothing to do" with relegation either. And, as anyone with half a tiny brain knows he had his hand to play in relegation (in a huge, huge way) then just the same his appointment of Strachan and the great couple of seasons following that are something Lowe had a hand in too. If Gordon Strachan thinks so, who the fu ck are you to say different? I'd like to see you tell Strachan to his face his cup run was one big fuc king fluke. Make my day. I pity this country's education system for turning out dross like you. Get yourself an eduction - read a bit of Kipling If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; Geddit? Unless, of course you are absolving Lowe of all blame of relegation too.....which would be equally thick being that our chairman was clearly to blame for it. Well? Oh, why bother with reasoning of an infant.

What a surprise to see the following line from the big man, for possibly the millionth time: "I was one of three managers, including Bobby Robson and Brian Clough, who had success in the game at clubs where we remained for 12 to 18 years". Yes Lawrie was our most successful manager, and probably always will, but he never was, and never, ever will be in the same class as those two. McMenemy was reasonably successful at one club, once. Robson and Clough were world class managers who repeated their success at more than one club and reached the very pinnacle of their professions. And both of them extended their careers a hell of a lot longer than Lawrie did. But it never stops the big man dropping their names alongside his every single time he gets a chance. Just a small thing, but it really annoys me. Other than that, an interesting article - Him and Bally really did work brilliantly, such a shame it didn't go on longer than it did.

Errr - surely the £2.2m per year is the debt repayments, ie the mortgage. So its not more. It is what it is. A mortgage. And £2.2m, even in our current plight is not gigantic money. You can't say our demise started with building SMS because noone knows what would have happened had we not built it. I doubt, for example, Mr Hoddle would have come here in the first place if we had no stadium on the horizon. No-one can say, but I doubt it. What you can say is if we hadn't have built it and gone down anyway - lets look at all relegations from 1997 and call it 100% likely - everyone would hate Lowe for not building a new stadium and people would still be *****ing about it now. Remember, everyone was building stadiums at the turn of the century. Not joining in was not an option.

I think you need to get your head round who you are actually aiming your rants at, mush. While Pearson was here, his record, at absolute, absolute best was patchy and included some right tonkings. It was under Pearson we slipped from not being in the relegation zone to having relegation out of our hands on the final day. To have a go at fans for not being universally delighted at that at that point is just stupid on your part. And, close season, It didn't stop the fanbase, pretty much as a whole, saying NP deserved his chance this season. And as others have said (I doubt it will ever sink in, though) it doesn't make a blind bit of difference what JP's record is now. Even if JP loses the next twenty games it doesn't make Pearson's record at Saints any better than patchy. Pearson never was some football messiah that saved us from relegation. He delivered on the bare minimum requirement of the job, winning just the minimum number of games required to keep us up. He seemed like a decent bet to stick with for this season and I wish he was still here. But noone here is a hypocrite, and I don't really think you have a clue what you're actually moaning about here.

St Marco, what seems to have "gone over your head" is the "vocal group" you seem to be railing against is about three people winding people up on a message board. This group you are battling against are a fictional as the lizard rulers of the earth that David Icke goes on about. Errr, SOG, why is the entire burden of proof on the people that contest the fairly obvious fact that Pearson wanted to stay? Why don't you have to prove anything to prove your argument that he didn't? You seem quite happy to take the moral high ground about how we should jolly well disregard conjecture, but all you've done is spout lie after lie claiming Pearson didn't want to be here. Pearson wanted to stay - he said it before, during and after. Of course he wanted to stay - this was the best job he ever had, and when he left he had to drop down a division for gawd's sake. Pearson wanted to say, and you're a liar for saying he didn't. Now why not try proving us wrong?

I wouldn't call vastly improved league finishes in the first seven years compared to the previous seven or so before and a cup final "all downhill". I want Lowe out and he takes huge amounts of blame for relegation, but will you children please stop making out it was all doom from day one. None of you have the faintest idea where we would have been if something different happened in 1997, and not having Lowe didn't stop Forest, Sheff Weds, Coventry, Derby, Leicester, QPR, Norwich, Ipswich, Leeds, Man City, Wolves, West Brom, Charlton, Palace and all the rest from being relegated in the same period.

I've been fed up for a while. I didn't want Lowe back, but thought he would probably keep Pearson on because a) he seemed like a Lowe type manager and b) Pearson was popular, so it would be a sensible thing for unpopular Lowe to keep Pearson on. A bloody no-brainer, if you like. As soon as JP was appointed I knew this was all going to end in tears because this was an idiotic and arrogant appointment by Lowe. JP is a nice chap and I have no doubt he is sweating blood for the club. But so would I and I have zero qualifications to manage the club either. Lowe out, and sorry, JP out. Said it plenty of times on here lately, and will continue to do so. Out, out, out.

Wouldn't that be something. The best thing about it would be that would bring down Lowe as well - his position would be completely untenable, especially as bottler Wilde would capitulate pretty quick if the fans mobilised into the Jan-less vacuum. There are plenty of available managers that would be delighted to manager Southampton football club. And we only need one, and one that stops pretending "our boys" are Ajax in disguise and starts getting the team fit, disciplined and organised. We can dream.

LOL at St Marco. What a pathetic thread. The only person who he is waging war on in his opening post is Scooby, who everyone with half a tiny brain knows now and knew then that he was on a wind up. I can't think of any Saints fan I know or any on this forum that expressed anything like the opinions about Pearson that SM is getting all het up about. Guess what, Nigel Pearson is gone, we're stuck with a replacement who many, many, many more people than Scooby had serious, serious doubts about on day one. The fact that we are in the relegation zone is a surprise to pretty much no-one currently breathing air. Great thread though, St Marco, you've really stuck it to those hypocrites. All one of him.

I think you should reread your rather silly, and LOOK AT ME attention seeking first post and compare it to your attempt above to backtrack into "I'm only asking". You're weren't looking to "gauge opinion on options", because you'd already made the assumptions that a) Lowe is focused on the overdraft (says who) b) we're going to sell everyone in January c) we're going down at least one more division. And if you really wanted to read "fan opinion" on all of this, why not read one of the other two thousand threads already running on this subject? That's my three posts used up for the day, thank fu ck.

Err, you've just compounded my point. You're the one who is saying Rupert is focused on losing the overdraft, and you're the one suggesting we should sell anyone and everyone to clear the overdraft immediately, and then you're the one saying what a terrible idea it would be. ie making a load of stuff up about what terrible things are going to happen, and then moan about the terrible things even though they haven't even happened. Maybe we won't worry about overdrafts and continue on the route of reducing costs relatively gradually. Maybe, juuuuust maybe, we won't see every single sellable player in January just like we didn't in the summer despite people saying that we definitely would just like you're doing now. And maybe we won't get relegated, go into administration and all the rest of it. As I say, melodramatic. Plymouth are more skint than us and are doing alright. Ipswich are gazillionaires and are doing poo.

In the current football climate (ignoring the wider economic climate) it is virtually impossible to make a profit from running a football club at this or any level - including the Prem - so we will run at some kind of loss regardless of what happens for the forseeable. And asking questions like "how long before we bottom out and start pushing up the leagues" is far too melodramAtic. We're in the bloody championship, the second tier if you didn't realise. And correct me if I'm wrong but selling all our players to pay off our debts in one go is just a dopey suggestion. That's like suggesting selling both my legs to a crippled millionaire to cover the cost of my entire mortgage by the end of this year. What's the point, I've got twenty years to go on paying it back, so why not just do that? Families (and all Businesses) all over the world have debt. It happens. Seems to me, the people that grizzle about Lowe have found a new tune. The much moaned about "he'll sell everything that moves" fire sale didn't really happen as predicted, so you now have a new tack where you moan at him for not selling everything that moves. And then moan about the repercussions of doing that, even though he hasn't done it, and you're the one suggesting it one sentence before. Lowe might be an idiot this club can well do with out (he is an idiot this club can well do without) but Jesus, you lot are impossible to please.

When did Jose Mourinho go to his local paper and slate all the hotels in the area for not giving him the job he had a divine right to because he supported the local football team and everything?

This is just the usual trolling drivel from SaintRichmond. Completely making stuff up, passing it off as true and then getting all annoyed about it as he did with the first post on this laughably pathetic thread is pretty much his stock-in-trade and comes through on everything he's ever posted. One can criticise Poortvilet for lots of things, and also sympathise for him being over- promoted into a role beyond him, but to slate him for the crime of repetitious excuse making is childish and not even accurate. The one thing I have been impressed with is Jan's post match comments and he has demonstrated something of a gift for the genre having been in equal parts honest, even handed, furious, delighted and frustrated as the games have played out. The lame-ass accusation that "duh he says the same fing everytime" that SR is peddling here is barely accurate and of all the things to have a go at him for is way, way, way down the list. There are plenty of managers that do peddle the same old lines the same old times, but of course they are the managers that SaintRichmond would really want us to have. All in all, just goes to show SaintRichmond really hasn't got a fuc king clue about anything.