RobM

If JP goes, Lowe will replace him with another manager who sticks with the total football theory. Everything Lowe has put into place since coming back is to allow this to happen. If it's not JP in charge, it will be a JP clone. So if you want JP to go, which is fair enough, make sure it's JP you want to go and not total football, as that's here to stay.

Slightly politer than I would have put it.

I bet if we do go into Administration, it will be Lowe, Wilde or their contacts who buy us. We will then be royally ****ed, as if we're not a listed company the buyer has nobody to report to other than himself. Imagine Lowe being in charge and reporting to himself or one of his buddies. No legal duty to protect the company, no duty to report to the shareholders, no duty to offer any insight into what's going on at all and no way at all of calling something like an EGM if it all goes wrong. I'd say that if somebody was out there with the cash to not only buy the club but clear debts and invest in the future and improve things now, there would have been a more serious offer on the table already.

An even smaller forum with an even smaller user base?

Jobs for the boys!

Lowe fits into my list of all things good just under drowning, so I don't hold him in as high regard as you may think. However, when Wilde brought in his merry men we were all really pleased that somebody with football experience (well, as close to that as Fulham get) would be running the show. That didn't work out so well. I guess my point is we have to be 110% certain that anybody taking Lowe's position would be better for the job and not leave us vulnerable in some areas. If you find that man, then you'll never buy another pint at half time again, they will truly be on me forever more!

I drive past his company buildings every day? Try going direct. From what I've heard and read of Crouch he is a fairly approachable feller and I'm sure he'd welcome the chance to talk anti-Lowe things to fans. Even sounding him out on whether he has any intention or interest in stepping back into St.Marys power again.

Crouchy, Crouchy, Crouchy... where are yoooou?

You could well be right, but is somebody like Crouch willing to take on this challenge? If so, I'd back him every step of the way, and I'm by fan a big fan of Crouch. Another sad element to this, is I don't believe the shareholders Lowe is representing are strong enough to turn their back on him. It would have to be in their best interests for them to do so, which ultimately means lining their pockets somehow. Another possible hope is that Judas Wilde will make yet another U-Turn and back somebody else with a prettier smile and more gentle touch than Lowe.

Any business can improve, regardless of their success or otherwise. But I'm looking at the bigger, realistic picture. It's not the case that the Chairmans position is empty and needs to be filled by whoever is deemed the best candidate. The situation we're in, as my last post mentions, is anybody wanting to buy into the club or have a go at the Chairmans role has to put together a case that gives Lowe no option than to admit it's in the best interest of the company.

If Crouch could buy out the other chap with a high perfect of shares and also increase the number of shares he holds, he may stand a chance of making enough noise to rattle Lowes cage. But having been through this before, I feel Lowe is even more determined to hold onto his position than ever before. It really is going to take a lot of money and a solid business case for Lowe to stand down. Lowe is responsible to the shareholders and has a legal responsibility to act in the best interest of the business, so if somebody offers to buy the club at at least market rate and can guarantee to clear debt and offer investment then Lowe will have a legal duty to accept, as it would clearly be in the companies best interests. But I bet you my last Rolo that he will find every possible excuse not to.

Any examples? And even if you're right, Lowe will not step down. He has such a huge control over shares that nobody can vote him out. And he isn't going to step down from him role, nobody would just quit their job as they think somebody else may be better. I certainly wouldn't quite my job just like that. So let's say you find somebody with more years experience of running a football club with CCC and Premiership experience who is out of work, willing to take over control of a debt ridden club who are forced to sell their best players with no way of buying new ones, you'd still have no hope of getting them into the top job. And in any case, the problem isn't who is in the Chairman's position. It's a lack of money. Even if you found Mr.Perfect Chairman, if he doesn't come with millions of pounds to invest our situation wont improve.

The vast majority of the shareholders are either Lowe, Wilde or held by people who will do whatever Lowe tells them. That's how he managed to get back in power. Lowe himself only controls a small number of shares, but with his glove puppet Wilde holding a large percentage on top of Lowes 'people', he actually controls well over 50%. The only people who have a large enough stake to make some noise our Crouch and the Indian chap who's name I forget. But Crouch has had control but had to admit defeat against Lowes control and the other chap seems happy to just sit and watch. The idea of protests outside the gate has been done before, heck, we even had a plane fly-by with a Lowe Out banner. And what response did we get? Lowe claimed it was a minority and labelled them the Lunatic Fringe. Another sad but true fact is this forum only counts for a small percent of fans. And of that small percent, less than two thirds would actually join in such a protest. Even if you got every active member of this forum involved, you'd still only have a relatively small number of fans behind you. Vocal fans indeed, but small enough for Lowe to dismiss. The rest of the fans either don't give a monkey about what goes on in the boardroom, are only interested in the football or don't have their own opinion (the sort who will join in with whatever chant is going at that moment). Please don't take this personally or as an attack against your ideas, it's no more than my opinion. I'm all for something happening, it just has to be the right something as otherwise it will get dismissed, as happened before.

I applaud your enthusiasm and you're hearts in the right place... but if it were that easy it would have been done already. Sadly, there isn't an easy or even believable way of finding millions of pounds to invest, because... - If one single investor puts their money in, they would want control of the club or at least Lowes seat. Lowe wont allow that. - If a group invests, Lowe will insist they clear all debts, take 100% control of the club and will also ensure his pockets are lined. Just like he did with the SISU bid which fell apart. - If a small group of private investors can invest, they too will want their people installed and in control, which Lowe wont allow. Lowe will step aside if the 'right' bid comes in. But his view of the right bid seems to be a total purchase, all debt cleared and a decent amount of investment in the club made all up front with clear evidence that this is possible with no lending. Finding somebody with that level of funds is going to be impossible in the current climate. And with the threat of Administration looming, why would somebody put their millions into the club when there is every chance of them being able to purchase the club from Administrators in the not too distant future for a much lower price? I'm not saying Administration is guaranteed, but from an investors point of view, waiting and seeing would be the sensible choice in todays climate. So unless there is another way of raising millions of pounds, I can't see anything changing. Even if we had a whipround, the entire stadium would have to put a three-figure sum in and with peoples money being stretched further than ever before, that's unlikely. It would also gain a lot of attention, going against your wish of not causing disruption or unrest. So as much as I applaud you for caring, it looks impossible to achieve

I can't see it being true, however big Lowes ego is. But if it is true, even if he is in that dressing room, he needs to be shot. If Lowe is giving team talks then JP and the players can't be blamed for the performances when there is utter confusion and contradiction above them. I don't think it's likely though, there would be outrage if this were true. It never takes long before stories like this are made public by the players as has happened before. Players talk, they always have done and always will do so if this were true, the story would be everywhere.

I'd bloody well hope he did!

I believe you It's all good though, forums like this are meant for debating opinions! You could indeed use that argument against JP, but as I mentioned in a previous post I think effort and and a total lack of interest was the problem today. I don't think that's JP's fault. If he got the personnel wrong or the tactics wrong it would definitely be his fault, but if the players go out and don't put in the effort required they should be held responsible. Just listening to JP on the radio, he admitted shouting at them at half time and sounded really angry and let down.

I agree entirely, absolutely no doubt at all! There is another thread about it not being JP's fault but Lowes and my thoughts on this sort of thing are in there. I agree 100% that we should not rely totally on teenagers and inexperience. My thoughts on who's fault this is and why are in the other thread But the end result is I do not believe they are up to it, the confidence I had at the start of the season is gone.

The way he talks in interviews, body language and the fact he gives up his own time to sit in various pubs around the city and talk honestly with the fans are all good signs. Did you think Redknapp had a passion for Southampton? You can tell fairly easily if people truly care and to me, it was clear Redknapp didn't and it's clear JP does.

And we could afford them before Wilde came in.

Perhaps it's an attitude problem then? Perhaps the players sit up, take notice and buck their ideas and effort up once things start going wrong. As said, I don't believe JP tells them to go out and put less than 100% effort in at the start of the game and I don't believe he does much different at half time. Whether his words are taken to the pitch is another matter though.

Looking at it from a different point of view though, if Wilde had not authorised our over spending, we would not have had to slice huge chunks off our wage bill. This means we may have been able to keep the likes of Stern John and Sagga which, IMO, would have fixed one of our biggest problems - a lack of cutting edge in the final third. We are in a bucket load of debt and the two biggest causes of this the stadium and our over-spending. We've had the stadium for years now in the Prem and CCC and it's never caused a problem, even when Lowe was in charge first time around. But the problems started with our huge over-spending, authorised by Wilde. This led to farming out our strikers to save money, which in turn has led to a huge lack of goals being scored and in turn has led to poor results, lower gates and less income. When Lowe was around first time, we managed to sell out St.Marys at times and even in the CCC we got regular 20k+ attendances. So I don't believe Lowe is to blame for our gates, it's an extremely good excuse for those who can't go though for various reasons. It's the performances that dictate the gates and I believe performances would have been better if we had been able to keep paying our strikers. Due to Wildes spending, we can't.

Since neither you or I were at the game, I'd say that's not a judgement we can make. From the sound of the commentary, they were still attacking hard in the 2nd half but we were performing better and were matching, if not bettering them. It's sad that fans cannot give any credit at all. I'm far from happy with the way this season is going, but I can give credit where it's due. JP and the players are responsible for the way we play. Today it sounded like the players were just not interested and let's all be honest, we know that JP wouldn't have told them to go out and play in a half-hearted manor or to play at 50% effort. If the players were putting in 100% effort but the system they were told to play was failing, then I'd blame JP. Even if they were playing at 100% but were being out muscled or out run due to bad player choices, then I'd blame JP. But if the players go out onto the pitch and not put 100% effort in, regardless of the system employed, then it's the players fault and the players who should be held responsible. They should be following orders with 100% effort. At half time whatever was said, whatever was changed, it made a positive impact and we came out and bettered them, scoring 2 goals. That should be given credit. Yes, the performance should have been better from the start, but at least it was changed at half time to improve things.

Then you've just proven my original point right, it's not JP that is responsible it's the players. If they are able to change their attitude like this at half time, then they are responsible for their attitude at the start of the game. You can't have it both ways. JP can't be to blame for their attitude at the start but not at half time. If you say it's the players who are responsible for their attitude and the way they play, then they are responsible when they play badly as well as when they play well.