CHAPEL END CHARLIE

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The big picture is the era of the £8k - £15k a week footballer is drawing to a close at this football club - it may well be a long time before we see their like again .

I don't approve but I can't say I'm surprised either to be brutally honest - there's so much anger about out there we're only 1 or 2 bad home results away from a full scale riot IMO . It's by no means out of the question that the Police might have to advise Wilde & Lowe not to attend St Marys on public order grounds .

I'll alert CSI Southampton to cancel all time off and prepare for a new case

I see no evidence to support this . On the contrary it's my opinion that SFC would be a better run , better supported and as a consequence better financed club today had Leon Crouch remained as Chairman . Crouch would certainly have cut expenditure last summer just as Lowe did , the only difference is that Leon with his innately superior understanding of the game would very likely have made a better job of it . Just my opinion but I doubt LC would ever have allowed all of Rasiak , Saganowski and Stern John to leave the club in its hour of need - at least one would have probably stayed and we'd be in a much healthier league position tonight as a result , even if the Chairman had to pay the players wages to do it .

I have questioned Saganowski's ability to score regularly enough to make much difference but 2 goals from the last 3 games is a good return for any striker - keep it up Saga and I'll happily eat my words .

Please note the "definitely with us until the end of the season" comment - which should clear this question up I would have thought . http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/sport/Swans-keen-make-Dyer-s-switch-permanent/article-645208-detail/article.html

I think Leon might be guilty of a little hyperbole here with a top 6 claim but he can see where the club's going and he's angry - so am I and about 90% of this forum for that matter .

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/7856053.stm Go on Leon , let 'em have both barrels !

I expect he's busy counting his £200k annual bonus - money well spent I'm sure we can all agree .

I wonder if when they come to write the story of Southampton Football Club's demise they conclude that Friday 23rd January 2009 was the key date - the rejection of the 'Crouch Plan' and the subsequent appointment of Wotte as Head Coach will be seen as the exact moment the club's long decline finally became irreversible . I fear our last best chance has passed into history now and the club (as we know it) may well already have entered the last few months of its existence . The mismanagement this grand old club has been subject to is little short of a crime , it's my considered opinion that there are several regular contributors to this forum who could do a better job of running the club - hell my old mum could hardly do much worse .

Don't like him , don't rate him . If Swansea (or anybody else for that matter) make an offer for Dyer in the summer take the money and run I say .

I blame those gits in the Chapel .

Might the reason the more senior Dutch coach (Wotte) have been given the apparently more junior position of Reserve Team Coach have been because in Rupert's mind the Reserve Team / Academy is actually more important than Poortvleit's 1st team ? As I see it Rupert Lowe's strategic survival plan for SFC was to turn the club into a 'Talent Factory' - ie we produce a uninterrupted stream of little Walcott's each year for transfer to the Premier League for a huge profit . This is more significant than the ups and downs of mere League form in our beloved Chairman's opinion (unrecognised football genius that he is ) I hasten to add I don't believe this plan could possibly work as you just can't guarantee a star or two each year from any football academy in the real world . In truth we've just been exceptionally lucky in recent years with finding young players and it's unrealistic to expect this to continue indefinitely (& the brain behind it Georges Prost has gone anyway unfortunately) . The success of the 1st team is everything in a football club , to lose sight of his basic truth shows just how deeply out of touch with the game of football the Chairman has become .

My I be the first ......... http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pYb8Wm6-QfA Copyright: Chapel End Charlie 2009 .

Can you imagine the atmosphere at boardroom meetings between these 3 - pure poison I'd imagine . Plenty of rumours Wilde wants out , maybe just maybe Crouch will buy some/all Wilde's shareholding (at a big discount) and then Rupert will meet his Waterloo . Probably just wishful thinking though .

If you read the club statement at no point does it mention the word 'resignation' : http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/articles/article.php?page_id=11262 He 'stepped down' - ie we probably gave Poortvliet some kind of pay-off to leave without a fuss .

I think this argument is all but over - it was clearly a calamitous error allowing Pearson to leave and I'd be surprised if there are many left on here who'd disagree . I think we all know where the responsibility for this lies .

I'm as Happy and optimistic as a clinically depressed Lemming who's lost his job and has just had his Giro stopped . :smt090 Honestly what have we done to deserve this - is God a Pompey fan ?

Or maybe not . They know their Saints trivia in the Weald - on a one year contract with an option to extend .

Confirmed on OS , will work as joint assistant 1st team coach : http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/articles/article.php?page_id=11265

We've got more coaches than National Express - good luck to MS if true .

Joint Statement on behalf of Mr Rupert Lowe & Michael Wilde . We would like to thank Jan Poortvliet for his efforts this season and wish him well for the future but as we were fully responsible for this ill-conceived appointment we must accept that the resulting awful home form and descent into the relegation zone are both in truth our responsibility . With hindsight it's quite clear to us now that the appointment of a foreign coach with only a mixed record of success in lower league football and no experience of the English game was always likely to end in failure . This is an appropriate juncture to issue a formal public apology to Mr Nigel Pearson , who we now accept is a able manager who should obviously have been offered a new contract last summer . We look forward to following his progress in the CCC next season . It has become abundantly clear that the strategic direction we have taken the club has been fundamentally misguided , the over-reliance on employing inexperienced young players in the first team and the policy of spending much our all too limited transfer/wage budget on signing additional players in the same category was an mistake . In the light of these serious errors of judgment we both feel that in the best interests of the club the only honourable course of action open to us is to resign from the board of SLH/SFC . We have jointly decided to cease with immediate effect all involvement with the running of the club and have given proxy rights to our shareholdings to Mr Leon Crouch , who will now resume his role as club Chairman .

Never in the field of football competition has so little success - been expected by so many fans - of such an uninspiring new manager . Southampton Football Club - purveyors of comedy football since 1895 .

Farewell and thanks for all the fish .