Halo Stickman

I remember people on the previous incarnation of this forum welcoming our relegation to the Championship because ‘Saints will now be a big club in a small league, we’ll get to see them win more often, we’ll have a chance to visit new grounds with less plastics' ...blah, blah, blah!

:smt119 The BBC should ban Lowe from ringing 606!

Some day in the future. A father and his young son are walking through wasteland in a run-down part of Southampton, when they pass a crumbling oval-shaped structure surrounding a field, overgrown with weeds. On a rusty wall, the boy notices some graffiti: ‘Southampton Football Club RIP’ ‘I didn’t know Southampton had a football club, Dad.’ ‘Oh yes, son, we had a club - a proud club - one upon a time. Then the people in charge did their best to destroy it’ ‘Didn't people try to stop it happening, Dad?’ ‘Some did, son. But others sat on their hands, watching the club die.’ ‘What do those people do on Saturday afternoons now, Dad?’ ‘They go shopping, son.’ ‘Is that all they do, Dad?’ ‘No, son; they hang their heads, wishing they’d done more.’ Come on, guys, we all know who's responisble for this mess, but let’s do everything we can to keep our club alive. We can start by selling out the remaining fixtures!

...any minute now I'm going to wake up, turn to my wife and say '****ing hell, I've just had the most awful nightmare!'

When Lowe’s signing of ‘Financial Prudence’ turned out to be a duffer both on and off the pitch

Perhaps I'm in a good position to comment on this thread. I’ve been visiting this site, and its predecessors, since the days back in the early 2000s when it had a red board and only about a dozen regular posters. These days, as you can see from my post count, I only visit infrequently and rarely post. But in a former life, when I was SainTed Antti, I was quite a regular contributor who enjoyed the banter, laughter and exchange of views on this forum. Sadly, some time around 3 or 4 years ago, I began to lose my passion for the club; a passion that I’d had since the mid-60s. This was mainly to do with what was happening off the field at SFC, but also with events happening on a much wider scale within football. A big turning point for me was when we played Man Utd in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in our relegation season; to my eyes at least, we didn’t even bother to compete on the pitch in that match. Yes, just like the Aston Villa fans that paid to travel all the way to Russia to watch their reserve team get beat last night, we all know the reasons! But to my mind it stunk, and I found myself asking, what was the point any more? So, like I say, I got ****ed off with the way things were going at SFC and within the game in general. But I also started to wonder whether my disillusionment was also being fueled by witnessing the increasing levels of hostility between fellow Saints fans on here. And, I wasn’t immune to this hostility myself; there were times when I would read something on here and think, ‘I can’t believe I support the same club as that idiot’. Yes, I know that doesn’t show a very tolerant attitude towards other people’s views, but that’s the way it was. So, I decided to spend less time on here to see if it lessened my disillusionment with the club. And the outcome of spending less time on here? Well, I’m more disillusioned with SFC than ever, but I do get a lot more work done.

I’ve supported Saints since the mid-60s, so have been fortunate to experience some great times in the old first division, the Ossie and Keegan eras, and, of course, 1976. However, many of my greatest Saints’ memories are of Nichol’s 4-2-4 team with Le Tissier, Shearer, Rideout and Wallace up front. Fantastic times from that era have already been mentioned, but a couple of others that I recall are the 6-3 win against Luton, and a League Cup game against Swindon, when we brought on Shearer and Ruddock – at that time aka the Bruise Brothers – and turned over a 0-2 deficit! And that was back in the days when cup competitions actually meant something! And don’t forget we got to the FA Cup semi-final in Nichol’s first season, and might have sneaked it if only Mark Dennis’s last minute shot had been a few inches lower. Happy days, even if they do seem a long, long time ago!

I don’t know enough about their internal machinations to be able to make fair comment on the Saints Trust. However, there is something I do know: the day of reckoning for Southampton Football Club is fast approaching. On that sorry day, the fools that have used our club as a stage on which to strut their own profiles, egos and agendas will be held to account. Leading protagonists, supporting cast members, mere bit-part players - all their names, and the roles they played in the demise of our once proud club, will be writ large, forever. This - and their own consciences - is something they will have to live with for the rest of their days. And those of us that have sat idly by watching this comic-tragedy, what will be our footnote in the history of SFC?

When you are forced out a few weeks after a stadium full of fans have stood in unison demanding you go, what would most people do? Probably get the message and skulk back to the obscurity from whence they came. What did Lowe do? Hire a box in the same stadium and spend the next two years plotting his return. For twelve long years this man has used our club as a platform on which to preen his over-inflated ego; he’s got no intension of stepping down now. Sadly.

Totally agree, SW11_Saint. I firmly believe that if we'd done this, some of our youngsters would have been much more likely to have fulfilled their potential. Now the more promising ones have being dragged down to the level of those that aren't ready for first team football, and their tranfer value to the club is being eroded with every passing week. It's false economy on a grand scale, and yet another example of gross mismanagement.

Our odds were considerable shortened in 04/05 by two factors: Lowe's incompetence in failing to address the Sturrock situation until two weeks into the season, and Lowe's naivity in replacing him with Wigley.

Good heavens! For someone to remain positive with all the crap surrounding SFC in recent years, they'd have to be either a nodding donkey on acid or a bloody Portsmouth supporter!:mad:

I've been critical of the set-up this season, but praise where praise due, I'm struggling to remember too many previous occasions, in the 40 plus years I've supported Saints, when we've come back from 0-2 down to win it with a last minute goal! March on you Saints!

Towards the end of NP’s reign I thought we had started to play some slick and effective football. Also, I saw Saints players – even the ones on loan – playing with the sort of passion, spirit and commitment I expect from someone who pulls on the red and white stripes. Hopefully the full facts behind his departure will one day be revealed; but whatever they are, I struggle to believe that we wouldn’t be in better shape if he was still here.

I remember Lowe saying that he thought introducing Irish line dancing to the training regime might be a good idea. I dare say Rupert will be playing the fiddle himself; he’s had plenty of practice.

Back in the 1960s our primary school teacher used to say the same thing to us before every match: ‘keep it on the deck, boys, pass and move’. He never used to bother about things like taking penalties and defending set-pieces. I realise now that our team was years ahead of its time; indeed, it appears we were the forerunners of something called ‘total football’. It’s just a shame that, in all the years I spent at that school, you could count our victories on the thumb of one hand, and that by the time we reached secondary school, most of our players had become so disillusioned they opted to play rugby instead.:mad:

Which is why I'm rather fearful for our future.

As I see it, our young players - whilst showing some potential for the future – are, at the moment, much too one-dimensional and predictable, as is the system we’re playing. We seem incapable of mixing things up and trying something different when things aren’t working. The opposition quickly works out our weak spots and exploits them. This is the problem with inexperienced players, especially in this league which is full of seasoned old professionals; but teams would probably start to work out even that young Arsenal side that played on Tuesday if Wenger played them together every week, which of course he wouldn’t.

Yes, their second goal was a mile offside, the sending off perhaps could have been just a booking and we played some decent football at times. But quite honestly, without Davis it could have been double figures. Anyone who believes we can cut it in this league with so many kids in the team at once is naive, stupid or just plain pig headed. To ask Lancashire and Cork to make their debuts in such an inexperienced defense was asking for trouble. The great shame of all this is that players such as Lallana have real potential, if only their talent could be allied with some experience alongside them. But, if we carry on like this, even the self-belief of youth is in danger of becoming seriously undermined.

A few facts to help people decide whether or not Clive Woodward is indeed God. Clive Woodward was the manager when England won the Rugby World Cup in 2003. Martin Johnson was their inspirational captain and Jonny Wilkinson their world class goal kicker. The following season, with Woodward still manager but with the other two missing, England struggled to finish third in the home internationals, losing to both Ireland and France. Woodward then led England on a tour down under where the results were as follows: New Zealand 36 – 3 England New Zealand 36 – 12 England Australia 51 – 15 England In 2005, Woodward led the British Lions down under. Before they left he said that they would be the best prepared touring team ever. The results were as follows: New Zealand 21 – 3 British Lions New Zealand 48 – 18 British Lions New Zealand 38 – 19 British Lions It was the first time for 22 years that the British Lions had lost all 3 matches on tour.