sadoldgit

I don't think it quit works like that. We can agree that he didn't give value for money but I doubt if he clocked on for only 2 days a week. When there are problems you deal with them whenever they arise in that position not only on Mondays and Thursdays.

If he and the team had perhaps we wouln't have gone into admin!

Robbie mate, we are now snowed under by stinking rich people wanting to take us on. SISU was one outfit (vilified by many on here). By all accounts we only have one seriously decent bidder lined up. We have struggled for the last few years but ven the so called wedged up supporters have kept there hands firmly in their pockets. We need to wake up. Paul Allen was a fantsay. Finding a super rich benefactor is a fantasy. We are a third divison club and most people in the bigger picture do not give a stuff about us.

So should we expect the next CEO/Chairman to come in and work for nothing? of course not. Lowe was entitled to a wage. As Ponty says we can complain that we didn't get value for money though. Is there once person on here who has given up money to help their company? Is there on who heasn't complained if their pay has been frozen? We live in the real world, not some old fashion fantasy land where players travel to the game on the bus with the fans. Times have changed.

Jeez SR what planet do you live on? Out of 30 or so interested parties we are down to only 2 (is it?) serious bidders, one of whom is seemingly worse than Lowe. That leaves 1. People who want to buy us can be counted on the fingers on a lepers hand mate.

We were not alone in making "guff" choices were we? And as for speculation? Isn't that just wht Wilde and chums did? BLow money on the hope of promotion. It didn't come and look where we are now. Spending cash is no guarantee of success. How many European Championships have Cheslea won? People running business make choices all of the time, some work, some don't. The tougher the economic climate the tougher the consequences if you get more choices wrong than right. We started the season in a tough financial position. Yes in hindsight the choices made were wrong. Sadly we do not live in a world where hindsight is of much help apart from being of historical interest. You can bleat al day long about how a certain person sealed our fate, but he had nothing to do with Charlton (a club the wiser people on here said we should model ourselves on) or Norwich. What is blindingly obvious is that the TV money makes a huge difference and once you no longer have it you are stuffed and have to cut your cloth accordingly. Lowe was hated for trying to live within our means. Time and again we hear that he should have spent money. Well he did. He spent a lot in the Premiership. He brought in Redknapp and gave him £6m to keep us up ( alot for a club like us). Redknapp (not Lowe) decided to spend the money on "quality" players like Davenport and Bernard and his crippled son. Yes, guff decsions made by a man who supposedly has the Houdini touch. Charlton, Nottingham Forest, Leeds, Norwich and other simliar clubs have all "failed" in recent years. What makes SFC immune to the same circumstances?

Perhaps players pay should be performance based only? A set basic wage for the Prem the CCC etc. Then on top they get large win bonuses and extra pay for progression in cups and the final league positions. That way either our players would have been stung into trying harder or our wag bill would have been way smaller come last Saturday.

A wasted career and an early death, perhaps George should have lsitened to him?

That is part of the problem. We have never had the amount of cash needed. Where was the £11m going t cme from for 2 players??? We did spend money on players but they were squad players and a bloated squad started with Strachan. A number of those players were slated by Saints fans but are still playing Prem football. YOu can survive without spending monet you don't have. We found players like Pahars and Marsden for relative peanuts. We did well to bring in players like M Svennson and Niemi. Sly we also brought in the likes of McCann. Clubs of our size have to strike a balance. WE also have to get it right when signing players. Ourselves, Norwich and Charlton have all struugle to get that balance right in recent seasons and have paid the price.

Alpine is never one to let the facts get in the way of a good rant. I als seem to remember how Saga was going to save us ad how him not being here earlier was a big mistake. Made a big difference didn't he? One player was not going to make a difference. We were poor in all departments that is why we went down. If economies had not been made as they were earlier we would have gone into adminstration earlier. The simple fact is this, once the parachute money ran out we were in no position to do anything except struggle. Alpine conveniently ignores the fact that Charlton an Norwich are in the same boat, albiet not stuffed financially as we are. He needs to take his blinkers off and come live in the real world where old established businesses are going to the wall every day (HMV next I hear). But he would just rather blame everything on Lowe because in his own little world he can only deal with simplicities.

I wonder what the vote would have been when Lawrie Mac took us down all those years ago? He didn't have the best start and struggled a bit before turning things round. LIke Pearson it is very difficult to judge Wotte properly given the circumstances in which he came in. I expect we will have yet another new manager next seaosn but if Wotte stays I hope that he gets the support he will need.

Yep, Adolf had a lot to answer for. A few well aimed bombs and the Dell might have been flattened and we would have moved to a new ground sooner! Still we got our own back by sending Alpine to Austria! Pay back too for The Sound of Music!!! Someone should write a book aout the Rise and Fall of SFC though. It has all the ingredients of a Greek Tragedy mixed with a Brian Rix farce! A little job for you during the summer break Duncan???

Gawd, where do you start? McCann, Hurlock, McLaughlin (sp?), Charley George (lost it by the time he came here), Frank Saul (can we have Martin Chivers back please), too many to mention over the years...

In retrospect I think that Wotte would have been the better choice than JP as head coach. Still it is a moot point because we didn't have the squad to make the top half of the table so with 10 points deducted for admin would probably gone down even if Pearson had been head coach. Thing is, we have been appalling defensively and who coaches the defence? Does Killer escape flak because he was a great player for us?

You don't credit footballers with much intelligence, but BWP has got it spot on when he says that EVERYONE at SFC is responsible for relegation this season. I hope those with some guts will stay and try and put it right but think that many will be off.

Nope that I ain't...but I am consistant!!!

He is right though. It really is pathetic. There are far more impartant things to worry about (like will there be a SFC next season) than if the previous Chairman took time out to go to a football match.

Funny this, Woote didn't do much worse than Pearson with a poorer squad. If we had gone down with Pearson last year would the reaction had been the same? Afterall he only managed to win three games. I suspect it has more to do with Pearson not being a Lowe appointment and Wotte was. Even Burley gets stick on here yet in comparison things were a great deal better under him..but he was another Lowe appoitment so he has to be bad right?

In which case my lack of going to games does not matter does it? I have never made a call on not to go because I do not like someone at the club. I have never made a call to give my money to the oppostion because I boycotted St Marys. I stopped going to see live matches regularly when I was 17 because I was playing football myself. Since then I have continued to go to a handful of games a season and that will continue no matter who our CEO is and what division we are in. The club will not get rich on my financial contribution, but I have been behind them 100%since 1966.

As Manager or CEO???

It is not one thing or another, but what is ceratin is that if you are not bank rolled to a decent extent eventually you will go down.

How many CHairman are "techincally skilled in football matters"? Their job is to run the club and they need a different skill set. Something we seem to frown on at SFC for some reason? Respect works both ways. I imagine if I had been treated like all the head honchos we have had over the last few years I would develop a seige mentality too. Perhaps this is the real difference? That the people at Norwich don't think they have a God given right to play their football in the Premiership whereas our supports do? Perhaps that makes a difference to how they all approach their circumstances? Interesting to see how their support is still there whereas ours left in droves. Can't use Lowe being here as an excuse now either. We shall see just how much of a "big club" we really are next season.

Which given our fair weather supporters means we will be stuffed from the start.

More important things to worry about surely?

Some of those will be off - Davis and Saga certainly I would say.