Lowe - one of the UK's worst ever chairmen?

[Thedelldays]

Lowe was our worst chairman but there are far worse overall. That Tisdale guy almost destroyed Leeds.

 

And i agree with St Marco. The natural evolution of the league and football after the Hillsborough disaster meant the club was going to get a new stadium eventually. If you look at the period between 1996 to 2003 a lot of new stadiums were built in that period. Many by clubs similar to Saints. Teams who had smaller sized stadiums that would not fit with the modern demand to watch games. Very few stadiums like The Dell are still around in the top flight of football.

on the same note...you could say we would get relegated eventually....

 

 

works both ways

[Alain Perrin]

How do i looklike an idiot exactly?

 

Perhaps you should give Pompey some advice on getting a new stadium if it is that easy.

 

SMS alone didn't cripple Saints.

 

Player wages, lack of relegation wage reduction clauses, declining crowds due to relegation, too many managers, fan uproar over Hoddle.... all more valid reasons than SMS.

[Gorgiesaint]

FA Cup finalists to relegation in 2 years. For that alone he deserves a place in the hall of shame.

 

So we can add Peter Storrie to the list at the end of the season

 

Pointless thread but FWIW Lowe is no where near the top of list. George Reynolds (I think that his name) at Darlington would be fairly high up, the guys at Derby when they went into admin would also figure, but top of the list has to be Vladimir Romanov of Hearts.

 

Outside of the UK - as someone has mentioned Gaucci of Perugia, but don't forget Jesus Gil of Athletico Madrid.

[Saint Benali]

on the same note...you could say we would get relegated eventually....

 

 

works both ways

 

Which we did, didn't we?

 

The point is what he is saying is correct. There are probably 30 odd new stadiums built around that time in England. The Premier league had become the big business capital of the footballing world.

Whoever was in charge at that point would of realised you have the potential to take money from more then 15000 people every week. The club had the potential to make more.

To do that would have meant we had to leave The Dell because as he mentioned it had just been re-developed to an all seater stadium just 2 years prior.

 

If Saints were going to compete in the new climate of the league they would need to generate more money. It is a no brainer really.

[Alain Perrin]

Lowe was our worst chairman but there are far worse overall. That Tisdale guy almost destroyed Leeds.

 

http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/ecfc/Tisdale-proud-players-narrow-Leeds-reverse/article-1237333-detail/article.html

[Colinjb]

So we can add Peter Storrie to the list at the end of the season

 

Absolutely mate.

[St Marco]

Perhaps you should give Pompey some advice on getting a new stadium if it is that easy.

 

SMS alone didn't cripple Saints.

 

Player wages, lack of relegation wage reduction clauses, declining crowds due to relegation, too many managers, fan uproar over Hoddle.... all more valid reasons than SMS.

 

Portsmouth are in a similar situation to what we were. They can't really add more seats to their ground just as we couldn't at the dell. They have pretty much maxed it. They have been talking about a new ground for a longtime. Just as other clubs have i.e Liverpool/Everton. Getting a new stadium is not easy, that was not what i implied. But if you are in business and you are say in the prem league you have a better chance of having a £32m loan accepted then if you were a club in say League One.

If we had been relegated it would of been harder for him to get that loan. All the things with the club were going in a natural progress such as it was at other clubs like ours. The next step would of been to have moved to generate more funds which would of meant we could of compete.

 

Unless we had got a total chump in chances are we would of moved either way. Because that is how football had evolved at that time.

[Alain Perrin]

If Saints were going to compete in the new climate of the league they would need to generate more money. It is a no brainer really.

 

It's no brains for you really.

 

Assuming we filled SMS every game only delivers about £10m a year in ticket revenue (before the costs of stewarding, policing, staff etc.).

 

It's dwarfed by the TV income (hence why Wigan can survive with a half empty stadium). Every little helps, but tickets are but a small part of Murdoch's Premiership.

[dubai_phil]

It did, but it is not an achievement.

 

Taking out a loan and then getting everyone but yourself to pay it back is not something to praise him for.

 

It is no different then a guy taking out a loan to build a house, then lose that house because he could not afford to pay the loan back. We almost lost that house.

 

ML practically paid the £30m off himself, if anyone deserves credit for St Mary's he does, seeing as he paid the loan back.

 

 

Uh, no not exactly nor even close, that he did not do.

 

Going back to my point, and The Delldays is actually partially correct even IF we judge Lowe today.

 

We tried to move to West Quay (anyone esle old enough to remember the delerium post Wembley pre-Lowe when we all expected to be in a 40,000 stadium at West Quay?

 

On that point at least. Lowe "found a way" to deliver.

 

Now, whether you accept that as a positive note or not, the FACT is that ML was able to buy/inherit the stadium. Now, when we were in admin, the Stdium was a major benefit in the Salespack that attracted ML (not withstanding MC's email of course)

 

Would ML have bought us if we were an L1 team at the Dell?

 

So, take care in the points used to promote the evilness of the Dark Lord, TDD is actually correct, Lowe delivered SMS. OK so we couldn't afford it when we lost Prem Status and his decisions led to that, but no, SMS is an intrinsic piece of the jigsaw that got us to where we are today. No SMS, no ML - it was a path, karma, fate, every action got us to that point.

 

What the FUTURE brings is far more intersting of course

[aintforever]

Its hard to find a worse chairman than Lowe.

 

People mention Risdale, but Lowe did exactly the same, just missed out the Champions League Football bit.

[St Marco]

Uh, no not exactly nor even close, that he did not do.

 

 

So then what was the £30m debt he supposedly paid off then? I know our radio station cost a fair bit but surely not £30m!!

 

As far as i could tell and of course i could be wrong. ML bought the club then cleared the debts. At least that is the impression i got from listening to Nicola Cortese on the fans forum. From the way i understand it our payments that were crippling us were payments on the loan for the stadium. As i said i could be wrong, but that is what i thought i heard/read.

 

So would be good if you could explain how it actually went down.

[Arizona]

So then what was the £30m debt he supposedly paid off then? I know our radio station cost a fair bit but surely not £30m!!

 

As far as i could tell and of course i could be wrong. ML bought the club then cleared the debts. At least that is the impression i got from listening to Nicola Cortese on the fans forum. From the way i understand it our payments that were crippling us were payments on the loan for the stadium. As i said i could be wrong, but that is what i thought i heard/read.

 

So would be good if you could explain how it actually went down.

 

The way I understood it, ML basically told our creditors, "I'll take over and give you £15m, up front, now, all of it. Or the club gets liquidated and you get squat."

[offix]

This subject has been done to death on here. People will never agree on it, but more to the point: THIS DISCUSSION IS IRRELEVANT!

 

Lowe is in our history, he's in the rear view mirror. I would rather look ahead and keep my eyes on the road in front of me.

[SaintBobby]

So then what was the £30m debt he supposedly paid off then? I know our radio station cost a fair bit but surely not £30m!!

 

As far as i could tell and of course i could be wrong. ML bought the club then cleared the debts. At least that is the impression i got from listening to Nicola Cortese on the fans forum. From the way i understand it our payments that were crippling us were payments on the loan for the stadium. As i said i could be wrong, but that is what i thought i heard/read.

 

So would be good if you could explain how it actually went down.

 

I thought ML bought the club for c. 13 - 15 million.

 

There wasn's £30m of pure debt - most of it was the mortage.

 

Best guess is that Aviva and otehr creditors got about 50% of their claims.

[Nineteen Canteen]

Would love to but I'm too busy playing marbles at the other end of the playground....

 

Evil Monkey and Scudamore for some reason have the dubious honour of making me genuinely laugh out loud the most often at some inspired comments. Trousers you are very close to overtaking their mantle.

 

Of course there are many posters who make me laugh and Wes treating my posts as a piece of homework to be marked and Tame's 'stockholm syndrome' stalking and mimicry (he'll be made up I've noticed his thread) are just many examples of posters who give me more of a disturbed chuckle and for all the wrong reasons.

 

I guess my only concern is that one the trio of top notch american sit-com writers masquerading as Monkey, Trousers and Scudamore turns out to be Mike Osman. IMO it would be a bit like finding out MLT really did take le tiss.

[Nineteen Canteen]

Oh FFS calm down , calm down. What is it with some people?? Haven't you heard of irony??? Is it necessary to put smiley faces on a thread to show people that you are not completely serious??

 

Like so many people on this board I am tired of the trolls - in particular 19 Canteen's continual denigration of the club's heroes. MLT last month, Lawrie today, it will probably be Ted Bates next week. I thought that this subject might be a suitable antidote to Nineteen Canteen's upteenth thread denigrating our heroes. I didn't appreciate how seriously it would be taken.

 

So calm down, calm down. I always thought it was Americans who couldn't understand irony. Perhaps it is also some of the readers on this board.

 

:-) :-) :-)

 

LOL! I understand irony and this one is particularly delicious.

[dubai_phil]

So then what was the £30m debt he supposedly paid off then? I know our radio station cost a fair bit but surely not £30m!!

 

As far as i could tell and of course i could be wrong. ML bought the club then cleared the debts. At least that is the impression i got from listening to Nicola Cortese on the fans forum. From the way i understand it our payments that were crippling us were payments on the loan for the stadium. As i said i could be wrong, but that is what i thought i heard/read.

 

So would be good if you could explain how it actually went down.

 

Arizona & Saintbobby cover this, but in simple terms for those who were on vacation at the time.

If you have more debts than you can pay you go bankrupt or "into administration"

An ad is placed in the paper and a queue of people turn up and haggle with a market trader.

The opening bid is usually 10pence in the pound, then a few tricks are pulled by both sides.

Clapham is our resident online tech support on the subject, but in admin, unless you hold a very clear deed as a creditor, you will not get "much" if any of your money back.

 

ML & NC may be many things, but they aren't fools. The "VALUE EXTRACTED" by the administrator may well be in ther region of 13-15mil, but that may still not relate to the figure that came out of their bank account.

 

The purchase price for the football club will technically have been the grand sum of one pound. That can be proven by finding one of the many small ex-shareholders amongst our fans (who were the previous owners) and asking them how much money they received when they stopped owning the "bits of business that owned the club"

[Miltonaggro]

It is a new dawn, a new day, but now and forever Lowe will always be our pantomine villain. In failing Southampton he slowly decimated and divided the archetype 'family club' - prior to his time we were quaint, but stable, solid and seen with affection by the neutrals in football.

 

He was at the helm of Saints during the salad days of the Premier League, when a shaved monkey in a boiler suit with Enron emblazoned on the back could have raised finance. His biggest failing was that he could never move on from his opinion that football professionals and football fans were thick, and thus taking and making money from them would be a cakewalk!

 

He was General Melchett to our Blackadder, or for some of us Captain Darling. We all went over the top in the end while he retreated 70 miles behind the lines...

[Fitzhugh Fella]

It is a new dawn, a new day, but now and forever Lowe will always be our pantomine villain. In failing Southampton he slowly decimated and divided the archetype 'family club' - prior to his time we were quaint, but stable, solid and seen with affection by the neutrals in football.

 

He was at the helm of Saints during the salad days of the Premier League, when a shaved monkey in a boiler suit with Enron emblazoned on the back could have raised finance. His biggest failing was that he could never move on from his opinion that football professionals and football fans were thick, and thus taking and making money from them would be a cakewalk!

 

He was General Melchett to our Blackadder, or for some of us Captain Darling. We all went over the top in the end while he retreated 70 miles behind the lines...

 

Have resisted joining in on this thread for obvious reasons but I did enjoy the above thread which sums it up rather nicely I thought.

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

Its hard to find a worse chairman than Lowe.

 

People mention Risdale, but Lowe did exactly the same, just missed out the Champions League Football bit.

 

Yeah, I remember all those £15m signings...

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

Ok all, here goes.

 

Stop confusing what Lowe did. He did not gamble our future in the Premiership by paying stupid wages and transfer fees. He also had big wage reductions for after relegation (as someone on here said he didn't??!!). He got us St Mary's (to a degree). He delivered us Wembley and 8th place.

 

However...

 

He also got us relegated, and partook is some money saving schemes that just didn't work. He was arrogant and obnoxious (but most chairman are).

 

But...

 

As far as I'm concerned this club was spoilt by Wilde and his cowboys.

[glkdcdes]

Can not quantify if Lowe was worst ever chairman of a football club, but certainly the worst ever employee of southampton fc. in terms of negative impact etc

[Katalinic]

Ok all, here goes.

 

Stop confusing what Lowe did. He did not gamble our future in the Premiership by paying stupid wages and transfer fees. He also had big wage reductions for after relegation (as someone on here said he didn't??!!). He got us St Mary's (to a degree). He delivered us Wembley and 8th place.

 

However...

 

He also got us relegated, and partook is some money saving schemes that just didn't work. He was arrogant and obnoxious (but most chairman are).

 

But...

 

As far as I'm concerned this club was spoilt by Wilde and his cowboys.

 

No, but he gambled our Premiership status by not speculating transfer fees and wages on better players - instead paying low wages to mediocre players but still selling off our crown jewels one by one. Lowe and Ridsdale - different methods, same results.

Edited 17 October, 2009 by Katalinic

[Katalinic]

...

Edited 17 October, 2009 by Katalinic
Duplicated

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

No, but he gambled our Premiership status by not speculating transfer fees and wages on better players - instead paying low wages to mediocre players but still selling off our crown jewels one by one. Lowe and Ridsdale - different methods, same results.

 

Risdale is not hated because he took Leeds down, he was hated for crippling the club with unsustainable debts, whereas, as you allude to, Lowe didn't.

 

That was the point.

[Katalinic]

Risdale is not hated because he took Leeds down, he was hated for crippling the club with unsustainable debts, whereas, as you allude to, Lowe didn't.

 

That was the point.

 

I am not so sure about that, Lowe did cripple us but in a different way - I do agree with you ref Wilde but Lowe started, and finished, the chain of events off that ultimately lead to our financial meltdown.

[docker-p]

This is a totally pointless thread: Lowe is gone and we can all be thankful for it. But, since you have brought it up, what a f*cking selective memory you have!! Does SMS mean anything to you? A state of the art training complex? One of the most successful academies in English football? Some good years under Hoddle and Strachan, including out highest ever Prem finish and the FA Cup final? Because all of that came about under Lowe's chairmanship: if your memory is not functuioning, you could look it up.

 

I don't mean to defend Lowe: I'm glad he's gone too. But I really don't see why people have to forget the good because of the bad, and fail to give credit where credit is due, along with the blame where blame is due!

 

People have to stop quoting SMS as an example of some good Lowe did. SMS was built in spite of Lowe no because of Lowe. Remember his efforts and wasted millions on Stoneham?

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

I am not so sure about that, Lowe did cripple us but in a different way - I do agree with you ref Wilde but Lowe started, and finished, the chain of events off that ultimately lead to our financial meltdown.

 

Yeah, and I don't disagree with that. What Risdale did was immeasurably worse than what Lowe did. With Risdale, he knew there was a chance that the debts could cripple and destroy the club. By Lowe not spending he was under the belief that we were good enough (incorrectly) without the extra players, but no-one believed that relegation would destroy the club. That happened with Wilde.

[Thedelldays]

People have to stop quoting SMS as an example of some good Lowe did. SMS was built in spite of Lowe no because of Lowe. Remember his efforts and wasted millions on Stoneham?

i have never EVER known or heard of a £30m pound building being built in SPITE of someone..

 

LOL

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

i have never EVER known or heard of a £30m pound building being built in SPITE of someone..

 

LOL

 

Hahahaha, completely agree...

[Daren W]

if that was the case..why did it take us 20 years to get a ground..?

 

sms happened in lowes watch...like it or not...

 

Likewise it's rather funny how Lowe's supporters conveniently forget the role the council had in getting St Marys built.

 

As for Stoneham, yes Lowe did screw Stoneham up but history will show that he was right to look for alternative sources of income such as retail and the much ridiculed cinema....

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

Likewise it's rather funny how Lowe's supporters conveniently forget the role the council had in getting St Marys built.

 

As for Stoneham, yes Lowe did screw Stoneham up but history will show that he was right to look for alternative sources of income such as retail and the much ridiculed cinema....

 

Agreed, the council helped out big time! I think the point is that it did happen under Lowes tenure. But so did relegation. You can't give him credit for one and not for the other.

[Roger]

Yes lowe is the worst chairman by miles. He ruined a family club and a saints fan like me and my family boycotted. My grandad had been going for 58 years and he didn't go last season. I now am going to every game again and can't wait for Saturdays. We ate heading in right direction now. As for stoneham, I met with roberto tambini the Eastleigh councillor and lowe buggared up stoneham with retail development because he couldn't afford it. The Southampton council gave the club the land. The reverse takeover took money out of the club not into it and lowe didn't put a penny into the club and took loads out. Somebody mentioned Ashley but he has put lots of money in even if his choice if managers hasn't been great. Lowe never did.

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

Yes lowe is the worst chairman by miles. He ruined a family club and a saints fan like me and my family boycotted. My grandad had been going for 58 years and he didn't go last season. I now am going to every game again and can't wait for Saturdays. We ate heading in right direction now. As for stoneham, I met with roberto tambini the Eastleigh councillor and lowe buggared up stoneham with retail development because he couldn't afford it. The Southampton council gave the club the land. The reverse takeover took money out of the club not into it and lowe didn't put a penny into the club and took loads out. Somebody mentioned Ashley but he has put lots of money in even if his choice if managers hasn't been great. Lowe never did.

 

So you think he's the worst chairman ever?

[St. Jason]

Do we really need to have this pointless and boring debate again?

 

It wouldn't be so bad if the majority of people posting about it actually had some sort of idea what they are talking about.

 

The amount of people on here who throw accusations and statements about without questioning thier own beliefs and views first is actually cringeworthy.

 

Just a quickie Mr. Hopkins. you ask the question "do we really need to have this pointless and boring debate again?" yet you post on the debate. Its a FORUM, you see a thread, it interests you so you read it then post your opinion, if it doesn't interest you, you don't read and you don't post, pretty easy concept really mate!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

PS. Lowe would come top of the list in my opinion, under his stewardship he lost Stoneham through greed, we were relegated twice, went into admin, which ironically was probably the best thing he ever did for the club as going into admin meant we finally and totally saw the end of lowe!!!!

 

AIMO obviously!

[St. Jason]

Perhaps you should give Pompey some advice on getting a new stadium if it is that easy.

 

SMS alone didn't cripple Saints.

 

Player wages, lack of relegation wage reduction clauses, declining crowds due to relegation, too many managers, fan uproar over Hoddle.... all more valid reasons than SMS.

 

Again some how we still blame the fans for Hoddle not coming back! Hoddle himself has publicly stated that he would of come back if he'd "had 100% support from the board" he knew, we knew that after a few wins fans anger would of subsided!!

 

Also why exactly do you feel it would of been oh so different had Hoddle come back, after all he didn't set the world on fire @ Spurs of Wolves did he??

 

No relegation clauses???? Are you sure mate!!!!!

[Wes Tender]

I'm abiding by a sensible position of remember the heroes and forget the villains. Therefore I'm perfectly happy to defend Lawrie McMenemy's record against the one or two detractors, but very happy indeed that people like Lowe are gone forever. Indeed, it is fair to say that for some time Lawrie was the most loved man by very many Southampton locals, whereas Lowe can lay claim to being the most hated and despised.

[dubai_phil]

I'm abiding by a sensible position of remember the heroes and forget the villains. Therefore I'm perfectly happy to defend Lawrie McMenemy's record against the one or two detractors, but very happy indeed that people like Lowe are gone forever. Indeed, it is fair to say that for some time Lawrie was the most loved man by very many Southampton locals, whereas Lowe can lay claim to being the most hated and despised.

 

Lawrie was hated and reviled in his early days when we got relegated, fans under the West Stand regularly spat at him, such was the hatred, he simply continued to walk with great dignity to the bench.

 

Lowe was initially welcomed by many. His arrival co-incided with the hope that the days of being an old boys club may help to launch us into the realms of the real world inhabited by the bigger clubs. Exploiting the multi-media revenue opportunities of the internet before other major clubs was a part of his vision for glory

 

I made the point before, history has a habit of forcing selective memories to change. And history makes a habit of changing perspectives

 

And finally, in aiming to assess if Lowe was one of the worst Chairmen, ie the EXACT wording of the title, then you have a clear problem.

 

What IS the role of a CHAIRMAN? By what criteria is a chariman judged? If he chairman of a PLC then he is judged on his results. Those are not the results on the pitch but the results on the accounts. Did he return a profit for the shareholders? Measure the number of years he returned a good performance versus other chairmen in football.

Did he secure value for the shareholders? Yes for a long time he did, however he ultimately FAILED in that duty by taking strategic decisions that helped to cause the destruction of the PLC.

 

Now in real business, that would not be the fault of the Chairman alone, that would be the fault of the SHAREHOLDERS who appoint the chairman.

 

Was Lowe worse than Godwin? The succession of idiots at British Leyland, Marconi, Clive Sinclair et al.....

 

So, perhaps the best description of Lowe would be

 

Almost the worst person to have ever tried to run a Football Club in England, just slightly not as bad as Michael Wilde

[St. Jason]

Lawrie was hated and reviled in his early days when we got relegated, fans under the West Stand regularly spat at him, such was the hatred, he simply continued to walk with great dignity to the bench.

 

Lowe was initially welcomed by many. His arrival co-incided with the hope that the days of being an old boys club may help to launch us into the realms of the real world inhabited by the bigger clubs. Exploiting the multi-media revenue opportunities of the internet before other major clubs was a part of his vision for glory

 

I made the point before, history has a habit of forcing selective memories to change. And history makes a habit of changing perspectives

 

And finally, in aiming to assess if Lowe was one of the worst Chairmen, ie the EXACT wording of the title, then you have a clear problem.

 

What IS the role of a CHAIRMAN? By what criteria is a chariman judged? If he chairman of a PLC then he is judged on his results. Those are not the results on the pitch but the results on the accounts. Did he return a profit for the shareholders? Measure the number of years he returned a good performance versus other chairmen in football.

Did he secure value for the shareholders? Yes for a long time he did, however he ultimately FAILED in that duty by taking strategic decisions that helped to cause the destruction of the PLC.

 

Now in real business, that would not be the fault of the Chairman alone, that would be the fault of the SHAREHOLDERS who appoint the chairman.

 

Was Lowe worse than Godwin? The succession of idiots at British Leyland, Marconi, Clive Sinclair et al.....

 

So, perhaps the best description of Lowe would be

 

Almost the worst person to have ever tried to run a Football Club in England, just slightly not as bad as Michael Wilde

 

I agree Wilde failed but I still feel that Lowe was/is by far worse for SFC than Wilde. I think that the biggest failure of Wilde was believing the promises of investment that people made. There's no way he'd of invested £2m of his own money without a promise of investment from others should he oust Lowe. IMO these people are the real ones that let Wilde and ultimately SFC down, saying that with the business success that Wilde had he was a fool to simply take peoples word of investment while spending what we ultimately didn't have!!

[sadoldgit]

It is easy to take a year of anybody's career and show them as a poor performer.

 

Perhaps you should take it to a decade as running any business cannot be judged over 12 months. Of course that will not fit in with your agenda in trying to show Lowe as some incompetant fool.

 

By any standards, keeping SFC in the Premiership on crowds of 15k was no mean feet. Of course we had an FA Cup final, European football, a new stadium, our best ever Premiership finish....(what have the Roman's ever done for us?).

 

Yes of course the last year was a disaster. With no money to play with most people would have struggled wouldn't they? Certainly clubs like Charlton and Norwch, similar sizes to us, had disasterous years too and Lowe was not their Chairman!

 

So then, good and bad, like many Chairman of many clubs. But why not continue a witch hunt against one bloke if it makes you happy?

[Weston Saint]

As a working Chairman/Chief Executive Lowe was far from being on of the worst Chairmen in football. His ideas and execution of business matters was good. His problem was his severe lack of communication skill linked with a personality trait that he was never wrong. Those two factors in a football club situation negated his undoubted business skills.

 

Not just my opinion but shared by many who knew him well and others who worked with him.

Edited 17 October, 2009 by Weston Saint

[St. Jason]

As a working Chairman/Chief Executive Lowe was far from being on of the worst Chairmen in football. His ideas and execution of business matters was good. His problem was his severe lack of communication skill linked with a personality trait that he was never wrong. Those two factors in a football club situation negated his undoubted business skills.

 

Not just my opinion but shared by many who knew him well and others worked with him.

 

Not picking on you or knocking your opinion as all are valid, but what good ideas and what undoubted business skills exactly??

 

Sir Clive?

Eye gym?

Wigley?

Gray?

Saint FM?

Saint insurance?

Stoneham?

 

Etc.

 

Also if it wasn't for Southampton City Council we'd still be at The Dell!!!!!

[SaintRobbie]

As it says on the tin. Can anyone think of a worse chairman than Lowe during his last year in office?? Is Lowe the Fred Godwin of football??

 

Lets play Nineteen Canteen at his own game.

 

No. Lowe is one of the all time worst chairmen in footballing history. A team in measured in success and placing. Lowe brought Saints from the Premiership to the bottom of League 1.

 

Two relegations, a failed plc experiment and a new ground we can only now afford due to administration and debt removal.

 

He was not even a prudent financial man.

 

Failed his shareholders, failed his club, humiliated and failed the people of Southampton.

Edited 17 October, 2009 by SaintRobbie

[sadoldgit]

If Southampton City Council hadn't offered us that piece of land would we even have a new stadium?

 

What difference does it make, it happened and that is the only thing that matters.

[SaintRobbie]

As a working Chairman/Chief Executive Lowe was far from being on of the worst Chairmen in football. His ideas and execution of business matters was good. His problem was his severe lack of communication skill linked with a personality trait that he was never wrong. Those two factors in a football club situation negated his undoubted business skills.

 

Not just my opinion but shared by many who knew him well and others who worked with him.

 

He had no business skills. Fact - SLH plc was destroyed on his watch. He was incompetent and no financial expert. He was a failure in every way. Barclays Bank removed our biggest nemesis. Time to enjoy watching Southampton FC again rather than Lowe's SLH plc FC continually fall down the Leagues.

[sadoldgit]

Given the decline of Britain as a manufacturing country you could go through the Chairmen/CEOs of the majority of British industry over the last 30 years and point to their last year as as big a "disaster" as Lowe's last year.

[SaintRobbie]

What difference does it make, it happened and that is the only thing that matters.

 

It means that - as we all know - Lowe was not the man who moved us into SMS. It involved many others and the key movers and shakers as almost every knows were in the Council.

 

Lowe should not be credited for the move to SMS alone... he may have been chairman of a failing plc, but he was not the sole architect of the move. The Council was more important.

[SaintRobbie]

Given the decline of Britain as a manufacturing country you could go through the Chairmen/CEOs of the majority of British industry over the last 30 years and point to their last year as as big a "disaster" as Lowe's last year.

 

I think the question refers to footballing chairmen, don't you?

[sadoldgit]

Not picking on you or knocking your opinion as all are valid, but what good ideas and what undoubted business skills exactly??

 

Sir Clive?

Eye gym?

Wigley?

Gray?

Saint FM?

Saint insurance?

Stoneham?

 

Etc.

 

Also if it wasn't for Southampton City Council we'd still be at The Dell!!!!!

 

There are awlays issues in any deals where something happens or it doesn't. The important thing is that it happens. It happened when Lowe was here therefore he should take credit, just as he should take responsibility in his last year here.

 

As much as it suits the agenda to pretend that nothing worthwhile happened during his time here, that just isn't the case and makes the debate pointless. It is called balance.

[sadoldgit]

I think the question refers to footballing chairmen, don't you?

 

And football isn't a business? Anyway, I won't spoil your morning Robbie, I know how much you love a session of Chairman bashing!!!