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Cortese kisses and makes up with the Sun


Golac's Iron Gonads

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Success is certainly seeing us back in the media spotlight, which I personally think is a good thing. We'll also get some "downer" stories with clubs sniffing around our best performers, but I'll live with that.

 

I admire NCs ambition and positive thinking (even if I think some of his ideas just might be a step too far).

 

The only downside for me is the need to have another pop at Club legends!!! (when MLT said something a few months back, some of the bedwetters on here jumped down his throat accusing him of perpetuating this feud, I wonder if they will be as even handed with NC?).

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The only downside for me is the need to have another pop at Club legends!!! (when MLT said something a few months back, some of the bedwetters on here jumped down his throat accusing him of perpetuating this feud, I wonder if they will be as even handed with NC?).

 

but people like you will point it out for them

 

Top trolling

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For those who think this interview betrays personality flaws that NC has please bear in mind that he did not sit in front of a reporter and troll out what he said. NC was responding to specific questions that have been subsequently left out (normal practice to make the piece sharper and I have no gripe with that) but he was responding to questions and not just 'bigging himself up'. As he says, he wants what is best for the club and if that is good for NC too then that's fine, he is in charge after all! It was NC that brought the money in that saved us and it was NC that has used that money wisely to turn our fortunes round. If NC Has some 'personality faults' then I guess he must be human after all as so do the rest of us one way or another. NC Is excited by what he has seen NA and the team achieve so far and "wants us to be champions", that does necessarily mean that he insists we are champions or else ...! I would love us to be champions too, not runners-up or play-off contenders and certainly not also rans.

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Knowing the way The Sun operates, they have probably over-sensationalised some very ordinary quotes from NC and given it more "glamour".

 

Doesn't mean much, apart from giving the sad troll an excuse to open a new packet of razor blades.

 

/\ this

 

When you read that article the interview must have taken no more than 5 minutes if the Journo taped it. Cannot see that was how long it actually took.

 

British Press in using an editing technique sensation.

 

Which then shows that some have missed yet another important point - That is a POSITIVE article. The Sun published something POSITIVE about the club & NC. It has also been a hell of a long time since THAT happened.

 

You know what that article really does? I've had 3 mates now contact me to FINALLY ask - wow what IS happening down at your club.

 

Our trolls are probably moaning that it wasn't a left wing fan on the board that gave that interview.

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I dont see how any genuine sane saints fan cannot be excited by what is happening to our club at the moment. Think back to a little over 2 years ago and remember how depressed we all were and the feeling of despair and anger at watching our great club that we love dying in front of us.

 

Think back over the years to the chairmen we have had in place that due to their lack of vision and neglect of our club have led us to protest in the ground and march through the city in a desperate attempt to do something to change the fortunes of the club so many care about so passionately.

 

I can remember the day we signed kevin keegan who as we all know had been crowned the European footballer of the year for the previous 2 seasons, i can remember when we won the fa cup and the effect that had on the city, i can recall finishing runners up in the league playing great football in 1984 and remember the pride i felt when le tissier was turning down various clubs offering much more money to show loyalty to southampton fc.

 

These events along with all the other great moments i have enjoyed over the years being a saints fan however do not rank as important as the day Markus Liebherr and Nicola Cortese walked into our club with their vision. What they saw was the potential of this club, with the stadium, size of the fanbase etc. Of course Cortese is not responsible for scoring the goals on the pitch but he has been responsible for identifying the talent to make this happen. This includes the right manager for the job and the right players to get us back to where we belong in the top division.

 

It is clear that Cortese has been bitten by the football bug and genuinely cares about southampton football club as a fan. He is a successful businessman who could clearly be off on other probably more financially rewarding projects but is getting huge enjoyment from what he is doing here.

 

We have proven we can be a top 6 club in the top division, we were doing it on a regular basis in the early to mid 1980s. Of course football has changed since then but so have we. Back then we were restricted by the size of the dell. Lawrie McMenemy used to call us a big club playing in a small container. He also commented on our passionate support saying that in his homeland of the North East they danced in the street but in Southampton they care just as much about their club but the fans dance in their kitchens!

 

I have spent some time living in the North East myself and used to go and watch both Newcastle and Sunderland and I can honestly say that the depth of loyalty and passion of Southampton fans is on a par. And of course much closer to home we often had to put up with people saying how great the Portsmouth fans were during there spell in the premier league...... where have all these great fans gone now

 

Cortese has a vision for our club and unlike crazy chairmen like Michael Knighton and George Reynolds it is very realistic. With the right planning and structure that Cortese is putting in place there is absolutely no reason why we cannot go back to competing in the top half of the top division and getting back into European football.

 

There will of course be doubters but sadly in life some people are just born naturally negative and depressed. These people who question Cortese's ability to lead us back to being a successful Premier league side also probably doubted his willingness to splash out on players. Yet we invested in Lambert and Fonte etc with the sort of money most teams in the division we were in at the time spent on the whole of their squad. These same people probably questioned his ability to hang onto our top talent and yes while we have sadly lost Chamberlain we have kept hold of Lallana who i think is a more important player to us right now and every player that was nearing the end of his contract who we wanted to keep has signed a contract extension over the last few months because they want to be part of what is happening here. These doubters questioned when Cortese brought in Nigel Adkins but he has delivered us a team that won promotion playing great football. These doubters then said this team would not be good enough for the championship and Cortese needed to invest in the squad. That investment has been shown in Cork and Fox especially but what both he and Adkins identified was this team was largely good enough to win promotion again and a large part of that was the team spirit that has been created.

 

There are still people who are unhappy with Cortese because he has charged people to park in the car park to avoid people exploiting the club by parking there all day for free and walking into work in the city. Some are upset that great players and managers of our past are not given free tickets despite the fact that fans and even the chairman has to pay, this is a business after all.

 

Surely it is better to focus on everything great that has been achieved since Cortese has walked into our club and remember he has delivered on everything he has set out to achieve to date and lets look at the the championship table and see who currently sits proudly at the top. Lets enjoy this time and lets look forward to the future because the plans and ambitions of our chairman are very exciting and achieveable. I feel blessed to have Cortese as our chairman and wouldnt swap him for anyone.

 

Amen to that brother. I remember sitting at work continually F5ing to see if we had really gone to the wall - this great club I've supported man and boy all the history that I felt part of was going to disappear at the touch of an administrator! But no we were bought by ML on the advice of NC - and the rest is now history or hopefully history in the making. Yes NC irritates some with his minor errors in judgement - well sorry but there for the grace of god go I! He's not perfect - if thats what you want I/we really can't help. If you want someone that will put his heart and sole in to realising the dream that he sold to Markus then get behind him. If all that can be laid at his door are minor errors in judgement then that will do for me thanks, as it would suggest all the big decisions he's got right.

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I was just about to reply with an apology but then you got all boring and irritating again by editing the post and delving into minute detail that is totally unnecessary. Please refrain from that or we can't have a discussion and I'll stick you back on ignore.

 

Grow up Hypo. MLT was 100% in the right. You should have just acknowledged this or, if you can't swallow your pride and admit you were wrong, agree to disagree mate. Instead you've made yourself look like a spoiled child ... perhaps that's why so many people have you on ignore?

 

Anyhow, back on topic, I'm pleased we finally have a chairman with ambition. Of course, whether this ambition is fulfilled remains to be seen but I'm really enjoying the ride so far!

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Well I don't want to start a conspiracy rumour here but neither of the links to the article in this thread works for me. I get a 404 error from The Sun.

 

I guess Cortese has told The Sun to take it down in order to start another feud with them. I can't immediately see it linked from The Sun's home/sport pages either.

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Would seem it has been taken down. As someone said earlier, The Sun are often quite bad for taking direct quotes and changing them. I wonder if Saints have requested it's removal.

 

Possibly but assuming its in todays newspaper and more people will read that than an article on the internet its a bit unlikely.

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I am with the mighty Saints and that is thanks to ML and definitely to Uncle Nic.....

 

Good to have ambition but hopefully he is aware that they will come back to stab him in the back at every opportunity...(The newspapers)

 

 

Great to have goals/targets and I believe that NC appears to know what he is doing.......Don't over do this though NC

 

 

My only wish would be that he could somehow get round the table with Sir Lawrie , Sir Matt , Sir ottery and get these legends back on board.........Pleeeeeeeeeese

 

 

 

Ps only joking ...ottery is already on board the bus..:rolleyes:

 

 

WIFM

Edited by ottery st mary
AS USUAL spellin and poor English
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I can't get the link open either, but have gleaned enough from the comments on it here to get the general gist of it. It is good to have NC reiterate the club's ambitions and having read through the thread, I note that there are only one or two individuals who seem to make it their life's work to try and find the negatives in a sea of positives. Sensible, mature individuals accept that nobody is perfect, but some who constantly moan at the imperfections of others, should have a good hard look in the mirror.

 

As "the Mick Channon Windmill" said so eloquently in his post, it seems that regardless of how successful we become, there will always be some small-minded individuals who will never be satisfied. Perhaps the time has come when these people should be asked outright to tell us all who they would prefer to be running the club and in the absence of a response, they should be told to accept that we are currently being run by the best people and to stop grousing.

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Ambition is great but I prefer quiet ambition. We're setting ourselves up for a fall. Teams will want to beat us more and more, and good as we are we remain fragile in defence and simply will lose games.

 

Yep, I agree with this, and I found parts of the article quite cringeworthy.

 

The positives of it are that it is a lifting of the media blanket that seems to have enveloped the club, and a positive editorial written not by the OS or the Daily Echo. Added to the recent BBC article about NA, it shows the progression made by the club and that what we're doing is definitely being seen ina positive light.

 

I just think the tone of it comes across as a bit arrogant and self-promotional. A bit too much "look at me, I'm great, I stung Arsenal for too much money but I'm still ready to roll my sleeves up and clean the bus up 'cos I'm that type of guy". It's reminiscent of "Just call me Mike" in our Saints go Wilde abomination.

 

I don't mind Cortese at all, I think he's made a few silly small mistakes but overall has made a massively positive influence on the club. But I don't think thsi article will do him too many favours, particularly amongst the neutrals.

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ANYWAY

 

Back on topic, I guess it is some of the Cortese personality traits I object to rather than Cortese himself (who actually has achieved the main job of appointing and supporting a manager well although that is a heck of a lot easier when you are able to make a seven million pound loss!). More specifically, it's when those personality traits impact on myself and my ability to support SFC. I suppose it also grates slightly because with the money we now have I really feel we could do more to attract fans to the club. With just a little imagination we could be getting much higher crowds IMO and I think some of the little things have left certain sections of fans feel like they are a bit of a commodity rather than truly valued. It is inevitable that with premiership ambitions, this neglect of the fans will get worse and I feel that Cortese is really missing an opportunity to mark himself as 'different' by really connecting with the fans and listening to their input and ideas (not necessarily acting upon them).

 

Love the results, love some of the decision making on the football side but really question parts of his personality, certainly this interview and why he felt it was really necessary to highlight that he stayed behind to clear up or that we may look to spend a ton of money at some vague point in the future. It just sounds like soundbites for PR and to placate a gullible fanbase, but what do I know? No doubt I'll get the abuse from the usual sources but I am aware that a sizeable number share this view, including a current saints player.

 

Back on topic because you were about to lose the debate with MLG on ambition? You are tragic.

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Good positive ambition from Cortese, I don't agree with the little pop at Lawrie Mac and MLT though, as much as I think it is our former 'legends' that are firmly in the wrong on this issue, especially Lawrie Mac, I don't think it needs to continually be brought up in the press.

 

That said, how sadly predictable that Hypo pops up after only a few posts and continues to ram his critiscism down everyones throats until they choke, sad, self obsessed little troll.

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I suppose that is dependent upon whether all you care about is results and how much you are bothered by some of the smaller errors of judgement. It's sort of like how I'm not too keen on us winning promotion or at least staying there long term as my participation in terms of going to games will be dramatically reduced. In that sense I'm selfish. I would rather see saints being less successful and get to go to the majority of games than see saints doing well in the premiership but only being able to go to a handful.

 

 

If your sad pathetic dreams came true and we were less successful and didn't achieve promotion to the Premier League anytime soon you would be the first person to blame Cortese and use it to knock him, you'd whinge like a little girl that he didn't do enough and how you were right and better than everyone else, but now he's stating his ambition you whinge like the little girl you are saying "It's all talk blah blah blah, look at me trying to wind as many people up as possible by being a complete clueless nobody"

 

Nothing Cortese will do will please you because you enjoy the negative side of life.

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This is why football is so addictive - we all share dreams and visions as fans, but a Chairman going public like this is great. Unlike Risdale at Leeds we want to live the dream - but not at any cost!

Mr Cortese, Mr Chairman or just plain Nicola - our club is all together. some fans are never satisfied - personally I'm over the moon. As far as ambition goes - the players must be as hungry. The way some have stepped up to the plate has been fantastic.

I just love our club.

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Cortese is an embarrassment to Southampton FC. MLT and LM and all the other legends that Clotese have fallen out with and a have Saints what it it, will be around long time after that little squirt has slopped off.

Has there ever been such a "look at me" article written?

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Cortese is an embarrassment to Southampton FC. MLT and LM and all the other legends that Clotese have fallen out with and a have Saints what it it, will be around long time after that little squirt has slopped off.

 

So you are happy for MLT and LM to go to the press but not Cortese? Why do you think Cortese hasn't done much for the club? He has helped put the things in place for Saints to climb from 68th to 21st in England in a little over two years, developing the training ground, spending on players and saved it from financial ruin by bringing Liebherr to the table in the summer of 2009.

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I don't either like or dislike Cortese and anyone who thinks this was some sort of random interview obviously came up the Clyde on a bike.... But then I despair of two thirds of this country not understanding how the media works...

 

What I do think is that there is a lot of hypocricy on this forum.

 

If Rupert Lowe had given this interview and expressed these views, people would have slated him. I for one, thought Lowe was totally bonkers when he suggested (on the resignation of WGS) that he wanted a manager who could come to places like Old Trafford and win... What's the difference between that and an ambition to be in the Champions' League????

 

Conversely, I love ambition and am a great believer in aiming for the top. Man's failure is not to set his targets too high and fail to reach them, but to set them too low and achieve them...

 

But I mainly agree with those who say there's no need to hear from a Chairman. Football is a game best talked about by fans and managers.

 

We could be quietly ambitious, go about our business with dignity, professionalism and ruthlessness if we really must.

 

I admire Cortese and I'm glad he's at our club, but these media soundbites are just that and they are as bad for any club as they are good. If he wants to talk ambition with the fans, we have a programme for that.

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What I do think is that there is a lot of hypocricy on this forum. If Rupert Lowe had given this interview and expressed these views, people would have slated him. I for one, thought Lowe was totally bonkers when he suggested (on the resignation of WGS) that he wanted a manager who could come to places like Old Trafford and win... What's the difference between that and an ambition to be in the Champions' League????

 

Because Lowe didn't have the resources behind him to back up any ambition, Cortese does.

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