Cortese out to sink the Ex-Saints Charity?

[Matthew Le God]

The Pinnicale group only had enough money for a couple of Lambert style signings IIRC

 

No evidence they had any money at all really.

[scotty]

Well, its 52 posts in and only one supporting the position of the OP.

 

Time to lock this nonsense, methinks.....

[JackFrost]

No evidence they had any money at all really.

 

The mail was claiming Fialka was still living with his mum

 

As for this thread, christ almighty.

 

I got stuck at some temporary traffic lights coming home this evening, some berk had turned the other lot round to face the side so no one in a car could see them. All Cortese's fault of course.

[The Kraken]

Yes, this "charity" is living off the back of the club, which could potentially harm the club if the charity messes up in some way and is using the clubs name/image. Plus those connected to Ex-Saints continue to it slag Cortese off in public. I don't see why he or the club should aid them. The club has its own foundation and interests in charity work.

 

Why have you put the word "charity" in inverted commas? Are you suggesting that they are not one?

[spyinthesky]

I have some first hand stories relating to Cortese.

 

Unfortunately non of them are positive, which is a shame.

 

That said he is in charge of the football club I support, a club which is currently giving me more pleasure than in many a year.

 

Provided he doesn't do anything to prejudice the success and viability of the club then certain of his actions may disappoint me but I can live with this.

[pilsburydoughboy]

The more successful Saints get, the more bitter docker_p gets. Pathetic.

 

I am sure he meany well. Its all about opinions and reactions. I think Mr Docker-p thrives on it like Robbie Savage getting booed at every game only spurs Mr D-p on. Maybe he does not like us be a winning club as it gives him less to moan about.

[hypochondriac]

Why have you put the word "charity" in inverted commas? Are you suggesting that they are not one?

 

I hope he isn't insinuating that.

[JRM]

i am not at all surpised if this is the clubs (cortese's) stance on the matter, the ex-saints is a superb charity bringing together players of the past who made this club great, but it involves Benali (legal action with cortese) and Lawrie who cortese clearly has a problem with.

 

as far as mr ego cortese goes southampton football club history does not exist prior to his arrival, he has created his own little charity and wants nothing to do with the one that already existed. i went along to the ex-saints do in london last year to raise money for kevin moore, top night with some great stories from ex-players, some of the 76 final team, a real sense of togetherness and proud to be players who once wore the red and white shirt of southampton.

 

cortese doesn't want anything involving the club that he cannot control and get his own way with

[stevegrant]

Yes, this "charity" is living off the back of the club, which could potentially harm the club if the charity messes up in some way and is using the clubs name/image. Plus those connected to Ex-Saints continue to it slag Cortese off in public. I don't see why he or the club should aid them. The club has its own foundation and interests in charity work.

The Ex-Saints website lists 45 players among its members. Of those 45 players, I can see only one who has had anything public to say about Cortese (Le Tissier), and one other who is well-known to have had a significant falling-out with Cortese but to my knowledge hasn't said anything publicly about it (Benali). With a ratio like that, do you really think it's fair to attribute a collective anti-Cortese viewpoint on the group? Le Tiss can fight his own battles - to my knowledge, he's never made any comments in the name of the Ex-Saints.

 

I vote for lock the thread, can we have a poll?

Er, no

 

Can we at least make sure that this thread doesn't descend in to the disgraceful knocking of the Ex Saints Charity that happened last time around it was used as a political football by some to score some cheap points.

 

It's a great little charity, doing great work for many years and is certainly a positive with regards the local community and the Club itself.

 

As for this current piece of tittle tattle, well for me it's just the next round in this pointless and unnecessary feud.

Spot on.

 

Regarding the actual allegations, are they actually that bad? So the club wouldn't give them free advertising in the programme? Big deal... chances are they'd already sold all the available spaces - most are sold for the whole season, I believe. Regarding the letter, I'd be inclined to accept that that might have happened, I know that various organisations who have previously had permission to use the club crest have since had that permission revoked in the last 18 months or so, for whatever reason, so it's possible that they've decided to clamp down on the use of the nickname as well.

 

Well, its 52 posts in and only one supporting the position of the OP.

 

Time to lock this nonsense, methinks.....

I don't think so. I'm not going to lock a thread just because the opinion expressed hasn't received much support, that rather renders the idea of a forum obsolete.

[hypochondriac]

I don't think so. I'm not going to lock a thread just because the opinion expressed hasn't received much support, that rather renders the idea of a forum obsolete.

 

Good to hear Steve.

[Thedelldays]

Why not lock the thread on unsubstatisted rumours and hear'say

 

This has as much credibility as starting a thread claiming the admin here blow goats because someone else thinks sl

[Dig Dig]

Good to hear Steve.

 

Yea because you never demand threads to be locked do you

[hypochondriac]

Yea because you never demand threads to be locked do you

 

Never because I disagree with an opinion.

[Smirking_Saint]

I do agree with Granty, you can't just lock a therad because you do not like the contents, as long as it doesn't just resort to name calling etc etc.

 

I would give more credance to the story if it had not come from both NI and Docker_P who quite clearly have an agenda for whatever reason against Cortese but then you can't just ignore the info off hand. Its not like both Cortese and certain ex saints do not have previous in this arena.

 

Now I for one am all for the positives that NC has brought to this club that IMHO far far outweigh the negatives, this feud however, whatever the ins and outs and whatever the issues really needs to stop, both NC and the legends need to stop being childish and meet at the table for constructive talks as I can only see this damaging both sides in the future.

 

If this IS true, it really is a shame on behalf of the charity, the problem is it wouldn't surprise me either way if it was A. Complete b*llocks, or B. The truth

 

Which is a bit of a shame really.

[stevegrant]

Good to hear Steve.

As Dig Dig rightly points out, you're in no position to take the moral high ground

[hypochondriac]

As Dig Dig rightly points out, you're in no position to take the moral high ground

 

Never requested threads locked because I disagree with an opinion. Unless you have an example?

[tommi]

Typical fickle Saints fans - only happy when having something to moan about. We're top of the league, playing some of the best football seen for the last 20 years, investing in the club, the playing squad and the academy, have the most progressive chairman we have ever been fortunate enough to have at the club yet people still want to moan and drag up some unsubstantiated scandal.

 

What is wrong with you people? Cast your mind back 2 and a bit years when we very nearly didn't have a club. Short memories....

[Smirking_Saint]

As Dig Dig rightly points out, you're in no position to take the moral high ground

 

 

Do you realise what you have just done ?

 

lol

[stevegrant]

Never requested threads locked because I disagree with an opinion. Unless you have an example?

If you think I'm going to trawl through any of your 12,476 posts, you're very much mistaken

 

Also, all reported thread notifications get deleted as soon as I've read them.

[hypochondriac]

If you think I'm going to trawl through any of your 12,476 posts, you're very much mistaken

 

Also, all reported thread notifications get deleted as soon as I've read them.

 

That's a no then.

[Prince Jazzbo]

If I remember rightly, wasn't Roy Beazley quoted in the Echo saying that they had no problem with Cortese or the club a few months back. Also, I know first hand that the ex saints regularly have a box up at St Mary's.

[stevegrant]

I would give more credance to the story if it had not come from both NI and Docker_P who quite clearly have an agenda for whatever reason against Cortese but then you can't just ignore the info off hand. Its not like both Cortese and certain ex saints do not have previous in this arena.

Usually when considering information, you should pay attention to the credibility (or otherwise) of the source, but it shouldn't necessarily be the only criteria you look at when deciding whether something is accurate or not.

 

Unfortunately, with things like this, people look at the source and immediately say "well that's clearly ********". On the flipside, there are many people who see something posted on the OS and immediately take it as gospel even though there may be holes the size of a London bus in the statement(s). The biggest disappointment for me is that so many people are either unable or unwilling to believe that a situation might not be black or white, but a fuzzy shade of grey.

[Weston Saint]

Bloody hell, there are 3 threads on Cortese and Hypo has the most posts on each! Talk about "verbal" s.h.i.t

[hypochondriac]

Bloody hell, there are 3 threads on Cortese and Hypo has the most posts on each! Talk about "verbal" s.h.i.t

 

The saddest thing is you looked that up. Funny that you never seemed to mention me until I fell out with your friend.

[Weston Saint]

The saddest thing is you looked that up. Funny that you never seemed to mention me until I fell out with your friend.

Click on reply on the index and it only takes seconds. Take an inward look at yourself. I will not be continuing this debate

[Pedro]

Paul Merson, ex saints??? I haven't heard of a lot of the people associated with them. Good charity work but not 100% ex saints.

[The Kraken]

Paul Merson, ex saints??? I haven't heard of a lot of the people associated with them. Good charity work but not 100% ex saints.

 

Merson was a guest appearance for the game yesterday. No doubt cajoled into playing by MLT from their Soccer Saturday association.

 

Also, from the ex-Saints website:

 

"In 2008 a new board of former players and local businessmen was formed to drive this initiative forward. The Ex Saints board now consists of Francis Benali, Jimmy Case, Matt Le Tissier, Bob Terris, Mike Thew, John Webster (president) and Leroy Whale, plus Vice-Presidents Mike Channon, Terry Paine MBE and John Sydenham.

 

Should have heard of some of those.

[hypochondriac]

Click on reply on the index and it only takes seconds. Take an inward look at yourself. I will not be continuing this debate

 

Lol. It's an internet forum. I'm glad.

[St Chalet]

Lol. It's an internet forum. I'm glad.

 

Please apply that same logic when your pointer hovers over the 'Report Post' button

[The Kraken]

Fine to have odd opinions, rumours whatever, don't lock it for those reasons, but maybe because we have three long threads of the same stuff?

 

In theory this thread is valid enough, as it's about the ex-saints (although the thread title is needlessly provocative).

 

I do think it's sad that there seems to be a widening chasm opening between the club and the ex-Saints. They are a great organisation and in the past have received great support from within the club, and vice-versa. I'd suggest it's possible that the ex-Saints board consisting of MLT and Franny isn't going to engender good relationships between the two, which is a thorough shame as it will only mean both parties losing out.

[hypochondriac]

Please apply that same logic when your pointer hovers over the 'Report Post' button

 

Please detail how often that happens? You often get a fair few of your judgements on here overturned.

[Dalek2003]

What deluded claptrap from the OP, he has obviously escaped from a secure institution with white soft walls !

[Thedelldays]

Lol. It's an internet forum. I'm glad.

 

If it's just an Internet forum why have you gone crying to the mods in the past. Especially when you were banned

[Fan The Flames]

It would be deluded to think that Cortese is not involved in any thing negative.

[hypochondriac]

If it's just an Internet forum why have you gone crying to the mods in the past. Especially when you were banned

 

Explain how I cried to the mods when I got banned.

[sammysaint]

Worse spelling and grammer then me so it has no right to be taken seriously.

[Crab Lungs]

Cortese is an evil man. In fact, if you look closely enough you can see small, almost translucent strings attached to his back.

 

That's because his puppet-master is Rupert Lowe, and he's calling all the shots.

 

Only a fans takeover and a giant picture of Lawrie McMenemy can save us now.

[sfc4prem]

Southampton FC under Nicola Cortese have been great with charity in my experience, getting involved with my money-raiser for Type-1 Diabetes, when I contacted them via email.

 

I have seen docker_p's post history and he seems very anti-Cortese, jumping on anything negative, be it bullsh*t or a twisted newspaper story. Much like the rest of the UI forum, I think his agenda is best left ignored.

[Dig Dig]

i am not at all surpised if this is the clubs (cortese's) stance on the matter, the ex-saints is a superb charity bringing together players of the past who made this club great, but it involves Benali (legal action with cortese) and Lawrie who cortese clearly has a problem with.

 

as far as mr ego cortese goes southampton football club history does not exist prior to his arrival, he has created his own little charity and wants nothing to do with the one that already existed. i went along to the ex-saints do in london last year to raise money for kevin moore, top night with some great stories from ex-players, some of the 76 final team, a real sense of togetherness and proud to be players who once wore the red and white shirt of southampton.

cortese doesn't want anything involving the club that he cannot control and get his own way with

 

To be fair, as the CEO, this is exactly what he's paid to do.

 

With ongoing issue's with members of the charity, is anyone surprised even if the OP is true?

[Mowgli]

It does appear that some people have an agenda to undermine the Chairman which seems strange given the success we have had under his watch. I think the point has been well made that Saints (or indeed any organisation) are unlikely to throw their weight behind a charity they have no control over - particularly when they operate one themselves! For the record the Ex Saints are just that so I don't personally believe anyone can prevent that name being used - it's used on the hospitality box after all and the charity commissioners accepted it as a name. Some comments have been made in the past (including me) about costs associated with ex-saints events. But they are a registered charity so I think we have to rely on the proper organisation (Charity Commissioners) to oversee that side of thing. Frankly, anything they can raise for charity - particularly if it a worthy charity such as 'help for heroes' - is to be commended. FWIW both ex saints and saints foundation are registered charities.

 

In y. ending 31/3/09 ex saints declared an income of £20,411 and an expenditure of £8,842. The following year they declared an income of £3,625 and expenditure of £6,777. They are now below the threshold for accounts to be submitted.

 

In y ending 30/6/10 Saints foundation declared an income of £724,815 and expenditure of £664,059 of which £649,499 went on charitable activities.

[Dig Dig]

It would be deluded to think that Cortese is not involved in any thing negative.

 

From your location note it seems you're rather fond of ML. I know that many are for obvious reasons. If NC is such a grade A ****, why would ML only proceed with buying Saints if NC was running it? Why would a multi-billionaire with clearly brilliant business acumen and a seemingly good, honest and moral man entrust his wealth (for years prior to Saints) and extend his friendship to a man some people portray as "a little monster"?

 

It's strange how one is put so highly on a peddle stall from some of the same people who so readily oppose the other

[Bearsy]

Sniping at Cortese isn't much use to us right now. When the results start to go bad we'll turn on Nigel first, then when he's sacked we'll be gunning for the new manager, and only if he also fails too will we be after NC with the brick-bats.

 

Come back in 18 months please.

[CB Fry]

Not really interested in the original post - looks like hearsay assumptions and a bit of a fuss about nothing.

 

But had a quick click on the Saints Foundation website. I am in no doubt they do some very fine work, but who are the three listed ambassadors for this Saints charity?

 

Nicola Cortese.

 

Saints legend Iwan Thomas.

 

Other Saints legend Chris Tremlett.

 

And nobody else at all.

 

One thing I have thouroughly enjoyed over the last couple of days is the gymnastic leaps of logic that some forum posters have put themselves through to cast Cortese and everything he has ever done as utterly faultless and brilliant and everybody else as having evil agendas and go knows what else.

 

Your next job is to defend those as the best and most fitting and only ambassadors for the Saints (Southampton Football Club) Foundation. I am sure you are all about to tell me it is some absolute masterstroke.

 

Take it away.

[The Kraken]

To be fair, as the CEO, this is exactly what he's paid to do.

 

With ongoing issue's with members of the charity, is anyone surprised even if the OP is true?

 

If it's true then yes, I would be surprised to hear that the club chairman has completely cut ties with a charity who the club have supported for many years, simply because of a personal spat with two of that charity's members. If it were all true, I would suggest that it smacked of abject pettiness, considering the history of that charity.

[St Chalet]

Please detail how often that happens? You often get a fair few of your judgements on here overturned.

 

Please stop taking yourself so seriously, as you rightly point out it is an internet forum - not the High Court

[Mowgli]

By the way we talk about Cortese trying to obliterate the clubs history and I personally think that is wrong. I love reading about the history of the club and feel it is an important part of our lives. But to my knowledge, McMenemy kicked Terry Paine out and had a lot of old pictures removed from the Dell because he wanted the club to look forward. LOwe did the same and infamously replaced the cup final picture in the boardroom with a picture of a train. Crouch removed all memories of Lowe (a task that probably had the support of the vast amount of supporters) and Cortese - surprise, surprise - is doing something similar. Why? Because complacency comes from reflecting on the good times gone by. Passion comes from a vision of the future. Part of me wishes it was otherwise but that is the way of the world.

 

Many of the Ex-Saints will always be remembered fondly by Saints supporters all over the world but it won't be long before your son or daughter says 'who was Matt Le Tiss Daddy?'

 

What I'm trying to say is that it is the supporters who have the luxury of being nostalgic - the people charged with moving this club forward must focus on the future not the past.

[ibizasaint]

I came on here a week ago and everyone was going on about how united we were and how great it was to be a saints fan atm. Top of the league and going places. What a difference a week makes!

[Dig Dig]

If it's true then yes, I would be surprised to hear that the club chairman has completely cut ties with a charity who the club have supported for many years, simply because of a personal spat with two of that charity's members. If it were all true, I would suggest that it smacked of abject pettiness, considering the history of that charity.

 

The point is everyone has known about the clubs stance on Charity for a while now. So why do people find this such a shocking revelation worthy of more dissection? Why even ask the club in the first place when you clearly know what the answer will be?

[The Kraken]

The point is everyone has known about the clubs stance on Charity for a while now. So why do people find this such a shocking revelation worthy of more dissection? Why even ask the club in the first place when you clearly know what the answer will be?

 

From this very thread, post 91.

 

Southampton FC under Nicola Cortese have been great with charity in my experience, getting involved with my money-raiser for Type-1 Diabetes, when I contacted them via email.

 

And it hardly constitutes much effort on the club's behalf to promote upcoming ex-Saints events on the website or in the matchday programme, as they've previously been more than happy to oblige with.

[Crab Lungs]

I'm not saying Cortese is perfect, I'm not saying he hasn't made mistakes but some you really, really don't know how lucky we are to have him. If you think there is anyone out there who is (a) remotely interested (b) as capable as Cortese © can guarantee continued success then I'd love to hear who those people are.

 

His abrasive way is going to rub some people up the wrong way and rightly or wrongly, he bandied two ex-Saints into the same category as the freeloaders who probably have very tentative links with us. It's a mistake, it's happened and up until the silliness of the weekend, it appeared things had turned a corner and bridges were being built.

 

What I cannot fathom is the fan-on-the-board, protest/whinge/always-know-best brigade who surface every time there is a bit of controversy (in their heads, mostly) with a chairman. Half the time, you don't hear a peep from this ****heads until they've been given, in their sad little world, a justifiable reason to squinny like little girls because they don't agree with something. Additionally, they can't be reasoned with as they are always right, irrespective of anyone else's viewpoint. If Lowe did something right, it's wrong. If Wilde did something right, it was wrong. If Crouch did something right, it was wrong and if Cortese does something right, it's wrong - the same applies if any of the previous or current incumbents do anything wrong. Actually, that's the worst case scenario - they really get their little frillies in a twist over that.

 

If you want drama, watch a f()cking soap, or better still, go down either side of the city and hang around with those whingy f()cksticks. Just when we've finally, after years of turmoil, freeloading, debt and worry - turned it around, we find a small section of our fanbase crying into their milk and stomping on their digestives over programme covers, car park charges and the like. It's pathetic, truly f()cking pathetic. Typical know-it-all's who always have a solution for everything. The type of know-it-all who probably looked over the first Ted Bates statue and gave themselves a nice pat on the back for being such a "nice person".

 

Then we've got the attention-seeking tubthumping fan-on-the-board types who love a good drama. Stringing out small-ish problems and hear'say into large, volatile threads because they heard someone who heard someone else who farted the message which the dog heard from someone else who was walking their dog in the park. Stoking and hypothesising over dark forces, agendas and laying the seeds of doubt among others in the fanbase - just to grab that little slice of attention and hold dominion over a shallow, pointless conversation on the internet.

 

He's not f()cking pefect, far from it - but who is? He's done a great job so far and if he's isolated a few wet-willied, lily-livered cry babies than so be it. I'll question Cortese's ability when he does something truly horrendous and heinous. At the time of writing, he has not so shut the f()ck up whining and enjoy one of our best teams, managers and form in years before it all goes to sh1t and you've really got something to protest about.

Edited 26 September, 2011 by Crab Lungs