Michael Wilde

[Frank's cousin]

compared to Wilde he was. If you look at the way the club is being run now it is the way RL was trying to do, but without the influx of money of course

 

And imho Lowe's biggest problem was always that he was so divisive. The funniest thing on here are those who don't get what you highlighted above. I was an unashamed LoweluvvieTM - did I think he made colossal errors of judgement? Yes, especially in manager choice - but if you look at the PRINCIPLES of his approach - youth, prudent finance, academy, infrastructure, no one should argue against them. It is what we are doing now, but with more cash, and perhaps with someone at the helm, driven by more than a share dividend. It is and remains unfair to suggest that Lowe, Wilde, and Crouch did not all have the clubs interests at heart. Problem is, they were no different to any of us on here - they all had their own ideas about how to make it work.... And whether through nativity, mistakes or ego, and importantly, financial means, meant none were ever going to be able to see us progress to the level of fan expectation.

 

Crouch, should remain a hero. I was highly critical of the part he played in the ousting, but the reality is he put in and lost a huge amount of money to support the club in its most difficult period.

 

Wilde, wanted to do something... Lowe had become such a hate figure that Wilde was prepared play the John Redman role and start the process of change... IMHO, it should have been more evolutionary, than the coup that happened, as in that vacuum, the spite, etc, we were left with an exec board more at home in a solarium than in a club boardroom... Shortermist, naive, and doomed to fail the moment we spent that 8 mil....and his T Shirts were sh it

 

Raking it all up seems churlish, but should serve as a reminder to fans - be careful what we wish for. We got Soooo lucky with Markus and NC, and it such a shame Markus is not here to see the progress his investment has made. In some respects, maybe his Good cop to NC's 'bad cop' partnership would make it easier for ALL fans to feel more at ease with the current management, but given that period in our history, perhaps we need to accept and appreciate what we have a little more.

[Wes Tender]

compared to Wilde he was. If you look at the way the club is being run now it is the way RL was trying to do, but without the influx of money of course

 

Apart, that is, from the disastrous destabilisation caused by Lowe's new season/new manager strategy and the necessity to sell all our half-decent players because of the lack of funds to keep us afloat.

 

Wilde did serve one very valuable purpose though. When the EGM was called, it became clear to everybody that despite appearances to the contrary, Lowe's shareholding amounted to a paltry 5 - 6% and the whole board could only muster less than 30%.

 

Up until then, the vast majority of the fanbase had believed that Lowe's shareholding was a substantial percentage and that it would be difficult to remove him and the board. I had often asked business associates of mine who were ST holders to guess at Lowe's percentage shareholding and invariably they would guess at over 70%. Lowe perpetuated this myth frequently, stating that if any investor was prepared to come in with £25 million, he would move aside as chairman.

 

So we at least have to thank Wilde for exposing the weakness of the boards' hold on the club, which would have put us on the radar of potential investors or new owners. However, after the shenanigans that followed, we were lucky that we were still a good enough proposition with our infrastructure, assets and small level of debt, that we were attractive to Markus Liebherr after we went into administration.

 

That Lowe and the charlatans from the old board lost all of their immoral windfall from the reverse takeover was a massive bonus.

 

As Morph says, we can laugh about it now.

Edited 31 December, 2013 by Wes Tender

[Guided Missile]

That's why even someone like Michael Wilde was welcomed with open arms. And thank god we did.

 

Welcomed with open arms....

 

Didn't Michael Wilde say that he could easily find a couple of million if it was needed?

 

****ing judas scum lying tosser ****.

[Wes Tender]

And whether through nativity' date='[/b'] mistakes or ego, and importantly, financial means, meant none were ever going to be able to see us progress to the level of fan expectation.

 

 

Are you still too full of the Christmas spirit, Frank?

[CB Fry]

Welcomed with open arms....

 

Saved that quote due to a threat of legal action, did you?

[aintforever]

Welcomed with open arms....

 

You just don't like the fact that "anything but Lowe" has turned out to be the best option. God knows where we would be if we still had Lowe and the PLC still in place, probably in the lower reaches of the Championship at best, "cutting our cloth to fit" on an eternal downward spiral.

 

As Morph says, we can laugh about it now.

[Guided Missile]

Saved that quote due to a threat of legal action, did you?

Learn how to use the Advanced Search function on this site, numbnuts. It only takes a minute and is useful for showing up posters for the tools they are...

[CB Fry]

Learn how to use the Advanced Search function on this site, numbnuts. It only takes a minute and is useful for showing up posters for the tools they are...

 

Digging up posts from 2008 makes you look a right winner. Well done.

[Wes Tender]

Learn how to use the Advanced Search function on this site, numbnuts. It only takes a minute and is useful for showing up posters for the tools they are...

 

I agree; it does make you look a tool.

[Guided Missile]

I agree; it does make you look a tool.

 

Join the club...

 

2013 - You're right, it is completely barmy. Trying to extrapolate something meaningful from such a disparate set of figures and then claiming the result as statistical evidence to back up an argument is looney. Apart from the different number of matches that were played under each manager, ranging from 2 to 95, the time span of the comparison is over a 22 year period. Football has changed significantly, especially regarding the wealth of the people owning the glory teams and the ridiculous sums of money they are able to spend on World stars, instead of the mostly British players that made up the teams when Branfoot was here.

 

 

Frankly I'm surprised that somebody like GM can accept these so called statistics as being the basis for an argument in support of dismissing Adkins. If I could be bothered, I would make a table comparing the stats of all of those managers when they managed lesser teams before they came here and then see how they stack up against Adkins' record in the lower divisions. It would be just as pointless and prove nothing more than this does.[/Quote]

[Guided Missile]

Digging up posts from 2008 makes you look a right winner. Well done.

 

You're right...

 

2008 - The benefit of the recent Bank of England base rate cut will do little to help Southampton Leisure plc. It must have seemed like a good idea when our club negotiated a 25 year fixed rate interest of 8.35% on the stadium loan, at a cost of £560,000 back in 2001.

With a base rate of 3% that seems like a pi££ poor deal now. Luckily the £1,000,000 loan we got in 2003 was borrowed at base rate plus 2% which means the recent rate cuts will save the club £20,000 in interest per year compared to a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, the £500,000 a year potential savings on the stadium loan, if we had negotiated a tracker rate, disappeared in the stroke of Lowe's pen, together with the £560K mortgage fee.

 

 

Suckers.....

 

 

 

 

2009 - Away from the overreaction to our inevitable demotion to League One, with all it's attendant hysterical wailing and pointless blame laying, I thought it may help to start a thread, in which calmness reigns and only positive thoughts are present.

 

 

The only rules on this thread are, (if we can manage it):

Politeness and sympathy for your fellow poster/fan

No blaming anyone for the past

Only positive posts about the present and future of the club

Humour and support from/for all

Call it a therapy thread, if you like. Therapy for the only assets that the administrator can't sell, yet are the club's greatest treasure, the fanbase.

 

 

I would like to start by hoping that from this day on, the fans can continue to show the rest of the country how we respond to adversity. I am sure that when we stand inside our magnificant stadium, in the warm Spring Southampton sunshine, at the end of the next game, knowing that we are down, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" will echo round the ground and we will know that starting next season, we can only expect better things.

 

 

So, my first positive thought is how much of a cult team we will become, stripped of our Championship arrogance and money. A sort of hard southern enclave of the underdog, swaying the neutral and earning respect. Working class, now Lowe has gone and southern to the core, now Wilde has gone.

[Wes Tender]

Join the club...

 

And dragging up that quote proves what exactly? As I said at the time, the statistical comparison you made was ridiculous, for the reasons I stated.

 

As far as I recall it, you never responded at the time attempting to justify your position, but now with the benefit of hindsight, you raise it in an attempt to demonstrate how clever you are.

 

In much the same way that you disparage Lowe for not taking a tracker mortgage on the stadium, even though his background in finance (and that of the Accountants on the Board) gave them far more financial expertise than yours. It was a gamble, as nobody could accurately forecast the way that interest rates would go, especially over a 25 year period. But in any event, you shouldn't get so precious over the additional cost of the interest, as the sale of a player or two was capable of wiping out the entire debt.

 

But getting back to CB Fry's point, I agree with him that it makes you look ridiculous, using these historical posts in an attempt to demonstrate what a clever bloke you are. I'm afraid that it is backfiring on you, as nobody likes a smartass, especially the petty anorak variety.

 

As for this:-

The only rules on this thread are, (if we can manage it):

Politeness and sympathy for your fellow poster/fan

No blaming anyone for the past

Only positive posts about the present and future of the club

Humour and support from/for all

Call it a therapy thread, if you like. Therapy for the only assets that the administrator can't sell, yet are the club's greatest treasure, the fanbase.

 

....in the past few posts you've resurrected your posts blaming Lowe for poor financial judgement, giving reasons why Adkins should be replaced, bad-mouthed fellow posters' opinions and all to massage your own ego.

 

My advice to you is that when you find yourself in a hole, it is best to stop digging.

[JackFrost]

You just don't like the fact that "anything but Lowe" has turned out to be the best option. God knows where we would be if we still had Lowe and the PLC still in place, probably in the lower reaches of the Championship at best, "cutting our cloth to fit" on an eternal downward spiral.

 

As Morph says, we can laugh about it now.

 

You almost make it sound like it was Wilde that brought Liebherr and Cortese here.

 

Personally I don't think the best option was to gamble money we didn't have and nearly bankrupt the club as a result. Just because we got very lucky with Markus and Cortese doesn't make Wilde's recklessness a good thing. You also ask the "if Lowe was still here" question but the wonderful irony is that Wilde's failings were precisely why Lowe and the PLC would have theoretically still been here in the first place. . . .

 

But you/Morph are right though, we can all look back on it now with amusement.