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A year tomorrow........


doddisalegend

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Credit to Cortese for bringing in Markus Liebherr to buy us initially and also credit to him for the excellent progress that we made under him.

 

Bu ultimately we can now see that since he has gone, we have not only remained as good as we were under his stewardship, we have progressed beyond most peoples' expectations.

 

All those in the media who shrilly predicted that Katharina Liebherr wanted to sell the club have egg all over their faces. We owe her a debt of gratitude for the progess we have made under her

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So are we better off now than when he was here? Did the ambtion walk away with him? Did the club crumble like some predicted?

 

or

 

Are have we moved on a level? Are we stronger on and off the pitch?

 

This. But I guess that's what happens when you upgrade a head of department...........

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This. But I guess that's what happens when you upgrade a head of department...........

 

Exactly, Cortese was a good lower league bottom half of the table CEO, a kind of Neil Warnock of CEOs, but to push onto the next level we really needed to upgrade him and we've done so.

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Last year it was Cortese, year before it was Adkins sack... What Will Be January Meltdown 2015???

 

Ground capacity to be reduced to accommodate a chapel in the chapel stand for pre-match prayers.

MLG to self immolate during half time relay in protest.

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Reading back through the original thread, it amazes me how some people write statements of absolute fact that clearly aren't.

 

As bearsy pointed out we've had a number of melt downs since the new owners took over so by now you'd think people would wait to see how things pan out before going off on one.....................I learnt my lesson with Pardew:blush:

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Credit to Cortese for bringing in Markus Liebherr to buy us initially and also credit to him for the excellent progress that we made under him.

 

Bu ultimately we can now see that since he has gone, we have not only remained as good as we were under his stewardship, we have progressed beyond most peoples' expectations.

 

All those in the media who shrilly predicted that Katharina Liebherr wanted to sell the club have egg all over their faces. We owe her a debt of gratitude for the progess we have made under her

 

Exactly this, well said!

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I think we have progressed as per the plan... and its to Katherina's (and Ralph's) credit that that the continues the progression as first envisioned by Marcus and Nicola.

 

If we ignore the WUMs on here looking for a bite and remember a few 'facts' - then the truth is probably a lot more 'normal' and less sensationalist than some on here like to go on about. To make a fair assessment you have to separate the the fact that Cortese irritated a lot of folks and fell out with them, from the model and strategy that was implemented by him and Marcus, and continued by Reed and KL/RK since.

 

My biggest concern when he left was that the speculation that KL was not really interested in football and the club, might lead to her selling up and then we could well be back to square one. I really thought that would be the case so its great to have been wrong on that score.

 

What Marcus and Nicola did was build from the ground up - The Southampton Way - some joked about Cortese's soundbite, but I believe its the foundation for the success we are seeing now. To me it seems a bit like what the Germans did at national level - first identify the style and approach - the way they wanted to play, the identity. For us this was our passing and pressing style - and then recruit coaches, managers and players (and coach those players from 8 years to first team) in that style - eventually getting more of these home developed players into the squad and becoming more self sustainable. It's also what he meant when suggesting that managers were just 'heads of department' - because we now have a structure and approach that does not suddenly evaporate the moment a manager leaves - we have CONTINUITY of our style and 'way' and its that that breeds success. Many other clubs suffer the full change when a manager goes as we used to... and its why most clubs will struggle when so many players leave... and why many thought we would... but the 'way' continued, just under different leadership. In some respects our position in L1 gave us the opportunity to do this - we were rock bottom and had time and funding to fundamentally change the way we were organised. For most clubs they either don't have the funding, or the pressure for short term success/avoiding relegation means its follow the 'tried and tested' and hope the manager's makes a difference.

 

I am not saying that having a manager of the caliber of 'koeman' does not have a big impact, but its subtle - devil in the detail stuff - and in this game its all about fine margins, but he was able to come in and not have to build from scratch, merely fine tune and improve small things that make big differences...

 

I think if Marcus had not passed away, the pace of this progress may well have been a little slower - I think NC got a bit carried away - his ego was obviously huge - and so he accelerated the plan by using alternative financial resources - especially around the development of Staplewood... and KL quite within her rights was keen to ensure a more democratic control over this... and they fell out. These things happen. Had NCs ego not been so huge, I believe he would still be here as part of an expanded board room.

 

Thankfully, the strategy has continued and we are reaping the rewards of a well designed and solid foundation laid down by Marcus, Cortese and Reed. failure to acknowledge that is simply down to prejudice or ignorance... or simply a dislike of the man for his fallings out over Benali's bathroom carpet (which seemingly has a lot to answer for) - after all the 'everyone pays for their ticket' and stopping of pay outs for former managers etc in the exec suites began under Marcus... and were accepted in general. Benali rented Nicola his house... and the rest is...public bickering that did nobody any favours.... some fans seemed happy to spread rumours of NC not giving a fig about our history... yet many many of the 76 cup winners were invited to events as were other former players... just not those he fell out with.

 

Do we miss him? NO, because the work/approach has been continued and by all accounts with less autocracy. But we can not ignore his contribution to our current success.

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I do think the way he's seems to have been completely ignored in our recent history by the club is a little pathetic, but boy we haven't missed him.

 

Certainly a big part of getting us to where were were though.

 

It started the previous January, when Adkins was sacked. I wonder who instigated that? :rolleyes:

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Exactly, Cortese was a good lower league bottom half of the table CEO, a kind of Neil Warnock of CEOs, but to push onto the next level we really needed to upgrade him and we've done so.

This. Completely ill equipped to take to the level we are now at.

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This. Completely ill equipped to take to the level we are now at.

That may or may not be true, but he helped lay the foundations, and without him we wouldn't be where we are today. NC brought ML to the club, and we'd probably still be festering in the lower divisions if he hadn't.

 

NC was fantastic for us, but in hindsight he probably left at just the right time.

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That may or may not be true, but he helped lay the foundations, and without him we wouldn't be where we are today. NC brought ML to the club, and we'd probably still be festering in the lower divisions if he hadn't.

 

NC was fantastic for us, but in hindsight he probably left at just the right time.

 

I'd agree with that totally.

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That may or may not be true, but he helped lay the foundations, and without him we wouldn't be where we are today. NC brought ML to the club, and we'd probably still be festering in the lower divisions if he hadn't.

 

NC was fantastic for us, but in hindsight he probably left at just the right time.

Agree. He did a great job for us in the lower divisions.

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Last year it was Cortese, year before it was Adkins sack... What Will Be January Meltdown 2015???

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Bearsy, but I am afraid that the January Meltdown 2015 will center around you. I hope you come out of it ok.

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One thing I do miss is the players and manager constantly praising the chairman in their interviews for all his hard work behind the scenes. Wonder what why that changed?

 

Maybe the current chairman doesn't work hard. Or maybe he doesn't do it behind the scenes.

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Bearsy, but I am afraid that the January Meltdown 2015 will center around you. I hope you come out of it ok.

 

It's all just allegations at the moment RedSLO. There is absolutely no hard evidence. Or cctv footage. Or soiled clothing.

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I think we have progressed as per the plan... and its to Katherina's (and Ralph's) credit that that the continues the progression as first envisioned by Marcus and Nicola.

 

If we ignore the WUMs on here looking for a bite and remember a few 'facts' - then the truth is probably a lot more 'normal' and less sensationalist than some on here like to go on about. To make a fair assessment you have to separate the the fact that Cortese irritated a lot of folks and fell out with them, from the model and strategy that was implemented by him and Marcus, and continued by Reed and KL/RK since.

 

My biggest concern when he left was that the speculation that KL was not really interested in football and the club, might lead to her selling up and then we could well be back to square one. I really thought that would be the case so its great to have been wrong on that score.

 

What Marcus and Nicola did was build from the ground up - The Southampton Way - some joked about Cortese's soundbite, but I believe its the foundation for the success we are seeing now. To me it seems a bit like what the Germans did at national level - first identify the style and approach - the way they wanted to play, the identity. For us this was our passing and pressing style - and then recruit coaches, managers and players (and coach those players from 8 years to first team) in that style - eventually getting more of these home developed players into the squad and becoming more self sustainable. It's also what he meant when suggesting that managers were just 'heads of department' - because we now have a structure and approach that does not suddenly evaporate the moment a manager leaves - we have CONTINUITY of our style and 'way' and its that that breeds success. Many other clubs suffer the full change when a manager goes as we used to... and its why most clubs will struggle when so many players leave... and why many thought we would... but the 'way' continued, just under different leadership. In some respects our position in L1 gave us the opportunity to do this - we were rock bottom and had time and funding to fundamentally change the way we were organised. For most clubs they either don't have the funding, or the pressure for short term success/avoiding relegation means its follow the 'tried and tested' and hope the manager's makes a difference.

 

I am not saying that having a manager of the caliber of 'koeman' does not have a big impact, but its subtle - devil in the detail stuff - and in this game its all about fine margins, but he was able to come in and not have to build from scratch, merely fine tune and improve small things that make big differences...

 

I think if Marcus had not passed away, the pace of this progress may well have been a little slower - I think NC got a bit carried away - his ego was obviously huge - and so he accelerated the plan by using alternative financial resources - especially around the development of Staplewood... and KL quite within her rights was keen to ensure a more democratic control over this... and they fell out. These things happen. Had NCs ego not been so huge, I believe he would still be here as part of an expanded board room.

 

Thankfully, the strategy has continued and we are reaping the rewards of a well designed and solid foundation laid down by Marcus, Cortese and Reed. failure to acknowledge that is simply down to prejudice or ignorance... or simply a dislike of the man for his fallings out over Benali's bathroom carpet (which seemingly has a lot to answer for) - after all the 'everyone pays for their ticket' and stopping of pay outs for former managers etc in the exec suites began under Marcus... and were accepted in general. Benali rented Nicola his house... and the rest is...public bickering that did nobody any favours.... some fans seemed happy to spread rumours of NC not giving a fig about our history... yet many many of the 76 cup winners were invited to events as were other former players... just not those he fell out with.

 

Do we miss him? NO, because the work/approach has been continued and by all accounts with less autocracy. But we can not ignore his contribution to our current success.

 

This is a good post that will be overlooked by the usual suspects, seems like GS is still missing on this thread but the others are here in good voice.

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The club achieved a lot or success in his time here, but history will show that this was inspite of Cortese not because of him.

 

Cortese job wasn't to win football matches, it was to employ people to win football matches. In any other industry if a CEO who presides over a building project which came in double the budget, a huge legal bill due to stream of court cases for unpaid bills, a huge staff turnover and failing to increase commercial income despite huge success of the product would be considered a failure. Yet for saints fans the person was viewed a hero.

 

So yes we had a lot Of success on the pitch where corteses control was limited but off the pitch things were close to becoming a disaster. Cortese was great at spending money, not so good at making it.

 

The reaction on here was laughable when he quit, it was beyond the pale, people genuinely did believe that the club was nothing without him. The last year has proven that his isn't the case at all and that we've managed to move onto the fabled next level without being taken to court by local businesses, getting banned from City centre restaurants, banning former players in fact we haven't even had to sign Ralph Krugers name during a match.

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Yep Cortese was just useless, just like spending over folks money.... so useless in fact that as a successful banker, he became the confident and close friend of a certain billionnaire called M Liebherr. If Cortese was as incompetent and useless as some on here would like us to believe, then they must also be suggesting M Liebherr was a poor judge of character and ability?

 

He was egotistical and he put a few noses out of joint - but to suggest 'history will show' that our success was 'inspite' of him is one of two things; ignorance and plain stupid, or as is more likely, about 6.5 in the WUM scale (or must try harder)

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It's good to see nothing changes on here. Any slight criticism of him is met with howls of derision from his biggest fans.

 

People have hailed corteses ability to appoint managers, yet have never actually asked the question how did a man who had no knowledge of English football know about and appoint Pardew and Adkins? How did this man with no experience in sport create the blueprint for 'the southampton way'? Either he's the fastest learner and most visionary human being who ever lived or he had people around him doing that for him, for which he was happy to take the glory.

 

People say he was a great businessman, yet I dont recall us securing any huge sponsorship deals or huge increases in commercial revenue. What I do recall is our commercial revenue being lower than midtable

Championship clubs.

 

People seem to forget Cortese wasn't a director or football, the football area where he should have had the least involvement, this area was the most successful in his tenure, coincidence? You decide.

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