The Last Chance Saloon?

[notnowcato]

Bringing in the Dutch duo from a country considered a blueprint by many for youth development and a manager willing to take it on for £60k pa then that to me seems a reasonable gamble given the circumstances.

 

 

I would have to disagree with your point above and this would not be with benefit of hindsight. The Dutch are famous for many other things, including wooden shoes... doesn't mean they are going to work here.

 

We already were heading towards a big gamble with blooding plenty of youngsters, we really should have been limiting the opportunity of failure by having a real leader as a boss.

[insertfunnyname]

I'm not certain miracles were actually required. We had an excellent candidate in place at the end of last season, who had already shown enough competancy to halt the decline sufficiently to survive. Nigel had also brought in some decent loan deals. His manner and approach were there to be admired, many were very impressed by his leadership qualities, these qualities still shine in the dugout and in the media in general.

 

Compare that to the background of Jan and Mark. Neither had significant experience of English football, or could demonstrate success to any great extent in their own country. It would seem that their major qualification was that Rupert was employing 2 for the price of 1 and that they were Dutch.

 

Jan and Mark would had to significantly improve to keep Southampton up. Would Nigel Pearson have had to perform miracles to keep us in the Championship? Furthermore you could ask would a better home performing team been good for the gate receipts and all attached revenue?

 

Totally agree especially when you factor in it would have been very easy for him (and understandable) to put the boot in to Saints and Lowe over being let go in the media all season long. Us being relegated with his team taking our place but I haven't heard him once lower himself to that level. He comes across considered, reasonable and capable.

 

For me it was the draw at Charlton where you could see him organising the team from the sidelines, motivating them, giving individual players tips and most key of all 11 players working their socks off for a point, chasing everything. I often didn't see that this season.

 

I also think its a bit cheap to now say he's done so well cos he's learned his trade in League 1 - it would seem an argument being created to head off the "I told you so's" when Pearson does well next year. He saved Saints prior to that and Leicester went top early on and stayed there so I don't think you could argue he learnt it all in the first 2 months of his time in League 1.

 

But as with all things Saints some will never accept this and vice versa.