three things Rupert did right...

[kpturner]

That was number 2 on Bearsy's list (post 143)

I got bored by post 142

[corsacar saint]

He has only left twice[not by his own accord], but this counts for two. The third will be

that the deluded prat, never comes anywhere near the club again.

For a previous[ labour ]poster-The Lib-Dems turned down Stoneham, largely due to Lowes

intransigence, arrogant attitude and the fact he kept trying to move the goalposts.

[Frank's cousin]

History will show that Lowe budgeted for failure and that's what he got. His total lack of understanding of the mechanics of running a football club both as a business and in terms of building a squad to maintain Premiership status has been exposed for all to see. Lowe could not fathom the simple fact that to survive in the Premiership you must have a sprinkling of stars on high wages. Whether you get those players on loan or pick them up from abroad or on Bosmans you must have them. His strategy was to have a wage cap that meant our best players were driven away and the ones brought in were not good enough. Pretty soon he presided over the building of an ever expanding squad of mediocre/poor players that no manager could get a decent team out of. The wage bill for that large squad was probably as much or more than it would have been had he had the nous to sign some quality players. We found ourselves desperately trying to improve the team to get out of a self perpetuating mess. Add to that the revolving door managerial farce which partly resulted from his failure to authorise buying of decent player and the wheels for the demise of our fantastic club had been set in motion. The outcome was inevitable. From that point it was a sharp and slippery slope to where we now find ourselves. Budget for the lower leagues and that is inevitably where you'll end up. Reach up instead of down and you're planning for life on a park bench. The sad thing is, it aint rocket science.

Sorry, couldn't come up with three things he did right no matter how hard I tried. Nothing could compensate for the place he left our beloved club.

 

Cant argue with that. Its very true that the strategy failed. Now this is not a 'defence' as some would suggest, but an attempt to try and understand why this strategy was employed. I suspect several things. Firstly there is a striong argument for capping wages at a percentage of income - I do believe that is the best and wisest policy - te most sustainable, but it should be flexible to allow for individuals to have unrestricted income based on value to teh club - provided you have a manager that can keep everyone happy. Secondly, we got ourselves into that mess, by teh manager revolving door as you mention. NOw at least half of that WAS LOwes fault - the merits or otherwise of promotinng from within become irrelevent as the inexperience of the likes of Gray and Wigley told in their disasterous results, but can Lowe be blamed for Jones, Hoddle or even Strachan? Feck knows what happened with Sturrock... I think this issue wih players and managers leaving because they could not have what they wanted, to spend on players or wages to match the bigger sides is what convinced him to go down different roads - be it to try and get an edge through the whole Sports science and woodward thing or the youth approach - invest heavily there and create a conveyor belt of talent to replace the best players as they left?

 

The problem was he was so obssessed by these strategies that he took his eye off teh ball so to speak and failed to understand the simple fact that in teh prem, you needed annual investment and experience just to stand still, let alone progress - he probably felt that the squad we had was arguably good enough to keep us up even under the inexperience of Wigley and that was a huge blunder... As I have said countles times, I dont support the man, but I have recognised the rationale in some of his approaches - his problem was his total failing to think the short term when obsessed about the long - its no good thinking about the long term possibilties of such ideas, if the impact short term is utter failure.

 

I do see positives in thinking differently to looking to the long term and anything that might give a club an advantage when you dont have a sea of cash to splash, and I do believe in living within ones means (still baffles me how some can still go on about spending 15 mil+ on a couple of players and ages after teh cup final when that money was not there without serious selling) - but the fundementals have to take priority and thats where he failed.

[Give it to Ron]

The academy set up under Lowe was excellent and a great plan to supplement the first team. We would of been stuffed earlier without the Theo and Bale money.

We had some great coaches Prost, Henderson and the guy who left to work at the FA whose name escapes me but he was superb. Always ready for a chat and the youth worked really well with him.

Where it all went wrong IMO was Lowes obsession to see the team full of academy kids only. I will never forget or forgive Redknapp for setting those kids up for that league cup game and slaughtering them after for it. He used them to get back at Lowe and set some of them back ages.

Some of the claims that we had the best academy was overblown but we had some great youngsters at that time.

I watched them regularly at Staplewood and the pace and movement was amazing, we had strength, movement and a plan - something I have not seen in the last 2 years of watching them. OK we may be in a lull of players coming through but what we did have were put in far too early last season and crucified when they were not ready.

All part of Lowes obsession and refused to see that balance was needed.

Lowe should be praised for his early work in setting it up but its a great shame he destroyed that by pushing them all forward far too early.

[Frank's cousin]

The academy set up under Lowe was excellent and a great plan to supplement the first team. We would of been stuffed earlier without the Theo and Bale money.

We had some great coaches Prost, Henderson and the guy who left to work at the FA whose name escapes me but he was superb. Always ready for a chat and the youth worked really well with him.

Where it all went wrong IMO was Lowes obsession to see the team full of academy kids only. I will never forget or forgive Redknapp for setting those kids up for that league cup game and slaughtering them after for it. He used them to get back at Lowe and set some of them back ages.

Some of the claims that we had the best academy was overblown but we had some great youngsters at that time.

I watched them regularly at Staplewood and the pace and movement was amazing, we had strength, movement and a plan - something I have not seen in the last 2 years of watching them. OK we may be in a lull of players coming through but what we did have were put in far too early last season and crucified when they were not ready.

All part of Lowes obsession and refused to see that balance was needed.

Lowe should be praised for his early work in setting it up but its a great shame he destroyed that by pushing them all forward far too early.

 

Totally agree with that, but do you think Lowe would have gone with nothing but kids had we not been under such financial pressure to reduce the wage bill and ship out higher earners - flase economy or not, I dont ahve enough info on teh financila details to know whether this was masterplan v enforced?

[Mister Neil]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/sir-clive-woodward-alchemist-on-hunt-for-more-gold-nuggets-1686181.html

 

Paragraph 19 - ".....it's sad what has happened there. They are a great club but it just shows that if you get it wrong off the field you'll never get it right on it, and they've been getting it wrong off the field for a long time."

 

Regardless of what you think of Clive Woodward, he is intimating that the management at Southampton Football Club was poor (and I agree with him on this).

[Give it to Ron]

Totally agree with that' date=' but do you think Lowe would have gone with nothing but kids had we not been under such financial pressure to reduce the wage bill and ship out higher earners - flase economy or not, I dont ahve enough info on teh financila details to know whether this was masterplan v enforced?[/quote']

 

Well going by the fact that we could afford to waste 7 loanees and put 2 coaches on gardening leave I think we were not as bad off as some make out.

I am not saying we should of kept them all but to loan out all the players that would get you goals that would win matches and increase gates and revenue

was false economy at worst and mental at best.

Then we had the Van Waals bloke I don't know anything about him but am 99.9% positive he didn't work for free.

[Wes Tender]

Totally agree with that' date=' but do you think Lowe would have gone with nothing but kids had we not been under such financial pressure to reduce the wage bill and ship out higher earners - flase economy or not, I dont ahve enough info on teh financila details to know whether this was masterplan v enforced?[/quote']

 

How many times does it have to be reiterated that even in times of financial hardship, it is not an imperative that you have no alternative to playing only the kids? There are players available who are older and who have experience but who are not expensive, you know.

[Whitey Grandad]

How many times does it have to be reiterated that even in times of financial hardship, it is not an imperative that you have no alternative to playing only the kids? There are players available who are older and who have experience but who are not expensive, you know.

If playing a load of kids were the answer then every team would be doing it.

[Doctoroncall]

Totally agree with that' date=' but do you think Lowe would have gone with nothing but kids had we not been under such financial pressure to reduce the wage bill and ship out higher earners - flase economy or not, I dont ahve enough info on teh financila details to know whether this was masterplan v enforced?[/quote']

 

I'm sorry FC, but the excuse of masterplan vs enforced is ridiculous.

 

One major point Give it to Ron made was the quality of the coaches used in the academy. I would expect a better coach would have got the young team winning a few more points, but to expect the players to take on first team responsibilites, use different tactics and style of play, have an untried foreign coach to try and stay in the CCC is pure fantasy!

Edited 18 May, 2009 by Doctoroncall
doh!

[Gorgiesaint]

his problem was his total failing to think the short term when obsessed about the long - its no good thinking about the long term possibilties of such ideas' date=' if the impact short term is utter failure.[/quote']

 

Totally agree with that' date=' but do you think Lowe would have gone with nothing but kids had we not been under such financial pressure to reduce the wage bill and ship out higher earners - flase economy or not, I dont ahve enough info on teh financila details to know whether this was masterplan v enforced?[/quote']

 

This sums up one of Lowe's major faults - he never could get the balance right between now & the long term plan.

 

The biggest example from the last season, we ended up buying Schneiderlin whilst letting our 3 main strikers all go out on loan. Potential profit from selling him on in the future but in the meantime.....