It's true, i'm usually one of those happy clapping "positive posters", but I can't see another way other than sacking Pellegrino asap. Les and Ralph still have a bit of credit left as far as faith in them from me is concerned.
Well it is being proved wrong because you said he was doing something (no trousers allowed for women) that he didn't. You have no proof that he was bringing in this uniform policy, if he was such a dictator then why didn't he just implement the policy?
I think if he were to go things would be looking up, but I just don't think we'll sack him. Not until we know our fate, anyway. And this isn't to say we are in this mess because of MP, it's much more than just him, but the only thing that can help this season is a new manager with new ideas.
I'm starting to lose faith in our board, No real buzz anymore.. I never thought it would happen but we are going to get relegated this season. 7 home games left, 4 against the top 6..
If I remember correctly it is because Kat started taking more of a grip of her club. Cortese had far more reign over the club in the period of time when Markus died and Kat was nowhere to be seen. This was told to me by the same person that has been right many times before and has been proven right. It's obvious why I would trust him more than a poster on a board.
I don't blame you for trusting him more than me. All I'm saying is my sister never was made to wear a skirt, she never heard anything about it either. My friend in finance said Cortese was on their case at times but if you did your job well he never had a problem, they had to dress smart (still did after he left) but that's to be expected in their role. The whole uniform policy just doesn't make sense, if he was a dictator that people try and portray him as (he obviously was, but from what I hear it's overblown) then it would have been implemented when he wanted it. It sounds like he floated the idea and backed down on it, if anything.
I can't remember why it didn't happen. All I was told it was something that Cortese wanted to happen. That's just leave it as we have a difference of opinion. But agree the current board is ****
Neither have any credit with me sadly. Heard too many stories about how Reed just appoints mates to the club
what a messy mess this is. I cant see a route out of this. I am looking for one but all I see is more and more bother. Like a big bother off with extra splashings of bother. At least we will have the real south coast derby to look forward too!
I posted earlier that we needed a strong hand like a Cortese at the top, so I saw the good he did. However, I met him and had dinner with him, along with 19 other people. He was a charming host, but also didn’t treat the two people who worked for him very well, who were also in our group. I witnessed that and thought “ouch.”
I agree. There are lots of different styles of management, and whilst I do not agree totally with what I have heard about him, boy did it work.....
Yeah I acknowledge that he could improve his people skills but the three people I know that worked for the club under him had no complaints. He obviously knew how to rub people up the wrong way, but we definitely need a touch of that at the moment. I remember you posting about that dinner, I bet he had an excellent selection of wine. I'm very jealous you got to go to that.
My faith in the board has been gradually eroding away for the last couple of seasons. In the past I always put the misfortunes of the club down to things we had no control over, like successful managers (Pochettino and Koeman) or a multitude of players being lured away by other clubs. Until recently we always replaced, if not like for like, with decent alternatives. The fact is though, that since Pelle and Mane (and Koeman) left we haven’t really had a plan to build a new strategy, with a solid core of players and a manager to get the best out of them. I know we had a decent season under Puel but the football was largely disappointing and our points total was way below the trend we had set ever since we got back to the Premier League. I also know that we still have a good squad of players, with one or two glaring inadequacies. This transfer window is possibly the most crucial one we have had since Markus took us under his wing in 2009. We have, with the Virgil money, plus whatever else Mr Gao throws in, a massive opportunity, to plug the gaps in the squad and give a new manager (whatever Ralph says he cannot continue to back Pellegrino after last night) a chance to turn the season around. If, on the other hand, the board continues to fudge and dither as they did over Puel, and fails to invest heavily in this window, it will be proof in my eyes that they are incompetent, and that Mr Gao is going to asset-strip to recover his investment. Pleas excuse the rambling post, I know a lot of it is gibberish and hopefully things aren’t as bad as I’ve made them out to be, but I haven’t felt this desperate about Southampton FC since the bad old days of Rupert Lowe in the last few seasons before administration. Pray God we never have to face times like those again, but it’s beginning to feel like it, to me anyway.
I have no problem with the VVD thing. If anything you could argue that they should've just sold him in the summer IF they could have got the same price (or the same minus his wages since the summer.) The problem with the board is that we have Krueger and Reed contradicting each other and have been ever since Cortese left. Kruger has continually tried to temper unrealistic expectations. Reed has continually just repeated the Cortese vision despite that falling apart when Cortese was having to make deals with them to stay on for a few months more with promises of future transfers etc. I'm not saying it is all Reed's fault nor Krueger's fault nor siding with either of them really. I think though that they need to sit around a table and talk to each other about what "the club" message is and not keep contradicting each other. To be quite honest I have been saying this for quite a while now, not just this season and Krueger is far closer to realism than Les who just keeps hiding behind past successes (Black box on transfers and managers, continued improvement in position.) I think we should realise that the past few years has seen the top 6 a little disrupted as the vast new TV deals cam into being. Us moving up a place, Leicester winning the league. I think that disruption has settled now and the top 6 seem stronger than they ever have done. When you consider the vast sums that all the teams in the Prem have yet they still can't fend off the Top 6 if they want a player then there is a problem. So Krueger is much closer to reality than Reed. Doesn't mean either needs to go but they have to get together and have the same understanding of where the club is going / aiming. On the whole Koeman / Puel fiasco. We have tried several times to wait it out and try to avoid paying money out. We have to stop waiting it out for the sake of a couple of million in this market. Pay off the manager and then get in the 1st choice replacement. Not try to wait so you don;t have to pay off the manager and then end up with a last resort manager. I think this happened both with Puel's appointment and Pellegrino's. Waited so long that we ended up having to make a last minute decision. It would not surprise me if Koeman was a "last minute" desperate appointment either. Yes that one actually worked out but he didn't exactly have a brilliant past record and there wasn't a huge amount of enthusiasm at his appointment in the beginning. With the Koeman one you could argue it was Pochetino that meant we had to go for a last minute appointment however I would lay that one at the door of Les Reed naivety as well seeing as Poch had made it pretty clear that he would be leaving when Cortese left. Reed has a history either of naivety or has an inflated sense of his own ability to play hardball.
