Rumour also has it that the degree to which he was managing that money poorly was seriously overstated, because it was a convenient excuse for maximizing our profit leading up to the sale of the club.
Beg to differ Schad, the published accounts for the period of his tenure (before he chose to walk away) clearly show a growing debt and a large incurred loan. In that respect, where is/was the profit stream? It may rather have been more similar to the "boom & bust" model taken in the past.
The profit was in the massive growth in the value of the club, which allowed Liebherr to sell for a nine-figure windfall. You know what you call incurring debt while setting yourself up for a far larger profit in the future? Investment. And had we merely aimed to run at break-even post Cortese, she would still have made a very large sum. The talk of impending financial disaster was always nonsense; we didn't have a large incurred loan to outside sources, our loans were actually fairly small relative to most of the league. Our leadership used our past history of financial ruin to scare fans into accepting decisions that were not necessary to keep the team solvent, but rather to further enrich our owner.
Think people are discussing the financial side rather than our PL performance. As a team we did very will under Cortese. but something was supposedly wrong financially....he had borrowed money....not necessarily wrong in itself, but the owner felt she had to step in and rejig our financial position. Sounds a bit like he over-stepped himself....supposition I know, but reasonable supposition when an owner steps in suddenly, removes an executive and ends up putting more money in herself to stabilise our situation.
It’s funny. I earn more money now than I have before. I also have a larger debt than I had before. I am not mis-managing my life finances and if my income stream dropped, I could decide to sell my biggest asset (home).
But as Schad states (and it's something that I've heard independently from a source I very much trust) this supposed 'financial mismanagement' was massively overstated by the club in order to justify the switch around, and the power-grab from Les Reed. Though it didn't immediately impact on our league position, it did lead to us losing Poch and ultimately for me was the beginning of this downturn we're in now. Cortese was a ruthless, cold-hearted killer of a man, but he absolutely had the club in his heart. He was running the club to be the best club it could be. The current bunch are running the club to be the best it can be for their own interests.
PS - everyone goes on about how Nicola was a fairly difficult and unpleasant man. You really think Les and his bullying cronies are any better?
That's just like others saying that the team did even better after he walked......... It was great that he introduced our benefactor to Southampton. But, in truth, he was a bank employee who dealt with other (very rich) peoples' money. Profit & loss investing advice was his forte; sadly, he veered too much towards the latter Not being picky..... just stating fact here, but Saints never actually won the Titles against the (relative) minnows when in Div.1 or the Championship. Europe? Major Wembley Final? ....... and yes, getting to the "Paint Pot final" was an achievement; eventually.
Well that's toeing the club line which was what was put out to us and the media, which I understand. I've heard differently though, and surely you must be able to see that things began to decline gradually from that point (even if RK managed to improve our league position for one season), to the point we're at now. I'd suggest Les Reed's stewardship of the club is looking far more precarious than Cortese's ever was.
You would have thought that MP1 and all the players would have been glad to see the back of him, if he was that bad rather than follow him out the door. Imagine if Cortese and Markus were still around now, those dreams of champions leagues could have been reality. I know we've done ok since he left but i just believe that had he stayed then our squad and management would have had a lot more consistency.
Even if it wasn't momentum and you give Reed all the credit for the Koeman seasons it still doesn't change the fact that he has made mistakes during that time, and especially after. Football is not an industry where you can rest on your laurels and say "well I was good a couple of years ago so I should stay". Reed has had his time now and we need a change.
I think you've hit the nail on the head here, Reed deserves credit for what he and the club have achieved, however they became comfortable and remained static why the rest of the football world kept on investing. I think the main problem is Reed hasn't really got anyone above him applying any sort of pressure so he has a free hand to do what he likes. I think he's become stale and it's not an overnight thing he's not really been right for the club for a while now but all the time he wants to be there i see no one at the club challenging his position, lets hope that maybe Gao is going to burst into life in the summer and we will see a change of direction at the club.
