So, Portsmouth's annual points deduction has just been announced, and in the precarious situation they're in, it got me thinking. They are in urgent need of a buyer, and looking at them from a neutral (not Saints) viewpoint, who in their right mind would buy them out? £52million in debt, no players, a poor ground and a training ground in enemy territory. Then came my thinking. Liebherr, to our relief, bought us at the last moment and look where we are now. But, had he came to us with a purchase in mind and seen The Dell - as lovely as it was - in its old state, would the outcome have still been the same? St. Mary's is a great stadium and all ready for Premier League football. I think the stadium must have been a very large factor in making up his mind for buying us out, so do we owe a slight, tiny, miniscule amount of thanks to Rupert Lowe? He was a poor chairman and his mis-management probably led to our two relegations and I'm glad he's gone. But it just got me thinking, that his decision to move us to St. Mary's may have actually been one of the most important things in our history as it secured the Liebherr and Cortese backing. Anyone else agree?
Lowe did a lot wrong, but to compare him with some of the chancers that have owned PFC is just plain rude.
Lowe was never in the same criminal/stupid league as Pompey's owners. He got us the ground that no one else had managed to do and gave us an asset that made us worth buying. We were struggling to balance the books and relegation finished us off. He put us into administration because our overdraft was withdrawn...we never had the stack of unpaid debts that many clubs have.
The only thing he did right was moving to the new stadium. The ONLY thing. Now the debt is cleared off of it, it's magnificent and has great potential.
Nope Lowe made 2 mil of us, so we owe him jack ****. We owe Leon Crouch far more then Lowe, he paid all the wages etc for months to help us survive . While Lowe ****ed off.
Lowe made too many mistakes and insisted he knew more than his managers as to a players ability. He also made promises on additional Finance that he couldn't deliver. His achievement was of course the stadium and for that we do owe him but nothing else.
Not in anyway trying to compare him to the shambles at Pompey, or even say that he was treated unfairly. What I am saying is that if he hadn't taken us to a new stadium, we wouldn't be where we are today.
I don't put him in the bottom tier of chairmen. The stadium was a good thing, there were some bad things too. All water under the bridge now.
SGMI; Yeah I know. I'm not trying to defend him either, but he didn't run us into the ground & take all the gold, he was trying to build something, but he just got in wrong. When wee gord was with us, thats when the real mistakes were made, he had a chance to take the next step, but alas he cocked it right up. As someone pointed out, LC deserves thanks for helping us in our hour of need, were it not for him, we might never have met Markus.
Because we needed a New Stadium, any chairman would have seen that. If not they must be mental or something, Lowe made far to many mistakes for me to ever thank him.
Leon Crouch is still living in Southampton last time I heard. With a 20 mil fortune as well , he deserves it tho.
Lowe did a good job of overseeing the financial arrangements that got St Mary's built. I seem to remember that the cost per seat to the club actually compared very favourably with other clubs who were moving into new grounds at the time. He was invited in to do that job, and that should have been the extent of his involvement with SFC, because as a football chairman he was as much use as a chocolate teapot. If he'd walked away after the stadium move, we'd all have been grateful to him, but his ego wouldn't let him do that. I think he grew too fond of being in the public eye as Chairman of a Premiership club, and that cost him his reputation, and nearly cost us our club. Hard to retain any gratitude after that, but I wish him all the best in his proposed purchase of PFC
Don't forget we also invested a lot into the training ground during Lowe's tenure as well. To say the stadium would have happened anyway is also a tad naive, it didn't just grow from the earth. Look at the number of clubs who have been trying to move ground for ages but haven't been able to. His biggest problem was in creating managerial uncertainty (and not having the balls to reappoint Hoddle).
So you're saying if we had a different chairman then Lowe he would have kept the rusting Dell?. I doubt that very much.
Beef, with your blind hatred of Rupes, I'm glad your not a pompey fan, 'cause you'd have probably tracked down ali al missing faraj & given him what-for! At the end of the day, we don't know what another chairman would do, but we do know what RL did. Glad he's long gone, & as for the £2M, well if he were smarter, he'd had made a lot more.
