I'd actually say it's more than just a tad naive. And as for the Hoddle situation, I don't actually blame Lowe for that either. Whilst it was the wrong decision - and I don't just say that with hindsight, I wanted Hoddle at the time - I completely understand why he didn't go through with it and appoint Hoddle. A reasonable portion of our fan base are to blame for that, not Lowe, imo.
St Godders - I think you've put the best balanced case forward... lets not forget that Lowe actually started the investment in the academy and appointed Georges Prost to head it up (if we all remember correctly he is the guy that brought Pires, Henry and Viera through the french national squad and Walcott, Bale, Surman and I guess also Lallana through our youth set up). He also refused to pay over the top for has-been players (anyone remember the Bierhoff saga ! cant see that at WHU....). So Lowe got some things right while the going was good, the new stadium and the reputation for developing young talent,which is the C-change that is going to come about in global football in the next decade and central to to the Saints DNA now. But he got many things wrong too.... Unlike retirement flats, its not about the sheer number of houses (players) you have on the pitch but rather the quality of those individuals and that is what he failed to grasp. And as for making money, well he was chairman, and in any other business, the chairman would take money out of the company as it is their investment after all. He did nothing wrong in that, and certainly didn't cream off the fat that has been apparent at other clubs £2m over the time he was chairman is actually a really low rate of return on his investment.... Ultimately, Lowe failed because he made some mediocre business decisions when things were going bad - but this was not a scam or a deceit... So do we owe Lowe ? Yes we do for sure... he is part of our history and lets not forget this included Strachan and an FA cup final... But we owe Marcus so much much more.....
I still believe we would have survived if we had gotten ourselves a decent replacement or cover when Killer got injured.
So it's naive to say another chairman would have seen we needed a new ground as well?. As I said before it was kinda obvious we needed a new stadium, I would have thought any chairman would have seen that. So it's not naive at all, if something is naive then it's to think only Lowe would have seen we needed a new stadium.
Beef - I get the impression that you don't like Mr Lowe We had tied to get a new stadium before he came along but could never get agreement from the city Council if memory serves. Love him or loath him he was the one that managed it. Regarding Hoddle, the fans most definitely did not want him back at the time.
Obvious yes. But that doesn't mean it would have just happened. Prime example, just look down the road. Isn't it also obvious that Fratton Park could do with being torn down? And they had seven or eight years worth of PL income to do just that. But they still continue to play there.
I HATE Lowe , when I met him he came across as a guy that thought all football fans were commoners. He was talking down to me like I was some simpleton. So yes you could say I'm very anti Lowe
Agreed. But we'll never know. It may have happened without Lowe, it may not have happened without Lowe. It's impossible to know for certain. But what we do know for certain, is that it did happen with Lowe.
All I have been trying to say is yes Lowe did give us the stadium, but it could have been anyone else. It doesn't change the fact he is a complete twat.
I agree it's mainly Lowe as a person that makes me hate him. His ego nearly destroyed our club and I shall never forget that.
Because of Lowe's crap tenure at saints (relegations and administration),Nicola Cortese convinced Markus to buy our club and the rest is history.
I'm always astonished at how people regrard football league chairman. Just remember it is probably a more demanding job to manage Sainsbury's store at Hedge End than it is to run a football club.
You know who we do owe? Mr Matt Le Tissier. IF he didn't keep up in the top flight on his own (and no rose tinted glasses, he did), then we would not have got the finance for the new stadium as a div 2 side. Lowe was the chairman, that was his job to make us progress. Don't get me wrong, I am not anti-lowe as I can see what he did do, but his role is to make us progress. To me, the Saints legends and saviours over the last 10 years are Matt, Markus and Nicola. Without those three we would not be where we are today.
David Mellor (heading the governments football taskforce) got involved with Saints getting a stadium, If i remember correctly he put his weight behind the Stoneham project and told Eastleigh council to stop opposing it, they did withdraw their objections then Mr Lowe decided to add shops and a cinema (against advice from Mellor) to the complex, Eastleigh objected again and the project was dead. Southampton Council had a big hand in sorting out the present ground and near enough gave it to SFC on a plate. So as much as Lowe gave us SMS, many others need thanking too.
Thanking Lowe for the ground is just ignoring those that went before him, Askham etc. As a top division club from 1977 we should have had a new ground years before 2001(?). Plenty of other clubs did it without having to put up with Lowe! Lowe I seem to remember was the highest paid chairman during his tenure. Whilst recent owners at Pompey have acted illegally and it would be unfair to compare Lowe to them he just used Saints as a meal ticket. We always had a history of discovering young players and developing them, shearer, wallaces, Moran, Williams, s mills, channon etc. OK so Lowe re-instated what we should never have closed and called it an academy but again it was only what most of us armchair chairmen knew what was a good idea. So to me, thank him for not being a post Mandaric Pompey chairman but not for anything else!
