Don't be too hasty PL. Cortese isn't your typical Chairman**. **which is why the media keep on writing things about him and getting it wrong.
And maybe (just maybe) Nicola is just trying to appease the fans that he is hearing chanting Nigel's name at the games. I'm sure he would have noticed how loud it was last night. And refreshing considering modern day fickle fans bent on success.
There's been a lot of talk over the past few days about Nigel Adkins being "on the brink" at Southampton. I was very reliably informed tonight that Adkins is staying in charge for the immediate future. Story below for those who can access it. He's still under pressure to take them clear of the relegation zone, but the mood at the club right now is to give him more time, which is pleasing to hear. I know Nicola Cortese is a very demanding chairman, but I hate it when a managers who have surpassed expectations in delivering promotion (and in this case back-to-back promotions while playing with a nucleus of young players, many of them homegrown) end up losing their job essentially because they've overachieved in taking their team up. It's good to see a chairman, particularly one as fiercely ambitious as Cortese, showing a bit of patience. I hope it's rewarded. Story here http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/clubs/southampton/article3592330.ece (subs). I would actually say that, at least going into Saturday's match against Swansea, the situation is a little more secure for the Adkins than the headline implies. https://www.facebook.com/OliverKayTimes
Can't, requires a subscription to view it. We're just fortunate that the reporter Oliver Kay did the above Facebook post to explain what is in it.
When Cortese got shot of Pardew he just did it wham. If he states he is backing Nigel going forward that is what he means in my opinion and his job will be safe for a reasonable period of time. Cortese i would say has his faults but i think what he says he means.
Adkins has earnt more time and deserves more luck. Yes, we are defensively suspect, but why do we never meet a team having an off day? The main reason why he will be given more time is that what brilliant manager is available at the moment? Our team does not consist of a bunch of seasoned PL pros that can be knocked briefly into shape by a Red Adair-type manager. The team know and back Adkins. Everyone reckons Cortese doesn't listen and won't change his mind...but he did with Puncheon. Perhaps they have had a clear-the-air meeting where Nigel pointed out that he wasn't given the defenders he so clearly demanded pre-season. Suspect he has been told he will be publically supported to take the pressure off, but that there is a limit. Good luck, Nigel. Find it strange that although Saints fate and Nigel's are linked, I am more worried about Adkins. Never has a struggling manager been so loved.
On Saturday every fan needs to sing his (and her) support for Nigel just to show nicola that we agree with his decision not to sack our most promising manager ever. Nicola and Nigel working together will take this club to greatness.
Thanks SFCJ. Mr Kay also writes a few comments underneath which may shed some more light. It seems that Nicola is handling this exactly as I had hoped. Hope the players get something for Nigel this weekend.
If this is true then i am very glad but also hope that it is a meaningful statement of support and not the usual rubbish that clubs trot out. In my time as a Saints supporter i have seen the various managers from the very end of Ted Bates time through to now and apart from Laurie and Alan Ball i like Nigel Adkins best for what he has achieved and the rapport that he has built up with us - although WGS did a great job here i never felt quite the same way with him as he always said that he wasnt here for the long haul. It may be a pipe dream in todays crazy world but i would like to think that Nigel could go on to become another Laurie or SAF and stay here for years, through thick AND thin. IMO we are very lucky to have him even if things may not be going so great on the pitch right now.
Votes of confidence don't mean anything, so he could still be right. It pushes back media pressure for a bit, and gives a manager a bit of positive backing to take into what can potentially be a final run of games. Hopefully that confidence passes through to the players and Nigel in this case turns it around!
Guys was there/is there, really any doubt? At the end of the month it may well be a different situation, although I personally am doubtful. It is my belief he will be here until at least the end of the season.
The Times' full article: The vultures circling over St Mary’s Stadium might be advised to look elsewhere. After lengthy discussions yesterday, Nigel Adkins was backed to continue as Southampton manager, even if he has been left in no doubt by Nicola Cortese, the chairman, that survival in the Barclays Premier League is imperative. Adkins has admitted to concerns about his job security after eight defeats in his team’s first ten Premier League matches since promotion, but Cortese and his fellow board members agreed yesterday that the 47-year-old deserves to be given more time after guiding Southampton from the lower reaches of npower League One to the Premier League in less than two years. The former S****horpe United manager will recognise that the board’s patience is finite and that its demands, even after such a testing start, are higher than may normally be the case at a club returning to the Premier League after a seven-year absence. The outlook could feasibly change if the next two matches, at home to Swansea City on Saturday and away to Queens Park Rangers a week later, bring more disappointment, but the mood now is to support Adkins rather than unsettle him. For that, Cortese, a notoriously demanding chairman, deserves credit. When the Italian first set out his vision for Southampton, then in the third tier of English football, he said that within five years he expected the South Coast club to be in the Premier League, playing attractive football with a group of young footballers, the majority of them home-grown. That was in 2009. When Adkins took over as manager in September 2010, they were 22nd in League One. They won promotion to the Championship that season and, more incredibly, went up to the top flight at the first attempt with just the kind of vibrant, young team that Cortese demanded. In delivering promotion two years ahead of schedule, Adkins has only increased the demands and expectations. Southampton’s supporters made their views clear at The Hawthorns on Monday night by chanting relentlessly in favour of their manager as his team drifted towards perhaps their most disappointing defeat of the campaign, 2-0 against West Bromwich Albion. Their view, whether out of affection, loyalty or simply an enthusiasm for his devotion to principles of youth, home-grown talent and attacking football, is shared by many. It is the classic dilemma for a chairman. Clubs can cite principles and five-year plans, which in Southampton’s case are embodied by Adkins’s approach, but long-term thinking has been known to diminish when a bleak winter threatens. Once chairmen taste the first tranche of Premier League broadcast revenue, they frequently allow short-termism to take hold. Southampton have no interest in the kind of “yo-yo” approach that led West Brom to bounce — or “boing” — back and forth between the Premier League and Championship for several seasons before establishing themselves impressively in the top flight. Relegation, according to one source, would be viewed by Cortese as “completely unacceptable” after the summer outlay on players such as Nathaniel Clyne, Steven Davis, Jay Rodriguez and, above all, Gastón RamÃrez. With a conspicuous lack of English top-flight experience, though, they have made mistakes and conceded 28 goals in their first ten games. But Southampton’s first ten opponents have included six of the league’s top seven at present and only one of the bottom seven. Swansea at home on Saturday seems a fairer test of their progress. Southampton’s back four has not looked up to standard, but would a change of manager really alter that? Bring in a proven troubleshooter — and, by all accounts, Harry Redknapp can be dismissed — and he might bring obduracy and acquire more experienced types in the January transfer window. But at what cost to Cortese’s vision of a young, hungry, vibrant team playing wonderful football? Adkins is delivering in almost every respect. They are building around youth and playing progressive football. They have scored more goals than Liverpool and only one fewer than Arsenal. Most significantly, they are in the Premier League. The guy who has taken them there deserves more time to prove that he can keep them there. Pleasingly, the chairman agrees.
Like others have said, I look forward to the wording of any statement that is given. If it's a generic, "Adkins fits the philosophy of the club, get on the bus and buckle up" - type of statement, then I won't see Adkins job as any more secure than I did yesterday. If however it acknowledges the tough run of fixtures we have played, and gives Nigel a time frame to turn things around, then I will be more confident in his ongoing presence at the club.
Do you not remember the massive speculation about Pardew getting the sack and then cortese comming out and backing him. Only to sack him a few games into the new season? From the facebook post and the comments it seems as if Adkins will be given probably a month more poor results before he goes, he won't be given the whole season no matter what unfortunately. Although if Cortese is to get shot then I hope its quick soo the new manager can asses for January properly, its imperitive we buy well then!
