It was implied that these players took one look at our staff and refused to sign. Is there any proof of this...there are lots of reasons not to sign and some could have been on our side.
In regards to Gorkks, no i don't think we should have signed him, but there was clearly something gone on behind the scenes that stopped us signing him. It's hard to tell, but I was just using him as an example of a failed transfer bid once it gets to the final stages of the deal. There appears to be a few cases of this. If rumours are to be believed, people find it hard to get on with Cortese. I emphasize the rumours as I have no idea. In regards to the kits, perhaps this isn't just down to Cortese, but the prices on these kits for shirts that are only really valid for one year are extortionate, and not really fair on the average fan. Yes, he's got to see it from a business point of view, but he also needs to see it from our point of view. In regards to the car park prices, is it really fair to charge employees to park for a day, every day? At least have a discounted yearly ticket for example, rather than paying a standard day fare day in, day out. As you say about the timings being spot on, I still don't agree with that. If Cortese wanted to move us on, I'd have preferred he wait till the end of the season. Adkins would have kept us up anyway, but I guess that's just a matter of opinion. The Pardew sacking did turn out to be good timing however, yet at the time it appeared not to be. Also, with Cortese, was it really fair to sack the programme sellers with no notice? Or tell Adkins not to pick Puncheon back in League One? As I said before though, it would help him massively if he actually did some regular-ish interviews. I said it in my first post in this thread, he appears too distant for me to warm to.
Changing the kits isn't that harsh...there are quite a variety around the ground. Very few sashes...think people are storing those for posterity. You have the choice to buy or not to buy. How long a contract does aap3 have...they got themselves a bargain, didn't they?
Well on the bold point, I agree with you, HOWEVER, we just won't know. To me, it is looking like the right timing because we look a better side now and Cortese has given Pottechino 4 months to understand the Premier league first hand and build momentum for next season. I believe teams finishing strongly have a good chance to continue that into the following season. As for the car parking, I know it must be hard for the employees, but I really don't even see it as registering on the decision making scale. The program sellers? Commision on sales and a ticket to the game? I think that's fairly sensible business sense, to use existing employees to do that role. Of course those people who were doing it lose out, but that's the real world and it isn't always nice. It is interesting that you'd like him to do more interviews, becasue having experienced Lowe, I am glad he doesn't do many. I like having a failry silent Chairman. That is just opinions though and not really a fault of Cortese. Kit prices are high, but that's market demand. Same everywhere. I have to pay #80 for my kids school blazer which is ridiculous, but I am stuck with that. Changing the kit all the time is done by every club. Thye need to generate income and it's one small part of that. Did Cortese tell Adkins to drop Puncheon? I don't know and the rumour I heard was that it was over a spat with Adins right hand man, so if that is the case I doubt Nigel needed too much persuading. Cynically, I could say that doing that has ended up giving us a much improved attitude from a much improved player without being patronising, it's good to hear your side of the debate on the other points and makesd for interesting discussion.
The only logical reason I can see for the timing of Adkins' sacking is that Cortese didn't think that Pochettino would be out of work for long (ie until the summer), so acted swiftly. If this is the case then the timing makes perfect sense.
in the real world, a lot of people have to pay for parking when they go to work. ive got a parking permit for work and im one of the very lucky ones. at uni i was paying £8 a day to park. life is expensive, people have to get over it. most of the people parking there were not employees of southampton fc anyway, they were parking there and walking up into town for work, as i said in my original post.
In which case, go to my idea of having a reduced yearly permit that avoids them paying on a daily basis. That makes sense both from business and customer point of views.
The "failed" transfers statement seems to be inferring that we were fully to blame for not completing them, if I remember rightly some of the recent ones didn't happen for a number of reasons out of our control, i.e. parents, agents and subversive tapping from elsewhere, come to mind. Also a lot of rumours had absolutely no grounds or truth about them, let's hope for some better luck in the next window.
Should we maintain our current form until the end of the season, I rather suspect that we won't need luck to turn a few heads in our direction. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see some extremely exciting business take place over the summer.
Cortese has gambled and won with all his managerial appointments so far. And gamblers always look inspired when they win, which is why successive governments were until recently in thrall to the City of London. But all gamblers hit a losing streak at some point. It'll be interesting to see the fan's reaction when Cortese makes a couple of calls that don't pay off.
You can believe me that there is a queue just waiting to pounce, the moment something goes slightly awry, they will be on here like a rash spouting their monosyllabic bile. They are just champing at the bit........
It is nothing to do with football. The Echo is an absolute ****e paper. I wouldn't read it if they gave it away for free.
I hope we keep aap as sponsor. I think it looks cool on the shirt. Boring person that I am I was thinking the other night in a humorous way that this weekends sponsors could be made into a quip. S'BOBET' was rather apt for our opponents and our reaction was we went '___' <------blank. (The blankety blank music plays) On Cortese I think he should continue as he has done. What benefit would there be to letting all the fans know of everything inside the club? Clear the air? I don't think so. It would please some and drive others out of the woodwork. This is not a democracy. This is a dictatorship of a good kind. Where the dictator's job is to please the peasants and not abuse them. Shirt prices? Please. Let's drop our prices? Don't worry that every other club won't and will laugh at our lost revenue streams I didn't buy one this year. I bought 3 last year (me and the boys.) May well buy another 3 next year. Let's stop crying over that old chestnut. Would rather people were wearing £40 Saints crested shirts than 'Stone Island' or 'Henry Llloyd' because that would spell a return to the old days of 'designer gear and up for a fight.' Timings wise things could be handled differently but that doesn't mean that they were wrong decisions. I would think Cortese sits there and IF he reads or listens to comments about him thinks to himself 'F*** EM' and continues doing his good work. I doubt he worries about what others think of him or his decisions. People like Cortese are their own hardest judges and he will measure himself much more accurately than any of us because he is the only one that truly knows what his targets are. I suspect that his own targets are much much higher than many of us actually think and therefore we would be saying great job Cortese while he rates himself as a 'Good, but could have done better'. I would bet most of the 'hard to get on with' crew are agents/reps hangers on and perks of the job types that are used to getting what they want. On the signings front I would bet Cortese has had the final word on most things rather than the player's representatives. Yes we may have missed out on a few, some like Coutinho would have bee good BUT did his reps say no he's going to Liverpool or did Cortese say 'That is my final offer'? Same result, different outcomes. One a negative for us, one a positive. Which spin would you like to use?
Every decision in life is a gamble to some degree. To me a gambler is someone who makes an uncalculated decision while desperate to change their fortunes. We were doing quite well when Cortese took his decision, so I'd call it a strategic change rather than a gamble. Sunderland have taken a gamble. If he is a gambler, my only worry is he goes to play in a different casino. This post sounds a little like you are waiting to pounce yourself.
It doesn't cost anything to read it on line anyway, the comments page can be as good as this site, for the moment most of the skates, WUMs and maggots seem to have deserted the comment pages, whether they have been banned or can't handle the positives coming from the Club isn't clear, but it is infinitely better than the sycophantic "The News" site!
Is that how you think business people who know what they're doing operate..? Good lord, you taken my breath away. An idiot is a gambler. A good business person is a researcher, if anything.
Indeed, and worked incorrectly, an investment can be somewhat of a gamble. But that depends on the quality of the investment and the skill and knowledge of the businessperson. A good investment is where the research has been done, the prior knowledge and experience is in, and the business acumen is there to see the opportunity develop the way intended. I know all these things are required and I don't possess any of them enough to make proper use of them for myself. But I do have enough sense to know that you don't have a flutter with the future of a football club.
Odd really that with that statement, you exhibit a great deal more sense than say, most football club owners!
yeah, thats why most are now head coaches and not managers. Their job is to coach the players they have. The club have a vision of how they want to play, the coach fits that vision and a team recruit players that compliment it. A progressive way of running a club IMO.
