A valid point or complete tosh? From the Echo: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/10468286._/ Hampshire Cricket chairman Rod Bransgrove has criticised Saints for not embracing their history. Bransgrove said he had not been to St Mary's "for a long time" after revealing that he is looking to establish closer links between Hampshire and Pompey. He said: "I don’t want to make a big issue out of it but I don’t feel inclined to go when some of the club’s great players and managers have become virtually ostracised – people like Francis Benali, Matt Le Tissier and Lawrie McMenemy. "I don’t feel comfortable about that. I think clubs should embrace their history and embrace the people who made their history. "That is what sports clubs are about and I think the Pompey Supporters' Trust totally understand that. We are all guardians of our clubs for the future generations."
Fair enough, him defending ex-Saints etc But, talking about moving closer to Pompey as a club and away from Saints probably isn't his best idea.
I probably won't be popular for saying this but I think that he definately has a valid point about Lawrie Mac in particular. the man is our "Brian Clough" or "Bobby Robson" and delivered the most successful period in the club's history and I believe that his achievements should be acknowledged more within the club.
As much as you should embrace past players and what they have done for the club, time moves on. You can't expect people to hand you out freebies and treat you as a god. At the end of the day football is a buisness, the last time I checked the aim for almost every buisness is to achieve profit and success. I've lost alot of respect for both Benali and Le Tiss. Crying to the press over petty things because Cortese put them in their place. Grow up.
Fair comment iMHO , but do we actually know NC treating him badly or is it just rumour ? Genuine question .
Don't think there is a huge issue going on between the Club & Lawrie anymore. He's present at most Saints games, even if its as a guest of Crouch & others. Think I saw him in the directors box at one game last season, but again, maybe as someone's guest. Rob Bransgrove does love to shoot from the hip, its partly why I don't think he'll ever get an Ashes game at the Rose (Ageas) Bowl as he has rubbed the ECB up the wrong way a number of times. Doesn't help either that as nice as Hampshire's ground is, its rarely sold out for ODI's and the India test was a bit of a flop too. Part of that is down to ticket prices, which are bloody expensive. Saw Hampshire at Lords for one of the Benson & Hedges finals and was very clearly mostly Saints fans following the team. Was a few Pompey lads there who tried it on with a few Saints and got short shrift. I expect this will be the last we hear of this "alliance". I don't think Bransgrove is stupid enough to offer PFC fans discounted tickets or anything like that as he'd annoy his own members with no football alliegences, let alone SFC fans.
An awful lot of people have played for us in the past...where do you stop? Some are obviously legends, but what about borderline legends. If I ran a business, I wouldn't invite people who slagged me off...wouldn't matter whether it was true or not as we all believe in our own innocence. I've never heard of Rod Bansgrove and I suspect that Nicola cares about as much as I do.
It was the loss of Ambassadors money that got up some ex-players noses. Cortese thought it was a ridiculous thing to pay hangers on (however big they had been in our past) and I agree with him.
We all know Le Tissier and Cortese have their issues. However, are any of us actually aware of Benali or McMenemy being mistreated by the club, or is that just Chinese whispers? I can tell you myself that when we were in the Championship the season before last, my Dad somehow got tickets at one of the corporate/directors box or something, and McMenemy was there also. Apparently he is a regular there. Also, Terry Paine has of course recently been made Honorary President, and he was sitting with Cortese at the Stoke game. For me, too much has been made of this issue.
The bit missed is he talks about Saints as a club and Pompey as the supporters group, with no mention of discussions with our supporters club. I don't know the ins and outs of the various debates and it is hard to comment, but it is a shame that our true legends are not involved with the club, whatever the reason.
It is a shame, however if ex-players are going to be on the payroll of the club in any capacity they have to tow the party line to some extent. Matty bitching about Cortese and then talking a load of **** when the club attempts reconciliation clearly is not on. Le Tiss needs to come out and eat a big plate of crow if he's going to be involved with the club again, his fault, not theirs. No-one really knows the full details of the Benali deal as far as I know, just that he sued the club over a rental property. That may be a different story but I get the sense there'll be no reconciliation there under the current ownership.
It strikes me that as far as he is concerned he is not a Saints fan or he would not be switching allegiances. He is criticising the club for Ostracising Le Tiss, Benali and Lawrie Mac. Yet has not said anything about the players that have been remembered. Micky Channon, Terry Paine not for getting Ted Bates. He has had differences with the pre mentioned players it is true but in truth they have not forgotten anyone...even Ron Davies had a good write up. It does seem he has taken sides in a dispute.....So if he prefers to associate with Pompey it is his loss.
The rumour doing the rounds in west end is that Pompey want to use the rose bowl as a training ground (the outside pitches that is). For a ground in financial difficulty (thanks to bransgrove's mismanagement) needing to be propped up by Eastleigh town council, it sounds like a marriage made in heaven. Maybe they should call it the toilet bowl..
I don't disagree with you. One of the most successful periods but currently being eclipsed. And Lawrie was an ok bloke in the main. A great character. But there' no getting away from the fact that he walked out on saints twice which makes it difficult to immortalise him.
They didn't get paid for doing nothing! The likes of Benali & Le Tiss used to work the corporate suites on match days and they also did some non-matchday functions at St Mary's and in the local area. Its little different to the club now paying ex players like Antti Niemi to appear as guests in the Suites. They don't do it for free.
