Does Rupert Lowe Deserve Some Praise...

Did he not build the foundations of the academy to some extent?

 

Did he not also bring in a certain Morgan Schneiderlin?

 

Compared to other chairman, he did us alright, but boy did he miss an opportunity to cement himself in our history. No praise, but I'll not bother passing bad words about him for his faults.

 

Did he not take the club within hours of death, to league 1 with minus ten, relegated from prem

 

Did he not help bring in Ryan Smith

 

He provided the funds, sure, but I doubt he scouted him or identified him as a future talent. A whole team of staff is to be thanked for decisions like that.

 

The only decent thing Rupert Lowe did was oversee the move from the Dell to St Marys.

 

Did he not sell Gareth Bale and waive the sell-on fee?

 

Did he not make Rory delap our record signing

 

With a substantial assist from Southampton City Council after he had helped in the Stoneham foul up.

 

Lowe deserves credit for setting up the academy, but I imagine he only did it for his own personal gain. I.E to sell the players it produced and to cut the investment into the first team (which had always been pretty non-existent)

 

Did he not buy Agustín Javier Delgado? Need I say more?

 

Yeah, for a cool £3.5m... despite no-one having seen him play live...Both Stuart Gray and WGS claim that they were not consulted about his transfer, something stank about that whole deal.

Another thing.....Clive Woodward and Simon Clifford!!.....

 

He did some good and some bad. He was a businessman first and a football man second, we all know that. But so is Cortese. Maybe the biggest difference is that Lowe never had the funds that Cortese has. How effective would he be now given Lowe's budget?

I'm not having a go at Cortese by the way, its just a rhetorical question.

 

No, he had reduced the debt to Barclays as required by the loan guidelines but Barclays moved the goal posts which resulted in administration. I guess we'll never know who put pressure on them to do that but is you want a scapegoat that's who we should be seeking to identify.

Lowe probably had the nucleus of a good idea (academy, relegation clauses, reluctance to deal with agents, even European coaching set up) but he thought he knew best and ended up making a few crucial mistakes. Failing to invest after the 2003 cup final was one, generally making too many enemies was another. Cortese has more effectively surrounded himself with top people and listens to the advice offered. Along with a decent financial backer it makes a big difference.

On saints web, this thread would only go one way but I suspect a more glanced debate will take place here. Hope so anyway.

 

Plus Lowe was the only person to walk away from Saints with £2m. He kept taking a huge wage despite us being nearly dead. Leon Crouch lost 3m saving us.

 

I'd still like to see the flea's of a 1000 camels infest his arseholes.

 

I thought this was all dead and buried. Please let us not open old wounds or it will all end in tears.

 

We were in the Premiership and during all that time he developed the infrastructure of the club very well. This is an absolute truth.

If we hadn't had that, administration could very well have been permadeath and damnation to lower leagues. We would have been nowhere near as attractive a prospect for investment. Look at Pompey, all that time and as many have said they had nothing to show for it.

Lowe did a lot wrong, sure, and there could be great books written on his eccentricity and failures, however we must also be able to point out the good work that occurred while he was steering the ship.

 

He wouldn't spend 3 million on Adebayor or 2.5 million on Drogba! I'd have him over the Venky's anyday.