WRONG. No you weren't. You explain the concept of "goodwill", and I'll explain the concept of "making business decisions to maximise profit".
Any business needs good PR and it serves no purpose to alienate the hand that feeds you. The last thing that we want is to go back to the devided fanbase of the Lowe years and this statement has obviously been made to help allay any anxieties (she really does understand Saints fans!) that we may have. That is, of course, all she can do at this early stage and when she states that we are on the same course as before with the same Manager and team, then I will believe it until it is proved otherwise.
...and the club got called "club" or "Southampton Football Club" and not "company" etc... On a minor note, anyone else notice that the 'C' in "club" is no longer capitalised in club communications? Always was previously.
Something that really bugs me is when posters on this forum insist on putting qualifiers after every statement. If you guys are so afraid to be wrong, don't bother saying anything. I have no doubt this is true.
Yes she's making business decisions to maximize profit, so what? If it all takes is 5 minutes of work from your PR assistant's assistant's secretary to make several thousand possible ticket holders feel better you'd be stupid not to do it.
Right. So it's not nothing. It's something that she did, that was good, that has genuine positive impact for the company going forward. It is also something that NC could do if he cared about Saints, but which he hasn't. And it's not something he had much taste for when he was employed either.
Again, never denied any of this. The only thing I denied was the implication that her words should in any way influence our opinions as to whether she will be good for us or not. Cortese preferred not to interact with the fans in this way, and that was a business decision too, not a lack of caring. A statement like this has two primary motives: to ease the minds of potential dissenters, and to feed the media. The former wouldn't be a concern if we could all act with some rationality and not let something so trivial as how often the chairman addresses the fans affect our support for him/her. As for the media, some like to feed them, some like to ignore them. Who knows which way is better? Cortese's way didn't exactly seem to be doing us any harm.
I think it would be difficult to sell off your Dad's legacy in an inpassionate way, if you cared for them. The statement makes us seem more like a German club - great as their fans get treated better than most. Whatever Ms Leibherr's intentions, the statement shows that she knows what she is doing as it pacifies the fans and also stabilises the club.
