There is no entirely blameless party in this. I keep seeing people say how this scale of an exodus us unprecedented (and it kinda is) however there's also never been such a perfect storm of circumstances that make it possible. Cortese promised too much of someone else. He also had the club run in a way where he was the cult leader. He then got called on it. Poch tapped up players over a long period where he knew he was leaving and strung everyone along. The new board didn't position themselves in a way where they could be aggressive through media statements (not publicly stating that Poch was offered a new deal was very naive and actually could have done a lot to get good karma with fans). Kruger talked about things he didn't know about. The players saw the promises of huge potential and Champions League that Cortese made walk out the door and now are jumping ships to the clubs who can get them there, because "sustainable" isn't going to get them there. All this, combined with us being the media darlings of last season, grabbing all the headlines and getting a high finish and international recognition, means players are in demand and want to go.
This isn't wrong, but the fact is it wasn't Cortese who made it all fall down; it was the removal of Cortese that made it all fall down. Sure, you can say it was his unfulfilled promises that eventually resulted in everyone leaving, but those promises went unfulfilled because he was forced out, not because he failed to deliver. All he did in his time here was deliver again and again.
Because NC stamped his feet and held his breath when he didn't get his way 100%. I mean how dare the person putting the money in want any input into how the club was run. He could have stayed but was unwilling to compromise, if he loved the club as much as he said he did, he could have found a way to work with the owner.
It's been said on other threads, but you don't force someone out by offering them a chance to stay. He was asked to compromise, which is what adults do. He didn't want to. He delivered a bunch, sure, and I've been very pro-Cortese, but lets not start the idea that they told him to get the **** out. He was asked to work in a more sustainable way, with others, he refused. He was an employee of the club who chose not to work in a way where he did not have absolute power and freedom to spend someone else's money.
One of the worst parts of football. There are a lot of terrible problems with the game today, and agents are one of the main ones.
Forced out? I seem to remember seeing that Cortese handed in his leaving notice at the end of October.
Cortese was the figurehead and the driving force but you have to acknowledge that none of the money for his project was his. As of 10 August 2010 it all came from Katharina, so surely she had the right to call "foul" if she felt the money wasn't being used properly. The problem is the law of diminishing returns as you get higher up the leagues: the cost of getting from League One to the lower reaches of the Prem is a lot less than getting to the top half, and the cost of breaking into the top 4 is infinitely higher. The problem Cortese had, as has been said many times before, was that we got to the Prem too quickly, so we couldn't build a strong enough squad to sustain a top 4 challenge in time. The sustainable growth we were promised at the start became too difficult to maintain. It will be a lot harder now, but maybe a few seasons of slower growth will get us there.
Nicola was fantastic for us and we should always be grateful, but I doubt he could deliver CL football in the near future without an injection of more money. Perhaps if he stayed he could have sold a couple of players, bought 4 new players (which we needed) and talked the others into staying. But we will never know. Perhaps he left because his bluff was being called. Again we will never know. If he cared about Saints, he could have compromised and stayed, but absolute power corrupts absolutely....he couldn't do it. She who pays the piper calls the tune.
Ben Smith at the BBC days Koeman's policy is to tell players who want to go, to go, so he can start fresh and cut those who aren't in this with him.
He's not so much about agility and that, though. For every Adrian Peterson there are ten Cadillac Williamses and Willis McGahees.
Risky business but if he keeps us up he'll be hailed a hero. Mostly by non-saints fans who all have us 100% going down right now.
