Article: Am I being paranoid? | Southampton FC, Football

I am starting to feel that no other football club CEO has been attacked by the media with such vehemence as our Nicola has over the last few days.

Abramovich's treatment of De Matteo did not see the same level of wrath and as for that lot of shysters who have brought Pompey to the point of extinction the media have treated then with kid gloves. Blackburn's owners have been treated kindly by comparison to Nicola as has the owner of QPR. I could go on but won’t.

The media will always have the knives out for Nicola as he will not take part in their silly games.

Thank goodness the Internet is putting paid to the corrupt and biased world of newspapers.

Am I paranoid or does the media in this country have a real hatred for Nicola?

 

Well at least most Saints fans remain faithful to Nicola, even if the media are being twats about it. Most Chelsea fans are still mightily pissed off about the Di Matteo sacking and Benitez appointment.

 

Cortese doesn't play the game. He's not interested in the media and they know it. He hasn't been forgiven for sacking Pardew and not having the decency to prove them right by sinking without trace...they now sense blood. Adkins is also English...so now Cortese is being held personally responsible for the majority of PL managers being foreigners.

 

Might have something to do with the fact that he gives zero ****s what they think.

 

This garbage was written by Tony Cascarino in today's Times:

Has Nicola Cortese found himself a puppet in Mauricio Pochettino?

Everyone criticises Roman Abramovich for his impatience as Chelsea owner, hiring and firing managers on a whim. But the desire of Nicola Cortese, the Southampton chairman, to intervene in all matters seems to be far worse. His decision to sack Nigel Adkins, the manager, is the strangest decision in football for a long time.

It was hard to find any mention of Adkins in the matchday programme last night, so the club have moved on quickly, and I suspect this is a sign of the future at St Mary’s. Managers will come and go with regularity, any hint of failure will earn a dismissal.

How interesting it was that Southampton’s first game under Mauricio Pochettino was against Everton, a club who have stood by David Moyes, their manager, through thick and thin since he arrived at Goodison Park almost 11 years ago. He’s had periods of difficulty but Everton have stuck with him and are reaping the rewards.

In the case of Adkins’s reign, though, there wasn’t a bad patch. He took over with Southampton in the League One relegation zone but guided them into the Championship that season, immediately added a second consecutive promotion and had fared better in the Premier League this season than most observers had predicted.

Adkins’s achievement in steering Southampton into the top flight was extraordinary but, even so, I feared he might be the first Premier League manager to be sacked because of how his chairman operates.

However, the way Southampton have improved, with a win away to Aston Villa coming before a fine comeback to earn a 2-2 result at Stamford Bridge last week, appeared to have ensured Adkins would stay in the job.

Cortese has taken a massive gamble that only a man with the utmost arrogance would choose. He has replaced a manager who turned the club around with a guy who speaks little English. What logic is there in that decision? Other relegation-threatened clubs will be delighted by it.

Pochettino might be a good coach but how can you employ someone who can’t even communicate with his players? It actually makes me laugh. It’s hard to see him as anything other than a puppet for the chairman.

Don’t expect Cortese to be feeling guilty about what Adkins has done at St Mary’s. He has acted with absolute ruthlessness — anyone with a conscience would not have made that decision.

I admire Southampton in many ways. They spent a lot of money last summer to try and establish themselves in the Premier League. Yet now they go and do this.

Pochettino will know he will be following Adkins out of the door if the club are relegated.

Will they avoid that fate? Well, the commitment of the players was there last night, but that was Adkins’s team, full of desire and enterprise.

Last Friday I would have said Southampton were in a great position in the battle to avoid the drop. The way they played against Villa and Chelsea suggested they had a good chance. Now I’m not so sure.

 

Wonder why after the events of the last month or two.

 

That article is tripe. So many things to disagree with in it, typical "go with the flow" journalism.

EDIT: Oops, accidentally disliked your post Godders, sorry about that. Meant to dislike the one below it.

 

I think tomorrow morning I will track down an email address for that uneducated Irishman, oops, sorry cockney, and I'll send him a communication. I have just 2 weeks left of my "garden leave" and i have put so many brownie points in the bank with Mrs FLT that I desrve some time to have some fun with that man.

 

Fortunately Godders I really doubt Mr C is interested in what the media think. In fact I am certain he did not make the big decision because he wants to be popular. He knows he will be judged on results, and I think he has earned his right to roll the dice.

 

Is this why he's just appointed a big shot PR guy? He does care clearly, he just thinks this will blow over soon enough.

 

Who's this new PR guy? Have I missed something?

 

Keep up laddie http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1163225/

 

There was an article on the OS a couple of months back about us hiring some new PR guy.

Found it: http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/director-of-communications-appointed-528452.aspx

 

Thanks both. I'm appalled I didn't know about that, I've failed as a Saints fan.

 

There is a certain irony in Cascarino claiming Cortese has made a gamble

 

Isn't arrogance just an unpleasant word for confidence. Cortese is confident that he is right. He is paid to make such decisions. Whether correct or not, only time will tell, but if a CEO believes that someone in a senior position in his company is not the right person is he supposed to stick with that person because his actions are unpopular with the media and managers at other clubs. The only people he should be concerned about are the fans and he obviously believes we will be happy in the long term. Question his decision by all means but some are turning this into a chance for point scoring.

 

Cortese was right about Pardew. The media liked Pardew and turned on Cortese. They liked Adkins too and Cortese is now public enemy number one. He's squeaky clean and good at his job though, so all they can cling too is a few snotty character references from Le Tiss, who clearly has issues with him. Wait and see what happens with Pochettino, but a fair bit of thought has clearly gone into this and i suspect, to the media's disgust, that this will work out

 

The media are trying to make this out to be a joke, that Cortese has hired someone that can't speak English and was useless at Espanyol. Details are beginning to emerge that he might actually know something about football and he can make himself understood to the players. A couple of people on Sky have just said what a good choice he might be. Newspapers are tomorrow's chip paper (or they would be before health and safety banned it).

 

It's ironic that Cascarino says that it is ironic the first game was against Everton.

Championing them for their chairman sticking with Moyes through some hard times. This is also the same chairman that only last year Everton fans wanted out (protests and all that) because he was 'holding them back'. They wanted more investment in their team.

Have I used the word ironic yet?

 

The whole fan base is going through something which happened in miniature on a thread yesterday. Loads of us feeling a bit bruised and dubious about NC's decision and then someone makes an unjustified attack on him and we (almost) all, what was Fran's phrase, "circle the wagons" in his defence.
I think the OTT press and other media criticism has made the vast bulk of fans do just that and that is why the crowd was like it was last night. Man U are a bit like that-all the criticism just makes them stick together.