They don't understand or "get" Cortese, and he won't play ball with him. Thus they resort to type and attack. Fortunately I rather think he has a very, very thick skin and has the confidence/arrogance (as do all great business leaders) just not to give too much of a toss. All power to his elbow.
Too true. There is also the undeniable fact that the one true constant in all the progression since July 2009 has been Cortese. My goodness, the man knows how to make himself unpopular, but he doesn't appear to be in that business or certainly doesn't care. All he's aiming for is success for Southampton FC, and I've not known such a single minded attitude to that effect from any Saints chairman, with the vast majority of supporters knowing we're bloody lucky to have him. That contributed to why any Everton pre-match protests passed without too much clamour, and the media went home dissatisfied. The One Nigel Adkins chant was practically a goodbye kiss to a loved former manager.
I think saints fans know how close we came to going out of existence, and the HUGE part Nicola played in bringing St Markus to the party. Without Nicola we might have been like the blue few down the road, twitching in their death throes whilst the doctors look on with no idea what to do! Whilst we all appreciated all that Sir Nigel did for us, and how he brought in players, and introduced the youth players to win back to back promotions - a huge achievment, we all understand that players come and go. Players who were instrumental in our achievments over the past 2 years have been dumped by NA as "not good enough", Billy Sharp came and went within 6 months. Nicola feels that Sir Nigel is not the one to take us forward, so instead of sacking him then going looking for a new manager whilst an interim took control, he did his background research, then seamlessly brought him in. No matter what we think of it on a human level, as a business decision it is perfect, provided MP can grow into the job quickly, and lets face it Nicola was 100% right with Sir Nigel when he replaced Pardew. Good news does not sell newspapers. The press know this, so always look for an angle where they can "see" or predict controversy. The Daily Fail of course has its " we love Lowe" agenda to follow, and their stance on immigrants is well known, so an argie as manager is like Manna from heaven for them. There is more mileage for the press in adkins sacked after all that hes done, than steely determined Nicola Cortese implements the next stage of his plan for world domination. There are more headlines in "expected riot at St mary's" than knowledgable supporters put their team above petty demonstrations. We may not like Cortese's methods, but I expect that deep down we would not have any other person at the helm! The King is dead. Long Live the King. In Nicola and Mauricio we trust.
The biggest difference in The Chelsea appointment to ours is that Chelsea fans have always hated Benitez, which made the sacking of a popular manager even worse. Our manager, by contrast, comes with no baggage and seems like an OK guy. So whilst we may not agree with the decision to sack Adkins or indeed the manner of it, we can still see that for the club there maybe some merit in it. As for Cortese, he does things for the right reasons but I don't think he yet understands that a football club is more than just winning games and a healthy bank balance (although thats not a bad starting point!!). I don't think it would hurt him to try and understand what it is to be a simple fan sometimes. Even that is complicated though. You only have to read this forum to see that we don't always agree and have different views on what a football club should be.
Folks there is no doubt as Channon says most of us are bruised by the loss of our Nigel.......An awful lot of Saints fans think Cortes is wrong and still do. That shouldn't be mistaken for stupidity because we prefer to back our team and consequently our new manager and our CEO. It is all very well saying Cortese shouldn't have dismissed him but it is another in challenging his motives. When you are at the top in business you can not let sentiment rule your decisions. Very large companies have gone down the drain trying to preserve the sentiment with in their company in the past. The reality is That Cortese would have wrestled with this decision for a very long time. I guarantee he will have had sleepless nights before coming to his conclusion. He had to step over his sentimantal feelings which in truth even for him would have been strong. Just remember he was the one that brought him in he was the one that promoted him as a brilliant young manager. That type of decision no matter how hard or easy always leaves a bad taste in your mouth. With Nigels record at Saints it must have been the most difficult he has ever had to make. You have to admit he is a tough cookie.....whether that is in Saints favour or not......as they say only time will tell!!
Looked at dispassionately, there's not much to take issue with in the Cascarino article. Put aside tribal loyalties for a moment and try to read it from a neutral's perspective. What is there to disagree with? The decision to sack Adkins after a sustained run of improved results does look bizarre. To do so after a 2-2 draw at the home of the champions of Europe, even more so. Replacing him at this stage of the season clearly is a massive gamble, although gambles do pay off sometimes. Cascarino is also surely right when he says that the team who drew with Everton was Adkins team - Pochettino would not have had time to influence them. As much as anyone else on here, I want Cortese to be proved ruthless but right, rather than ruthless and wrong. But reading this forum in the last few days makes me wonder if he's tipped a large dose of Soma (see Aldous Huxley) into the water supply in Southampton. Living in London, I must have missed out on that.
When my long suffering football widow wife heard me whinging about the decision to sack Nigel she laughed and started to list names of "friends" I'd had to give the silver bullet when I was in business. Damn she was right, again. There can be no room for sentiment as far as Cortese is concerned. He seems to have ambition beyond the imagination of most Saints fans. If he is going to achieve his targets there could be more high profile casualties. If Saints qualify for European football and establish themselves as a Premier League team - getting back to where we were in the 80's - we'll take the media rubbish. The question is how we might all react if Cortese's project falls a long way short. Will we be philosophical enough to accept that failing trying to achieve is better than not trying. The man who makes no mistakes makes nothing - but the corollary is not true.
That's the way on this forum Cortese is Big brother and everyone seems very adept at doublethink. Such as 'no way will cortese get rid of Adkins hes doing great Cortese isn't stupid its just lazy journalist' then literally one day later 'this could take us to the next level Adkins was holding us back'. The sad part is people mistake being a fan with not criticizing the club ever.
There is a flip to everything. So now you and Archers are suggesting anyone "in Cortese's camp" has had something in their water. Ridiculous. We have an opinion, as you do; it's just different. So no, it isn't sad, but forming of an opinion. Take me as an example. At about 11:55 on Friday morning, I posted a message with the words "deserve to be relegated" in it. I was annoyed, disappointed and shocked. I have then spent a lot of time (that bit maybe sad I know) trying to look at this without emotion and I gradually decided that I could see the logic in the decision and decided to "back Cortese" for want of a better term. I wasn't happy about it, but I looked at how we have been doing and what we could have done. There is a fairly easy argument to put forward suggesting we have given away enough easy points to be on 32 and right up the table, just for one example of how I'd been thinking. I don't think there were many "one day later" people at all. People are entitled to take some time to think things through and have their opinion altered. There is nothing wrong with those people who don't like or agree with what Cortese is or does. It is also ok to sit with both trains of thought. I don't see Cortese as "Big Brother", I am just grateful for his intervention three years ago and as of yet, he hasn't made a major decision that I think has adversley affected SFC. I could argue that those not capable of "doublethink" are stubborn, too singleminded and too adamant to consider another opinion. I don't believe that, but it is the flip side of what you have posted. By the way, Archers... I live in Northampton, so I'm not drinking the funny Southampton water either, but we clearly differ on this subject.
Fair enough I don't care if thats the conclusion you've come to as you say your entitled to it. I still very much think the decison was rash wrong and incredibly risky. I dont mind people supporting Cortese thats great. What I mind is people seemingly feeling like they have no choice and they just have to twist all their arguments to be in favour of Cortese. Maybe thats not the case but it seems as if it is. My point was bout the scene in 1984 where the party workers litteraly instantaneously swithc their hatred from eurasia to eastasia or whatever way round it is. Now clearly it's not exactly the same but it does seem as if people feel oh well we 'have' to support NC so lets just agree. Anyway I've not made my point very well and if people agree with this decision then fair enough. For me personally based on all the evidence and factors it's incredibly stupid and it's not made acceptable just by the fact that suposedly 'NC's never done anything wrong yet'. Edit: At no point did I imply supporting this decison/cortese was sad. What I meant was the feeling of having to support him is.
Fair enough too I agree with you that the decision was risky. I can't agree it was rash, based on the information that suggests this has been a few weeks in the making; that suggests some time taken to consider things or prepare. You think it's wrong, yet no one will know if it's wrong for a while yet. You have made your point well (good to have a debate without all the bitching, thanks) and I too did not like the decision; I just can now understand the logic. For SFC sake, I hope it's a winner.
No worries thanks too! Whatever we think of decisions managers etc. wanting to see our club do well is what makes us fans of the club. Its just a shame when people disagree on here it turns into mud slinging which always seems odd as no one actually knows anyone on here!
I'm sure harmony will be restored if we stay up and then move on to better things next season - in which case it won't be water we'll be drinking . But i'll still be wondering what we could have achieved with Nigel at the helm. As for Cortese, the best I can say is to quote Lyndon B Johnson - "He may be a sonovabitch, but at least he's our sonovabitch."
I was as upset and angry as anyone on Friday, but I could see the logic to it after I'd thought about it for a while. Reading up a bit about Poch revealed that he could be a good manager for us. Getting NA back wasn't an option, so I looked for the positives. Only time will tell if Nicola is right, but as CEO he was entitled to make it. Over the top reporting and criticism in the Press only made me protective of him (not that he needs it).
The choice TBD is whether you support the team or not.......Most of us have decided to carry on supporting the team. The realism is all we can do is to tell Cortese how we feel. There is nothing we can actually do about it......if we boycott the ground we are boycotting the players. By with holding our support we reduce the possibility of getting in possibly better players etc. We have to face realism.......it doesn't mean we have to like it. As you said earlier it is a very risky decision Cortese will stand or fall by it. I agree with you on the mud slinging bit. It is a shame that someone who has tried to put their point over in a fair way should be the victim of it. Some unfortunately seem to think that is the way of debate, which of course it is not.
It was actually Franklin Roosevelt talking about Anastasio Somoza Garcia, the dictator of Nicaragua in 1939, but it's still a great quote.
Lyndon Johnson's quote was in a similar vein though. "it's better to have him inside the tent, pissing out, than outside the tent, pissing in"
Of course I'll keep suporting the team I could never stop suporting saints. I agree we need to get behind the players and if I could (at uni) I would be singing my heart out every match. However I feel at the same time I can criticize Cortese (while also thanking him for the tremendous amount of good work he's done). In general I just don't like this syle of leadership and really like the idea of stability of manager which is why I was soo upset to see nige go because I really thought we were going to be the next Everton. However your quite right they're still saints so they're still my team and I hope Poch does well I just don't feel at the moment I can turn around and say I agree with the decision because in honesty I dont! Le'ts hope Cortese proves me wrong.
