I thought I wouldn't be able to watch tapes of Nigel's reign, but this is what we should remember. He may feel like us that he left too early, but he did succeed and should be proud.
He`s up there with Bates and McMenemy. Adkins is a cult figure, and his bizarre dismissal has cemented his place in history. He leaves Saints with his cred untarnished - not for him a losing streak, losing the changing room and ultimate ignominity. He was winning manager, with the team on the up. League 1 and the championship under Adkins was a period I`ll never forget - proper football ! Thanks for everything, and in a perverse way I hope you beat us when you visit SMS with your new club. All the best Nigel.
So, when this decision goes titser, and we go down, who holds Cortese accountable for it? I hope that at the end of the season Cortese will have the good grace to fall on his sword, but somehow can't see him having the class to do that. Yeah, Cortese did well coming in when the club was in a tight spot and he deserves some credit for getting us back to the premiership, but now we're in the premiership, we don't really need him anymore. And if he does stay, we could be looking at becoming the new Blackburn and being back in the third division before long. In my opinion, most of the problems this season are down to Cortese (e.g. the poor quality foreign signings, not spending any money on decent centre backs, spunking £7 million on Rodriguez), and Adkins has performed a miracle in getting a squad of players (many of whom are league 1 or championship players), competing in the premiership.
There is so much wrong with that post I don't know where to start, so OK, I will accept that it is your opinion, and in my opinion you are wrong.
I don't think we will be relegated. I remember at the start of the season people were saying let's get to January without being cut adrift at the bottom. I think it's safe to say Saints have exceeded many of the Saints fans expectations. We could be 6 points clear of the relegation zone come 10pm Monday which would be fantastic. Obviously Cortese didn't think so.
I've always thought that our squad is good enough to keep us up. That and the ridiculous belief and team spirit that we have. Hopefully we won't lose that with a new manager coming in.
But then he also sacked a manager who had guided us out of the relegation zone with top half form. Replaced him with a manager who barely speaks the language let alone have any experience of English football soundbites like that mean **** all. Theres nothing else Cortese can do now except buy some players so he'll just have to hope MP does well or he'll look like a fool.
Cortese going is what I fear the most. The Leihberr's have let him carry on with the dream he sold Markus. If he leaves, we will probably be sold...to people who will load us with debt or asset strippers. How many decent owners do you think are out there?
I'm becoming less convinced that we currently have 'a decent owner', so the prospect of an indecent owner doesn't really scare me. TBF, I lived through the Portaloo and Wotte-the-**** era, saw us get beat 4-1 at Coventry, draw at Stockport and lose at home to Rochdale, so nothing really scares me...
Im sorry Nigel has gone and Cortese seems brutally ruthless when it comes to appointing managers, but so far he's come good in so much as the new manager has surpassed the result of the previous one. For me the possible hiccup in Cortese's business plan is if the new manager fails to improve on the Adkins era he will no doubt be sacked with little hesitation, as would the next manager, and thats only got to happen a couple of times for team morale to go out the window, and for the squad to become a disjointed collection of different managers visions. That's what concerns me, but it's not happened yet so I'm maintaining m Adkins style positivity even if he's no longer the gaffer
