We are broke and rumour has it that Rupert Lowe (IMHO the cause of most of Southampton's woes) is making a cheapo bid for the club that has only recently ousted him. B@st@rd!!!!!
You'll find that 99% of Southampton fans agree with you Snoopy. I can't think of any other football chairman that is more despised by his own fans than him (and has been for some years). Mr Lowe said on the radio earlier this season that "it's because he's called Rupert and is middle class"
I have news for him. He is despised because he has taken a club with great traditions and broken it completely through sheer incompetence and an over inflated ego. That club was once proud of the length of service of its manager (Ted Bates who served the club for 66 years as player, coach, manager and director). It produced quality players (Terry Payne, Mick Channon, Matt Le Tissier to name but three who played for England as well) but Lowe forced the sale of the likes of Theo Walcott and Peter Crouch (Also England players) to enable him to continue to cover up the financial mess he had made. Great Managers like Gordon Strachan could not work with him. Even Lawrie McMenemy (Oh and thanks for that FA cup win Big Fella) felt compelled to resigned from the board in disgust at Lowe's antics.
This is an excerpt from the most recent AGM ~ it gives you a flavour of the problems at the club and they all point at Rupert Lowe who had recently returned after being forced out of the Chair two years earlier and of whom ex Southampton Manager Graeme Souness once remarked to reporters asking about the Chairman "You tell me of another man in football called Rupert"
Question from the Saints Trust: How much longer can we accept a tactically inept head coach?
Lowe: We appointed Jan at the beginning of the season because our young academy players have all been taught to play attacking 4- 3-3 football. He came in as part of a process where we looked at what was available. We’ve cut the squad substantially because we had to – nobody would like to see the club strengthen more than me. We are playing with a young team and have played some wonderful football. Leon is right and we have been bullied out of some games but we are in the same position as the latter part of last season when we had a group of highly paid individuals which has resulted in the financial situation now. I fail to see how anybody can say the football we are playing is unattractive. The results, you are not expecting to shoot the lights out to start with with young kids… The board’s job is top keep the situation under review…I think those young boys have achieved a lot and they need people’s support, not criticism. They have come up through the academy, they are Southampton players through and through and want to play for the club. Lawrie?
Lawrie McMenemy: With respect, to the club that is, I’m pleased you know my name – you must recognise me from the picture!
Lowe: Do you have a question?
McMenemy: That thing in my arms in the picture was called the FA Cup. I’m trying to ask you man to man to ditch your natural pomposity, arrogance and ignorance of football and listen…
Lowe: I stand up and face people. I don’t back off…
McMenemy: I don’t think you realise you’re talking down to people. You’ve got a room full of people, not shareholders but loyal supporters. The academy is just a new name for what we called the youth policy – you might have heard of Matt Le Tissier, Alan Shearer, the Wallace brothers, Steve Moran...You talked about the players sold in the last two years but you didn’t mention the players you sold in your time… They were sold for money that came in and there was £3.3m in the bank when you left but as I pointed out it was only money that was passing through like money for the radio station and insurance which were both losing fortunes and had to be got rid of… You didn’t mention Agustin Delgado, Kleber Chala and Jelle van Damme who were disasters financially to this club.In the ten years you had ten managers. Any business with ten managers is a failure. Your management is a failure.
Lowe: I’ve come back to sort out this situation…
McMenemy: I think Jan shouldn’t come here (to the meeting). He is a nice man, a football man, and I would never criticise him but he hasn’t got a cat in hell’s chance with you. Rupert, I’m sure you’ve got many strengths but not in football. You are not welcome here. When are you going to face the truth and resign?
Lowe: That’s very easy. I came back against the wishes of my wife to steady the club financially. I’m not going until I finish the job I came back to do – to try and restore Southampton to financial health. I might not achieve that. If you read the accounts that is an uphill task. It is disappointing to see so many people criticising somebody doing their best for the club. I’m not resigning.
Let's not forget this is the guy who brought Sir Clive Woodward into football (soccer) but after just a few weeks of seeing how Rupert liked things done at Southampton Sir Clive showed the sporting acumen that made him great and did a runner so fast that rumour has it he didn't even stop to pick up his briefcase.
And then there is this gem of reportage from the Daily Telegraph of 27th August 2004 ~ we knew then it was going tits up which is why he was ousted.
Congratulations are due to Rupert Lowe, the chairman of Southampton Football Club. Under his chairmanship since 1997, six managers – Graeme Souness, Dave Jones, Glenn Hoddle , Stuart Gray, Gordon Strachan and Paul Sturrock – have departed. But now he has what I believe he has always wanted. A head coach.
That title belongs to Steve Wigley. I have no reason to doubt either the ability or integrity of Wigley, but I can well imagine Lowe getting out of bed each morning and moving bare-footed into his bathroom quietly humming Sandie Shaw's Puppet on a String. Lowe is now as near as possible to being the manager. If not, then certainly the director of football. It is unlikely of course that he will ever carry either title because if results go badly he would have to dismiss himself. Far better for the axe to fall on someone else's neck. Be aware, Steve.
Rumours have abounded for several years as to Lowe's interference in football matters at the club. Football agents are not fools and direct contact with chairmen and chief executives, thereby cutting the manager out of the loop, is a well-known practice at some clubs. Some agents are past masters at feeding on the vanity of certain chairmen and the road to the Southampton offices is now a well-ridden route.
It is only fair to recognise the role Lowe has played in moving the Saints from their dilapidated former ground, The Dell, to the modern, upbeat Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium. But he has fallen into the trap, as have many of the new plc football people, of believing that their commercial and marketing acumen will also work in the dressing room.
They get a buzz from involving themselves in the players' world. They create a direct line from the dressing room and sometimes from the football staff room to themselves. This bypasses the manager and consequently undermines him.
Pictures of Lowe at Southampton's pre-season training, with his initials on his kit, show how the game has changed and is continuing to change in relation to the power of the money men and their own perception of what they think they know about the game.
Like agents, the press also know who will feed them. That is their job. For Lowe to accuse the media for being responsible for creating the negativity around Paul Sturrock shows he has a lot to learn or that he is simply naïve. Lowe should take a long hard look at himself, never mind offering that advice to others. He has contacts in the media and most people in the game know who they are.
Lowe protects himself well when managers leave him. In Sturrock's case, he has settled very quickly with no acrimony. I suspect there will be a confidentiality clause respected by both sides in the termination of Sturrock's contract and therefore the departure will always be announced as by mutual consent. But what is the cost to the club of these mutual consents?
My guess is that Sturrock will be relieved to be out of it. His reign at Southampton will not sit well on his CV, but when you have a chairman acting like the manager, you are bound to end up in disagreement on football issues. For a man coming out of the lower divisions trying to make his mark higher up, the least he should expect is full support from his chairman.
To be given the boot after two games this season, and only 13 in all, is disgraceful. To lose six managers in seven years takes some doing and I am certain that any City company who lose six chief executives in a similar period of time would be looking hard at the Chairman and Board of Directors.
For a club who over a period of 30 years had just two managers, in Ted Bates and Lawrie McMenemy, things have certainly changed. How long will Wigley last? Is Lowe already planning his next managerial appointment?
Rumours will undoubtedly abound, so I might as well start it off. Will he appoint someone that even his ego will be happy to play second fiddle to, simply in the knowledge that he had the courage to appoint him? Who might that be? Gerard Houllier? A Glenn Hoddle return? Can he tempt George Graham back into the game? What about Sir Clive Woodward?
What I do know is that Lowe sits on the Football Association's Main Board, the highest committee at the FA, and so we should have confidence in him to get it right, shouldn't we?
Frankly you only have to look at the twat's picture to see all you want to know.
Would you buy a used car from him?
Rant Over (for now)
