What future is there for Saints whilst the squabbling goes on.

After the scenes at St Mary's yesterday its hard to see how Southampton Football Club can survive let alone avoid relegation.

The club is destroying itself from within with firstly directors and ex directors fighting their own little power battles and supporter fighting supporter (literally) as the Club falls apart around them.

The problem is how can Saints move forward, a large section of the support will not let nor give Lowe a chance to try and turn the club round, yet it is hard to see what other options there are.

A change of boardroom regime now would be pointless unless it is a complete clean sweep of the past and new directors with some money to invest, anything else would be just juggling with the same situation.

Its easy to turn round and say that if Nigel Pearson had stayed things would be different, however thats looking at the past year through rose tinted spectacles, last february saw Saints in a terrible position, remember the Bristol Rovers game, the arrival of Pearson saw little change in a side that was on the slide, we saved ourselves on the last day of the season, we really shouldnt have been anywhere near that position, yet we had been dragged there through guess what ? boardroom in fighting and a failure to address our problems.

I liked Nigel pearson, however i would say that with so many of last seasons squad being let go or loaned out he would have struggled to do a good job, in fact most managers would struggle given what they had to work with, Pearson won three games out of fourteen with an experienced squad lets not forget.

So at this moment in time with no investors on the horizon we have to look at what alternatives we have, the fact is none at all bar a boardroom juggling session should Michael Wilde change sides again, but what is the likelihood of that, those that were at the AGM will testify that there is no love lost between the two major shareholding factions, its pure hatred and the loser is Southampton Football Club who suffer whilst ego's clash.

Lowe probably has only one shot at turning the season around now, he has to do what Leon Crouch did when  his experiment of Dodd & Gorman backfired so dreadfully, he has to appoint a manager, I dont say "New" because as some will point out, Poortvliet is a coach not a manager and although the title means nothing with regards to who picks the team, the fact is there are "Coaches" and there are "Managers" and Jan Poortvliet is most definately a "Coach"

So Lowe's one hope is that like Crouch he can find someone to come in and save the day, I think the words Glenn Hoddle will crop up in the next week or so with more regularity.

Rupert Lowe will turn round and tell you that the reason for Saints demise was that the fans protested too much meaning that the board was divided on the apointement of Glenn Hoddle in 2004, that he was outvoted and Paul Sturrock arrived instead.

He will also tell you that if he had been allowed to appoint Hoddle then the last five years would have been a lot different, in short he will use this to absolve himself as being completely to blame for Saints relegation.

Whilst what he says has some credence, no one can deny that Lowe wanted to bring Hoddle back and that the fans played a part in blocking that return, it is also a fact that Lowe then spent the rest of the year hiring and firing managers, yes he would have preferred Hoddle, but there were plenty of other good managers available, if he had felt that strongly he should have put his foot down.

So if he tries to bring Hoddle back now, what would be the fans reaction, would they welcome Hoddle back and see him as the experienced manager they have been crying out for all season, or would they merely see it as they did five years ago, the return of a Judas !

After the scenes at the Doncaster match a lot of people need to take a long hard look at what they want from the rest of this season, I dont just mean the fans, but also the warring shareholder factions, what we need now is unity behind the team and give ourselves the best chance to get out of relegation, then we can start to worry about who is Chairman.

It is fine to demand "Lowe Out" but there has to be a credible alternative, unless Lowe hands over his shares to Leon Crouch, it is not going to be Crouch so do supporters continue the vocal protests during games which will mean certain relegation or do they concentrate on supporting the team during the 90 minutes whilst demanding a change in the boardroom though other means.       

Photo: Action Images

darthvader added 16:09 - Jan 18 Look how far we come since this . I dont know why but this story sprung up on a mis clicked search but i read it anyway
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