What Does The Future Hold For Saints
Tuesday, 18th Dec 2007 16:34

This has been another black week in the history of the Club.

The resignation of Ken Dulieu, Jim Hone and Andy Oldknow on Monday came out of the blue for most Saints fans but the worrying thing is where does it leave Southampton FC.

The differences between the executives and non executives on the board at saints have been well documented over the last six months but to force them out at this present time seems to be an act of folly and leaves the club floundering with no direction as to how it will function in both the short and long term.

Thi is not a statement in support of Jim Hone and his band of merry men but a pragmatic look at where the club stands today, as it now has no one on board who has the experience of running a football club or for that matter a PLC, it also no longer has a marketing director to bring in much needed revenue.

The Club's fate now seemingly lies in the hands of the 3 major shareholders, Lowe, Wilde and Crouch and i fully expect leon Crouch to be appointed as Chairman in the next couple of days, but are these three working together or do they have differing agenda's for the Club.

The worry is that this is a move that hasnt been thought through, neither Crouch or Wilde have any practical experience of running a large company of this nature and experienced football club executives dont grow on tree's.

But and it is a big But are they going to bring in the one man that does have the neccessary experience, I am referring to of course Rupert Lowe, will we see the return of our former Chairman.

The big worry is that if the three major shareholders attempt to run the club themselves that it will become a clash of ego's, lets be brutally honest, in the past 18 months each of the trio has clashed with the other two and although it might suit them now to be in cahoots with each other it will be a powder keg waiting to explode.

The financial situation at the Club wont change overnight and as has been proved in the past none of the three has invested any money into the actual club itself, is there any reason to suppose that they will now ?

As a Saints supporter I am saddened by this weeks events, I am saddened by the way that this club has been manipulated by various individuals and is constantly the subject of whispering campaigns on internet message boards, in truth I am sick to the teeth of it, All I want is the best for the football club, I want it run by professional people with the right experience.

So what can our three major shareholders do to convince me that this is the right thing for Southampton FC, well firstly they can publish their clear manifesto for the immediate future, I hear a lot about how the executives werent Southampton men and the credentials of the shareholders well lets see them stand up and be counted, is this a new beginning or merely the beginning of the end !