16 Oct 2014 15:00:23
Koeman just confirmed he's not interested in the national job and wants to spend 'atleast' the remainder of his contract at saints

1.) 18 Oct 2014
18 Oct 2014 19:47:18
Just a thought but does anybody agree that the only reason Saints were relegated from their 27 seasons of top flight football was the greed of people like Rupert Lowe who sucked the club dry. Just wish Markus Leibherr was still here to see his dream come true. On the other hand I do wish we could fill the stadium only 29, 500 here today and for a club looking to the future that is just not good enough. Too many part time supporters who will fill it for the big boys but give a game like today's a miss, you MUST support us at every game otherwise no stadium expansion and lack of income to move to the next level. If you want to be in the very top bracket we as supporters have to make it happen. Let's make the Stoke game a sell out and show our true support.

2.) 19 Oct 2014
I have an unusual take on our reasons for relegation, which many Saints fans seem too shortsighted to agree with. What do you think?

As soon as the Taylor report was implemented, and clubs had to have all-Seater Stadiums Saints were on a tight deadline to disaster. Prior to that we had gates of around 30k. As we all know, we then went down to 15k.

Saints needed a new Stadium to survive. Unfortunately with local councils dragging their heals, and Saints not finding a solution, the club was effectively competing at a huge disadvantage to the rest of the top flight. You could argue that with such a deficit it was only a matter of time before they went down. Personally I thought it was miraculous they stayed up so long, and a large part of that was Matt Le Tissier. He deserves huge credit for his loyalty. Had he gone, the money would probably have been frittered away, and we'd have been relegated far sooner.

When Saints finally managed to move, the repayments on the Stadium, meant that although we were back up to 30k fans, we had far higher expenses. Saints were bled dry for years by their inability to find a solution to having their income halved following the Taylor report.

Lowe did do many good things that have actually laid foundations for the future of the club. Without St Mary's we would never have been bought by Saint Markus. Equally without the Academy that Lowe invested in so heavily we probably wouldn't have been bought by Saint Markus either!

Where I do agree with the Lowe arguments is that had we bought a quality for Micheal Svensson that season - just invested a little more into the team, we would have been fine - but by then the cash had run out.

It showed the following season that we were relegated how tight finances were that we had to sell so many players. All of our Strikers were sold including a young Walcott, Crouch and Kevin Philips. Had finances been there, I'm sure that the club would have tried to retain one or two. Selling your complete strike force isn't something a club does by choice.

I understand the anger against Lowe, but in many ways without his laying foundations at Southampton, we wouldn't where we are now. We only need to look a few miles down the road to see what happens to a club built without strong foundations.

It seems strange to think, but instead of the bitterness surrounding Lowe, perhaps every Saints fan owes Lowe his thanks for his part in our current success.

3.) 20 Oct 2014
19 Oct 2014 23:13:44
No way have we to thank mr Lowe, he sold off all assets that saints had, ie land property and with it hope. He sold more and more each season, until it ran dry. Mr Lowe ran out of things to sell Thus saints going down a long way. Any businessman understands you can't just asset strip and close your eyes and hope something comes along, as once assets disappear what's left?? - relegation.
Yes I understand he put together st Mary's and continued the youth system but he was so poor I don't even feel I have to justify my argument
Cheers Picky

4.) 20 Oct 2014
Have to disagree with the comment and analysis regarding Lowe. At the time of his reign I was in contact with people inside the club. I am not going to put anything down here and would advise others to be careful with their comments on this one.

We got very lucky on two counts. One the hedge fund that now runs coventry failed in their attempt to purchase us and two, the liebherr family came to our rescue. Phew, we really did get lucky.

The Stadium issue is difficult. We do need to expand (we have the catchment area) but will people turn up to fill it? I suspect that saints will need a good run inside the top ten in the PL over a few seasons to bring further support in.

If you look at history (not when the capacity of the dell was 15 thousand) we always got the big crowds for the big games and there would be drop off when clubs a similar size to us were in town.

5.) 20 Oct 2014
20 Oct 2014 15:43:52
I would like to mention about only being able to attract so much support in our early stages of further development, what a load of rubbish. 5 years ago 44000 supporters went to Wembley for the JPT and had it not have been for the ticket allocation we would have taken over 50K. We had average gates in excess of 22000 when we were in the old 2nd division and had a large fan base stretching to Dorchester, Newbury, IOW, Salisbury etc. I feel the major problem we have on the South Coast is the cost of being a supporter and the extra cost of ordering your tickets on line or over the phone. The supporters in the North not only in general pay a lot less for their tickets they also have a lower cost of living with house prices being lower and therefore smaller mortgages and entertainment costs. I believe if we are to get the stadium full make the cost of season tickets more affordable or re-introduce a direct debit monthly scheme, not a lot of people can justify £700 ish in one go especially this season as the deadline day for renewal was only a couple of weeks after the last game of the season. I don't think the support is not there I believe that the club has put the cost of supporting SFC out of reach for many true supporters. I really believe if you could spread the cost over 6 months you could bring up to 5000 more sales in season tickets more or less immediately, I know they had problems before with many direct debits being returned but I am sure that they could sort this out now that we have the digital system by making your card invalid if you haven't paid and making the seat available to other supporters. I truly hope we can expand and have the away supporters somewhere else than behind the Northam End which really should be the Kop end of St Marys increasing the atmosphere and freeing up the seats that are not used due to supporter separation. Food for thought ?

6.) 20 Oct 2014
20 Oct 2014 20:10:19
The issue is access. NC knew this was a big problem and there was a need for the council to seriously address this. Until they do it will limit the numbers who can get to and from St.Marys in a reasonable time.

For fit young persons it may be OK to spend most of the day getting to and from your football, and perhaps walking across Southampton, but for older supporters, or families, it is a big turn off. If you add another 8k to the stadium capacity just think how many cars/parking places and/or buses this is over a short period of time. Without big changes by the council Southampton would be grid locked.

7.) 20 Oct 2014
I'd like to comment on the money issue as well. I'm going to see my first Saints game this weekend, and although I'm very excited I think it's ridiculous to charge fans £30+ to see their club play. Also as I live on the Isle of wight, the port and expensive travel links add to this cost and make it harder to afford and get to a match. I would very much like to go to more matches but simply can't afford it. I feel if the club lowered the prices a bit for the smaller games they will get more supporters in and probably just about the same amount of money from it. I don't think that they realise that £10 less for tickets will make a big difference for fans but not so much of a difference for the club. This'll help supporters support their club and fill the stadium. But anyway, I'm still really looking forward to my first saints match this weekend! COYR

8.) 21 Oct 2014
20 Oct 2014 22:07:31
Stirling Saint you are just one of several thousand who are honest everyday working people who deserve to see their team play. Unfortunately now that football is such big business I don't think owners, chairmen and board members understand the financial problems of supporting your team. Very much like politicians who say they understand what it's like out there but haven't got a clue really. A real shame that a normal family man ( person ) is forced to be excluded from supporting their team due to cost. In some ways football is not for the masses anymore but more or less for the better off, this is a great shame.

{Ed003's Note - good post Chris.}

9.) 21 Oct 2014
It is very simple. A new tier above the Northam to house the away supporters which means no segregation and that silly gap behind the goal. Ticket prices set at £30 per game.

There is plenty of parking in Southampton - just don't leave it until the last minute.

I am one of those fans from Dorchester way - there are hundreds of us who often attend when work allows. We make it a day and sometimes an evening out. COYR.

10.) 21 Oct 2014
The problem with capping ticket prices is that we have a relatively small ground (compared to other top division teams atleast) and need to be able to compete with other teams in the ffp, the only real way to do that at the minute is to either expand the stadium (not sure if the cost of that comes under the ffp) or to have slightly higher ticket prices.

11.) 22 Oct 2014
Chris great post and i agree with it all. yep we do takes load to Wembley that is correct but if we got a bigger ground would people come?

For those of us old to be there in in 76 and 79 when we went to wembley we took huge amounts of fans and a quarter of a million people turned out to see bring the FA cup back home.

The period between 1980 and 1985 when saints finished runners up to Liverpool in Div 1 and reached two further FA cup semi finals there were games at the dell which were not sold out.

Cost is a massive problem for all fans of teams in prem. After the game with Sunderland on Sat and the players saying that they would like to reimburse the travelling fans for their poor display someone went away and worked out how much that would cost the players. This was reported on the BBC and the 450 grand.

The players have come up with different way of giving something back! But this figure does illustrate just how much is needed for fans to go and watch their team at away from home and these people would have been in the main i reckon season ticket holders.

I would love to see the stadium extended but it would need a smart business plan and loads of new infrastructure to make it work. The current owners could go for it if they choose too.

Look at Derby and Middlesbrough, they have the same ground as us in essence but check out the shops, food outlets and other stuff that they have outside their grounds compared to us. We do not have the room at st marys for a big increase in capacity.
Just to finish there are other words other than 'bitter' i would use to describe our ex owner having nearly lost the club i love.

12.) 22 Oct 2014
Just to say the cost to sunderland fans was 45k not 450k my mistake

13.) 22 Oct 2014
22 Oct 2014 13:53:10
I very much agree golac with your comments but I feel that you have missed something about the Dell. If ever there was a ground in the wrong place that was it, nowhere to have a pint and a bite to eat really as The Winston was taken over completely by away supporters and no parking hardly at all. People used to have a drink and a Plested's pie in town or Shirley and walk the rest and in fact this still happens now at St Marys. Funnily enough one of the busiest pubs before the game is The Alexandria which was also the case when the games were at The Dell so many people will walk. One of the major problems with access to St Marys is the Mount Pleasant train gate crossing as I am sure you know you can either miss the start or be kept up to almost an hour getting through them after the game, crazy and also off putting for potential new supporters. I am no rocket scientist but there is a train line that actually runs 50 feet away from the stadium that is linked to the main line, surely there must be a way to get use of this, it may be very costly and difficult to arrange but it must be possible somehow. I would quite gladly leave my car at home or park it near my local station and use that facility. If we don't at least look in to this ( I know Cortese did a few years ago) we will never be able to move on as I don't think SFC would get planning permission to expand considering the current infrastructure surrounding the stadium. The ground is in the wrong place which is pretty obvious but hopefully someone can think of something. It wouldn't be a problem abroad they would just sort it somehow, I have been to the Nou Camp in Barcelona which is a 90,000 seater stadium in a suburban area, their answer to the problem is supplying great public transport which I believe is subsidised. I left their stadium and was back in my hotel over 20 miles away in just over an hour. Therefore if they can do it so can we, it is so frustrating.

14.) 27 Oct 2014
Chris again i agree with what you say that it is the costs of the modern game to the average fan which is the biggest factor in keeping people away.

Your points about the dell are true but of course the when the dell was built it was state of the art and most people who attended were working class and they stood rather than sat.

What you say about St Marys is also true Wrong location. I have heard one prominent local politician express his regret that local politicians got it wrong on the Stoneham site and that in supporting the opposition to the saints moving to Stoneham site they effectively arrested saints development for 20 years. Stonham of course next to a motorway, airport, and of course two train stations.

Down for game this weekend past and reading in the echo that local developers seem to have big plans for much of the Northam and Chapel areas around the ground by building loads of new homes. This i guess means that expansion of st marys may be more difficult in the future with residents opposing any stadium expansion.

The liebherrs are good at this sort of thing so with some innovative design we may be able to increase capacity where we are. Modern terracing allowing people to stand is something that i believe needs to reintroduced to grounds. Standing should come with cheaper admission and of course bring back noise and atmosphere to grounds.

It is a big call to make for the owners but would be a longterm investment for the club and supporters if comes off.

Any transfer rumours anyone?