Cortese shown up as Southampton slump
Southampton chairman Nicola Cortese is going to need to make a really impressive managerial appointment to get fans back on side after the post-Alan Pardew era got off to a disastrous start for the south coast club.
The Saints, who sacked Pardew on Monday despite last weekend's 4-0 win away at Bristol Rovers, were beaten 2-0 at St Mary's by recently promoted Rochdale, just days after their Johnstone's Paint Trophy defence ended at the first hurdle with a 3-0 loss to Swindon there.
It was caretaker boss Dean Wilkins rather than Cortese who appeared to bear the brunt of the home support's understandable frustration, with his decision to replace Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain greeted by a chorus of "you don't know what you're doing".
The team many considered promotion certainties in pre-season are now out to [5.2] to win the title and besides Portsmouth supporters, one of the few taking pleasure out of the situation will be the Betfair Contrarian, who laid against them going up this year.
But while Southampton's struggles will undoubtedly steal the headlines, Rochdale deserve plenty of praise for their most impressive League One result yet. Chris O'Grady and Gary Jones were the heroes for Keith Hill's side who are unbeaten on their travels and up to ninth.
Could Rochdale finish in the top half in their first third-tier season since 1973-74? Who should Southampton appoint? Have your say below...
Published: 4 Sep 2010
David (September 4, 2010 5:17 PM) said:
This is going to sound smug but I am not surprised that Saints are in serious disarray. Liebherr's appointment of an inexperienced novice as Saints chairman seemed foolhardy when it was made and smacked of a man playing with his new toy abd of hading outr a thank you present rsther than making a considered appointment.
His decisions post Liebherr have been absolutely farcical.His decsionto ban press photographers fro St Marys was frankly irresponsible in a business which is largely media driven, followed by the crazy decison to sack Alan Pardew simply because he didnt like him. It can hardly have been because of bad results because quite honestly althouth Saints had made a slow start the team had just had a big away win.
Ij ust hope that the Liebherr family are as avid readers of these posts as mM=arkus Liebherr was because they need to replace this chairman very quickly before he does even more damage and appoints a ho hoper like Paul Hart simply because he perceives him to be a yes man.
RYAN (September 4, 2010 9:44 PM) said:
GLENN HODDLE OR PHIL BROWN, WOULD LOVE MARTIN ONEIL THOUGH SO RUMOUR HAS IT THE APPIONTMENT WILL BE MADE MIDWEEK AND WILL HAVE THE WOW FACTOR.
Neil Edwards (September 6, 2010 2:55 PM) said:
The dream team please
Iain Dowie, assisted by Franny Benali
Champeonis........