Double dutch

Well there I am driving to work this morning, when the travel news kicks in and at the end it doesn't turn off so i can go back to my iPod, so I hear "...and for all Saints fans stay tuned we have big news for you all"



Well usually that means "we've got tickets to give away" but as the season doesn't start until mid August, I stayed tuned. This meant that I heard the announcement that Nigel Pearson was leaving the Saints and that Jan Poortvliet and Mark Wotte had been appointed to bring "total football to St Marys. Poortvliet was a member of the 1978 Dutch world cup final team so at least he knows what total football looks like.

This brings to mind a number of points.

Firstly Nigel Pearson. Nice bloke, strong, tough and hard working. BUT when he took over we were 18th and we finished 20th and very nearly a disastrous 22nd. While he had won over the crowd, that was only because he kept us up and actually he achieved very little.

Secondly, reality check. Since Rupert Lowe and Michael Wilde have been re-appointed as directors (and Chairmen- one of the PLC one of the football club) they have revealed exactly how little cash we have to spend. The fact that last season our wage bill went UP by 30% when the parachute payments had stopped defies belief, especially when we played so poorly for large parts of the season. Not good enough and expensive too! Therefore cuts had to be made and Pearson was clearly not cheap.

The financial stability of the past has been built on a cracking academy and Lowe has made it his top priority that we invest in it to restore it to former glories. Sounds sensible to me.

Loan signings have been a feature of that last three seasons, during which we were nearly relegated twice. While some have been good, the majority weren't good enough for their own clubs and knew that even if we went down, they would still be returning to the parent clubs. Thus can you ever be sure they are giving it their all?

Nigel Pearson wasn't good enough for West Brom, they replaced him with Tony Mowbray (what's he ever achieved?" they probably said at the time) and he played attractive football and got them promoted.

The new managers want to play football the right way, get a complete style throughout the club and use the young players from the academy rather than loan signings.

Sounds rather exciting to me but only time will tell, but if you read the Saints message boards you thing we'd appointed Harold Shipman and Fred West . I can't help thinking that if we appointed Sir Alex some fans wouldn't be happy.