Yesterday, Southampton’s chairman Nicola Cortese resigned. Depending on how long you have been trailing this story, he is either being tempted to take up the chef exec job at struggling Milan, or has found working under owner Katharine Liebharr too much. It’s also possible that Ms Liebharr has insisted on a return on her family’s two rounds of investment in the club and forced his hand.
Five years ago Cortese was a working in Switzerland as a banker and acted on behalf of the now-deceased and father of Katharine, Markus Liebharr. They successfully put a deal together to buy Southampton FC and rescue the club from administration (liquidation is not inevitable, some clubs survive). Cortese had no previous experience in the football industry.
Southampton are a small club who seem cursed to produce incredibly talented youth players, only to see extraordinarily bad executives spurn their bounty. I remember writing about their ‘blood on the boardroom carpet’ six years ago.
A year ago this Saturday, Cortese sacked Nigel Atkins, the manager who won them two successive promotions and put them in a comfortable position on the FA Premier League. Cortese was to 2013 what Vincent Tan is to 2014, the butt of a thousand jokes, but none of us were reading the script.
Cortese’ next move was to appoint Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, the 40-year-old recently sacked manager of Espanyol. Southampton haven’t looked back, despite the words “Hooiveld” and “Fox” regularly featuring on team sheets.
Pochettino is now one of the hottest properties in football but he’s not the story, his former boss is. In appointing a young, low-profile, manager, Cortese tackled square-on the biggest problem in football – the vast risk invested on the shoulders of one man, the manager. A football manager is expected to be a master of tactics, a motivational dressing room speaker, a media communications expert, a scout and pretty much guru of everything.
None of them are good at all of this. As a consequence, clubs invest vast proportions of turnover on player wages and transfers, with haphazard diligence being carried out. The man ultimately responsible for approving this spend is more likely to be a shouty media darling, spending an average of 2.5 years at the club, than someone who has experience of long-term strategic planning.
Cortese figured that what he really needed in a manager was a tactical head, someone who could run a technical team, consulting with scouts, coaches, nutritionists and fitness trainers, and come up with what American football teams call a playbook. You want to play at Old Trafford? This is what worked when small teams visited the Bernabeu last season. Playing teams’ taller/faster/luckier with referees than you? You’ve got to see how these guys are leveling the playing field in Uruguay.
Football clubs need their manager to be Master of Tactics, and if they can concentrate him on this, they’re doing better than 90% of clubs in the game. They don’t need someone ‘connected’ to agents in value markets, this attribute can be recruited easily. They don’t need a good media talker. Despite being able to speak English, Pochettino gives press conferences through an interpreter. Yet the fans love him!
Clubs don’t need someone to play to the galleries, or someone with the ability to induce affinity from his public, most of the time results will keep (most) fans onside.
With his technically-proficient and happy-to-be-working-anywhere manager installed, Cortese had all operations working as he wanted, including the inordinately expensive recruitment process. Sacking a good and successful manager in Atkins was the most ballsy and innovative thing to happen in English football in decades, but he was operating in an industry which is the biggest financial basket case in sport. So, despite his clarity of vision, the Southampton gig was never going to last.
Today’s newspapers predict a mass exodus as Pochettino and Southampton’s gifted players head for the exit, good news for Joos and Danny, perhaps, but you feel for the beleaguered fans, who were shown a glimpse of how things should be done, but for years will wonder, what could have been?
The rest of us can ponder the opportunity available due to entrenched inefficiencies in football.
“You should always have pressure on you”, Stefan Johansen, 15 January 2014. I like this guy already.
Last shout for North America based Celtic fans for the Feile, which starts in Philidelphia tomorrow. Full details of the events can be found here. it’s bound to be a great weekend so get along if you can.
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For clarity, I take the talk of Admin is wide of the mark given their debts would be minimal.
The more likely hood is an insolvency with a fire sale of anything that cant generate cash, players, assets, fixtures and fittings?
Grateful for any clarity from the finance whiz kids
weefra
Of course the player could play a game of fitba but, with the judgmental crowd we have, would you not want to give him a chance to play his first game fully fit before our lot write him off as a dud, a project and a Lawwell signing to sell jerseys to the Norwegians? :-)
Seems the SFA are at it again, Reagan told Graham Wallace so Hun players don’t have to worry about losing money they’ve okay it for Ian Black to put their bookies lines on for the next few weeks for rangers to lose 3 nil ….wages sorted.
Long wait
Not saying I ain’t been sniggering today .. just that I managed to type that line without sniggering
big-cup-winners
22:27 on 16 January, 2014
Think you might have spelled “bucket” wrong…..hehe
Who is this ally darling guy on shortbread. I thought it was Ravanelli!
djbee
22:27 on 16 January, 2014
Stope it…ma side’s sore
TBJ
Is the name out yet ? Been away for a few days.
Now I’m still working on top ten games since 67.
Would the Liverpool or Blackburn games on way to Seville get in ?
Hail Hail
j blair@J_Bhoy
@Scottsman1978 pic.twitter.com/X3GfIP15RG
Try again
https://twitter.com/J_Bhoy/status/423943811640070145/photo/1
Question, how can rangers football club be on the verge of another financial crisis?
They are dead, impossible!!
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Vogue Punter
Not sure it was a Charity game. More like a freelance performance at a village football match because he couldn’t get a club when his contract was up at Slovan Bratislava.
Just to give people an idea of the standard here, Sebo scored 22 goals in his last season in the top league here.
Yes. 22.
Elbows brings a smile between Lenny and Mjallby:
http://twitter.com/Lennybhoy1888/status/423944942889607168/photo/1
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
BoscoBhoy02
21:08 on
16 January, 2014
When I hear the media mentioning Dave King I always think of the episode from Father Ted when the priests are discussing a way in saving Father Dougal who has a bomb on the milk float. After a while they come up with another Mass. Father Ted “that’s the best you can come up with, another mass” ???????
I think Dave King is the best that lot can come up with.
Not quite that clip, but funny nonetheless…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MUz0rhBews
http://youtu.be/pWa0dZMHYeE
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Some of the FF stuff is hilarious and some quite worrying. Of course the solution to all their problems is to pedal the falsely elitist watp chant. Which is why, ultimately, they are in this mess. You just couldn’t make it up, unless of course you’re the press and media in Scotland who make it up….. every day…….. continuously in fact.
Just watching Scotland tonight , apparently radio clyde have a political editor- he’s fairly partisan and called Colin.
Lol wut fekin planet is that Patey on, lol.
No Chris Graham on Scotland Tonight. Maybe he`s just waiting to see how it all pans out.
This Neil Patey character is a trumpet, nothing more than a Sevco cheerleader.
Even the square jawed Sevcophantic hack can see the writing on the wall.
Patey has not got a clue, where do they get this guy from, hehehe.
I’ve only woke up and scanned a few pages, is the huns getting more nails driven into their coffin?
Sally has a lot to answer for as has the cardigan, the huns are beginning to cotton on to the milking from peeple they (trusted).
Ach well, a good wake up call was always coming!
TOSB
settings > general > keyboard > autocorrect > off
On a serious note, I hope when I get up in the morning the wee boy Mikaeel has been found safe and well. Night all…
Fresh equity in the summer, everything is going to be fine bears.
No wonder they are fecked
HH
Perhaps secco could employ Patey as a spin doctor…:)
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Patey said everything is fine, supporters will buy the season tickets, and investers will come in, nothing to see hear move along Timmy, the mans a fool I tell you, a fool ;)
“But what about the fans ?” says the chair, “They’ve been though an awful lot”. Aaawww diddums ……..
got my icecream sorted. cant believe its a real flavour, now what about the jelly? http://ow.ly/sFhm7
Insightful Journalism
Patey has yje same act as last liqudation ………..needs a new script writer
Ah well, Ally will out all tomorrow at his press interview, cough! Cough! Night all, lurking Huns GIRUYs.
the bookworm
Seconded
Got a tip for the weekend.
Buy buy tinfoil, massive tinfoil shortage started in west of Scotland and it seems to be spreading rapid¡!!¡
Done. … they certainly have been, night
HH
night night sevco
the long wait is over
22:20 on 16 January, 2014
hrvatski jim
22:19 on 16 January, 2014
Phyllis
Rangers discovered a £800m treasure trove and will soon be masters of the universe.
———
I think you’ll find that’s actually a “war chest”…
:-)
Its actually Jordans Chest….Big bust!
Good old Neil Patey…………nothing to worry about we are just running out of money………and we knew that. Just sell the assets and one or two stars and that’ll be enough for the Spivs to wet their beaks again.
Well done Neil.
Never watch STV but just happened upon it there – about sevco – and all I can say is ..
“I smell shoite …….” HH
They are probably not in debt yet but they don’t have much left and they have contingent liabilities. i.e. Player contracts, wages and various expenses that have to be met over next few months. They need to get 4 or 5 million at least maybe more to limp on until next Season Books Sale. They may try to sell Wallace and a few others but everyone knows they’re skint so even if they go ’twill be for peanuts. Raising new Capital seems highly improbable so the spectre of Sale & Leaseback is looming big time.