Crouch out as board battle continues

The latest twist in the Saints` boardroom battle today saw Leon Crouch removed as chairman of the football board. The "Subsidiary Board Change" was announced on the stock market earlier and once again we, the fans of this great football club, are left in the dark.

Talk of investment has been rife since April this year, but has come to nothing so far. The rumoured interest from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, one of the wealthiest men in the world, seems to have truly evaporated. It is clear from the statement to the stock market on July 18th that there are other parties interested that "may or may not lead to an offer". For Saints to move on we need to get this resolved so that the manager can concentrated on football rather than whether he has to sell another player to balance the books!

In the last couple of days, statements from former chairman Michael Wilde, the Saints Trust and SISA have all come to our attention in a bid to get this mess sorted once and for all. But knowing what it is to support Saints this is not likely to happen smoothly or quickly.

From relegation to Play off defeats to selling off our best players, being a Saints fan is always difficult. It seems easy to me to side with Mr. Crouch and be "gutted", as he told the Daily Echo in his 650 word statement this morning. Here is a man that is undoubtedly Southampton through and through, that has invested millions of pounds to help this club and has the passion we Saints` fans crave, and has been cast aside nonchalantly. It is another sad state of affairs.

Leon Crouch also said "All we can do is do what we believe is best for the Saints." Personally I have given up with all this talk of investment, it has bored and angered me too much to allow myself to care for it any longer. I will do what I think is best and look forward to this new season with anticipation and confidence in the squad and manager we have, and with the memories of Derby on May 15th with the kind of bottle, bravery and spirit that we lacked at times last season, intertwined with our quality, that they will do their best. This shows we can do it. But the question is can our board?

It's easy to join Vital Saints

Simply register with Vital Saints and enjoy getting involved! (you can even win prizes just by having your say on the articles, polls and forums.)

Get involved

This website is your website and we are looking for people to help run the site. Do you go to most of the games and have an opinion? Why not write a match report? Perhaps you are a budding journalist or even just someone who is very opinionated? Well why not join our team? If this interests you please contact Vital Saint.