Roger Moore scores: time please, gentlemen

Don't get me wrong. I'm not one of the lynch-mob who would gladly see Rupert Lowe swinging from the Itchen Bridge, but neither will I shed a single tear if, as hoped, he is removed from the management of the club which we all hold dear.

You see, Rupert Lowe would have you believe, still, that this club is a beacon of success – outshining contemporaries with a structure and resources that are the envy of the developed world. With a team of home-grown world-beaters, and an apparent war-chest (a trunk more spurious than the Ark of the Covenant), we're confidently expected to launch a major assault on the UEFA Champion's League, pausing only momentarily to collect first the Championship and then Premiership trophies.

A bold new world apparently awaits under Rupert, who, after nine years, admits he's now seen the key to the success of this football club – stability.

By George, I think he's got it. A decade too late, but he's finally got it.

Only, what he doesn't seem to get is the part he and his current board have played in ensuring this club has all the stability of a one-legged unicyclist. Even today, and even despite his claims to finally understand the reasons behind our decline, the stability he promises has all the substantial underpinnings of a wig-wam on quick-sand.

The current board point to the last eight matches as evidence of their long-term plan succeeding, conveniently ignoring the cardinal sins of the past in favour of an offer of repentance today. While the Chairman espouses another old political mantra ‘you've never had it so good', the truth is our first-team looks too weak to win this league and our manager has just two year's left on his current contract.

So let me tell you how it needs to be, and why you need a change right now like never before.

Regular readers will know that the Moore view of football is a fairly simple one. Find a good manager, place him at the centre of the football club and allow him to operate the way that best suits him and his methods. Some claim it's an old-fashioned view. In reality, it's the way that all successful football clubs operate. Identifying and holding onto the best manager available is not rocket science. In fact, finding and keeping the best people lies at the heart of every successful enterprise.

So tell me this. Why is it that when we recognise stability is key, we appoint a manager on a contract of less than five years? After all, that's what Steve Gibson has extended to Gareth Southgate at Middlesbrough and Southgate has no management experience at all. Conspiracy theorists will tell you the timing is linked to Sir Clive Woodward's coaching qualification and that any incumbent is, as Harry Redknapp believed, simply keeping the seat warm.

I believe that Rupert is covering his options, but thereby accepting yet another manager may fail, and once again underlining his inability to create the stable conditions within which a successful manager can thrive. What possible motivation can there be to keep a proven manager for less than five years, if not considerably more?

What appeals to me about the Mike Wilde manifesto is simply an understanding that the most important person at Southampton FC and Southampton Leisure Holdings is not Rupert Lowe or Mike Wilde, but George Burley.

Sure the current board will claim to support Burley, but only as part of the triumvirate that inevitably includes the Chairman and our Director of Football, as though this holy trinity were essential to success at our club. Well, I've got news for you Rupert (and Clive), George Burley has been successful without either of you before, so what on earth makes you think you're the essential ingredient in the cocktail of winning football matches?

Rupert Lowe in a desperate attempt to retain control, has created an elaborate smoke-screen surrounding the potential new management team of the PLC business. He calls into question the reputation of the candidates, casting aspersions on their character and business dealings through a circular to shareholders.

It's farcical. He sounds like a lay-preacher from the middle-ages clinging to a belief in the edge of the world, despite Christopher Columbus handing him bags of pineapples and potato chips.

He wants to scare you into believing that only the trinity can provide stability. No, seriously, that's his plan to win this EGM.

Well Rupert, it's too little and it's too late. Like Pilkington we can see through you and your comprehension of the conditions required to succeed in football. You once told us it was a results driven business. Well now, at last, it's time for you to be judged on results.

And despite the last eight matches, this club remains among the very worst in English domestic football when judged on the number of games won over the past decade – a decade that coincides with your tenure.

Worse, the club has lost a huge proportion of its customer base, fans who will not return until they see a genuine change in the club's thinking; a return to some old-fashioned principles of football management – placing the manager and the team at the very heart of the business and building everything around them.

Better still, we want a return to understanding that an Academy, while extremely worthwhile, is no good to us if it's a production line for Arsenal and Chelsea. And Catering is made all the more palatable if accompanied by victory. And merchandise is so much more appealing when worn in the afterglow of a win.

If you're a decent man as they claim Rupert, then do the decent thing. Step down now and allow this club to move forward with renewed optimism, renewed focus, and above all, renewed hope. It's time.