That is the question.

Lets nail a few things down from the start of this piece, so there can be no doubt as to my thoughts on several matters.

Firstly I dont think it is the fault of the supporters as to the situation that Southampton Football Club finds itself in today, its in this mess not just because of the actions of one man but those of a number of people all of whom have served on the board of the club in the past decade or so.

Secondly as I have just said, I dont blame Lowe completely for this mess, but that doesnt mean that I am in any way sticking up for him, I am merely calling it as I see it, I blame Lowe for those things that he is responsible for, not for that which he isnt and i apply that to every other director of Southampton Football Club past and present.

So to cover the protests at the Doncaster game, once again I fully support the rights of every supporter to protest against this regime or indeed any regime running the Club, however i do content that there is a place and time for such protests and the timing yesterday was, lets say, not great.

I have spoken to a few supporters today and several of them have said the same thing, that when the first Doncaster goal went in it was the final straw and that was why the fans turned so quickly, I dont buy that, the team is on the back of a victory at Barnsley and a credible home draw with Reading, when Forest scored a month ago at St Mary's I could have concurred with it being the straw that broke the camels back, coming after a string of defeats, but until that Doncaster goal the form for the past two games has been good and with 45 minutes of the game left we still had every chance to get back in the game and a win would have dragged us out of the relegation zone, the time for protesting was after the game not in the middle of it.

But I do understand what supporters are feeling and their frustrations, however its difficult to see what can be changed in the short term, of course the ideal thing would be for the major shareholders to all get together and work towards getting the club on an even keel, but the blunt facts is that all of them are glazed over with hatred for those in the other camp and are past the stage of putting the Club before their own agendas.

That being the case there are only two ways for lwoe to leave the club, that is to be bought out by other shareholders or a complete and utter takeover, fact is the latter is the only truly workable option, it needs a complete change within the club no more no less, last season we were on the very brink of disaster, in some respects it would have been better for Lowe that we were relegated, fans would have blamed Crouch & Pearson and he could have then came in with no real alternative options, luckily we didnt go down, meaning that we find ourselves with the same old boardroom arguments.

Personally Im sick of it and change has to be made, but make no mistake unless we want to go on repeating the last couple of seasons endlessly we need that change to be drastic, with no director curent or past involved with the club.

But if there are no buyers out there how can we move forward, simply speaking it would only be possible if Lowe, Crouch & Wilde agreed to work together on the PLC board, but did not involve themselves with the day to day running of the fotball club, that would mean appointing a Chief Executive to be responsible for the day to day running of the club, reporting back to the major shareholders on the PLC Board, I reiterate, Lowe, Crouch & Wilde would then have no say in running the club, appointing managers or signing players, all they would be responsible for would be appointing this Chief Executive, setting him a budget and then monitoring his performance to ensure he was doing his job properly.

OK for some supporters it wouldnt be the total removal of Lowe from Saints, but it would remove him from the day to day running of the Club and accusations of interference.

If supporters want to protest they need to do it with a united front and before and after games, not during, this was the tactics during the Branfoot protests of 93/94 and it worked well on several fronts, firstly it focused the fans on the true targets and secondly the energy unleashed in support of the team won us several points that really mattered come the end of the season long after Branfoot had gone, it meant that Alan Ball had a base to build on, surely we want that today, we may want the removal of Lowe and the rest and ultimately a takeover, but do we want to be so far behind if and when it happens that relegation is a certainty.

The Saints Trust offfers fans a central point to rally round, the aim of the Trust is to encourage fans ownership in the Club, although you dont need to be a shareholder to join, I have said this many times, but if every season ticket holder and member had ticked the box on the season ticket renewal forms last season and joined the Trust then we would now own a nice chunk of the club, however if we scroll back three year to the trust formation and the departure of Lowe, if for the past three years 20,000 Saints fans, roughly half the data base had joined then, at a rough estimate using the share price over th past year we would now on behalf of the supporters own 10% of the Club, enough to tip the balance of power.

The real message here is supporters can really change things, we have missed a big opportunity, but we have a chance to rectify it.                    

Photo: Action Images

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