Personally, I am reminded of when Bill Walsh replaced Joe
Thomas at the San Francisco 49ers. He
not only said the right things, but he did the right things both on and off the
field. Former 49er greats were once
again welcome at Candlestick Park where they had been unwelcome for several
years. Even more surprisingly, it turned
out that the first NFL championship was less than three years away.
The new regime has brought a similar change to Southampton
FC. For example, it is hard to imagine Cortese
running with Benali to St. Mary’s for charity.
It is even harder to imagine him stopping outside the stadium and
letting Benali run inside on his own.
Of course, on field progress cannot occur here at the same
dramatic level it occurred with the 49ers because English Football is fundamentally
rigged against the less wealthy teams while American Football is rigged to help
the teams who have performed less well on the field.
All that being said, we should not forget that Cortese did
good things for the club. He put the
structure in place that is working so well even today. He started the process of building the Markus
Liebherr Pavilion which will serve us well for many years to come. He signed many of our best players to long
term contracts in Spring 2013 which allowed us to retain the ones we wanted and
over charge for the ones we let leave.
We would not be where we are today without him. But I don’t think we would be where we are
today with him either.
Enjoy some nostalgia.
No comments:
Post a Comment