ANOTHER FINE MESS....

Today`s announcement to the London Stock Exchange that two former Chairmen of Southampton Leisure Holdings plc - the company which owns Saints fc - have requisitioned an Extraordinary General Meeting calling for the mass resignation of the exisiting board of directors, comes perhaps as no surprise but still comes as an immense disappointment.

At first, I thought it may have been an April Fool joke....but then I realised that the London Stock Exchange doesn`t do jokes.

The two in question are Rupert Lowe - who oversaw our relegation from the Premier League in 2005 by failing to inject a sensible level of investment following a top 10 finish and a Cup Final appearance in 2003 - and Michael Wilde, who had ousted Lowe in a boardroom coup, promised to provide the necessary investment but failed dismally to produce it. Now the two of them see fit to combine their talents to bring even more confusion, uncertainty and demoralisation to an already beleagured club as it teeters on the brink of yet another relegation - this time to the oblivion of the third tier of English football.

I think it may well be the final straw, the tipping point at which the club`s diehard supporters finally lose whatever faith they may have left, for the move by this desperate duo will be seen as nothing more than an unwelcome, disruptive bid for power by egocentrics who have had their chances and blown them completely.

"Send in the clowns, there ought to be clowns - don`t worry, they`re here."