RUPERT Lowe has often been criticised for failing to invest in new players following the FA Cup final in 2003.

Some supporters remain adamant that if Gordon Strachan had been given more money to spend Saints would never have been relegated once, let alone twice in five seasons.

The club had finished eighth in 2002/03, their highest league placing since the Premiership was created in 1992/93.

That final position was slightly inflated in that Michael Svensson’s winner at Manchester City on the final day enabled Saints to leap three places into the top 10.

With £500,000 on offer for each position, Svensson’s goal was worth around £1.5m to the club – a tenth of Southampton Leisure Holdings PLCs’s TOTAL income for the financial year ending last summer.

One former Saints director, who did not wish to be named, has told the Echo that he believes the 2003 Cup final was the start of the club’s decline.

“The defining moment for me was the day of the 2003 FA Cup final. That was the day we went over the hill and down the other side,” he said.

A source, who also did not wish to be named, close to Lowe’s board at the time has defended the apparent lack of big spending at St Mary’s following the Cup final.

Saints didn’t embark on a big spending spree after Cardiff – Strachan had been linked with being interested in the likes of striker Louis Saha and Fulham midfielder Steed Malbranque – because, simply, they didn’t have the money.

Two players were signed for big fees in the summer of 2003 – Kevin Phillips became the club’s second most expensive signing at £3.25m from Sunderland while Neil McCann cost £1.5m from Hearts.

In January of that year Saints had also paid £4m combined for David Prutton and Danny Higginbotham, and the previous summer had paid a similar amount to bring in Michael Svensson and Antti Niemi.

That’s a total of around £13m in the space of a year.

“The entire FA Cup run only made around a £4m profit,” the source told the Daily Echo.

“I know there was prize money but it used to be said it was more profitable to get to the League Cup final because you’d keep the receipts.

“The FA take all the receipts from the semi finals and the final.

“The reality was the money wasn’t there to bring in players for around £15m.

“We made around £4m, not £15m or £20m.

“People say we should have invested in more players, but the money just wasn’t there.

“If it was your own money you could spend it, but it wasn’t – it was the PLC’s money and the shareholders’ money.

“You can’t spend what you want, you spend what you can.

“That’s not what has happened in the last two seasons – they (the directors at Saints following Lowe’s departure in 2006) spent what they didn’t have.

“You have to be sensible.

“When the club went down from the Premiership there were clauses in the players’ contracts that their salary would be cut by 50 per cent if they stayed.

“If they didn’t stay, then we got a transfer fee for them.

“That’s why Charlton are struggling – they didn’t have any relegation clauses in their contracts.”

Saints did bring in some transfer money in the summer after relegation.

Peter Crouch joined Liverpool for £7m while his fellow striker Kevin Phillips went to Aston Villa for around £750,000.

Though Crouch had been top scorer in 2004/05 – even though he had hardly played until Harry Redknapp arrived in December 2004 – it was Phillips’ loss which was more keenly felt.

“Kevin Phillips left for personal reasons – if he had stayed we would have been well set,” said the source.

Ricardo Fuller, Saints’ only cash signing in the summer of 2005 for £90,000 from Portsmouth, scored just nine goals in his first season at St Mary’s.

But that still made him the top Championship scorer for Saints in their first season in the second tier.