Gazza might have come to Saints’ aid (From Daily Echo)

Gazza might have come to Saints’ aid

11:00am Sunday 17th May 2009

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By Lawrie McMenemy »

Like everyone else connected with the club, I am waiting day by day for some positive news to come out.

With no games to report on that involve Saints, it is natural the media ask the questions we all want the answers to.

But I suppose administrators have to keep cards very close to their chests in situations such as we find ourselves.

It is obvious we will not hear anything until a definite buyer turns up.

In the meantime, in the last few days I have been stopped by one gentleman outside Southampton Airport who whispered information he had received and also two separate strangers whilst walking across Waterloo Station who also asked me to confirm what they had heard.

So that shows the rumour mill is in full swing.

Possibly that was one of the reasons which led to the lack of interest in the proposed game which would have been held tomorrow at St Mary’s.

Three weeks ago when Mike Osman and I were informed of the serious financial situation the club was in we hastily organised an ‘evening with’ and were joined by legends Mick Channon and Matt Le Tissier.

We had a full house of 500 and at the time I said it was an opportunity for the man on the street who could possibly afford £20 to help the club and get something in return.

The event raised nearly £11,000 which went straight into the club’s coffers to help pay bills.

The knowledge that the situation had got no better prompted us to organise a game which again would cost £20 for adults but only £10 and £5 for concessions and children.

It offered an opportunity for more than the 500 to keep the club alive until a buyer arrived and in return have a couple of hours in the stadium and an opportunity to see a different type of game with many faces from the past on view.

The date was fixed and it was cleared that the star personality, Matt Le Tissier, would be free.

I also rang around the remaining members of the Cup winning team from 76 and all but two were able to say they would attend.

The main thing was to find enough to man two teams who could play a game.

This eventually led me to having to make 40-50 calls.

The idea was as different people confirmed we would be putting their names out to help the publicity.

Unfortunately with only just over a week to go I was informed by the ticket office at the club that just 700 tickets had been sold.

We decided to wait until Tuesday of this week when the total had only gone to just below 1,500.

The decision was then made to cancel the game as there was obviously a reason for the normally passionate supporters not wanting to come into St Mary’s tomorrow.

Various reasons have been given such as a gesture towards the present players at the club who got relegated but also because of lots of coverage in the last week or two of past events where salaries have been paraded for all to see.

In addition lots of the rumours I mentioned previously possibly gave the impression a buyer would be walking in the door any day and there would be no need for funding from the game.

Mike Osman and I had made it clear that a committee should be formed, and that was done, and also a separate account set up with the local legal firm Paris Smith to ensure that in the event of the club being rescued financially any funds from the game would then be retained and used for something like Saints in the Community.

But it was not to be.

Mike had organised some showbiz participants such as big Tommy Walsh off the gardening and building programmes who I know from Steve Williams and Charlie George is a regular performer in goal for the ex-Arsenal team.

Mike was also in negotiations with the Soccer AM gang from Sky to appear and conduct a crossbar challenge at half-time.

The club had already advertised an opportunity for a supporter to play in the game.

In the meantime goalkeeper proved to be a difficult position to fill and at my golf day for the autistic children in Hampshire, Paul Jones said he would turn up. With it being an early kick off, he said he might just make the second half as he was running a half marathon in the morning.

I had been hoping that we could have used some of the current squad but they have all gone off with their futures in question.

But certainly I had positive responses from favourites such as Claus Lundekvam who said he would bring Jo Tessem with him.

Two of the Cup team, Nick Holmes and Jim Steele, were prepared to play and another oldie – but don’t tell him I said it – Steve Williams also agreed along with Kevin Bond and Dave Puckett with ‘youngsters’ such as Paul Tisdale.

Joe Jordan contacted me to say he would put in an appearance but not play, as did Dave Armstrong and Mark Dennis.

I was proud to hear that of the 76 team the whole back four – Peter Rodridgues, Jim Steele, Mel Blyth and Dave Peach – would be there with Paul Gilchrist, Nick and Mick Channon.

Ian Turner unfortunately was leaving this week to work in Malaysia for a year and the one no one can trace is Jim McCalliog who was wandering around Scotland somewhere. But the other three squad members – Hughie Fisher, Paul Bennett and Pat Earles – had all said yes.

Token outsiders were Paul Walsh who said he would give the fans someone to boo being ex-Pompey and Luther Blissett.

The other forwards would have been Gordon Watson, Ian Baird, Nicky Banger and George Lawrence, all good names from the past.

Others like David Hughes, who had his own testimonial at Eastleigh and actually sold more tickets for his well deserved day, was also coming along with Tommy Widdrington, Barry Blankley and Andy Cook.

Incidentally I also spoke to Neil Maddison, one of my ex-youngsters, who is in temporary charge at Darlington who are also in big trouble with administrators in.

He helped organise a similar game two weeks ago where he had asked me to manage the all-star team but the date was changed at the last minute.

His star performer was Paul Gascoigne and there was a slight chance Paul would have come down for us, but by the time I found out the decision had already been made to pull the plug.

So unfortunately it is not to be but who knows, possibly if all goes well there may be an opportunity next season to put on a game of celebration where we can get all of these together.

Let’s hope by this time next week there has been more positive news and the right people come in to help the club. Sometimes in life you have to go back to go forward again stronger and let’s hope it’s the case with Saints.