Chairmen In The News - My Views

It doesn't seem that long ago that we were talking about Vincent Tan, the Cardiff City chairman doing a Miley Cyrus on his own club as he came in like a wrecking ball. He changed the teams colors, removed a key staff member from under the nose of his manager, then removed the manager. A few weeks on though and we have two more cases of chairmen gone wild and actions that could leave their individual sides in turmoil.
First off I would like to address the situation at Hull City and the threats made by their Chairman Assem Allam who has recently come out to say that if the FA do not back his bid to change the sides name to Hull Tigers then he will walk away. This issue has been bubbling along for a little while now and there has been some kick back from the fans and the FA will consult with fans before making their own decision.

I am not a Hull City fan and but am sure that if I was and this guy had put money into my club which currently see them in their best position in the Premier League, with a decent Manager and Croatian International striker Nikica Jelavic. 

All this could be risked simply because some people want the official name to stay 'City' and not 'Tigers'. The fact is that a lot of things have changed in soccer over the decades and we have always accepted this but now it is harder. If you look at your own clubs history I think you will find other names in their history. My own Manchester City were originally St Marks and the Ardwick before taking the City name as the league progressed.

There really is no reason why, even if the name does get changed, that supporters cannot still call them City. There is no stopping them chanting songs about City and ignoring the Tigers name. To be fair though, it is actually their club nickname and so he isn't really taking them down a too distant path. I think it would be better to just let him get on with it and maybe save the protests for the time he tries to do something that might hurt the club, like moving it.

So now to Southampton and bigger concerns for the fans I think. 2009 saw Markus Liebherr take control of the club while in its darkest days. Just over a year later and Markus Liebherr died, leaving his daughter, Katharina, as owner. When her Father bought the club it was Nicola Cortese who conducted the deal and was also key in getting the current manager, Mauricio Pochettino. 

Last year there were the first signs of a crack in the relationship between the owner and the chairman happened last year and resulted in the Manager saying that if Cortese was to leave then he would see no reason to stay. That was early on in his tenure at the south coast club and so maybe his personal views have changed but now that the Chairman has left, questions will be asked of him.

If Pochettino decides to resign then where that puts Southampton is still up in the air. Just like Cortese was the reason for Pochettino coming to Southampton, how many players may look to leave if the manager who brought them there does?

Thankfully for Southampton I think that any decision will not see them relegated this season but it does pose very serious questions for the future of the club who, only a few seasons ago, didn't have a future.

Jason is a Freelance Soccer Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @PACityboy and www.facebook.com/jasonbardwell1979.