WE have watched with sadness and dismay the steep decline in the standing and status of the club that we all love during the past few years.

We hope and pray that the position will be significantly reversed from the first day of next season.

We believe that George Burley can be the man to lead us back to the promised land of the Premiership.

Uniquely, we have watched that decline from inside the boardroom. You will not find a single recorded comment from any one of us during these last few disastrous years, not only in the media but even in the private conversations with our many close friends in the city.

We have read many letters in the Daily Echo during that period of time critical of Rupert Lowe and asking why we, as honourable men', have not ourselves stepped down.

The events of last Thursday, when Rupert took preliminary steps to have us removed from the football club board, have given us the opportunity to speak out to all of those people who care about the club.

We have been gifted by the chairman an open goal and we do not intend to miss.

The first thing that needs to be understood is that sharing a boardroom with Rupert is something that has to be experienced to be understood. As a result, we have had to consider our position many times during the last two or three years.

We have been invited by the chairman to resign on previous occasions and of course that is a traditional route to take for anyone who does not agree with a majority view.

We have long recognised that our dissenting voices in the boardroom might one day lead to attempts to remove us, but we have willingly accepted that risk in disagreeing time and time again with a whole raft of key decisions, not only at meetings but on occasions in writing to emphasise the point.

It has often been unpleasant and confrontational and a tremendous strain on all of us. Why have we done it?

We have done it because we do not believe for one moment that we are in any genuine minority at all.

We would be very surprised if we did not have the support of a large percentage of the staff, the business community in the city upon whom the club heavily relies at a corporate level, and most importantly of all, the fans themselves.

We of course are all fans, whether inside the boardroom or outside.

Particularly during crucial stages in any given season it is right to not only remain silent but to appear as far as possible to be as one.

It is perhaps therefore a safe moment to say that both the quality of football and results during the last two to three years have been way below any kind of acceptable standard.

George Burley and his team have worked hard to rectify the situation during the last two or three difficult months but everyone who supports the club knows that only four weeks ago a combination of results on the Saturday in question would have had us within touching distance of falling out of top level football altogether.

For a club of our stature, this has been an appalling state of affairs.

Of course, as is always the case in football, there have been matters beyond control. There have been key injuries and the normal vagaries of a football season.

Even when everyone involved has done the very best that they could, relegation from any league is always a possibility.

Three clubs of great tradition and history, and of a size at least equivalent to our own, have this week been relegated from the Premiership.

Such risks are inevitable and indeed the lifeblood of the game.

However, we believe a substantial proportion of responsibility for what has happened at our club rests at Rupert's door.

It has been apparent for some time that the squad was not strong enough and was clearly declining. The weakening of a squad can be frighteningly fast, as players have to be transferred or get past their best.

It is a key board responsibility to monitor this progress and prevent it happening.

When the man at the top of the board does not do what is necessary to put things right, then there is trouble ahead.

It duly and entirely predictably arrived at the end of last season.

We have had some absolutely first class young players in our academy over the last few years, and we would like to pay particular tribute to those members of our staff who have worked in this area.

Whether Theo would have stayed had we remained in the Premiership is a debating point, but obviously it has to be recognised that with the luck that is always necessary he has a career ahead of him at a level with which we could not realistically compete.

Many of our other young players, however, hopefully have not only a good professional career in front of them, but one that will be shared with us.

However, players in some cases still in their mid-teens could not somehow emerge quickly enough to play regularly in the Championship, and certainly not to take us immediately back to the Premiership.

One of the things we know about professional football is that only in the most exceptional cases can that ever happen.

It usually takes players of this age a good two to three years into their late teens and early twenties to mature to that extent.

In our view, Rupert did not take sufficient action, with the predictable end result that this season has again been extremely disappointing, and a precious year while the club was in receipt of parachute payments from the Premiership has therefore been wasted.

So much now depends upon next season and we wish George Burley and his staff the best of luck over the next few weeks in putting together and developing a squad that can achieve promotion.

It is now necessary to refer to Clive Woodward and to first of all acknowledge the world status that he has had in his own sport. His involvement in football is entirely welcome but there is a very serious issue as to whether such a senior role should have been contemplated for him at such an early stage.

There is a great deal of learning to do and experience to acquire.

We have to refer to his field of operation because in a statement to shareholders about the attempt to remove us from the board, it is implied that we have resisted the improvements at Marchwood as regards the role of sports science in running a successful football team.

That is simply not the case.

We welcome new training methods and related ideas. Every small advantage must be gained where possible and it is vital, at reasonable and sensible expense, to be close to the cutting edge of such ideas.

However, the most important fundamental point is to have the best footballers on the field in the first place that one can possibly acquire within the proper budgetary constraints of a club of our size. Ancillary assistance to standard training can make players five per cent better, but not 25 per cent.

The fans who have watched the matches over the last two or three years will have a pretty good understanding of which of these percentages is at present most relevant.

There have been other issues; being in football only a few weeks and then describing our training ground as disgraceful' was hardly a great start.

Our former manager and England coach Glenn Hoddle refused to leave the facilities for another site because he was so pleased with them.

It was also an insult to the years of dedication, improvements and additions to the training ground put in by many people since it was acquired in 1992.

Improvements must always be looked for and would have been achieved on an ongoing basis where necessary, as has always been the case.

One of the greatest strengths the club has had in the past and the one that for so long kept us in the top flight has been the wonderful loyalty and spirit of its staff from the very top to the very bottom.

It saddens us more than anything that this has been eroded.

The significant de-motivation and despair of long-standing members of staff at the training ground has only made matters worse.

We are extremely disappointed that the chairman has instigated proceedings to remove us from the football club board.

We are happy to leave the club supporters, the holding company shareholders, and our colleagues and friends in this city to judge who should be leaving the club at this moment in time.

We have done all we can to pave the way for major change at the top of the boardroom table. Doubtless others will go with Rupert when he leaves, but the key change is required at the very top.

It is now up to those who hold the dominant shareholdings in the club to complete the task.

We have retained our season tickets during our time on the board over the last 20 years and if we are required to watch our football at St Mary's from them again we shall do so with the same pleasure that we have had since starting our lives as supporters in the chocolate boxes at The Dell over 50 years ago.

If we have the opportunity to serve the club in our present roles after the changes that in our view are inevitable, we shall have great pleasure and pride in doing that.

There are many aspects of what we have said that could be significantly enlarged upon but we do not propose to say more at such a delicate time in the club's history.

It is for others to act now. The gate is wide open.