Thank you to Adrian Thomas (@adothomas88) and Matt Hemsley (@m_hemsley) who gave the idea for this piece. They both asked for an in-depth look at the Jan Poortvliet\/Mark Wotte era.<\/em><\/p>\n Lowe, Southampton’s chairman and the rest of his board had just been caught with their pants pulled down and were now being marred by the ultimate humiliation. The resignation of Harry Redknapp, effectively sealing the end to one of the most acrimonious relationships in Southampton’s history, had left the club in a state of flux.<\/p>\n Redknapp, who after overseeing Saints’ first relegation of the Premier League era just months prior, had decided to return to what Lowe described as his ‘spiritual home’ and left almost a year to the day of first arriving. Being caught on the hop was one thing, but being mocked by the club Redknapp would go back to in the same week was a different, more vehement, entity.<\/p>\n On December 7, 2005, Redknapp re-joined Portsmouth. It was a year away and despite Pompey fans previously referring to him as ‘Judas’ and telling him to ‘rot in hell,’ they were now welcoming Redknapp home with open arms. After all, he returned a hero, the chief protagonist in carrying out their fiercest rivals’ execution from the Premier League.<\/p>\n To make matters worse for Lowe, having stuck by his manager in the aftermath of relegation, Redknapp was now deserting in the midst of a Championship season. The Lowe tenure had reached its emphatic nadir and needed quick salvation.<\/p>\nIt was December 2005 and Mark Wotte’s phone had just flashed up with Rupert Lowe’s number.<\/h2>\n