Alanh

It is still in our own hands because we have the opportunity to get more points that at least two other teams by winning our game in hand and beating them (Blackpool and Forest). Obviously we also have to match or better their points tally across the other remaining games but that's not unreasonable given we have similar records across the season so far. Obviously this will mean that the season will go down to the wire and nothing is definitive yet, but in terms of looking for a strategy for the team this one seems pretty sound.

I went to see Benfica play Pacos a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday night. Fantastic event even though the 60K capacity stadium was only half full. Benfica have an eagle as their emblem and they keep a real one which flies from the roof of the stadium, around the pitch a couple of times and lands with it's handler on the pitch as part of the pre match build up. Great atmosphere at the match throughout.

Just saw the goals on Skysportsnews. Looked like a great effort by Euell for the second, getting up off the ground after Wright parried his first shot. Also a great effort by Paterson robbing the Ipswich man, taking it on and slotting the ball home. Sounds like we've found a solid formation and set of tactics and are benefitting from the confidence that winning breeds. Let's hope the crowds pick up for the last few home games of the season and we finish on a high, clear of the bottom three.

I guess right at the end of April given that there are five matches that month and only one in May unless we get to the play-offs . Hopefully we'll pull ourselves clear before the last game, but if not then I guess they will have to make a decision on two price structures - one for the CCC and another for L1 or some sort of rebate scheme. Perhaps they will do away with the Early Bird discount and just charge the same price for a given season ticket regardless of when you buy.

Not true. Clubs employ agents to act on their behald in negotiations oer player transfers. I would think that the bigger fees that we paid were to find homes for the players we have loaned out this season as that was where we needed to be proactie. I doubt many of the players coming into the club cost much in agent fees.

I'm not in any position to say what other posters find interesting, I don't think any of us are in that position. The OP asked if we were losing interest in the forum and I'm just explaining that I am losing interest and a significant resason for that is the domineering relentless and often abusive negativity that certain posters (namely yourself and Stanley) exhibit. Do you understand that the negative and often abusive nature of your posts can be a turn off for many readers of this site? FWIW I would take (reasonable) optimism over pessimism on any subject in the real or cyber world any day of the week.

For me it's the specifics of the nature of your (and often Stanley's) posts which are relentlessly negative, repetitive, often abusive and rarely about anything positive which take the enjoyment out of reading many threads - hence leading to a decline in interest in this forum. You mention other posters with views which you perceive to be the polar opposite to your own and I agree that they can be equally testing, however I picked out you and Stanley for the specific reason above.

I would have thought that was fairly obvious - Alpine and Stanley. Everyone is entitled to their views but it gets really tedious when they dominate posts thanks to their domineering, repetitive, negative, one dimensional and occasionally abusivecomments. Post which they don't contribute to and which are about football rather than politics are generally much more interesting to read. All just my opinion of course and not 'Fact'.

Yep, this forum is much more boring now because football is very rarely discussed and the vast majority of threads are about the board and the overall positions of every poster on hasn't changed for the last 6 months, so everything is a bit repetitive. Everyone is entitiled to their opinion, but there are a few domineering, abusive posters whose opinions are so negative on just about every aspect of the club that the board is not as enjoyable as it was.

Yesterday showed how football is played as much in the mind as by the body. We won the early exchanges and got the early goal and pushed on from there. So many of our team seem to be confidence players that we struggle when things don't go for us. McG is the epitome of this for me - yesterday he seemed to grow with each goal that went in and his effort was superb. I thought Euell was good and made the difference to our whole attacking style. Hopefully he can stay fit and on the pitch for the next few crucial matches.

Lowe keeping on top of the finances? That's just about the only thing he is good at. The seeds of our current financial troubles were sown in the close season after our last parachute payment - summer 07. At that time Wilde's board of directors were in charge and they decided that they would sanction changes to the playing staff which saw a massive rise in the wage overhead. They agreed to that on the basis that the takeover being negotiated with a number of parties would come to fruition and would fund the high wage bill. While we had to sell Bale, Baird and Jones we should also have been shifting Idiakez, Lundekvam and Powell and not recruiting high earners like Stern John and Jason Euell. If anyone is to blame for where we are now financially it should be Wilde as it was his team that were spending when we couldn't afford it.

You mean Tony, not Mickey? Not much to discuss really, he's simply not cut out to be a manager - doesn't carry himself like a manager in front of the cameras, and doesn't seem to be able to motivate a team. He will complain that the team was sold around him, but in reality he had a squad good enough to pick up far more points than they did.

£320 or as low as £299 would be a good price for next season. I think the club should look at two or three year tickets as a means of getting cash in up front. Something like a 10% discount would be fine given that you'd be looking at an outlay of something like a grand. A lifetime ticket for £5K would be a steal, provided you think you are going to keep going for more than the next 15 years. Not sure how many people could be certain of their ability to keep on going for that long though.

If you are including loan players in (as you have done in your original list) then you have to also include loan players leaving to get a true comparison. If you are excluding loans then we've only brought in 8 players this season which again is pretty similar to the number who left last summer. We will be looking at a load of players leaving again this summer when the remaining relatively high salary contracts expire, and many of them will be replaced by new players on salaries more attuned to our financial means.

It's going to be like this every year in the CCC. Just about every club has a fair proportion of half or season long loans which adds to the player turnover, then you've got many more players being transferred to bigger clubs because they are good enough to attract offers. If you look at the lists above we have lost and gained about the same number of players so the fact that so many arrived is explainable. The bigger issue is whether enough of them have been good enough. For me the only new arrivals that have definitely improved on those who have left are Cork, Seijs and Schneiderlin who are better than Wright, Lundekvam or Lucketti, and Idiakez respectively.

It seemed to me that they were using the wingers - especially their right winger - throughout the first half and then during the second half when we had our backs to the wall tey were switching play across the field all the time. Their full backs were ball players, just like JP wanted Skacel and James to be, they just seemes that bit more experienced and confident in the system. I guess they used it last season to win promotion. If JP had still been there and we played the same formation it would have been interesting to see how we would have coped as I don't remember us playing anyone else who used that formation. Agreed on Seijs. For me he was MOM thanks to his second half performance keeping Scotland at bay.

I'd agree with that. The most important things werre that we had two strikers, no wingers and unfortunately that Lallana had a rubbish game. not sure whether it's confidence of because he's returning form injury, but he offered nothing today. Separately, Swansea showed how to play 4-2-3-1 today with Jason Scotland being a brilliant lone stiker and their wingers being a threat all game. I didn't think their players were that much more accomplished than ours, but they are obviously more experienced and more confident and it showed.

Not sure which posts you are referring to, but I agree that it's a good thing that we can get him to put in a transfer request so that we don't have to pay up his contract. Also, I hope the club are holding out for every penny as we sure need the cash right now.The replacements are already here in the form of Molyneux and Holmes so no problems with the timing of his departure.

No idea. JP said he thought one would leave before the end of the month and my guess is that RS is the one. We'll probably only loan in someone, with a view to buying if they perform and we stay up. I guess if Wotte wants another player he's probably got a budget to work to already and RS leaving just helps save getting on for £600K a year from the salary bill.

Seeing as he was loaned out this time last year and was trying to sort out a move to Ipswich in the summer I'd say that it's been on the cards that he would be moving on for a while. We all know the reason he needs to leave - we need to save his wages. In the regular world freezing someone out Rudi has been might amount to constructive dismissal, but this is football and the rules are completely different.

I wouldn't have thought so seeing as he's been on loan at Sheff Utd and Swansea for all but a couple of months of the time since he signed the new contract last summer. If we can do a deal that gets us a million plus a sell on fee I think we should sign on the dotted line ASAP.

It's possible that we don't have to sell either of them because the financial situation is not as bad as many on here and in the local press have made out. It's also possible that we might sell other players, for instance I'd have thought Rudi would be a prime candidate to go now that his ban is up. JP said that he thought that perhaps one player would leave in January in his interview before the Donny match. I don't think the board are waiting for a takeover - that's not Lowe's style - he gives the impression of planning for events that he has control over. Personally I don't think we are heading for admin as there have been no reports of us struggling to pay HMRC - which is the main reason why clubs go into admin. Provided we stay in the CCC, Barclays continue to support us till the end of the season and roughly the same number of season ticket holders buy again for next season then we'll be in a much better financial state as several of our big earners contracts will expire - Euell, Davis, John etc. Obviously I could be proved wrong if new information comes out tomorrow:eek:

I haven't got the stats to say whether Lowe has been through more managers than any other chairman, but he's by no means the only one to have a hire and fire reputation: Mandaric in his capacity as Chairman of Pompey and Leicester. 4 managers at Pompey and 5 at Leicester in little more than 18 months. Doug Ellis at Villa - hated by their fans, often referred to as Deadly Doug because of his tendency to fire managers. Simon Jordan - Palace have been through a few in his time and the departures are ofter acrimonious. Freddie Shepherd at Newcastle - Dalgliesh, Gullitt, Robson, Keegan, Roeder, Souness between '97 and 2007. Daniel Levy at Spurs - 8 managers since arriving in 2001. Not trying to make out that Lowe is successful or somehow absolved of any blame, but he's not the only chairman with a record of multiple managerial appointments as you seem to be suggesting.

I kind of agree with you and think what you are saying is that the team needs to be more organised and disciplined in where they play. For the me most frustrating thing is seeing them lose their shape at some point every match resulting in any organised opposition being able to get straight through to our exposed defence. I don't have a problem with the formation that JP wants to play and I genuinely thing we've got the talent in the squad to be more successful that we have been this season, but at the moment there is too little organisation when they are on the pitch.

The mortgage on the stadium is not a significant problem as it is structured and repayable over a very long period and can always be renegotiated to a longer repayment term if necessary. If enough season ticket holders continue to buy their tickets (don't know what the number is) then we'll be able to service the mortgage. The bigger issue is Barclays and their provision of credit to enable to company to run on a day to day basis. If the overdraft with them needs to be cleared or reduced in the summer then the odds are that player sales will achieve that. Provided we keep paying HMRC then they won't wind us up. Personally I don't think administration will be necessary unless we are relegated and then can not achieve the revenues from season ticket sales and subsequently matchday sales to service the debts. As a result I believe the number one priority is to survive in this division until such time that the finances are in a healthier position and we can invest in the team and push for promotion. To survive this season is going to mean replacing JP ASAP in order that we can get another manager in who can organise and inspire this squad. On paper we are plenty good enough to survive, but have no winning mentality and no confidence.