Topcat

The Echo has been advised by the Club that the decision to sack AP was not driven by performance reasons. The two main rumours are:- 1. That there is a fall out over Guly and other players scouted by people reporting to Les Reed. 2. That there was friction between some of the training staff and AP (and his coaches). These training staff are the ones who report to Reed. Not only AP left but also his coaches. Has Cortese simply decided to back Reed over AP? Reed often sits with Cortese and they seem to get on well. It would explain the awful timing of the decision with team performance being well down the list of priorities.

From the Echo So now we have Managerial changes made which are not based on results.... That is the road to failure. Advisor on this? Step forward Les "the Managerial failure" Reed.

A person with no experience in managing a Club.

The right time to replace the Manager was a minimum of 6 weeks before the season started to give the new Manager time to put together their own team. After that the next best time is after 10 to 15 games have given the old Manager a chance to prove themselves. This decision meets neither of those criteria and that is why it is wrong. The new Manager has no opportunity to buy/shift players this side of january. All they can do is get in a few loans and guess at the attributes of the current players. Cortese did not clearly communicate to Pardew last season that the League was to take priority over all cup games. Consequently we wasted effort on the cups and failed to get into the playoffs. Pardew also failed to understand that the day at Wembley was a diversion that contributed to him losing his job today.

He has a captain who seems incapable of dominating the midfield and driving his fellow players on. He has 2 strikers who have forgotten where the goal is and had multiple shots/headers off target. He plays 2 short ar**s as strikers and bases most attacks on crosses..... Apart from that no problem...

a result that led to Bryan Gunn being sacked as manager a week later. ....

These provided 50 of our goals last season. A massive gap to fill. Anyone have the stats on the game? I reckon we had 12 shots of which only 2 were on target. It is the lack of shots on target that is the problem.

You are right. We are going into this season probably in better shape than at least the previous 5. In many seasons we were short of centre backs at this stage and often were down to 2 fit centre backs which then led to a severely weakened defence (when one got injured) and the inevitable poor starts to the season. Sometimes this happened even when we had the money and we had Manager's like Burley that also disliked specialist full backs and preferred lots of midfielders...

No player should be an automatic selection, that is where the trouble starts. Lampard, Gerrard, Terry and Rooney all thought they were automatic and did not need to play for their places. Barry also became an automatic selection and his performance slumped. Complacency breeds poor play.

The Terry affair was one key issue which brought down the morale. His selfishness removed a stable captain and widened the existing divisions in the team. 9 wins and 1 defeat with 30+ goals for and only 6 conceded was our qualifying record. One of the best records. He needs to be banished from the team for ever. Players that will be too old for 2014 also need to be excluded.

[quote=John Terry's just given a interview saying the score line did not reflect the game, they just scored on breakaways. Terry's affair with an England team mate's partner does seem to have coincided with the drop in form by England. Did Terry kill off the team spirit and left in its place a group of individuals?

3 goals in 4 games. Only 1 goal from a striker = DeFoe. Rooney was out of form and should have been dropped after the 2nd game. We should have had Crouch + Defoe. Barry was coming back from injury and was out of form. Capello should have taken Scott Parker as his holding player. We need a new Leader in Centre midfield. Let us hope either Owen Hargreaves or Michael Carrick get back to their former best.

Players I do not want to see in an England shirt again. E Heskey J Terry S Gerrard M Upson

Cleaning bill for the seats they used last time at SMS?

Pardew should have been putting out the kids and reserves in the cup games. Instead he went with most of the first team, we won, we progressed, but we got more games and were too jaded when the League games came up. Simples.

Well at least the portsmuff stewards know that we will pay their wages on time.

His pace would not be a problem if he was able to read the game better. Bobby Moore was slow but read the game well. Lloyd is not a good right back.

It will not be losses but draws that should have been wins, that will harm us.

Time to start planning a ground expansion to 45K? Also when will the train station be setup to ease the congestion and move supporters away in a green and efficient manner?

May I be a bit blunt and ask what is the price for an 8" x 10" from a photo?

Tim, great idea.

Another game where James was beaten for pace and a goal conceded. For such a young player he is painfully slow.

Is there a Chairman with a worse record? Two relegations and administration takes some beating. Lowe must be in a very small group of useless pillocks. Only upside is those pillocks who backed him with their shares.

We are a Division lower and averaging 1,400 more than last season.

A realistic assessment is that August's terrible form was caused by the Administrator and Pinnacle wasting valuable time. September's form would just keep us away from relegation IF we had not suffered the points deduction Lowe cost us through his stupidity. The one thing that cannot be faulted is that thousands of supporters have come back even though we are 1 division lower. Which proved those right who said that Lowe was costing thousands of supporters.