SW11_Saint

Agree - the more I think about it, the better Ince seems to be as a managerial choice. He has experience in the lower leagues, has great experience as a player and numerous contacts, and he also has something to prove post-Blackburn. If we could tie him into our long term plan I think it could work really well - of course, it would also need the new owners to convince him what we can match his ambition!!!

All fair comments Frank. Two points to add - If Lowe's vision was to have us become another Ajax, i.e. produce talent and sell some, but also retain some and progress as a club, then great - remember Ajax are still one of the biggest clubs in Europe and are regularly in the Champions League (ok, not next year!). However, I don't believe that was Lowe's vision - imo his was rather to sell the talent as it rolled off the conveyer belt (a la Walcott, Bale) so that we would likely just "tread water" in the CCC. As a fan, I have no real interest in us becoming a "feeder club" for the 'bigger' clubs - the 'bigger' clubs in these days including Fulham, Wigan, Portsmouth, Hull etc. I think it's great to develop our own talent - in fact it's critical - but I think we've been kidding ourselves to think we're the best at doing this. Every club has a youth academy, some with great success (WHU, Middelsboro, Man Utd etc.), but it has to be done in the right way, at the right pace and you have to retain some talent rather than flogging them all when they hit 19/20. As you mention, jettisoning Pearson was a big mistake. I too think that he might well have been able to work with Lowe if given a bit of leeway on who he wanted to keep and who he wanted to farm out - if this decision was taken out of his hands, then his position would clearly be untenable. JP and MW had no idea of the league they were walking in to. You cannot underestimate how valuable that "local knowledge" is - to my mind Pearson was the perfect guy to lead the club, cut from similar cloth to Coyle at Burnely and Irvine at Preston (and look how well they've done on limited resources), as well as being someone who had the fans on his side and had reinstated a bit of a "feelgood" factor. Anyway, all if's but's and maybe's now, but I do hope we are finished with the era or Lowe's experiments. I stick to my view that it isn't that difficult to be successful in the CCC (or hopefully L1) - you just need good organisation, hard graft, a smattering of talent, and a decent goalscorer. Let's hope that is the strategy we'll be working towards with the next board...

Agreed. We should have taken the offer - think how different our season might have been this year...

Separate legal entities they may be, but that doesn't mean diddly-squate to the Football League, and even the most rabid among us must admit that the Plc and the FC are clearly closely tied economically. However Lowe & Co. have tried to dress it up, smokescreen etc. it was never going to wash with the FL...

Marco van Basten is available now - how about him!!!

And therein lies the true folly - thinking that that type of system could work in a "cloggers league" (with kids!). You couuldn't make it up, you really couldn't...

As we suspected - come out come out wherever you are Jonah, 19Canteen/Guided Missile etc. You pay peanuts... So why did Wilde just stand by and let Lowe implement his "revolutionary plan"... They guy is a jerk of the highest order, and spineless to boot.

What does he mean "if he had the chance" - he had the chance TWICE! - and blew it royally both times. First time bringing in a bunch of corporate autocrats, and the second time he was happy to play Lowe's lap dog. The guy is a total and utter invertebrate, let's hope we've seen the last of him along with Lowe, Cowan & Co.

Part of the Lowe "revolution" and frankly, like the other guy, not up to the job. Has to go.

Perhaps spending £1.2m on Pearson's wages would have been a better investment, but of course that wasn't part of the revolutionary masterplan was it... Still, Lowe's 'genius' is there for all to see now - relegation, and administration. Job done.

If it is his plan, then he'll be on his own! I think Fry is just playing a canny game - we have interested parties, we know that, and I am sure something will happen as soon as the season is over.

I'm old enough mate I count myself as sane by the way - yes we had to cut costs, but it all goes back to Lowe's inability to differentiate between Cost and Value. I won't use the old Oscar Wilde quote again. There are other ways of cutting costs than farming your whole strike force out on loan...

I wonder if Matt is truly involved in this bid, or whether they just see him as a "trump card" in terms of fan approval. Regardless, if there are other better offers - in terms of financials, and/or business acumen - I'd still go with the alternatives, even if it meant passing up Le Tiss on the board. The next Board of this club MUST be the right fit to get us moving onwards and upwards. Also, who's to say other consortia won't also potentially use Matty in some way.

Spot on Daren.

Or perhaps if he hadn't been farmed out for most of the season by short sighted Lowe, we might not have got in the mess...?

BTW - are you a QPR fan, or a Saints fan? If the former, why do you bother coming on here, are QPR really that boring??

Because we have a bunch of pr1cks in the boardroom - who then thought they could circumvent the very rules they voted in setting up the Plc/FC structure. Sums them up. I'm not having a go at the rule, more the intepretation of it.

Can't say I blame him. Not too many internationals playing at that level. Best of luck, and thanks for the efforts Saga.

And that is they key here to my mind - can anyone seriously believe that Stockport moving down a few places constitutes a "material difference" to them? -10 next year certainly would though. Is it fair, given that we have both committed the same "crime" that they start out with a 10 point advantage over us next year? The answer is indupitably NO.

Your quote clearly indicated that you felt the (financial) mismanagement "started with Wilde etc" - it therefore insinuates that you are absolving Lowe, in his previous tenure, of any hand in our financial predicament. Poppy**** and balderdash!

I'm a shareholder, I've seen them - but it is far too blinkered to think that these two years are the sole root cause of our financial problems (and blieve me, I am not omitting Crouch, Hone, Hoos, Wilde etc. etc. from their share of blame - in my mind they are all culpable). Our financial problems are a result of a failed stratey(ies), bad management, poor managerial appointments - all leading to poor performance, lower gates, decreased income. Like I say, I am not going to rehash all of this - there are plenty of threads on it, read them if you wish. You go on believing that Lowe has no responsibility whatsoever for our financial mess, up to you mate - but please don't come spouting on here about him being 'without sin'; credit the rest of us with some intellegence (and a more balanced view of what has gone on!).

Ah, the old start a post with "you lowe lovies make me laugh/sick blah blah blah" trick, before going on to point the finger of blame on anyone but his lordship. Well done, he'd be proud of you. PS I can't be bothered going through the whole story of our decline, and you likely wouldn't listen anyway, but suffice to say that our financial problems did not start the minute Lord Lowe left the club, and you're just embarrassing yourself by intimating that they did.

Okay, what the hell, ... allegedly Kevin Keegan was seen in town yesterday. Not sure why, may be purely coincidental, and he may even still live in the area, but as a bit of tittle-tattle I thought it worth throwing in there...

I'd go for the Souness consortium as #1 - had decent contacts in the game, knows his stuff and would be in it for the long haul. Wouldn't turn away Matty, naturally, but I think Souness would be the best option.