madsent

I'd hardly say Johannesburg was local ! I'd be disappointed to only get £700k for Surman. I think he's worth at least £1m, even in the current financial climate.

Matt Paterson looks like he's up to it. He'll need to curb some of his aggression, even in L1, but I think he'll be a key player next season.

Didn't Burnley go something like 20 games without a win with him as manager ? That kind of run would cost most managers their jobs. Just ask Chris Nicholl.

Penalty taking is about nerve for most players. MLT has the technique to put the ball exactly where he wants to and the confidence that his technique won't let him down. I don't think his style of taking penalties would be easy to teach. Graham Alexander has a comparable penalty record for Burnley and Preston and has nowhere near the level of skill of MLT. Someone like him would probably be a better penalty coach than MLT.

I believe Wotton was 0/1 in penalties for us, Surman was 1/2 and McGoldrick was 3/4 for the season before the Burnley game. I had no problem with him taking it. In the end it was a poor penalty but he had the guts to take it in the first place. The fact that we missed 4 from 7 at home tells a story of the season. We had the chances to win many more games but couldn't put the ball in the net. Euell and Saganowski must have gone on the longest goalless drought for a pair of strikers playing together for us since Moody and Dowie.

Hansa, West Ham's holding company, is in a bad way but is not in administration yet. All the headlines were about Hansa (the holding company) beginning the process of going into administration. That said, should Hansa go into administration, West Ham wouldn't suffer any consequences since it is a foreign company and the rules wouldn't apply. It is a moot point anyway since West Ham are in the Premier League and are not governed by the Football League. There is no points penalty as yet for Premier League clubs entering administration.

His legacy is never good though. Saints are in administration, Bournemouth have been close to closure several times, West Ham's holding company are in dire straits (but not in administration yet) and Pompey have a huge amount of debt that their owner can barely afford to service let alone pay off.

How can you not blame Redknapp at all ? We were out of the relegation zone when he joined and we finished bottom. He never stopped telling the world how bad the existing players were and how hard it would be to stay up. He put out inexplicable teams on several occasions. I can still remember how shocked I was with the team at Birmingham (Niemi, Van Damme, Lundekvam, Crouch, Delap, Prutton, Bernard, Telfer, Jones, Redknapp and Davenport). I couldn't work out how come he made so many changes from a team that beat Liverpool and Pompey in consecutive matches. Why would you pick Davenport when Svensson was available ? Why would you give a debut to a Kenwyne Jones on the right wing ? He then completely demoralised the team and fans with his appalling choice to put a reserve team out against Man Utd in the cup. Ask Steve Coppell and Martin O'Neill whether they regret putting weakened sides on the pitch in cup games. The thing I found most ridiculous was that Redknapp thought Prutton was key to our survival but failed to recognise that a win over (or draw with) Man Utd would take at least a game off his ban. That led to the worst of Redknapp's mistakes - the team for our last Premier League game. How anyone could pick a clearly not fit Prutton and choose a striker with no goals in the entire season (Ormerod) over Phillips is beyond me.

Why can't we sign anyone ? SFC is still technically not in administration. If the Football League impose signing sanctions on top of the 10 point deduction then they'll have a lot of explaining to do. However, there's still no chance we'll sign anyone until a new owner is found since we don't have the money to pay wages to new players.

And we should all remember the game is in two halves. It's perfectly acceptable to support the team after half time. And we should also remember that the "plastic" fans have actually put money in to keep the club going so should be welcomed rather than barracked. Without them, there wouldn't be a game today.

I'm sure that's an ironic statement given that you've transposed two characters in exactly the same way as Frank's Cousin.

You got your wish. Congratulations. See http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/News/ChampionshipNewsDetail/0,,10794~1636735,00.html.

He did well for a few games and dropped off. He can be such a good player but he goes through extended periods with never shooting on target. I nearly fainted when he shot on target against Charlton. He even forced the keeper into a save. The Preston game was over 2 months ago and we've played 11 games since and he's scored 0 goals despite playing in all of the games, most from the start. That said, Euell has only scored in 1 of those games as has BWP. The only forward who has scored regularly this season in McGoldrick which is very ironic considering his nickname.

Actually, Ince has only managed Blackburn in the Premier and Macclesfield and MK Dons in League 2. He has no experience of League 1.

I don't see anything listed against MLT, Alan Shearer, Kevin Keegan, Lawrie McMenemy and several other high-profile ex-Saints. Why pick on Wayne Bridge ?

This is why the Administrator set such a tight time limit on finding a new owner - it'll happen in the next month or so or not at all . Either way we'll know soon enough . Surely clubs get in a decent cut of their year's income through season ticket sales. That would usually be more than enough to pay the wages through the summer. It's TV money and those fans that pay per game that keep the club finances ticking over during the year. That's what made me laugh at the Charlton game. The season ticket holders were deriding the extra fans who turned up to support the club, even if they didn't stay. For most people, it was the easiest way to get money into the coffers for very little outlay by the club. The club has already had and spent the money forked out by the season ticket holders so the only money they bring in is through merchandise (probably bought pre-season as well) and for food and drink at the stadium.

Why would Barclays wait until a week after the Football League's arbitrary deadline before calling in the administrators ? If they had a problem with the way SLH was being run, surely they should have called the overdraft facility when we didn't sell players (or loan out those with the highest salaries) in January. As far as I can tell, the SLH board was given assurances that the company could continue to operate and they still pulled the rug out from under the board at the least opportune time. I've tolerated but never liked Rupert Lowe and I think he should have left for good when we were relegated. I don't think he can be blamed for believing that the short-term future of the PLC was secure when it wasn't.

AFAIK, transfer fees don't work that way. All the money goes via the Football League for transfers where both parties are in the Football Leagues. That's why I'm confused as to why Bournemouth have not received their money. Maybe it's to do with their status rather than ours.

Actually, the council are the only interested party that has discussed their intentions in public. I'm not even sure whether they've approached the administrator with an offer. As far as I can tell, they've had to at least discuss the issue so they can respond to the Echo which keeps trying to set an agenda. The other parties are remaining remarkably quiet. Whether they've had to sign non-disclosure agreements or the bidders are being discrete is up for debate. I'm sure some of the less serious bidders would be embarassed should their bids be disclosed.

Where on earth did you get that idea about Pearson from ? Leicester have a team of highly paid players, most of whom have years of Premiership and Championship experience. Their wage bill is being paid personally by their chairman and is over twice as much as our wage bill. Pearson kept us up with a team of experienced pros including a couple of expensive loans. The only young (and cheap) player to regularly play under Pearson was Andrew Surman. There is no indication whatsoever that Pearson would succeed on a restrictive budget.

The Northam was non-stop noise in the first half. The second half was a different matter. Several songs were started but none of them really caught on. There was a lot of criticism of our players that just didn't happen in the first half. Maybe it was because most of the play was toward the Northam in the early part of the second half but the tension got the better of people and this seemed to create the flashpoint when people started leaving Kingsland in their droves with 20 minutes to go (as far as I can tell, the abuse wasn't aimed at the Northam/Kingsland corner). They paid their money and went when they wanted to. It's their choice. I've never left early and never will but that's my choice.

I completely agree with that. I think Gordon Strachan destabilised us. We had batches of good results in 03-04 that papered over the cracks that were showing in our hard-working but limited squad. When we won, it was often despite playing badly. We seldom played well and, as Norwich proved in their relegation season (1994-1995), a 3-0 win over your local rivals is not an indication of how good your team is. Strachan never looked up for it after the FA Cup Final and the tactical mistakes that made us look like a mouse being toyed with by a lazy cat. He got a medical prognosis that allowed him to leave Saints without anyone blaming him for going. Who has ever heard of a hip injury keeping a manager from doing his job ? Many managers have had heart surgery (think of Souness and Houllier) and returned in the same season. Strachan found an excuse and ran. The fact that he didn't have his intended surgery until the summer after he'd been Celtic manager for a season speaks volumes. Since Strachan left, we had a string of poor managers and the lack of quality in the squad was exposed when the fitness levels started to drop and the true quality in the side (Bridge, Beattie and Svensson) left or were unable to play.

What about the points that Rasiak has cost Watford ? By all accounts, he's played poorly when he's made it onto the pitch and many Watford fans think he's one of the reasons they are so low in the table.

Turns out he's gone to Preston and may be playing against us next week.

I wouldn't necessarily begrudge him scoring one of Watford's inevitable 3 against us as he gave 100% for us. Let's just hope we can get 3 or 4.