um pahars

Deary me. A classic example of how platitudes, soundbites and promises are not worth anything in football.

Rewind a few months and ask yourself the question, Did Lowe come with any cash and what were his ideas? How did he measure up against the criteria you are now setting for a replacement? The idea that Lowe is the only one who: a) wants the job, or b) could do the job, or c) we could afford is/was risible.

He didn't say that!!!!!!!! Did he?????? LOL

Goodwill, just like pretty football, does not put the ball in the net, nor does it earn you points. I totally agree that that this is all subjective and completely hypothetical to compare individuals performances, but you seem to have forgotten that it was you who went down this route with your line of "I reiterate once again, so far, better than Pearson and the driver from the wacky races managed to achieve". It is totally impossible to substantiate such an argument. The best you could do would be a points per game basis, and on that basis you're claim does not stand up to scrutiny. You're quite right, you're no statistician. No one knows or could prove it either way, which makes your initial line that Jan has delivered better than Pearson totally hypothetical, sbjective and unable to be substantiated. Not really sure what the relevance is here when you are trying to prove something that is to impossible to prove. Alot of words to say nothing really! In amongst all your waffle there, I think I probably read something that sounds like "in your opinion". So it takes a load of waffle to finally reach the line that this is in "your opinion". At last. Of course you're entitled to hold and espouse your own opinion, but please try and steer clear of then enshrining it as fact. And as crowds have shown, people have gone elsewhere, in big numbers, driven away by what has been delivered by this new board. LOL, compared to the vitriol and hatred you displayed towards Crouch (and others), then some of the "hatred" towards Lowe is playschool stuff! Most of the posts on this forum that express disatisfaction, angst and dismay at current events are totally justified and often very well reasoned.

I really don't get people's logic when they say "what difference will a new manager make??". If that's the case, why have managers at all if they don't influence anything??? It's the same perverse logic about changing the CEO/Chairman, as if there is nothing that anyone else could do!!!! Mind boggling. That's not to say that a different manager would definitely achieve better results, they could of course make things worse, but to suggest that the dice have been rolled and our fate is determined, is ridiculous.

Would have thought it was north of that yesterday (would also be interested to know what Palace's was, as they also had some youngsters in their team).

With you on this one all the way. Pearson's end of season performance wasn't exceptional, but considering what he inherited he did a pretty good job. I thought he instilled some pride, spirit and unity in the Club and was expecting us to push on this season with him at the helm (even if we had to restructure in the summer). I was really positive until the dark shadow of Lowe reappeared over the Club. I didn't go on the pitch last season as I found it hard to celebrate the fact that we just avoided relegation (I was relieved though), so forgive me if I'm not overjoyed at the halfway point of this season, particularly when I fear the situation will get worse.

There's some serious rewriting of history on this thread, or people are just making things up to to suit their position!!!!! His contract was not up, Lowe chose to invoke the break clause. Getting rid of Pearson was a conscious decision by Lowe, in order that he could bring in this "revolutionary coaching set up". Many people were aware of the decision to change the manager well before Lowe & co got their feet under the table. It's a distinction that some people choose to ignore for some strange reason. Complete rubbish. Pearson was acutely aware of our situation and made it clear to Lowe that he was happy to work within the constraints before he went to Malta on holiday. Pearson was a dead man walking the minute Wilde joined forces with Lowe.

His contract was not up at the end of last season. There was a break clause that could be invoked by either side, a subtle, but very distinct difference. Lowe took a conscious decision to activate it, effectively sacking Pearson. HTH

Don't believe the hype!!!!!!!!

You can reiterate it as many times as you want, but it still won't make it right. Pearson managed 16 points in the 13 games that he really was in charge of at a Points per game rate of 1.23 Jan has not even managed a point per game, and stands at a paltry 0.96 PPG. Pearsons record was nothing to write home about, but that sort of makes Jan's record even more derisory. If you can't even get the basic facts right, then it's not even worth driving a coach and horses through the rest of your tirade.

One of the problems of scoring those two goals is that it papers over the huge cracks we have in our team (although of course it is a bonus for our goal difference!!!!) and it will allow the blind optimists in their rosey specs to try and convince us that we are so close to turning the corner. We need to face facts and accept that we are in a huge relegation battle, and regardless of how good we play in patches, we are the shyitt big time. As you say, I think we will be weakened in the January transfer window and what worries me is that one of our rivals, in Charlton, will get stronger as they do have the benefit of one last parachute payment. Halfway through the season is too far gone for the "we're turn this around", "we're close to being a good team", particularly when prior to every game we get the usual trotted out by the manager and players, omly to be let down miserably. My half season report would not make pleasant reading!!!

Au contraire. I am one person who has spelt out how I preferred Lowe's approach to giving it a go during the parachute period compared to your noddy approach. You must have missed my post, so please refer to post 144 LOL.

I predict some serious bouncebackability and a 3-2 win (was it 2 seasons ago that we won by 3-2 up there???).

And you are absolutely right with that as well, but you are also confirming my belief that we did have (and still do have) choices. Lowe took a conscious decision to go down this route, there were other potential strategies he could have adopted, but rightly or wrongly this is the route he has taken us down. All I was stating was that it was ridiculous to suggest there was no alternative to the current strategy and we have been forced into making every decision we did!!!! I am more than happy to judge him by the success of this strategy and I also agree that we need to give this strategy time (although there may well come a time when we someone calls time, just as they did when it was clear Wigley was out of his depth).

Absolutely (although I'm not overly sure of the OP's rant). I think there are very few supporters who don't appreciate the financial climate within which the Club is operating, but it is ludicrous to suggest that within these confines everything that has been done will have been the best decision possible. As you correctly say, even given these tough conditions, it is still possible to make the wrong decisions, whilst pursuing a policy of economic prudence. As was the case when we had money in the Premiership, it's as much to do with how that limited money is spent, rather than purely how much is spent. To suggest things have to be done this way is ridiculous. The majority agree on the need to tighten things up financially, but there is more than one way to skin a cat!!!!! IMHO, in the grand scheme of things, there are two pieces of minor expenditure which could have been used much better, and they would be the wages for a manager and the salary for a CEO.

Were you berating Lowe when he spent £2m on Rasiak, with a further £4m committed on wages over the 4 year deal??? Were you berating Lowe when he was promising to fund Burley in the summer two seasons ago (remember the warchest)??? You must be the only person who advocated implementing Plan B before the parachute payments ran out. Even Lowe was up for giving it a push in the parachute period as he knew the only place to be was the Prem. You must be really stupid if I'm advocating Lowe's strategy over yours:smt119:smt119:smt119

Up and Away doesn't like facts, instead he likes to quote things that are totally wrong (often by 50%:rolleyes:) and then disappears for a bit. I put an analysis of points per game on another thread, but i won't put a link because he'll have a heart attack LMFAO!!!!!

Of course I'm right , here's the comparison lifted straight from the stats site: Southampton - 21st, The Championship Factfile League Record 2008-2009 Pld W D L F A GD GFA GAA PpG Pts Rank Home Record -------------11 1 5 5 8 13 -5 0.72 1.18 0.72 8 24 Away Record -------------11 4 2 5 11 19 -8 1.00 1.72 1.27 14 11 Overall Record ------------22 5 7 10 19 32 -13 0.86 1.45 1.00 22 21 League Record 2007-2008 [for the same period]PldWDLFAGDGFAGAAPpGPtsRank Home Record ---------------------------------11 5 3 3 16 13 3 1.45 1.18 1.63 18 6 Away Record ---------------------------------10 4 0 6 15 23 -8 1.50 2.30 1.20 12 13 Overall Record --------------------------------21 9 3 9 31 36 -5 1.47 1.71 1.42 30 10 And what is interesting is that: a) In 21 games we gained 1.4 points per game in the same period last season (up until 11/11/07). A pretty decent return. b) In Pearson's 13 real games we managed 16 points, which works out at 1.23 points per game. A not bad return, particular considering he inherited the following: c) Which means the bit in the middle from 11/11/07 until Pearson' s appointment we must have got 8 points from 12 games!!!! (that's even worse than our Jan!!!).

I'm always fairly optimistic if you take one game at a time!!! The problem comes when you step back and look at things in a realistic manner, because then all of a sudden it ll starts to look pretty desperate!!!! IMHO I don't really think we will "turn things around", but instead we'll just plod along and only survive if the three teams below us just perform worse than us, or if another team goes into freefall. PS Any press over in Holland about our Dutch Total Football attacking and exciting revolutionary coaching set up with shades of how Cruyff used to ply?????

I must say I'm not overly sure about the relevance of this to Saints, but had to chuckle at the piece in bold above. If only Lowe was tenuously connected to this Club;)

Was he a cricketer from NZ????

I was thinking the same. Surely their defence will be I was just lipsynching and no noise came out. Impossible to prove, surely????

The only bad result out of four that affected us in this bunch of midweek games, so although not catastrophic, one team has leapfrogged us. On to Saturday. Away to Burnley looks tough, but our away form is good. Charlton at home to Derby, could be dodgy for us, but Charlton have been shiyte. Forest at home to Blackpool, so possibility of closing the gap. Doncaster away at Palace, so should be no worries. Norwich away at Reading so we could overhaul. Watford at home to Coventry, so maybe a problem. Not the best set of fixtures for us, but who knows.

But isn't that the problem we are now faced with, in that we have boxed ourselves in with the current system and personnel brought in??? We set our stall out believing that DMG was the next big thing and we haven't really got a back up, particularly if we're going to play with only one up front??? I don't think Lallana is effective in the hole, then again I don't think we have really managed with anyone in that position this season, so what's the alternative??? Two up front???? Robertson and Paterson, recall White to play up there alongside one of the taller lads, Robertson & Pekhart, Pekhart & Paterson. I don't just see we have any alternative.