um pahars

What million pound was this???? Or arguably those whose shareholdings, position in the cabal and position of influence ensured they got the boss job at the Club and with it the ability to take out about £3m as a result.

Youmay be needing this link: http://www.Lallana in November - pah.com/ There's two transfer windows before November!!!!!!!!!

Firstly, IMHO you should play players in their best position whenever possible. Of course there may be times when the teams need comes first, but ultimately I think you get the best out of players when you pay them in their favoured positions. Secondly, if he's not ready for that position, then perhaps he should be eased in and not thrown in at the deep end and then played out of position. If Lallana is going to play they we should play to his strengths as they're one of the only strengths we've got at the moment. BTW I'm not actually sure games week in and week out is what some of these guys need.

Absolutely. In the run up to the game the manager must have full and total control of his dressing room. The players need to be focussed and not distracted. It is a key prt of the preparation. Here is what one current manager said about the run up to the match when defending some of his players not signing autographs whilst out on the pitch in the warm up. "I take your point and I am sure players will sign autographs on their way out of the ground but once the warm-up finishes I am big on them getting back to the dressing room so I can have my time with them. I want that window of opportunity to get them ready for the game." Any idea who said that???

I hop you didn't buy next years calendar with them both in it!!!!!!! (unless of course Lallana has the first two weeks of January and Surman the second two!!!!!).

Exactly how I saw it. Lallana is a precocious talent and one of the best things about the Club since Theo. He was wasted and isolated wide left, and whilst he did some good things he is much better used in the hole. We should be looking to build a team around this player, but sadly Jan keeps chopping and changing all the time. Being brutally honest, he may be better learning his trade somewhere else where they value him and look after him and I for one wouldn't blame him if he felt his future lay elsewhere.

All we do know is that their squad (or at least last seasons squad) was not as good as 20 odd Championship teams. There is no way of knowing how good a relegated squad is compared to teams in the division below. You could conjecture they should be better, or slightly better than most, but that is not always the case. If it was then the same teams who got relegated each season would automatically get promoted the following one!!!!! I'm never really comfortable people suggesting Pearson would definitely have done better than Jan, or that Pearson is doing well with Leicester as we just dont know what might have happened, and certainly cannot prove what would have happened. That said, I do have a gut feel that Pearson may just have added some grit and steel to this team and had the fans support.

But as far as I can ascertain, people on here haven't got a problem with Lowe popping down to say good luck, having a gander at the lads in training, asking if there is anything the Club could be doing for the players etc etc etc. All of that seems fairly innocent and would actually be quite a good thing to do. What people do have a problem with is the CEO/Chairman being overly involved in areas f the first team that should be the sole domain of the manager. The single most important person at any football club is the manager. Not the star player (as Fergie showed with Beckham and as Lawrie showed with Wright & others), not the Chairman (as Mourinho declared) and not the CEO. Everything at a football club revolves around the ability of the manager to produce a winning side. You interfere or meddle with that at your peril and that is what people are nervous and upset about. There is a massive distinction between the two.

Come on Phil, the reason that they printed the Lowe on the touchline picture was because Lowe was on the touchline pre match with the Head Coach. The reason Solent (and Radio Hampshire) reported Lowe was in the dressing room pre match, was because he was in the dressing room pre match. These things aren't being fabricated, they are happening in real life. And it's not the first time that Lowe has gone into the dressing room pre match either (then again, maybe he's going through your list of reasons why he should be there one by one). Let's not be naive here, Lowe is doing more than CEO/Chairman normally does at this Club.

Absolute rubbish!!!!!!!! Show me one post where Lowe has been called aloof because he gives the dressing room amiss??????? And now he has crossed the line, and because he is an intrinsic part of the "revolutionary coaching set up" he is de facto part of the team, as much as Jan is and will therefore going to get shot at.

And I don't think there is anything wrong with this and that type of thing happens at most Clubs. However, is that all the limit of Lowe's involvement with all things to do with the first team????? Straight answer please from what you know. If you're going to come and contribute to these threads and play down things, then you should expect to be put on the spot about things in the same domain. If you'd have kept your head down then fine, but if questioning other people on here, then you should expect the same back. So, what, to your knowledge, is Lowe's involvement in first team matters, and what is his role in this "revolutionary coaching set up"?

Come back in an hour or so and read that again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So your theory could be that we have been brainwashed by the Chorley Cult and radicalised like some religious fundamentalists!!!! Let's live in the real world shall we. Football fans aren't stupid and many of them can see exactly what is going on for themselves and make informed judgements about it. Your claim is actually pretty insulting to the thousands of fans who can form their own opinions (be they pro, anti or ambivalent to Lowe). Most will judge Lowe on the basis he wanted be judged, ON RESULTS. If you, Lowe and others think the CEO/Chairman giving a pep talk is fine, then that's your shout, but IMHO I think it's the wrong thing and if anything, actually draws Lowe more into the current misfortunes of our Club. Not only did he appoint this "revolutionary coaching set up", he is actually a part of it!!!!!!

I don't think that after moaning about Lowe and Wilde's distractive influence during last seasons relegation battle he can do anything (at least in public anyway) otherwise he would just be labelled a hypocrite (and probably quite rightly so). As with the majority of fans, I certainly don't think he's very happy, but I don't think there is much he can do. As long as Lowe's cabal remain loyal to their svengali, Wilde still backs this "revolutionary coaching set up" and the Reading fan doesn't pull the rug, then the status quo will continue, with Crouch irrelevant.

I also thought Euell did well, considering he's making a comeback and he certainly put alot of effort in last night. There was one point in the second half where he pushed on for a bit and I actually thought we looked alot better with McGoldrick getting some support. Lallana is not a left winger and Thompson is not yet ready. Jan seems to be following the Burley's Playing Players Out Of Positon Manual that he left behind!!!! We were close to the pitch at one point and Thompson looked so skinny and frail, his legs were the same size as their centre half's arms!!!!!!!!!!! They looked a shadow of the side who hammered us recently (of course, maybe we played better), but a point at home tothem is relegation form.

I agree, thought he had a decent game.

For me he's learning as he goes along. He has no in depth knowledge or experience in this division, so he's picking things up with each week that goes by. My worry is that he set his stall out at the start of the season (i.e.youth playing attractive flowing football) and it may not be possible for him to change the policy that easily given that is the route he has decided to go down. I stil think there are three worse teams than us, but we have to start winning at home!!!!! My summary would be that I'm not sure how much he will turn things around, instead that we will survive becaue luckily there are some even worse teams than us about.

I think that would be fair enough and actually a good move. However, I don't think it has to be done a few minutes before a match (and every match at that!!!!). Lowe does not go into the dressing room before every match to reassure the players about the financial state of the Club, nor does he just go in and there just to say "good luck". If you think that it is fine for the CEO/PLC Chairman to go into the changing room before every match and give a pep talk, then of course that's your perogative. What would you and others have been saying if you found out that Hone and/or Dulieu were going in to the dressing room and giving a pep talk???? I can tell you that I would have been just as unhappy and would have questioned just exactly what the fckuck was going on!!!!!!!!

The saying: There are none so blind as those who will not see could never be so more apt!!!!!!!!!! Have look at the photos again and then give us your thoughts!!!! EDIT: Have now seen that Trousers has put the other one up as well. Photoshop my ar553e!!!!!!!!

Ahem, anyone going to say anything?????

We were better than some of the recent poor performances, but still not that particularly good. Gaining a point, rather than losing 4-1 was more to do with Coventry playing really poorly IMHO. Being honest we never really looked like scoring (but had lots of posession), and I couldn't help but think that we would concede. McGoldrick took his goal well, but didn't really do anything else (but I don't really ask much else from a striker so can't complain). My MOTM was Euell. Didn't look too clever defending and failed to clear our lines on a number of occasions before they scored. Contrary to what someone on here said, I don't think Thompson looked that good at all. An improvement of sorts, but stil in a real relegation battle. Need to get a point at Preston though.

If it had read Dutch-Turkish Centre Forward up for grabs, then I might have said there was a chance of getting him in!!!!!!!!! We don't go for full backs for some reason!!!!!!!!!

Me neither, and I was worried for our prospects this season when people were crowing about him in the friendlies and saying he was our best player by a mile!!!!!!!!! I know some make it late in the game, but the lad is no youngster, he's 23 in a couple of weeks.

Mid season isn't an ideal time to be slashing and burning for a number of reasons. For instance, on the pitch you don't have the pre season to rebuild the team, and off the pitch there aren't many contracts that have a January end date (e.g. Claus and others). And it's all very well the Execs giving us the dire warnings in Novemebr of that year, but why the fccukc were they not giving themselves dire warnings before they signed Euell, Thomas et al on mega wonga a few months earlier???

14,683

If Lowe's comments that the wages went up 15% from £10.5m the previous year is correct, then that makes our wage bill for all of last season circa. £12.1m. With £6.1m being the total for the first 6 months to Dec 31, then the second six months must be similar (if not slightly less) than that figure. Effectively puttig Rasiak and Skacel out on loan netted off with the new loans/signings coming in.