um pahars

I haven't given up .............................................. yet!!!!! I'm still hoping that there will be something that will galvanise the fanbase and get the spirit back. Have no idea what shape or form it will take, but I'm just not ready to give up at this point. My fear is that with football in general going down the pan our own position is magnified with the current regime sucking (and have sucked) the lifeblood out of the Club. One thing that is for sure is that they are certainly not the men to galvanise the fanbase.

Different performance fees for Championship and League Cup games??????

The alternative was to augment the good youngsters we already had (Lallana et al ) with some experienced players (either retaining the existing ones or getting a couple in on a free e.g. Darren Moore types) instead of adopting a sort of scatter gun approach and getting in Holmes and Lewis Hamilton, Pekhart and Robertson etc etc etc. We obviously had some leeway given the fact we bought 9 odd players in, and I whilst I would have offloaded many of the players we did offload, I would have been more careful and considered about who I brought in and who I retained. Then of course there was the alternative of retaining Pearson and building on his good work. Then of course there was the alternative of getting in someone without the baggage of Lowe as CEO and/or Chairman, and also someone without the baggage of Wilde. There were most definitely many roads that are blocked off to us at the moment due to our financial status, but let's not be naive to think that there haven't been decisions made where we could have gone for an alternative.

As others have pointed out: a) this is about false economies, and b) there are/were alternatives. We went with the "revolutionary coaching set up" and dabbled with an experiment that has yet to pay off. There was a choice to stick with someone who looked as though they were turning it around or go with someone who knew close to faecuk all about this league. We then spent a sum of money on 8/9/10 signings, and even if some were frees and some were young, it was still money that could have been spent elsewhere. Of course some of the options we may want to pursue aren't available because of our current financial predicament, but let's not also pretend that everything was a fait accompli. We have made many decisions about how and where the money should be spent and/or saved, and from where I'm sitting right now they don't look to be the best decisions I have ever seen.

I'm glad you picked up on this as I too thought it was a bit weird!!!!! I wasn't sure if Jan had not explained himself very well (not being fluent and precise in English) or whether he was insinuating we couldn't afford to play Stern. As for him being lazy and a waste of space last season, then what planet are some people on???? His goals helped save our sorry ar55ses last season. And whilst we may have lost better quality players in previous season, given our current predicament of only scoring 11 goals (21st worst in the division) and the fact that we are in dire need of a striker makes his loss particularly acute.

My Blackadder references will be about the best you can get at the moment. Curmudgeon me up:D

Oh, for a minute there I thought you were being serious then and washing over Lowe's involvement in our financial meltdown Not really. If we are to do the blame game fairly, then Lowe would be General Melchett, Wilde would be Captain Darling and Crouch would be Lieutenant George. None of them are/were that competent at running the show, but some were most definitely more to blame than others for the predicament we now find ourselves in.

This credit crunch must have hit Leon particularly hard!!!!!!!!!

To be fair, I think KK is a one off special case (maybe of the nut kind) who I wouldn't trust with my pocket money!!!

Sorry, I must have misread the following as the problems were started by Wilde and added to by Crouch, with Lowe not getting a mention. Silly me!!!!!!!!!!!

Include the one off parachute payment and we still lost £9m out the door in that first period down. So with £9m cash out the door (also as a tease, one of Lowe's last acts was to give Rasiak a mega wonga 4 year contract which would run 2 years past the parachute payments), I really do think it is slightly naive to exclude Lowe from the causes of our financial troubles.

The last time I looked an inventor comes up with something new!!! The concept of spending more than we got in began 1 minute after relegation whilst Lowe was at the helm. We lost £16m cash out the door (before the one off parachute payment) on normal operations in the 13 months under Lowe following relegation

We have been spending more than we have earned for the last 41 months. Crouch was at the helm for 6 of them.

You're probably right. We're still losing money every month and need to find even more savings to reduce this loss. Of course, the alternative could be to increase revenue (mainly by increasing crowds), but the current regime are struggling with this proposition.

was, as it's now over!!!!!!!!!!! To be honest, you didn't miss much and The Saint (sorry Radio Hampshire) aren't really known for their in depth, Paxmanesque, tough journalistic grilling sessions.

Happily accept Chairman and/or Chief Execs should be involved in the buying part (i.e. doing the negotiations etc etc etc), but still think the identifiaction and final say has to be the preserve of the manager. Ray Wilkins may be saying that, but I would counter that recent events at Newcastle and Spurs are saying the opposite. (Of course some of these new overseas rich owners may be sticking their oars in, but even when they do it still sometimes ends in tears e.g. Mourinho & Abramovich!!).

Maybe we should wait and see before we set out for a lynching. This will come out either way in a couple of days, so maynbe we should just chill for a bit. We can have our lynching over the weekend!!!!!!!!!!

Have to say that every time I hear Jan, I warm to him. Heard him a few times on the radio now and also heard him after the West Ham game in the corporate suites and he is engaging. Some of his language issues actually add to his warmth (I stil have massive concerns about him being the right manager though, as in Wigley was - and still is - a nice guy). Was very positive, alittle bit non commital on some things, usual standard replies on others. Said he had recently spoken to a season ticket holder of 60 years or so who no longer goes and was quite concerned about it. However, wasn't convinced of his answer to the question about who signs/identifies the players and what Lowe's role was on this one. I may be wrong, but thought he said something like he didn't know alot about English players, then he sounded slightly unsure & mumbled and ended by saying there are a number of scouts who pick the players. His reply didn't rule Lowe out being involved in the identification. Was quite clear that he picks the team at the end though.

But I haven't seen anyone claim there is an experienced first 11 being kept in the shadows, so why are you being so melodramatic? What people have been looking for is a balance of youth and experience and sadly it has taken some batterings and a poor start to the season for this to register with the current regime. A number of more experienced players have been left out when IMHO they are better than the youngsters who took their places (John at the start of the season, Cork every now and then, Skacel from the off etc etc etc). What is also worrying about this failure to accept you need a mix in this division, is that throughout the transfer window we concentrated on youth at the expense of experience. The problem is not only failing to play the experienced players we have, but also a failure to augment them with any new faces in August and a failure of getting them to play together during the close season. We are now playing catch up (that's if he doesn't tinker with the line up again).

Yeah of course everyone was saying that it was contractual blah, blah, blah. Are you as stupid in real life as you come across on here??

Then perhaps the manager needs to get on and actually start to manage his squad, a role that includes motivating players, getting players to undertake training regimes to improve fitness and ultimately ensuring that our best players are actually out on the pitch.

There aren't any decent holdings by any investment/pension companies. AFAIK there is only one smallish one with just over 3%.

I predicted a draw:smt024:smt024 I think you're funny.:D I want your babies:smt057:smt057

Sounded like a gritty, backs to the wall performance, so well done to everyone. Maybe adding some experience to the team worked tonight (note to Jan please).

I predicted a draw!!!!!!!! And methinks we will get it here tonight.