Alain Perrin

Funny how it was the "Dutch experiment", yet becomes the "JP experiment" when Wotte wins a couple of games.... Two factors in my mind: 1) Mentality - Wotte has the team believing they can win again. Most of the time in the past 3 or 4 years, we'd have conceded late on vs. Cardiff. He's restored a bit of the grit that they gained under Pearson and didn't have under JP. 2) Saga / Euell - experienced heads count for a lot, plus by being left out, they both have something to prove. I suspect, in JP's defence, their unavailability was financially driven. Either Lowe believes that by saving their wages from the first half of the season, we can now afford them, or he realises it is **** or bust time. Either way, we're a better team with them in than out. My opinion is JP was too nice a guy to be a manager. The early signs were good (Derby and both B'ham fixtures), but when the chips were down and you needed to be a bit of bastard, JP didn't rally the troops.

Argggh, he's fishing for a bite, must resist, must resist...... I won't bite, but I will ask a question. What is your solution then?

I see the link, but I struggle with the problem with Pulis junior. He was clearly a makeweight in the Davis deal (ie. here's a million quid for Davies, but we'll give you £1.3m if you take Pulis Jr off our hands, and pay him £100K a year). If it didn't make business sense to take Pulis on, I am sure that Lowe wouldn't do it. For all his faults, he drives a hard transfer bargain.

For once I agree with Alpine, non-attendance shouldn't stop someone having an opinion, whether they live in Shirley or Sydney, it matters not. That said, those that do attend games will have a different perspective to those who didn't. Those that listened on the radio will have the Will Cope view, those that read the report on the internet will have the journalists view, and those that just saw the score on Teletext will have no ****ing clue. People to realise that those views are not of equal value, but they equally valid. There were several games I saw this year where we played well, battled hard and lost - only to look at the message board and see it was the ****ist performance ever! People making concrete pronouncements at 4.45pm, who unless they live at St Mary's clearly weren't at the match! I'm not saying you can't have an opinion, just that it needs to be caveated with the fact it is second hand. Even with only 2 wins at home this season I have seen some great football at St Mary's, crap results, but more good football than bad.

Pervert!

Well thought out contribution

To be honest the Radio station was a great thing for any fan living outside of the Solent reception area. Before the days of internet streaming, getting the radio on Sky was one way for me to keep in touch with games I couldn't make. ... so as a 'faraway' fan I'd never criticise the spend on that.

Agreed, I post much less than I did and, on the whole, I find the arguments repetitive (although sometimes I can't help but be dragged into them). Too much abuse and too little thought - decrying people's opinions as 'stupid' because they happen to be different. I think though it is a lowest common denominator kind of thing, intelligent posts get dragged down into a swirl of "lowe luvvies" and "crouch ****heads". One poster, who I always thought made some good points, even though he/she held different views to me, has recently become far more aggressive and sanctimonious. I can only assume it is because of this - there can't be any reason why someone can become an offensive ****ing ****-sucking ****** with the opinions of **** overnight, can there? That said, there is still fun to be had, that sheep sh@gger's post about "Is this racisist?" made me laugh out loud.

Was Mike Richards right though - was his suspicions of the 'anyone but Lowe' mutual suck-off well founded?

Excellent, it's my wife's birthday on Sunday so I'll pop along and grab a couple of dozen (no black roses please).

Of course I did - did you not notice the smiley/winky things?

What did the Cloned Sheep say to the other sheep? I am ewe.

Filthy b@stards those Brythonic Celts, they used to do goats as well....

In my opinion you can plaster emoticons where you like, they're are not an excuse for being a pendant The irony in your last point is so thick. You could cut it with the knife you slice the bread with that Pearson is currently the best thing since.

Repeat after me.... This is a football forum, not a semantics forum This is a football forum, not a semantics forum This is a football forum, not a semantics forum You know what NickG meant, anything else is just baiting.

Pity, we could have had Dodd and Gorman earlier - if only they'd been given a proper run at it....

Lied to, and keeping options open are very different things. To be honest if Lowe didn't have a Plan B then I'd be more worried. Interview Pearson and if he blows you away with his passion, ability and experience (and he agrees to work for less money) then great. No harm done. Remember Lowe had Wotte and some bloke I don't remember lined up pre-Burley, and he didn't go with him then. It's called good business.

To be honest though it is yet another example of this forum building a mountain out of a molehill. 1) Lowe knew he was coming in. 2) Lowe knew the finances were up the swanny. 3) Lowe thought that the best way to solve the finance problem was to play youth and ship out the high earners. 4) Lowe didn't think Nigel Pearson was the right man to get the best out of youth. QED - he didn't want Pearson. Finances in terms of manager wages probably had a small amount to do with it, finances in terms of what players the manager would have, even more. Layer onto that the fact that Lowe's vision is/was the Ajax model, then, rightly or wrongly, there was only ever going to be one decision.

I think he'll become a good player, not convinced he is a right back though. Too many of our conceded goals have come from teams targeting his defensive frailty. I'd prefer to see him right mid, getting to the byline - with an Ifil / Cork (natural defender) behind him.

To be honest if we have fans who interpret the nuance of a sentence to fit their own agenda, then he's not far wrong with his "true supporters" claim....

Fair play, looks a good turnout. What will be interesting is the turnout at Cardiff. Following a win, will the motivation of the marginals be there?

What are the "right circumstances" for throwing something that could hurt an opposition fan? I envisaged a scene where an opposition fan was about to machine gun the Yoof. Would I be justified in throwing a tin of beans at him in order to save their lives?

Leslie please don't re-write history. I don't call struggling to survive in the Premiership / First Division, as we did pre-Lowe, "the brink of sustainable success". My opinion is: Lowe Highs: - Stadium - Midtable mediocrity in the Premiership - Cup Final - UEFA (lucky to get / fleeting though it was) Lowe Lows: - Relegation. - Bad PR / Supporter relationships. - Learning from mistakes (Wigley/Gray). - Management Merry-go-round (especially letting go of Pearson, which was (IMHO) an opportunity to improve his bad PR). The last point about Pearson is an important one, but at the end of the day Lowe had to make a decision based on financial imperative (i.e. who get the best out of youth) and he chose JP. I think that decision was also coloured by his single mindedness about the Dutch experiment (an approach considered pre-Burley), so there was only ever one decision he was going to make. I know people will interpret some of what I say as Luvvie-ish, but I prefer to see my view as balanced (and let's face it there are enough loons on both sides!).

Get a room....