Alain Perrin

Thank you for giving me Forecast - I knew I was missing one. I can't disagree with much of what you say. I remember thinking before the relegation season what a good squad we had in comparison to the previous one where, at one point we were struggling to find a fit 15. However, as became clear, it is not the squad, but the team that is important and our team didn't cut it. Lowe has to take the lions share of the blame for this because he was behind the managerial appointments that recruited too many 'squad' players. There are other factors, not Lowe's fault, and these are well documented (see any of Dalek's posts ). When he was ousted the first time I supported him, but accepted that the new guys would bring benefits (best of all in my mind was the end of the poisonous fans atmosphere at SMS which I don't think benefited the team). That said, Wilde, Hone and Crouch let us down, promising much and delivering nothing except a memorable night at Pride Park and a bag load of debt. If RL can sort that out so that we still have a solvent club in 12 months time and hopefully stay in the CCC, then good luck to him. I haven't seen any of the alternatives Leon, Laurie et al. offer any evidence that they could do a better job (and their behaviour at the AGM solidified that for me). If RL was ousted again and crowds went up by 3,000 then I'd support whoever came in. It didn't happen last time (despite the claims of Football first). Our attendance owes more to our league position, results, recession than it does to Rupert Lowe. I think that the best way to improve the league position is to be financially secure first. Clearly we don't want to be relegated to achieve this but this is a massive balancing act. Imagine if we kept John or Rasiak, stayed up by 6 points and then were relegated because we went into Administration??? Personally I think RL can steady the ship. I don't think Cowen can (he turned down the role on the grounds of experience) and I think that switching to Leon without a takeover will leave us with the same problems, if not worse (because Leon is a fan first, a business man second - RL is, in my opinion, the otherway round).

None taken, but I would like to know what the truth is. My problem with anti-Lowe bluster is it just that. All anger, no (affordable) solutions. If someone had a plan that got Lowe out, didn't put us into admin and kept us in the CCC, then I'd support them absolutely. To date, all I've seen is some grumpy old men complaining about photos in the boardroom.

Not Mr Angry and I don't know who Perry is (other than the SISA bloke but I'm not him)? I'm just a fan, like you, just with different opinions. If you think that anyone who disagrees with you must be on the inside / a PR plant or whatever, then it says more about you than me. I know what I've heard - that John was on £17K per week and Rasiak not far behind him. The rest is speculation on my part. What I know for certain (because I can read the published accounts) is that we have a problem. We have wages too high and income too low. The only way, the ONLY way to solve that is to increase income (takeover, attendance, exceptionals like Man Utd, player sales) or reduce costs (Wages (biggest %), staff, closing corners, free buses). I don't know any other way of doing it and therefore I can't slate Lowe for the inevitable.

"Rudi, thanks for coming" "Není problém Rupert" "Rudi we have problem, we can't afford your wages and we'd like you to look for another club. If you don't we won't be able to play you because of the win/goal/appearance bonus in your contract. This is is not a reflection your ability, you know we think you're a top player, it's just that we in financial difficulties. Anyway Ipswich want to speak to you, it's only £6K per week, half of what you are on now, but please speak to them" "Polib si Rupert, chci všechny vaše peníze vám kachna myslivost kurevníku" "Hmmm, well it looks like we have a problem then......." Anyone speak Czech?

Pray tell, what's it like ****ing Debbie McGee? If you can only pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Unless you've got a magic idea how we can magic money from somewhere I don't see we have much alternative. You might be able to shuffle the pack a bit, or get a couple of players in on sub-£3Kpw, but that's it. I hear that the club is still losing £10K per week. That's 60% of a John, or Rudi plus a Schiederlin. ps. add Holmes to the list, I forgot him. One more to hit the eight mentioned, who am I missing.

We are. That's why Rudi has played 17 games this season. When we realised we could sell him / loan him we played him. We have a number of 'high' earners, all of which when it comes to the books would be sold/loaned to get their weekly wage off the books. Saints wanted to sell Rudi to Ipswich but they couldn't meet his wage demands. What does that tell you about his wages???? No surprise that Lowe used the "we're not going to play you line". Most professionals care about playing as much as they do about the money but there is probably a point though when the cut in money to play just ain't worth it (again what does that tell you about Rudi's wages?) Not begrudging him it. He negotiated the contract and we need to honour it. It doesn't make the club evil for trying to get that contract off our backs though.

Yes, it must be a right ****er being on £15K a week. The poor little things. Just as a question. How much do you think we are paying the following players per week: Schiederlin Smith Pulis Gasmi Wotton Molyneaux Help me out, who are the other two? Given age and experience personally I doubt they are being paid more than £2-3K per week each. Wotton perhaps the exception (but he's out on loan). Given that Saga is seen as too expensive on £7K per week then it gives you a clue how little (and I use the word advisedly) some of players are on.

Because if he's on less than £32K a week (John and Rasiak's combined wage) then we'll be better off....

Disagree. Plan A still works against opposition that come and attack (Reading / Birmingham etc). Plan A doesn't work against teams that put 10 men behind the ball and lump it up to a big man. Problem is there are more of these teams in the Championship than not. This explains why our away form is much better than our home form - because teams have to attack us. Personally, I don't think we have the personnel for Plan B.

Oh... it's a joke - he's likening Poortvliet to Portvale, just like you can liken the posters name to Verbal.... well you get the idea. It shows what a difficult job Jan has at Saints. On one hand you say James is poor at RB (I agree), but in the same breath you say play experience as playing Kane Mclaggon instead of Smith (who you lambast as poor but who incidentally was responsible for the one solid chance we had). What more cover can you have for James? Surely 4-5-1 (packing the midfield) provides more cover than 4-4-2. I fail to see what switching to 4-4-2 (sorry 4-4-1) would have done to stem the tide. People seem to forget we played one of the strongest teams in the UK (World) and did so for 2/3rds of the match with 10 men. I am not trying to pretend we were great, clearly we were poor, but hindsight is a wonderful thing and it is easy to be an armchair manager.

would be good for us. Solid for us in his previous stint. I seem to remember 'Jack Cork style hysteria' when we failed to renew his loan.

You're weird!

doubt he will - he's keeping a (relatively) low profile this time around.

Firstly it was p**s off, not f*** off. A small but semantic difference. Secondly it was prefixed by "in the nicest possible way, please". Thirdly it was suffixed by a smiley. Forthly it wasn't intended to cause offence (sorry to Mr X if it did). To be honest I can't be arsed to accept your challenge. I've no doubt that your posts are impeccably polite, tolerant of others, always on topic and never intend to cause offence.... You've kind of proved my point about this forum though, 30+ responses and very few related to the question posed. Until we stop arguing about the problem and start looking for a solution, this club will carry on destroying itself - in the boardroom and in the fan base. To be honest the only place people are trying to fix the club is on the pitch, with meagre resources but (usually) lots of effort. It's not working, but at least they're not sitting on their arses being pedantic arguing about "what's the point in playing if we've loaned out player X" or "how dare RL come and talk to Jan on the pitch before the game etc." I'm still waiting for a constructive response to my original post. In the spirit of New Year and all that, why not try and answer it as the question intended?

Oh I can handle alternative opinions Alpine, otherwise I wouldn't post on here (BTW, the irony from someone whose ilk jump on any alternative opinion by accusing them of being a PR Plant is so thick I'm choking) . What I can't handle is the inability to answer a simple question and instead respond with some Lowe out guff. I'll precis, but the question was - "who in the Man Utd reserves team could we loan / would they loan us?" Acceptable answers would be: 1) A name (Jonny Evans for example, then ensuing debate as to various allegations etc.). 2) A comment that Man Utd won't be loaning out anyone else (then ensuing debate as to players they have / haven't loaned). 3) A comment that they won't loan to us for various reasons (because we're on a losing streak, formation etc.). Unacceptable answers are: 1) Errmm, see your posts. This forum is in danger of disappearing up its own Lowe obsessed arse. I'm not asking for us not to talk about Lowe, but fail to see why every thread should be about him.

Jack Cork's girlfriend lives in Watford.

In the nicest possible way, please **** off to one of the other threads with anti-lowe / pro-lowe or can't be arsed-Lowe sentiment. This was a genuine attempt to talk about..... football. Revolutionary concept I know, but let's see if we can make it work

To show Sir Alex that we'd be an ideal home for some of their youth/reserve players. Not sure who they've got available but we obviously need a CB and a Striker.... Anyone know of the options?

Alpine_Saint stops posting

Like the flood of fans that came rushing back last time he was ousted. I remember it well......

To be honest Dyer isn't going to say anything different and I wouldn't expect the club to either. You don't sign a new contract and say "I'm just doing this to get my next move / I've no better options", just as an employer wouldn't say "I'm just employing you so that I can sell you on for more money".

Sorry to bring a bit of logic to you muppets but it is obvious why we gave him a contract. Rupert quite clearly wanted to stop the "Why did we let Dyer go for free" threads that would have been posted by the same morons that see everything as a chance to knock the club. If you can't see that signing Dyer up to retain him as an asset, getting other clubs to pay those wages, possibly getting loan fees AND the chance to sell him at the end of it is good business, then you are naive. Personally I don't think he's good enough for Saints, but if we can get something for him rather than nothing then that has to be a good thing. ... But don't let that stop you exercising your Lowe Obsessed Hate-in.

I have little doubt that with NP at the helm we'd have been top two.

Yep. Rasiak, John, Schiederlin, Holmes, Delap, Higgy, K Jones, Niemi, Svensson Beattie Crouch All League 1 (or Championship standard for those signed when in the Premiership)..... not For every duffer there's a diamond. I don't see Saints as being any better or worse than any other club (I bet Everton really rate Beattie's purchase)

I think the OS are completely in the clear here. All it was doing was reporting the facts as it knew them (on a day when most probably not working). I don't know what happened but I guess the call went something like this: [Ring Ring] "Hello Jordan here, I won't be able to come to the game as I've had a car accident" "Are you okay?" "Yes, just cuts and bruises, the other guy is in hospital though" "Ok, see you" [sound of a phone being put down] "Oi John, mark Jordan down as not being able to play, he's bruised after a car accident" "No problem Steve, should I ring the hospitals/police in the area to find out more?" "Don't bother John, that would be a waste of time after all we are a football website. I'm sure the cyberwarriors won't spend time worrying about that....." ... not forgetting that someone lost their life and that makes every argument on here petty in comparison.