dubai_phil

Morale is an elusive beast. It can take time to build it up and only seconds to destroy it in any form of organisation. From the moment of the warning from the Ex Execs the day before the Charlton CCC game, our fans and players have seen their morale levels in free fall. The new players coming in will have been a major step to stopping that decline and starting the upward path, however, one stupid mistake, one bad tackle or a bad refereeing decision could change all of that. The season started 7 games ago, what is crucial is to understand that Yeovil will NOT be a walk-over, it is as likely to be another banana-skin as it is a stepping stone. One moment of madness against a team that will be playing tight and limited football could damage the morale of the fans very quickly. Saturday's game is crucial, it is also far more dangerous than we are making out. It needs 110% effort from the players and fans alike. With total commitment we should mark our first win and start the ball rolling. With complacency and expectations of 6-0 wins all that will happen is worry in the stands will eat away at the morale and confidence of the players. A messy scrappy 1-0 win with a ludicrous own-goal after a deflection off the referee's backside could be far more important in the long term

I still find all this as funny as feck. Sultan Bin Trump made Whacko look like a professional PR expert from day one in his time at Hydra. What just amazes me is how nobody at the Skates seemed to even tried and do some very basic digging. I cannot believe that they have nobody who could have interpreted the "cultural signals" that his track record showed. (More on that on the main forum later) He was a part of a "fixer" operation but took the claim for the work done by Amanda Stavely and her "contact book" at Man City. He was kicked out from the Man City deal faster than Whacko gave interviews. His Hydra Executive TV show (as posted on here) should have given notice of what Storrie was getting into. And where was his money coming from when he started? None other than Taksin. Now forget all about that being rumbled, didn't anyone doubt his business ethics in his choice of partner? He blew his world apart when he opened his mouth with the whole Man City deal. That caused him to lose his friends and contacts, what happened to his "employment" position after that?? And he expects to earn his 100 mil from property deals in the UAE? Duh, and they believed him? Doesn't ANYONE in the UK read the papers? Haven't they seen the links I posted about Hydra customers forming class action groups or even the somewhat gentle cooling of the market here? He may well find a fool to part from his money in the US, but so far the whole thing is making Jacko and Bournemouth seem like one of the most professional deals of all time. I have nothing against him personally, he is actually not a bad chap by all accounts, but the point is that local businessmen have particular ways of doing business, it is alien to Europeans, but it is very professional and once you understand it, very simple. However this guys' somewhat arrogant and self-publicising approach are bringing this region into disrepute. We don't like it and I expect more and more of his friends and contacts are "tied up in meetings" at the moment

Great guy, he was a high quality Endurance Rider, taking part in the slightly obscure sport of very long distance horse racing. I did a business trip into Qatar back around 94 or 95, was sitting at the airport gate for about an hour waiting to fly back to Dubai and this yank started chatting, asking what it was like living here. He explained he'd been taking part in some big race and had flown all the way from the States for it, he said it was more important to him than his work as it allowed him to test himself and forget all about the stress and strain of his work. I of course then did the dumb feck bit by asking what he did.. And of course being so out of context I still didn't realise who he was until he laughed and told me his name. I mentioned one of the girls at work had a crush on him so not only did he write her a nice note and autograph he actually phoned her the next day at work and thanked her for being a fan and apologising for not having the time to stop by. Absoluetly no need to have bothered but at that time he was just a guy having a great vacation doing something he loved. RIP

lol, think somebody at the Telegraph must read this forum..... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/6183937/Lehman-collapse-Dubai-and-Gulf-give-a-glimpse-of-a-new-world-order.html Oh & that fans forum stuff does make the initial glee that some of our friends posted with when "an Arab was entertained at one of their games last season" look incredibly amusing

The "Middle Eastern buyout" is not that feasible at the moment, but also be careful as to what they are defining as "Middle East'. The Gulf States (Main Oil producers) have their own issues at the moment. In the current political climate down here spending huge sums on playthings has dropped off the radar somewhat. But that doesn't mean that North Africa, or Eastern Med don't get lumped into the same bracket - hell it's an easy mistake for a Brit journo or a Yank to make (as in Wow - you're based in DooBuy, hell you must be nervous being so close to Libeeyer).... Dubai has a National Debt close to that of France, Abu Dhabi is spending on long term infrastructure and have Man City thank you very much. Bahrain have quietly dipped their toes into the water but stepped quietly back (where did NC used to work). Saudi has big problems linked to the "probable" massive Saad fraud. Qatar are in all probability the players behind the Notts County deal. Waleed Bin Talal in Saudi was the dream owner, he looked at a number of CCC teams last season and chose one which seems to have now gone very quiet since about February time. That then leaves individual investors. There are two problems the first being that Abu Dhabi zillionaires would be taking on "The Boss" bad move politically then the second problem there is that so many of them everywhere jumped into the property boom, where they could make 100% in 6 months on flipping property deals. Now that market has log jammed starting from Dubai, they still have wealth but a lot of it is tied up in frozen projects that won't really move for 2 or 3 years. There is industrialist money still around in Israel and Turkey and there are a few wiser heads about who could be interested. ps still waiting for the darned confirmation btw!

Lol drop them a line and ask them to PM me. Don't need to be a rocket scientist or even an ITK'er to work them out, most are mentioned pretty often in the press! Start with Newcastle and work up the league!

Bless.... Think I may have given warning about these personality traits for our fishy friends elsewhere in this thread but hey ho, nobody ever listens.... Hopefully my final clarification will come in while I hack round the Creek course this afternoon and we can have a larf tomorrow

I'm not so sure about that first bit... He may be off the hook legally and with the FA as it is now said that the game wasn't covered/available for such actions..... But if it could not have happened, then why oh why did he put it into the book? That may have far more ramifications for him in the future than the fact he may have bent a football rule, instead of making a few extra quid (who if they could wouldn't try and beat a system?) suddenly he needs to explain a "tall tale". Personally I don't give a damn about it, and it doesn't affect his standing as a legend for us in any way, but in oh so PC Corporate Britain these days, he may well have dealt himself a bad long term blow to his wallet in terms of future employment/income opportunities which IS stupid. Like I said before - Matt you TWERP

An ISP checking posts made in country? A residency visa renewal? Or an upcoming meeting to confirm one last snippet? pick one to fit But soon

Many of us can look back at last season at our opinions and be less than pleased, in fact probably embarrassed by what we said. Some of us are prepared to admit that, some aren't. I actually felt that the concept of being different or creative could just work, in the same way I felt SCW in his original role as outlined when he was appointed in developing the kids after 18 but before the first team was a good move. I was wrong about the "Dutch experiment" as I think it was probably one risk too many but still think the SCW issue could have worked with better handling (as does Glenn Hoddle with his academy), and would debate in the pub but not on here whether it could have stood a chance if other circumstances or decisions had been made. What is important though is to look back on what happened last year and learn, whether it is those who were at the club or us fans. Just be careful not to become another 19C/UP battle though. FWIW I think many at the club did learn and "some" of course never would or more likely could be able to learn.

Lol those Nasty Nasty people. What type of parasite pushes into a queue for a coffee at half time. Is nothing sacred in blighty any longer? The FA MUST act NOW before this gets out of hand, whatever next, pushing in at the Post Office or even worse Primark? Disgraceful behaviour (I would have commented earlier but was in discussions with the local authorities over an alleged air-rage incident where a passenger had complained that I refused to put my seat back upright for him to eat his stale sandwich at 4am, apparently the response you know where you can stick that sandwich is surprisingly not very PC during ramadan. ho hum haven't felt like that since me mum found my fake Doc Martin's over 35 years ago....

I actually think that you are right in your basic point. Comparing the positions we were doing better last season. The fundamental worry that we as fans held last year was whether the youngsters could keep it going. In the end, a succession of naive early goals in games and in all likelihood the injury to Holmes at QPR dented the already thin playing resources and confidence slipped away pretty quickly. We had hopes that the "experiment" would work, while also feeling deep down that it was probably one step too many. Those hopes disappeared much quicker last year than this so perhaps the external factors also helped weigh against the experiment But the one real issue as I see it that marks the difference between the two situations is that this year we have seen a great disruption to the playing staff, (hopefully for the better) and that is probably why we feel that progress is being made. Players with experience at this level have joined us rather than players with "potential" Without opening the old debate, the feeling at the moment is that there is improvement so panic is not yet spreading. How many more weeks that will last is of course open to judgement, not beating Yeovil will be a blow to the general attending fans confidence, but it is probably a few weeks yet before anyone will join in the valid argument on your side. Early adopter of a reasoned argument for being worried though, fair post

OI who stole my nickname for him! my Sultan Bin Trump seems to have caught on! Should have registered it lol

Tee hee, oh how I dearly want to tell a wonderful fairy tale. Just another few days before I can and then you'll be able to lol as well, in fact, seems you already know most of it!

Oh no we didn't.... You forget the alleged conspiracy theory We got out of admin so as far as "the powers that be" are concerned, they think we "cheated a bit". As such the theory would say that refs have been suggested that all teams MUST be given a penalty when playing against us, but that we must never EVER be given any penalties ourselves... (Although the lino seems to have forgotten the rule yesterday with the offside only just "goals")

Nope, only what I read at the time of the takeover and subsequently. I'm not one to spend hours criticising players or managers about performances I haven't seen, I just listen, watch, read and analyse. Personal experience tells me that ML & NC coming from successful business backgrounds would infer that they have a business plan. Bringing back Oldknow showed they felt the need for people around them who had some inkling of how things work While they have access to far better funding to facilitate a quicker improvement at the club than say Whacko or the previous regimes, I don't honestly believe it to be rocket science to conclude that the club was in a mess and needed a plan to get out of it. Of course, as you mention, for ALL we know, their plan may be to keep us in the dark during the recession while their evil world domination plan is built to allow them to create a massive industrial free trade zone on Jackson's Farm, expand Eastleigh to take 1,000 flights a day and demolish SMS to build a new deep water terminal to take on industrial toxic waste to dump in the New Forest... But in honesty, my guess is that a successful businessman as opposed to an Oligarch or an egotict probably has a sensible sustainable and eventually successful plan in mind. (Unlike our friends down the road)

Totally agree we have to start winning games and damned quickly! (History tends to show we never win until I get back for my first game though!) The bright side is that we are (at present) improving every game, and have players who when fully fit will also come in and help strengthen the team. It has been a long time since that actually happened and a lot of our expectation and aspirations are set up to be expecting disaster, rather than seeing that things really might be different now. I think our collective mindset for too many years has been about hoping for improvement while deep down knowing we had real weaknesses in the squad (losing Killer and never replacing him is the best example). The real TEST will come when we actually reach our level and stop getting better each game, I think we are a way away from that yet, but like all the fans I still worry that we reach a plateau of performance that could be lower than we need it to be to even stay up. But personally I think we may actually be slowly moving onwards and upwards (who the heck came up with that awful line!)

Obviously AP's role is critical, again, each week, do we see some improvement, so far I think we do, especially as others say when compared to Swindon or Huddersfield. I actually hold to one really important concept about team building. "You MUST build a team for the League that you are in". Look back at the Burley era and all the spin from the OS et al about "signing players with PL quality". Well, the fact was that they were not able to perform in the CCC. Our kids were coached for 10 years or so in how to be PL level players and then thrown into the CCC and weren't up to it. And BOY how they weren't up for L1 either! Build the best possible team you can for the league you are in, compete and get the hell out of it. As fans, we shouldn't actually be depressed, after all we simpy have to go back and simply read what was said and let logic take over from the heart, why else have a 5 year plan? The reality is that we really didn't have enough of a team or a club to get out of L1 this year. That isn't a lack of ambition it is a realism which we have not had for many years. You build your foundation on realism and then strive to exceed (ie you "aim" for a play-off place). It was always unlikley, it is now more unlikely but it COULD still happen. If it happens this season then we now have a backbone of players for the CCC but if we DID gain promotion then many or our side CDAJF aspiring L1 clubs next year and so we would be in a proper buy/sell to improve world

It's far to early yet for me to say "Told You So".... In one or more of the many "Welcome ML" threads I pointed out the Swiss business methodology. It is about efficiency, it is about measuring performance and reviewing it in depth and then making minor adjustments so that it keeps improving. There is a lack of creativity in general, but that is compensated for by an ever increasing reliability. Now, considering that our club looked like an old Casio watch that had been hit by a hammer at the start of the season, I'm actually SURPRISED at how quickly each weakness in the playing squad has been identified from performances and action taken to rectify it. We're building a genuine Tag Heuer here, not another cheap fake Rolex, the signs ARE there for anyone to see who had worked closely with major Swiss corporations, but certainly it's happening quickly. Of course the downside is that as fans we have never really had this vision of slow and gentle improvement. It may have existed for a time with Hoddle & Jones, but even then we always felt uneasy, right now we simply aren't mentally ready to TRUST the leadership of our club to do the right thing. The facts are there, we as fans have criticised aspects, the club have not only noted it, but they have said they have noted it and they have taken action, perform, review, feedback, improve. Last season, for WHATEVER reasons, the management tried to keep putting the pieces of the Casio back together with sticky tape, brown paper and loo roll middles. This season, for us as fans, things aren't happening fast enough, but it is really clear that even for the Swiss, they are reacting quickly. The moment I think I see signs that this is not happening, then I will join the chorus of worriers. Right now, I'm happily impressed with what is happening at the club, but darned frustrated (as a fan) that we haven't got a 100% winning record. I still think we have the makings of a damned fine watch in more ways than one this season, and we can all look down the road and see what happens when you try and sheikh a fake Rolex to get it to work......

At the end of the day, a good result, but we are probably frustrated as it seemed we could have done more without the "oh we scored a goal now what" moment during the early second half. I take so big positives though 1) We set up to start the game playing a different formation from what we ususally play. It has been a long time since a manager did that in a one off game, so credit to AP, but also credit to the players who in all honesty haven't shown the best of brains at coping with any form of tactics for a year or so. 2) We actually FINISHED a game strongly, for the last few minutes it sounded like we were the team likely to nick a goal at the death. It has been a VERY long time since that happened, so maybe the fitness issue is being resolved 3) Having read AP's interview, understand why he didn't give Jaidi & Waigo longer. On the down-side, I do wonder whether not making a tactical or player change earlier in the second half when we were being over-run in midfield was a mistake. In the end, we got a point at the leaders, which I would have taken before the game, and so it can be argued that not making the change was the correct decision. I think if we had won a few and had some points in the bag then maybe the gamble would have been made. Will reserve judgement on that, Mellis did seem to help tighten things up when he came on. So overall good performance, sounded like we were listening to a football team playing a football match for a change.

5 consecutive defeats for Sk*tes only team in the country without a point Thomas crocked

We are ALL over them now. Sounds great again

lol that was almost funny! How goes?

Waigo

In my home office upstairs on an Acer Laptop HTH