The Kraken

So true; the comparisons with last season are just incredible. A poor pre-season, lack of fitness amongst the players, a poor start to the seasson, being massively off the pace by the end of August. I only hope Adkins is able to turn this around, and quickly. We haven't got the kindest set of fixtures coming up (not that that should worry us normally), but at the moment I can't even see us winning 1 game in a row, let alone the 9 you suggest we need.

What have Semi and James got to do with not replacing Waigo and Antonio? Pardew clearly identified Antonio as one to bring back; clearly that didn't happen. You have absolutely no idea whether Pardew was blocked from bringing in players or not, so stating is as fact is clearly disingenuous on your behalf. Wilkins has even said that they tried to bring in players but "it didn't happen". But you carry on ignoring that to make your petty your argument if you like.

Where will promotion from the Premier League in 2014 take us to then?

Phil; the sad thing is I didn't even mean to post that here, it was supposed to go in the match thread when we went 1 down! I was too p1ssed off to realise I was typing in the wrong thread, and too p1ssed off to edit it.

All very true, but only gives half the story. This group of players should still be capable of putting a set of results together; they proved last year they're good enough and are (still) massively underperforming. They are shirking responsibility; too many excuses, too much talking themselves up on the OS and not delivering on the pitch. Adkins needs to bring in the 3 players we're still short of (CM, RM, CF) and give the rest of them a bloody good kick up the arse; it's shape up or ship out, no time for passengers.

Not this again delldays. Does it need pointing out to you every time that almost everyone agreed in the summer that we were short of 3 players? Blaming Pardew is far too easy; it's perfectly feasible (as has been posted by others) that he identified the players he wanted and was denied them.

Pardew makes a convenient scapegoat I guess. I think our current malaise is the fault of everyone at the club. Pardew for overseeing a very sub-standard pre-season and early season. Questions asked about Cortese not allowing the manager to bring in players he identified. Fitness/Sports Science staff not doing their job and leaving us with a clearly unfit squad. Players shirking responsibility and not stepping up to the plate as favourites. If Adkins didn't know what a tough task he has, he does now. Major surgery required; we're not scoring any more and are leaking goals at the other end.

Absolute ****ing garbage.

Here we go again....

With no forwards on the bench and Lallana crocked; we really have no options to change things around up front, do we?

And another free header from a set piece.

We sound so vulnerable from crosses into the box.

Punch on the left then. Good.

"Let's just hope the new man gets off to a good start. That's what we want" Cheers for pointing that out Dave!

Possibly because it's a forum for them to speak to fans and honestly answer any and all questions that are posed to them. I'm pretty sure it's not a pre-requisite of hosting such an event that they should have declined to answer any controversial questions lest they upset your clearly over-sensitive nature.

Seaborne has hardly featured so maybe him too. Lee Holmes is always unfit so throw him in. Wouldn't be surprised if Connolly is being nursed with minimal training so maybe off the pace. It's too long a list at 5, to be fair.

And I think that's where we completely agree. I found the whole Sun "Clotese" thing pretty funny; as club decisions go it was a fairly trivial one, but utterly stupid on his behalf, and he rightly received criticism for it. The removal of the ST payment plan and half season tickets was pretty shameful IMO, but much more for the fact of the way it was done rather than the decision itself. And again, it was for this that he was rightly criticised for. But some of the over the top comments I've read on here over the last 2 to 3 weeks, without being in posession of the full facts, have been quite distateful. I'll readily criticise Cortese when its justified, but he's been crucified on here only for some to completely retract their accusations later, which is just plain daft.

Actually, on this one I will disagree with you. True, Ryanair are complete shysters in extracting every last penny from the customer, but I'm not sure if the analogy is fair in this case. If the club were trying to keep ticket prices down, but simply trying to cover costs for online and telephone ordering, then charging a booking fee is actually a fair way to do it, in principle. But not at £3 per transaction, that's obviously too high. A reasonable fee, say £1 to cover the cost of postage and envelope would be a fair way to cover the actual extra costs involved in relation to over the counter sales. If you turned up at the ticket office in advance of the game then you shouldn't be liable to pay those extra costs. The £2 extra on the day is a decent way to try and get people to pay beforehand, but only if the booking fee is less than that. At a £3 booking fee it distorts the whole thing and makes the rationale for a single person buying over the phone in advance a completely pointless excercise. I think this was poorly thought through.

I guess there just seems to be such a demarcation between "pro" and "anti"; it's probably the fault of this site, I see the lables thrown around so often that it's used as a divisive accusation. A bit like "Lowe luvvies", where you couldn't avoid being associated with this moniker if you even dared to agree with just one of Lowe's better decisions. i just think its too easy for some to use the lables in order to try and "win" a petty internet argument than it is to actually debate the real issues. Your stance on Cortese is actually probably consistent with the majority of people who can see the situation rationally; I just find it needless to separate fans into pro and anti factions.

Joensuu; simple question for you. Why do you categorise fans as either "pro-Cortese" or "anti-Cortese"? Your last paragraph makes reference to it, but I think it needs pointing out again that many of us are completely neutral to him as an individual and are more than capable of judging each of his decisions on an individual basis. At the moment I, like many people, think he has presided over a number of good decisions (Pardew and coaching staff in at that time, Adkins now, Lou Reed and the development centre etc), and also over a number of poor decisions (lack of communication over ST renewals, payment plan, half-season tickets). I wouldn't even be able to tell youy if I was pro or anti the man, I can only comment on the decisions he has made for the club.

Agree completely. I think a huge majority of the fan base would have accepted the many changes we have had at face value if the club had simply communicated them better, or not suddenly gone back on previous promises with no warning given. The removal of half season tickets and payment plans, while both coming completely out of the blue, also totally reversed the club's decisions in their own supporters' charter. If you're going to bring out such a document in the first place then you have a responsibility to either abide by the principles you've laid out, or provide sufficient communication that the policies are changing. The club did neither. Cortese has said he hates dealing with the press; that's fair eenough, and no-one can argue that in this country we've got amongst the worst press in the world. However, he simply has to learn that shutting everything out except his own internal Ofiicial Site will not do the club any favours in the long term. I hate to say it, but Redknapp is a complete master at manipulating the press to suit his own needs. Cortese is a very clever guy and can surely learn to do the same, albeit in a much more classy and understated way.

Drive him away? Cortese is very ruthless in business; he started this project with long term plans; he started this project with his long term close friend; his close friend has since passed away, leaving the legacy of SFC solely to Cortese. If you really think for for just a second that he is even slightly bothered by the rantings of a minority of disgruntled anonymous faces an an internet message board, I think you might seriously have misjudged his character. And as you say, constructive criticism is fine, and in my opinion to be encouraged. The majority of us are able to look at club decisions on an individual basis and judge them on their own merits.

The thing is, I find it a little difficult to believe its all down to AP. We have fitness coaches and a whole sports science department which have fallen down in this area. Add in the fact that Lambert praised AP and his staff for getting his diet and fitness levels up to their highest levels, and it doesn't quite all add up.

Pardew certainly should take the lions share of the blame. However, in this age of football it's typically no longer solely the job of the manager to devise the fitness routines. In fact, listed on the OS alone we have 11 members of staff in our Sports Medicine and Science department alone. There has obviously been a massive breakdown in how all of these departments work with the (ex) management team, leaving us once again playing catch up with fitness levels and transfers.

According to this report from 606, supposedly passed on from a first team player, the first thing he needs to sort out are the fitness levels which are supposedly nowhere near good enough. Which is utterly shameful. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A74207108