Whitey Grandad

I did not read that as referring to the Rovers result, rather the fact that we have lost all pre-season and probably any prospect of new transfers. Additionally, we have brought in players over the closed season that any new manager might not rate. If this was the correct decision then the end of last season was the correct time to take it.

This effect is normally short-lived, typically one game, although to be honest I can't remember this effect ever working with Saints when we had a new manager, and we've had a lot of them.

As Daren W has said, it's the timing of the decision that I cannot understand. If Cortese and Pardew couldn't work together then the end of last season was the correct time to do it. Doing it now, at the end of the transfer window and after a reasonable start invites the obvious conclusion that the sad death of Markus has enabled Cortese to get his way.

I think that's stretching things a bit too far.

Then why choose him to start with? If Cortese thinks that Pardew is the wrong man after less than one season, then how can anybody have confidence in his next choice?

Because he can. It's a difficult job with very few priveleges apart from this one.

Well it made me smile. Sometimes you just have to take things in the spirit that was intended.

It's like changing your tyres after 1 lap of a Formula One race because you don't like the way the car is handling.

Am I correct in assuming that Cortese chose Pardew in the first place?

This is all so depressing. Anyone who expects a new manager to have instant results is very likely to be disappointed. I agree with Weston that we shall need a different manager to get us out if this league than the one who takes us to the Premiership. The only name that I have read that I think might fit that bill is Poyet. I started this season full of optimism but at the moment I have a nasty sinking feeling.

I've just found out. Oh FFS here we go again, have we learnt nothing from the past? Another two seasons lost whilst the new manager gets in his own men and the players he doesn't rate languish in the reserves. There's only three days left of the transfer window so we shall be stuck with a bunch of disillusioned players who can only see promises that will be broken. This new manager had better be something special. I assume that somebody must be lined up. If not, then this proves my concerns that Cortese knows precious little about football in the lower divisions. Who chose Pardew in the first place?

We do seem to suffer a lot with injuries, and have done for as long as I can remember. How do we compare with otther clubs? Maybe we just buy a load of old crocks.

I've just looked at it again and he's comfortably onside. Yet another good decision from a lino.

Not necessarily: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100302070156AAvAx2u

As I was driving along Stoneham Lane this morning I saw a white minibus with 'Portsmouth Academy' on the side. It was empty. Who are they trying to fool?

Cats are wildlife killers. The fewer the better, especially in my garden where I am considering installing a water cannon. The more important point is, seh was filmed on a hidden CCTV camera which infringed her human rights. I hope for the owner's sake that he had a notice stating that video recordings would be made, the purpose for them and a contact telephone number or he may be in serious trouble with the law!

My concerns about Davis's distribution is not so much that he hoofs it upfield as the fact that he usually overhits it or sends it into 'touch'.

In 'The Longest Day' Port en Bessin was used as the setting for Lieutenant Kieffer's attack on Ouistreham. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Kieffer

Are you judging by results or by performances?

There's a bit of everything in there. A lot came from southern Essex and some from the West Country.

So I suppose that makes the immigrants the exogenous ergophilic?

I'll take that as a compliment. I built a crystal set when I was about fourteen (using a germanium diode 'cause crystals were, like, soooo uncool) and when I put the headphones on I got Radio Caroline! I was really thrilled, but then I found out that I could get Radio Caroline and nothing else. I stripped it down to just headphones and a diode and I could still get Radio Caroline. Not surprising really, we lived 100 yards from the sea and the ship was only 4 miles away. We used to see all the DJs hanging around in Harwich waiting for the service boat.

It changes depending on whom I am addressing. I was born in North London, spent my childhood with a broad East Anglian accent and I've been around a bit since then.

The Queen copies my accent, don't ya know.

I used to have a box of valves in my attic from my younger days. I threw them all away a couple of years ago. Probably a foolish thing to do. They weren't particularly historic, mainly ECC83s and that sort of thing. The letters all had a meaning, E was 6.3V heaters, C was amplifying triode and so on. The first transistors followed the same system so an OC71 was an amplifying triode with zero heater volts!