Whitey Grandad

I know how you feel. I shall be there Wednesday, of course, but it's like being at the bedside of a loved one who is seriously ill.

Precisely. I think that JVP was the wrong appointment but to dump him now would be foolish and premature. Besides, he is only implementing the will of the Lowe.

I wouldn't disagree that he could potentially do a job for us in such a situation. Where I do take issue with you is that he, and only he, could have saved us from relegation.

There are several world class tossers out there. He was certainly a 'world class' player, but as a manager he was nothing special.

Can he play centre half?

You will find it difficult to find any players that liked or respected Hoddle when they played under him. One quote was 'if he were made of chocolate he would eat himself'.

Pathetic! You constantly state that we would not have been relegated with Hoddle in charge - although you can't prove it and nobody can ever disprove it - and then go on from that to infer that nobody else could have saved us from relegation. By that argument every club that did not appoint Hoddle would have been relegated.

As a defensive system, it's not working very well, is it?

Quite right - that's the fullback's job.

I will always defend a fellow official but that decision was very poor. We're not talking about a fast-moving situation with players moving in all sorts of directions. This was a free-kick FFS.

Both feet were off the ground. He was completely out of control.

Straight red, no problem 'Reckless with excessive force'.

I think you'll find that it was.

To whom?

Let's see how big the crowd is next week before we make comments like that. This club is now financed almost entirely through gate receipts and if we carry on with the 'cheap' option we shall end up with the cheap result.

You took the words right out of my mouth. (well, keyboard actually)

You can't have an inexperienced manager as well as an inexperienced team.

Please sir, can we have a defence?

That's all right then.

I thought last season's team won? 3-0 wasn't it?

You'll feel so much better when you give up all hope.

Yep. Some people were saying that the squad looked a bit thin.

Do they teach that at the academy?

But all the regimes have overspent on areas unrelated to the first-team playing staff.

In this case I don't think we had much choice. He could have left for almost nothing. If you must blame anybody, blame those who put him in the spotlight by playing him before he could be tied to a professional contract.