derry

You cannot blame the players. The problem is that under Pardew we basically played safe and underperformed. Now there is no manager but the caretaker is carrying on in the same way. It appeared to me that both Pardew and Wilkins suffer from the same problem, pick a system to play and shoehorn the players into it and if it means playing players that don't suit the preferred system do so. The best managers at any level devise a system that blends the strengths and weaknesses of their players. Those that manage teams that overperform understand the balances with the requirement to be compact in defence and stretch and overload defences in attack. The teams invariably play with dynamism and movement and always have players with pace. On the other hand we have glaring weaknesses. A goalkeeper that shotstops but little else, a decent back four then a bunch of problems brought on by a static central midfield, narrow left and right midfielders lacking real pace and the preference and ability to get to the byelines, an unfit and immobile Lambert and Connolly not able to compensate. Until we sort the goalkeeper and play from the back, speed up the central midfield, widen the attack and get Lambert fit we are going to be predictable, easy to handle and struggle to win games on anything like the regular basis needed for promotion. We need to bring in some pace and replace at least one of the central midfielders with De Prado. The most important thing is to urgently get in an overachieving manager that will automatically sort this out.

He still posts on here, has been on in the last few days.

Bill, I've lost count of the times I've been challenged to name who I would prefer when I've criticised Pardew. I've always named Nigel Adkins, he has been my preferred option for the last three years, followed by Sean O'Driscoll, joined in the last year by Lee Clark and Eddie Howe. I don't subscribe to the list of merry go round managers that pop up all the time. He is a proper footballing manager not a pragmatic, safety first type that wouldn't know how or have the balls to play proper football.

Hi Bert/Bill. There is another scenario that could yet take over. Adkins has called this a life changing opportunity. It's easy to demonstrate a principled position provided all parties are behaving in a reasonable manner. If the compensation asked is inflated it will very quickly change Adkins perception. I would expect him until 5pm tomorrow to be relaxed about it but then I can see the position changing. If the sum is reasonable it will be SFC he will probably ditch as not worth the bother , however if the figure is inflated I would expect him to issue his own ultimatum to his chairman along the lines of 'sort this out, it's not SFC, you are costing me this move and I'm not going to let that happen, so either agree a realistic figure or I'll resign and you can let the tribunal stipulate the compensation, either way I'm going to Southampton'

Because if you bought 5 tickets it would cost £15 extra not £3.

SSN saying we are near to agreeing compensation with Scun-thorpe

Eddie Howe was interviewed earlier in the week, this morning he was asked would he take the job. As the Nigel Adkins negotiations, leaks etc and statements were already in the public domain he would have known that he was second choice to Nigel Adkins who had been offered the job and agreed personal terms but had appeared to be staying at Scun thorpe. It is hardly surprising he decided to pass.

If you took the time to read some of the posts and the comments that are based on not knowing him, but not wanting him because of that, rather than finding out about him and holding fire until they had.

As far as getting rid of Pardew I was sorry he didn't get rid of him last season. As for the other stuff as far as I am concerned none of it affects me. I would have preferred him to do some of it differently but he runs the club and he has to take the flak that goes with it. But my comments relate to the present situation reference the manager selection negotiations and as far as I am concerned he has been impeccable in his behaviour.

Conjecture on BBC Humberside is that the requested compensation figure is fifty to sixty thousand pounds. I think that they are miles away from that figure otherwise we would have snatched their hands off.

Look at it this way Norm. Saints may be disappointed but Cortese would never go public and say it. He is intensely private which in my view is important. All the leaks are coming out of the other clubs because they have a culture of cosying up to the media.

My God what a genius. Get in Peter Storrie, now he is a real football man. Get real, we have a chairman acting in a private, professional manner not commenting on the speculation, spin, trouble making and wishful thinking of club's he is trying to negotiate with.

When Southampton are reported in the press it is best ignored because the one sure thing at the present time is that Saints aren't talking to anyone. Therefore from our end all negotiations are remaining private. If Southampton talked to Bournemouth about Howe the news came out of Bournemouth. What is surprising about Saints talking to other candidates it's what they said in their statement on the OS.

Also Bob Paisley.

God, doesn't time fly, I know it was at least three years ago with Burley, it must have been before he resigned and Pearson picked us up.

A lot of the posters that have been creating about Pardew being sacked are the same ones being critical of Adkins. Having read nearly all the posts on the subject it is obvious most of them don't have a clue who he is and how he has managed at S****horpe for the last three years. It is also obvious that the people who really know their football unanimously agree on his quality because he has been on their radar for years since they saw S****horpe give us a football lesson three years ago in our play off season.

In a way Ron/Bert I can understand S****horpe wanting a decent figure in compensation. Bearing in mind we paid £400k for Hammond this is small beer when talking about somebody as important as a manager especially one as good as this one. I think both Cortese and Adkins have behaved ok but the sieve that is the S****horpe chairman is the problem.

Covering all the bases like we are doing at the moment there is some real crap reporting. SSN is still headlining Adkins staying, SFC have withdrawn the offer but later denied this. Yet we know from newsnow/BBC Humberside that Adkins wants the job and the clubs are still talking.

He's waiting to be approved by the system. Ron is going to have a word with Steve Grant. It looks as though the stuff coming out of the S****horpe sieve is distorting the real position of both SFC and Adkins. Bill, he has been a standout manager for three years along with O'Driscoll then latterly Clarke and Howe. He was my choice when we for me disappointingly signed Pardew. I'm more hopeful that there is still talking going on and whilst Adkin is saying that it has to be settled fairly for S****horpe, the fact may be that after talking to Crosby at lunch time they have decided they want the job, that fact alone will concentrate the minds. S****horpe can't afford to scupper the move by silly demands as he knows what his contract is worth, meantime SFC have to show respect and pay a reasonable premium on the contract value to close the deal. Either way there is a point of no return for Adkins that must be imminent.

14 years, joined them in 1996.

He says that it was a wonderful offer, agonised for days, but he realised it was 12 hour days, away 5 nights a week to do the job properly and travelling all over Europe looking at players, just couldn't commit to it and it might ruin his family life, he just didn't want to do that.

His agent in the press, earlier in the week, after being quoted in the list of odds.

It'll look a whole lot better in a few hours. It looks like we didn't think he wanted to join us enough alternatively we didn't want him enough, otherwise when push came to shove he would have told S****horpe to shove it or agree a figure. It's obvious he was being emotionally pulled back so it might not have worked. You still have to respect an honourable position.

Shearer has already ruled himself out.

No they didn't, right at the end Roger Johnson said something like 'you know what, it wouldn't surprise me if it was Alan Shearer'. It was just a throwaway line from a tv reporter. He might have also used the word longshot but I can't remember precisely.