stevegrant

Bankers have never failed at anything financial

They should do, considering they invariably cost football clubs more per season than any transfer spending.

This isn't just about MLT's ticket gripe, which was clearly vindictive on the part of someone within the club (seems fairly obvious who that someone would be), as season tickets are regularly transferred for the odd game here or there when the owner can't make it and nobody bats an eyelid. I know people who, as adults, have gone to games using a friend's child's season ticket, and the stewards just stand idly by and let them walk on in, despite the turnstiles flashing up an extra light when a concession ticket is placed in the scanner. Also, you could easily make a case to state that he has no other option because let's face it, if Cortese can't be arsed to talk to him (which I would suggest is clearly the case), nobody's going to be kissing and making up any time soon, are they? The article says "At least one former employee who was sacked took legal action". There have been loads. I'm sure there are many users of this forum who know someone who has been through such a scenario, the club appears to have a vindictive policy when it comes to legal action, appearing to be willing to fight industrial tribunals all the way only to then offer a settlement the day before the hearing. As a result, the number of tribunal applications has probably been a lot lower than it could/should have been, simply because the stance taken has led the former employees to become so drained and depressed by the situation that they simply can't be bothered or can't face going through the whole process.

neither - the adult thing is to speak one-to one and sort it out, out side of the media spotlight - if nothing is resolved you move on and let it go, especially if you know taht speaking out in public could harm the very thing you love or divide those that also love it... Its not as if the spat was ever something major that would impact on the success of the club - it was a personal thing... immature behaviour to use media connections to try and get public/fan support for your argument over something like this... It must be a lovely view up in your ivory towers, Frank. If I worked for a very public company like a football club, I was sacked or forced to resign from a job I'd been competently doing for many years for no good reason, and those involved in doing so refused to engage in any sort of conversation, what other option am I left with? I sure as hell wouldn't be willing to just "let it go".

They should be in the top 2 with the squad they've got at their disposal and Howe's return and the subsequent upturn in performances and results only shows what an utterly appalling job Lee Bradbury and Paul Groves did last season and this.

Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day. Throwing this one out there: Guy Whittingham will do a better job at Pompey than Appleton did, and Blackpool won't finish in the top 6 this season.

I find it amusing that they invent a system that would have been genuinely useful over the last 2-3 years and then realise that the software they've paid a fortune for can't cope with it, but much like somewhere like North Korea, they can't admit they made a mistake because losing face would be their worst possible outcome, and so just carry on trying to push the relevance of the system anyway

Because the new ticketing system doesn't actually have the points system - as designed - built into it. When ST renewals were being processed, they had some sort of recognition of loyalty points on the home screen when you logged in, but that was solely on a "one point per pound spent" basis, which clearly isn't the basis they're using (and rightly so - the most expensive games are usually the ones everyone wants to go to). I genuinely believe that, now they know the ticket system won't count up the points assigned to each game for them, they're now just making it up as they go along and hoping they don't cause a massive ****storm by ballsing everything up for a big game. They've been relatively fortunate so far that, as far as I can see, the majority of tickets for away games have been sold to those a) who most deserve them, and b) who put the most effort into getting them. A mate of mine got an email before the Sheffield Wednesday game which told him that tickets for the Wednesday game would give fans priority for any game in the next round. They've decided not to bother giving anybody credit for trekking all the way up to Leeds for a reserve game as that game doesn't appear on the list, and there's no real sense in not including QPR in the process as most of the tickets for that game will have been sold by the time the Liverpool ones go on sale. Has anyone actually bothered to keep a tally of how many "points" they're supposed to have?

Even if it does sell out, it'll have reached general sale comfortably.

Noted and fixed. Will be doing a full software upgrade shortly.

£42

This seems to be a recurring problem for our defenders, Clyne's continually falling on his arse.

Which was particularly strange considering the number of free kicks the ref was giving them. It was as if we just had to breathe on them for Mason to blow his ****ing whistle

I thought that, for once, they were fairly reasonable. Both goals were preventable, so they should be analysed as such, and we put Spurs under a lot of pressure in the last half an hour or so, and they highlighted that as well.

I won £140 on that game, Rochdale were a frankly mental 7/1 to beat us

IMO, know-how is often as valuable (if not more so) than technical ability in defenders. If we had James Collins and, say, Abdoulaye Faye (not a great example as West Ham released him in the summer, but that sort of player) at the heart of our defence, I reckon we wouldn't have conceded half as many goals as we have. Of course it's all conjecture, but with more experienced defenders I don't think we'd have seen anywhere near as many naive errors at the back this season.

It's worth remembering that West Ham as a team MASSIVELY underperformed last season and should have won the Championship with a record points total (if only to shut those ****ing Reading ****s up ) with the squad they had at their disposal. It was already packed with Premier League and international experience, and they've since strengthened the spine of the team pretty well with Collins, Diame and Carroll. While we were better than them last season, that was, IMO, due to us playing a bit above our players' natural level and them playing a long way below theirs. We've had to start from a lower base this summer, and it will take another one or two transfer windows of clever investment and dealings to change that.

This. We (rightly) have a pop at the club when the impression is that it's all "take, take, take" from them, so credit where it's due for at least trying to give something back, even if there's obviously the ulterior motive of getting people to spend money in the ground rather than in the local pubs. It's clearly not going to be for everyone, but then most special offers are likely to cater for a relatively small section of the fanbase.

In which case, how would you know?

Spending a load of money to improve what was already a very strong squad is a rather different proposition to spending a load of money to improve a squad that was, in all reality, nowhere near the level required to survive at this level.

Christ, and I thought I had too much time on my hands

Yeah, definitely an insurmountable gap between us and those above the dotted line there