CanadaSaint

With pleasure! Traffic is moving well on the Humber Bridge.

I totally respect and admire an honourable position (I'd like to think that I would have done the same as Adkins) but it seems that this quality has become more of a liability in football. What really worries me is this. Our position is almost unique in English football - A) because of the structure within which the individual will have to function, and B) because the very presence of Cortese will make everything more challenging. Adkins, for me, ticked all of the key boxes. I don't know who else would do so to anything like that degree, and some of the people being suggested were laughably unsuited. We don't have a shortlist of 50 or so capable of fitting into this position and succeeding (the number who supposedly expressed interest) but a shortlist of two or three at best. And the danger is that this latest debacle will throw even more red flags up around our club and put their interest in question. I'm not sure where we go from here but I sure hope you're right that "it'll look a whole lot better in a few hours". BTW, where the hell is this legendary Happy Harry poster?

Jesus Murphy. I go to bed and everything's on track for what I think is a very good appointment - a guy who ticks most of my boxes even if he isn't (or possibly because he isn't) a "big name". I wake up and Cortese is engaged in yet another barney with yet another person over yet another issue, and the managerial appointment is spiralling down the sh*tter in a clockwise direction. So we're heading for a six-pointer of a league game with the less-than-convincing Dean Wilkins in charge. Again, the media's having a field day at our expense. And, if that's not enough, I notice that Tony Lynham, has suddenly reappeared and is circling like a shark who smells the blood of a club for sale. The thought process from there is too terrifying to contemplate. Sod it, I'm going back to bed.

You've carried that terrible burden for nigh-on thirty years, haven't you? Well, it could be worse - at least you weren't taken behind the altar for some 'communion'. Time to move on, Gemmel.

Dune, I was fairly sure you'd be in the "kicking and screaming" group.

Unless change is forced on English football by some kind of new financial reality, which is what really happened with the major sports over here. "Never say never", Dune - although I grant you that lots of people over there would have to be dragged kicking and screaming into that kind of era, if it ever happens.

I think SOG is referring to what Alps said he'd do to his wife if MON got the job. You must have missed the post, lucky boy!

No, a transfer committee is not a stupid idea at all. In fact, it's a far better idea than a one man decision-making process. At risk of inflaming the Guided Missiles of this world, I'll lean on what happens over here, specifically with regard to hockey. There are tons of meetings involving the scouts, the coaching staff and senior management before any significant decision is reached. In many cases the decision is a one-man, one vote decision. Some teams have even left big "Draft Day" decisions to the scouts alone.

Thinking on it a bit more, I can remember a rather sneering players' saying back in the days when I was playing - "Show us your medals". The intended implication was very clear - "If you haven't got any, STFU". Wise had medals, Reed has none. I just can't see KK succeeding within that kind of structure, much as I wish he could.

DP, I'm not so sure that KK "accepted the concept, just found that Wise had no idea what he was doing". That may have been an easy way to frame it after the event, but KK's a passionate guy and I can't see him reacting well to things like Reed's overall guiding hand, a transfer committee, and an interfering Cortese. I can foresee a deja vue all over again. Still, I do think he'd bring a lot and - of all the names touted - would probably galvanize the fan base most. The players I'm not so sure about, because most of them weren't even born when he was a superstar.

Apologies, Turkish. Then I'm aiming that same question at you, CB. BTW, Turkish, did you bold the quote after I replied or am I going nuts?

So, Turkish, do you retain that confidence with a Keegan functioning within the clear structure defined by Cortese and Reed?

Not sure whether the "like it or lump it" was aimed at me, Lard, but I'll have more respect for an opinion (whether I agree with it or not) if there's at least some kind of rationale to support it. "Appalling appointment if true,Shortsighted on the behalf of Cortese/Reed. He won't be here long." came up a bit short.

Do you have a rationale to go along with those views - other than the fact that he's not a "big name"?

The most important perspective, by far, is that our new manager sincerely embraces Cortese's philosophy - whether or not we personally agree with it. I'd suggest that the key components of that philosophy are A) a reporting structure which holds the player development/academy side in balance with - not subordinate to - first team affairs, B) a committee approach to first team squad development, C) financial sustainability based on the funding made available by Cortese and the Liebherrs, D) clear progress towards a return to the Premier League within five years, and E) attractive football - the "Southampton style". The sooner we all accept that these are the rules while Cortese is around, the better. Too many posters are screaming for someone who can't even tick the first box, and too many posters are dissing people who have a good chance of ticking all the boxes.

But I thought Holloway was very clear at the start of the season that he would toe the chairman's line at Blackpool - even if it presented him with serious challenges. I like the guy, and I think he'd do a hell of a lot better job at supporter and media relations than Cortese, not that this would be difficult! Whether he's the right guy for us is another question, but I wouldn't be ticked off it it turned out to be him.

Not wishing to stir up a hornets' nest but I think it might have been - but back in May or June. Cortese's plan might have been to fire Pardew and hire Coppell. The flaw in that theory is that Coppell would not have been willing to "tug the forelock to Les Reed", as you so aptly put it. But Cortese seemed to have a very high regard for Coppell that (I think) pre-dated Reed, and perhaps Reed was to be sacrificed as well. Just a thought.

What about him?

Yeah, I'd take him in a heartbeat and he's said he'd love to manage in England, but I don't think he'd even think about a third tier entry point when he could easily get big Prem bucks.

But he can't do that, though, can he Hypo? Because too many people "hate" too many candidates. And none of us knows who is the right guy until he gets here and starts doing (or not doing) the business. I would bet a grand right now on it being Brown, and regardless of what I think of him I'm going to be 100% behind him.

I wish people would stop citing "the ability to manage with very limited resources" as a valuable attribute. The whole point of the Liebherr/Cortese era and the Five-Year Plan was to leave those days behind. There are numerous important qualities but that's not one of them IMO. In fact, it could well be a liability rather than an attribute.

I was really impressed when he gestured to Fonte to pick up O'Grady as he cut in from wide, which Fonte ended up failing to do with the result that we went 1-0 down (assist to Kelvin, who should never have been beaten on his near post). That was no flash in the pan - it showed excellent reading and a high level of maturity which bodes really well for the future. The only time he looked uncomfortable was when Fonte was sucked out wide to cover for Butterfield failing to get back in time; both goals and the near-OG came from that kind of situation. I think he'll be the bedrock of our defence for years to come as long as we can hold onto him. His form should help us to see the best of Fonte and should push the aging Jaidi into the background. Really important to me, though, is what Happy Harry thinks of him. Get typing, Harry!

Premature exhilaration. To the original topic, I thought the goal was to get Cortese to listen to supporters more - not give him an excuse to tune them out completely.

As has been the case on many occasions in the past, I think we actually see things in similar ways - and we were debating when we were really not in disagreement. Perhaps living over here has given me a different perspective on buying success, because most of the major North American sports have taken very significant measures to impose sustainability and to balance the playing field between "the haves and have nots". Perhaps that everyday backdrop over here has made me too enthusiastic in embracing Cortese's ideas when they may be too revolutionary for the British game at the moment - too far ahead of their time. And I agree that it's ironic that AP may have been nuked for lacking commitment to the academy (I even accused him of that!) when he wasn't slow to introduce youngsters. I just want a bright new day to start - even if there's still a prospect of rain in the forecast!