redkeith

What is the difference between Robert Mugabe and Rupert Lowe? One is a despised madman, ignoring world opinion as he destroys the very thing that he is employed to serve... the other is head of Zanu P.F (Apologies to the people of Zimbabwe)

At the time that Lowe was preasuring the two 'Arry's to play more youngsters, he had a point. The youth team had just been beaten in the FA Youth Cup Final, and there were a few players that were ready for the championship, Baird/Cranie would have been a better right back than Hjiato, Blackstock would surey have scored more goals than Ormeroyd ( more than zero) then there were a number of others that were ready for the bench, such as Griffit ( 3 prem goals ), Best, Mills, Folly. Match that up with the experience of Claus,Higgy, Quashie,Oakley, Niemi, Belmadi and Fuller, and you had the basis of a good team. It didn't happen, and most of that youth team has now been wasted. However, timing is everything and to try to push so many youth players through at once, without a backbone of 6 or 7 old heads is just madness. Over the years, Saints have produced dozens of quaility players Channon, Holmes, Bridge, Paine, Agboola, Bale, Williams, Le Tisseir, Wallace, Shearer, Chivers, Webb, Walcott, Waldron, Sydenham ..... some good players, some great players but if you put them all in the same team as teenagers, they would get spanked. In the Premiership days, Lowe stated that his dream was for the Acadamy to bring enough quality players into the squad to allow Saints to compete without spending excesive amounts on transfer fees. Now, his idea seems to be to get the players in the shop window as soon as possible, to move them on for a quick profit. To use a racing analogy, plan A was to train a Derby winner, Plan B seems to be so go for the selling stakes at Salisbury.

At the Villa away game at the start of the relegation season, Delap took a long throw to Crouch, who flicked it on to Fernades. Fabrice volleyed it goalwards only for it to hit Phillips up the arse and get cleared. For the first time in ages, a Delap throw had almost worked. Minutes later, with the clock running down, we got another throw in the same postion, Delap steps up and ..... takes a short one. Go figure.

I have been out this afternoon and so I missed the torture on the radio, but there are a few basics that seem to have slipped past our managment/DOF team. - Playing a system to fit your players. BWP moved left, Lallana moved right when he is born to play in 'the hole' . We have no fit wingers so you cannot persist with a system that needs 2 goals scoring wingers. The only player suited to this 42121 formation is Lallana, If you move him then all 4 forward players are out of position! - Getting rid of your goalscores because goal bonuses cost money. The end product of the business is goals, thats what people pay to see, No goals, no wins, no crowds, no cash. It is simple economics to anyone who knows football, rather than bean counters who see people paying money to sit in a concrete bowl whatever is served up in front of them. If, as seems likely, Barclays are setting a wage cap on the team each week, we no longer need a DOF. We may as well let Barclay's pay one of their recovery team, rather than fork out Lowes wages. ( ... awaits abuse from the lovies ...)

I am sure I have said it before on here, but the worst thing that twitchy did was after relegation. We had the FA youth cup final team, many of who were ready for the first team and many more that would have been by the end of the season, plus Kenwyne Jones, Chris Baird and Andrew Surnam. They were all frozen out, barring the odd game for KJ, in favour of some Polish mercanaries, Dennis Wise and Ricardo Fuller. As a result, we ended up losing Crannie, Mills and Blackstock who all got tired of waiting. He had the chance to build something for the future, but decided to wheel and deal instead. Perhaps he couldn't get his cut if a youngster earned a new contract ?

There is a picture of Clydie on the London Saints website. Here is the link. Clydie is the one with the tache. I think a few more people might recognise him than realise. I certainly remember him always being in the Waterloo on the way to the Dell. Sadly missed.

Last year the club tried a scheme where Season Ticket Holders got shop vouchers for bringing someone that hadn't been for a few years, and was not on the database. How about a variation on the old scheme: - If a season ticket holder gets tickets for someone who hasn't been this season, at a reduced price (£10/15) the season ticket holder gets a £5 credit on his ticket account. This could then be used for cup games, or taken off the price of next years season ticket, giving a bit of encouragement to come back for more suffering next year.

The rumour about Sturrock was out there before the Blackburn game. I do not know if it is factual. What is true is that Sturrock took 3 days off, after an appalling performance at Villa. Much as I liked Sturrock at the time, particularly the introduction of Folly as a DM, the profesional response to the Villa fiasco should have been "Sorry love, you'll have to unpack yourself, we were sh@t on Saturday and I need to kick some @rse" PS You can't beat my wife, she's tops!

I know that it is now the national obsession to get hysterical and have a witch hunt every time something goes wrong, but I can't see any alternative the way we are trying to play, as the style suits the players that we have left, and can afford to play. That being said, I think it is important to utilise the experience that we have on the books, and for me Wooton, Perry and John should be some of the first names on the team sheat ( plus Skacel while Holmes is injured). Sacking the coach and brining in a Billy Davies style alternative would just not work, as we do not have enough big and nasty players on the books, or the money to recruit them. However, I mus take issue with the earlier post about the similar dismisal of Sturrock. Anyone who was at the Villa Park game that season will agree to his sacking. I have never seen a team so ill prepared for the coming season. When he reacted to that defeat by moving house/going on a bender for 3 days, his time was up. A decent manager would have had the whole squad locked in at Staplewood for 3 days instead.

I think that Gillett needs a rest, as bringing in Wotton will give us more height at the back, and could help with the airial bombardment that every team will try on us if they watched the Blackpool game. Also, Stern will give us more defensive cover at set peices, and is more likely to get on the end of Holmes's crosses than DMG. I think that DMg should go wide right and Llalalllana ( is that enough L's ) stay where he is, as the team shape dissapeared when he dropped back in the Blackpool game.