hughieslastminutegoal

I actually think Jason Euell could have been one of those players, handled and encouraged correctly. Little or no chance of that now, though.

I agree to an extent - if we want Saints to survive we HAVE to let Wotte spout whatever crap wants to try to turn the player's psychology around. Judge the guy on deeds, not words.

We are no different to any other set of fans thoughought the division. This kind of thing is just par for the course in professional football. Professional sportsmen have to live with a bit of abuse from a minority of fans at any club. There will always be the hero player and the one or two who always have some fans on their backs, no matter how well the side is playing. IMO any club in a relegation fight has to show guts and some determination to keep the fans on their side. We know that more than most, because we had to live through that season after season in the prem. So if a fan base like ours can become as demoralised as we are, and as resigned to relegation as we seem to be, it is other factors that have brought us to this point, NOT fickleness on our part. For me the spirit of SFC was personified by a) bottle - Franny Benali was the epitome of it, and b) some skill - Matt le Tiss the outstanding example when the chips were down. That's what we were brought up on. Lets face it, by way of analogy, under the current regime, Le Tiss would be out on loan, and Franny would have given way to a 12 year old midfielder nonentity. That's why we are f*kked.

My, my - you do have a black and white view of the world, don't you? Probably something to do with life in the services? If the summer window has closed, and you want a player off the books you can loan him out a) for the rest of the season or b) up to the January window. If, in your time frame for saving the salary, no-one wants to take him on a season-long loan, you lend him out until the January window. So, some of our loan-outs prior to Jan were for the residue of the season - others were up to January. You seem certain that ALL these loan outs were always part of a plan B to bring them back if necessary - unprovable, and in some cases you are plainly wrong so far as this season is concerned. Others believe Lowe wanted rid full stop but couldn't achieve it for a variety of reasons - also unprovable, but a reasonable person would probably come down on that side of the argument, as more likely to be the case. So I think your own argument is at best only "possibly right" in "some cases" and therefore doesn't warrant the arrogant, patronising tone of your posts. I'm surprised responses to you have been so restrained.

I don't think this bit is right - if you cut inside from the "wrong wing" and shoot with your natural foot, you'd tend to hit it with the instep and there will be a tendency for it to curl into the keeper, not fly across him. The other reasons you give for playing players on the wrong wing are probably right, you do attack the defenders weaker foot by cutting inside - but any defender worth his salt will "show" a winger like that the outside line, so playing on the wrong wing is not often a particularly good tactic, IMO.

Oddly enough I think escape is possible and I'm not yet convinced the other teams just above us are necessarily going to maintain their lead over us. For example Donny have had an extraordinary run by their standards, but we need more than them to falter. With a bit of luck we could JUST escape but will be last game of the season by a point. On our own form we are down, but there does seem to be a few crappy sides above us who's wheels could fall off. So I might just stick my neck out and vote yes, though that is probably more wishful thinking than anything... I just can't take my eyes off that faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

I heard it's going to be Status Quo. They've even come up with a play list:- To get 'em going:- Electric Arena All Stand Up Win Or Lose Then to give it local flavour, (with a nod in RL's direction):- One Man Band Face Without Soul With a nod towards the players:- Money Money Gravy Train No Contract Run To Mummy Then they get topical:- Safety Dance I Can Hear The Grass Grow Is There a Better Way (Mark Wotte joins for the vocals) Drifting Away Roll Over Lay Down Point Of No Return Going Down Tonight Down Down Encore -The fans will be asked to join in with :- Enough is Enough Backwater Apparently Rupert has refused to allow:- Sorry But is insisting on:- The Future's So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades)

I think it went something like " I'll pay you 1m for your player, or 1.25m if you take Tone to Southampton for a year or two, 'cos the Stoke fans are asking questions about nepotism".

What kind of defence is that? Dave McLaren wasn't it? If Hungry Zoltan is as successful as that signing, he'll be back to making sandwiches in May.

Logically incorrect - the payments made a few days after Lowe left were commitments entered into during his tenure - so if they exceeded the new commitments incurred by the following regime, the mess would be his. Obviously I don't know the facts about that, just pointing out the error in logic. The "all things being equal" proviso makes your point a bit pointless, don't you think, since whether things were equal is the issue.

Rupert's non-appearance at home games is finally explained - he has been negotiating the loan of a promising martian from their under 8's.

He IS a revolutionary thinker. His thoughts go round in circles. Experienced manager - inexperienced - fails - experienced manager - inexperienced - fails - experienced manager - inexperienced -fails ...and so on.

Blimey, so you have the contract details of all Swansea's players to hand? How did you get them? Should we inform the police that you have stolen commercial information because I doubt Swansea gave them to you. And not only Swansea but all the other clubs as poor as us to boot! And didn't you miss typing FACT in your post?

Probably because what he says makes you vomit?

You couldn't fault his effort, unlike some other lazy narcissists we have had. For that alone I hope he does well.

Overrated, over-hyped when he came here, under-performed ever since. Hertha didn't want him so he pretends he came back here through choice. Pull the other one.

Yep, you can prove anything with statistics when used incorrectly, especially when crucial factors are left out - as in your example above, the relative populations of drunk and sober drivers. Exactly the same "mistake" you made in your initial "dutch experiment/no dutch experiment and relegation" statistic. No offense, just winding you up a little.

I often see your point, but this is really a rather weak attempt to put an "Everything is Lowe's fault" slant on Rudi S's approach to his profession. After all, Satchell seems to have had issues everywhere he's been.

I think we established a while ago that you were not good at understanding when one should use "AND", and when instead "OR" should be used in a sentence. Now you are showing up your poor grip on statistics. There is 1 team undergoing a dutch experiment. That team is in the drop zone. That means at present a dutch experiment has a 100% chance of failure. That leaves 2 places left for the 23 "no dutch experiment" teams - i.e. a "no dutch experiment", as things stand, shows a 2/23 chance of being in the relegation places (8.7%). Unless of course you meant that a dutch experiment in the relegation battle has a better chance of succeeding in getting relegated? The current statistics certainly do prove that. (tongue-in-cheek thingy)

So what. He ain't gonna do any better if he stays here.

Based on his second-half side/tactics at Norwich, that is not necessarily certain. I think he's been hiding/allowed to hide up until now, but now he's been given the reins, I think its a bit too soon to write him off completely. People were slagging him off before the first half at Norwich was half over, although I agree that he got the starting line-up wrong. But he did change things around, something JP seemed unable to even consider. So just maybe he might improve things....

I'll excuse the BWP sentiment, but yes, this is particularly inexplicable, unless the answer is schizophrenia.

I don't think what I said above is far from the truth: "But maybe Wotte is really a bottler who doesn't really want to be seen to be in sole charge, and was quite happy to be take his money without being in the hot seat." I think Lowe might be beginning to see the light about him and has made him step up to the plate. VERY risky strategy tho.

So I suppose he saw his birth certificate and said "Yep, that proves you're english Mr ...er..., " "Get in line behind all the other guys clamouring to work here. What's that you say, there is no line? Oh."

Lowe wanted Wotte because he is still committed to the SCW strategy legacy. But maybe Wotte is really a bottler who doesn't really want to be seen to be in sole charge, and was quite happy to be take his money without being in the hot seat. With Henderson and Hockaday having been doing stuff, just wotte was Wotte actually contributing? Maybe his commitment and ability is now being put under some scrutiny, not before time I would suggest. I think "someone" has told Mr Mark Time that it's time to earn his salary. The whole thing is a bit wierd, and does not auger well IMO, with Wotte now talking about possible 4-2-4 and more experience being required, as if he has played absolutely no part in the "experiment" whatsoever. And if that change in direction fails, it will be "the fans asked for these changes and it didn't work". RL has his excuse again, but if results improve, Lowe takes the credit for the appointment. Not quite a no lose option for RL, but maybe as close as he can get to one at the moment. With DH growing his vegetables, there clearly has been one big bust-up behind the scenes (probably about unclear roles), the truth of which has yet to emerge.