Lord Duckhunter

The club have a delicate balancing act to perform regarding our youngsters. Nippers sitting down and deciding which academy to join or whether to sign their first pro contract with us will want to move to the biggest clubs eventually. The scouting networks are now far superior than they ever were so the big clubs will have been aware if Luke and his ilk for years. Reed, or whoever sits down with the next batch of young stars can sell the club by saying " get a great grounding, get into the first team earlier" , players will know that they can also move on to the Chelsea's and man utds later. If we start standing in their way or start getting a reputation of standing in their way, the parents or increasingly their agents, will advise going straight to a big club or not signing pro forms with us.like it or not youngsters will see us as a pathway to a big club and that must be a selling point for the best 9,10,11ect year olds.

Not for me im afraid, pretty poor article. I don't know a thing about the bloke but anybody who says that he'll go and support another club with different songs, and that sounds ok, ain't no proper fan. Im also confused about his point regarding players wanting away as we slipped down the leagues, whilst praising Rickie, Adam and the present lot. The lot who all seem to want away. We need to put thus in perspective, we finished 8th. 8th, we weren't a reincarnation of keegans Newcastle , we weren't Bobby Robson's Ipswich running the champions close, we weren't even Lawrie Mac's Southampton finishing top 5 year after year with swashbuckling football. We finished 8th and got nowhere near winning a cup. Yes , it was a really enjoyable season and we played some great stuff, but were in danger of becoming west ham fans pining after a period that never actually existed. I serious reckon some of our supporters will be telling their grandchildren about the glory days of our 8th place finish. We weren't on the verge of greatness, we may have mafde the giddy heights of 6th or 7th if we didn't lose anyone, but some people are talking as if the soul has been ripped out of the club and our rise to the very top has been sabotaged by the big clubs, and how very sad this is for football. Nonsense, we had a great season by our standards, but so did west brom the year before, so did Ipswich under whiskey George. It happens, but order is soon resumed. Why should that put people off following their club?

Once you've failed your next job is really important,particularly if you've lost a job at a level you've not been before. Look at Moyes , if he gets it wrong next time after failing at a bigger club he's toast. Reading was an accident waiting to happen with a dodgy Russian taking over from Madaski. Norwich would be a perfect fit for him IMO.

The people who arranged this are jokers. I worked 4 years in south fla on the building sites and this time of year we started at first light. We always got a days work in by 2pm otherwise you'll be rained off more times then not.Believe me, you don't **** about if there's a lightning storm there.

Some of the performances last season were up there with the best of lawries days. Hull and Newcastle at home, Fulham second half away. Our away stats speak for themselves and we were in every game last season, even under lawrie we had some stinkers when we got battered. That said , he didn't build the side he inherited it. He made certain players better and we were an extremely well coached side. On occasions we lost games we should have won, dropped points by continuing to play the same way instead of changing slightly and changing tactically during the game. I always got the impression that if sides could stay in the game and then adjust their game to neutralize ours, they could overcome us. All Jose did was throw 2 men up front, go a bit longer and both games went away from us. I loved Nigel but clearly Poch was a step up. How he gets on at spurs will be interesting. He had a group here who wanted to learn and were receptive to ideas, as well as some great senior pros, not just Rickie, but Kelvin , Steve Davis and even Guly was happy to muck in when needed. Spurs has been a graveyard for managers, players who think they're better than they are, senior pros who think they should be playing and a structure that is puzzling. I think that unless he's prepared to be a bit more flexible he could struggle, but he's Levy's man so I think he'll get more time than people think. Sack him early and levy may have to go as well. As for Nigel, he's been sold a pig in a poke at Reading. He'd be a great manager for Norwich or west brom. By taking the reading job he's basically consigned himself as a lower league manager, which is a shame. He should have stayed out of the game until a Fulham, west brom or Norwich came calling.

Im sure he's walked out on a couple of clubs, my mates a Huddersfield fan and he hates him. I agree with you, too many middle of the road clubs and never really done much. He's had the advantages of a man utd career but still hasn't landed a big job really. Flavour of the month because they had a pretty easy cup draw. Id have Adkins back before him.

I think you should lay off the sauce for bit Viking.

I was completely against him, but I thought he came over really well whilst commenting on the cup final for ITV.

For all we know they may have RK on the back burner, so to speak. Spurs Cleary wanted LVG and then ancholotti. When they were out of reach, the got Poch. How do people know we're not chasing Moyes, FDB or another big name, with RK as our fall back option.

Gaston excuse number 53, he'll be tired after the world cup.

What???????? Lol, surprised Liverpool aren't in for him then.

I get it now. If you don't rate a player it must mean you don't rate any other player???? Seems a weird logic to me. What about Nigel & Poch, they clearly didn't rate him enough to play him regularly, does that mean they don't rate the ones they do play. Because I don't particularly like The Stones, does that mean I don't rate The Beatles or The Who. Why do you believe that because people don't think he's good enough, they don't rate our star players. Let's see what the experts think, the Saints managers keep leaving him out, what about other managers, will they pay the same value we did. If he's as good as some claim, we'll get our money back.I bet they won't pay anything like that, why is that?

Gaston can't get a game for us.

I can't believe some of the stuff I'm reading about Gaston ."He was sensational" , no he wasn't. "He is utter class" , no he's not. He has not produced , he has flattered to deceive since day one. Football is more than looking good and having a few nice touches , he's like a Uruguayan Mr Woo. Nigel didn't really play him, neither did Poch and I doubt if the new guy will. If we're relying on him next season, we'll really be in the shiete.

Spurs also interested.

I was only thinking the other day that Spitfire used to be bottle conditioned, you used to have to pour it gently because of the live stuff at the bottom. I was talking to a drayman for Hall & Woodhouse about beers changing. He said that a lot are being made weaker now as the tax changes once you go over 4.9%. I don't know if its true, but tanglefoot, my personal favourite, is not the beer it was 30 years ago.

Contrast Adam's stance with Lovren's. Don't you think he wants to go and play for a bigger club and rumours are Liverpool are after him. Came out and said he's happy at Southampton, but that it was up to the club. Has gone off to the world cup and if reports are to be believed Liverpool will be back in for him when he gets back. Why cant Adam just concentrate on the World Cup and sort his future out afterwards, is it because he's so desperate to get away that he worries Liverpool will walk away. Why are they happy to attempt to sign Lovren after WC, but insist Adam is signed before or they'll walk away? I don't buy it, Liverpool and Adam are trying to box the board into a corner imo. Shut up and enjoy the WC and we'll talk when you get back, that is what the club should tell him. I would expect the club captain to announce that the only thing on his mind is the world cup and that he'll see what happens afterwards. Why cant he say he's happy and it's up to the club in public until things calm down, even if he does want to go desperately. It strikes me that he's putting pressure on the board when they are at their weakest and that is not becoming of the captain's position.

Doom Bar has gone rapidly downhill.

He's not good enough , end of.

The statement is very clear. The board would rather not sell anyone prior to a new manager, but if they felt it was in the best interest of the club to do so, they will. In the case of Rickie , in their opinion it was in the best interests to get it done. Nobody on here knows what was in his contract, I can quite believe he had a clause making him the highest earner as that is quite common in the game. Therefore do not judge his fee on now, but 12 months time, when no longer an international ( probably dropped if he stayed with us) a year older, but earning an ever increasing salary, for a diminishing return. Add to that the fact he really wanted to go, Liverpool said take it or leave it, I think the board did the right thing. Liverpool do seem to be trying to push us into a corner over Adam and they're either trying it on or know Suarez is on his bike. If Suarez goes to Real all of a sudden the price Liverpool pay for players goes up as everybody knows they've got 100mil sloshing around. Either way we should be able to hold firm. All quiet on the Luke front could be because they've got a new guy in charge, but could be because there's already a deal in place. Personally, its not Adams and Shaw I'm worried about as I think they'll go no matter what its lovren, Morgan, chambers ,clyne and those types we need to keep.

He just forgot to log in with his other id

We were a big fish in league 1, that's why he left Rovers.

Spot on Marcoti was on the Times podcast, said Poch is extremely ambitious, really belives he can manage Real or Barca. The line was " you don't jump from Southampton to a big champions league club, but do well at spurs and you may do".

Perhaps you could come up with an example of a club giving a running commentary of their recruitment process and then replaced a manager who walked out within 4 days. Crystal Palace took a while to appoint pulis , its all about making the right choice.

It's a pretty decent bottled beer, as bottled beers go. But I'm not particularly big fan of Shepherd Neame served in the boozer. Having lived in the states for 4 years, I would have said it'll be about 20 times better than some of the pi ss they serve, but not a patch on some real ales here in the UK.