Junior Mullet

With the greatest respect to Navyred, I dont quite rate him as highly. I know he is son of Navyred's friend or something so perhaps a bit of subjectivity creeps in from time to time. Patto's scoring record for the youth and ressies is not particularly good. Looking at the stats and having seem him play myself numerous times I am sure he will not go on to be a prolific goal-scorer. What navyred and I probably would agree on is that he has a great work-ethic and is very good in the air (I saw him play an U.18 game earlier this year and I swear he won about 20 aerial balls and lost none!!!). His link-up play is OK but will take time to bed in with our current set-up because he came after the main crop of youth players currently gracing our first eleven. What I'm trying to say perhaps is that he is more Sheringham than Shearer. Like Sherringham he lacks the physical attributes to make him an obvious striker but instead plays the game with his brain. Time will tell but I'm not sure he is good enough for our Championship eleven. IMO McGoldrick was always a much better all-round player when the same age and also IMO White is a better prospect. IMO to solve our curent position we need goalscorers rather than more link-up players.

I hope and actually expect that this game is exactly what we need to raise attendances in the forthcoming home league games. Hopefully we can put some good home league performances together to keep a few more coming until the end of the season.

Patterson is not the answer, sorry. He doesnt and will not score enough goals. For me he is a year or two off of starting games for us.

If this was any other manager I would say he's just trying to inflate his price ready for sale in January.

I think Surman has been at his best this year playing centre mid. Whilst I like Schneiderlin and it's of course very easy to get exciting when he pings 40yard balls out to the wing with pin point accuracy, his control and first touch let's him down time and time again and regularly is the cause of our attacks breaking down. I couldnt make my mind up last night whether this was due to him simply having a poor first touch or whether it was due to him coming on the ball with too much pace to control it. I think Schneiderlin and Surman both put in plenty of tackles and interceptions. However, they do this without being 'dirty' and therefore I beleive some of their good work does not get noticed as much as it perhaps should. They were slightly off form last night but I put that down to them looking nackered - Surman in particular - you could see on his face that the effort from Saturday was taking its toll and I dont understand why Jan didnt sub him with about 15/20 mins to go in order to give us a bit more energy and bite in midfield.

Surely a disadvantage to us as other teams will be even more inclined to poach our youngsters to fill their quotas. Unless of course I'm misreading it and the requirement is for the quota to come from each club's own accademy/youth set up.

Easy - Cork. Versatile and classy. I dont see Cork getting into the Chelsea team at present but unfortunately can see him doing well for plenty of other premiership teams. The most realistic signing would be Robertson.

Another pointless thread from Alpine "Football Manager 2006" Saint. I expect Lowe will want to keep our three hottest young players until the Summer unless very good offers come in in Jan. We have to sell the best youngsters at some point to balance the books and because they themselves want to leave - that is an unfortunate fact of life for a team like saints in the CCC. This is not a computer game. But it's not all doom and gloom - I have every faith that with the current set up (and by that I principally mean Lowe with JP's support) we will unearth some more rough diamonds festering in reserve team football here and abroad who would fit very neatly into the Saints set up and who could go on and shine. Morgan is a case in point. I would also be happy to see us sign Cork permanently and if a chunk of transfer fees in can secure that then surely that's good business. I see the current youth set up as being much more stable than the model for teams that spend big on transfer fees and wages and then fail (as we have done in recent years). Really that amounts to no more than a gamble. The current approach of youth provides a foundation that will lead to financial stability and in the meantime will allow us to see some very good young players rather than overpaid and overhyped journeymen. The real test will be in replacing the likes of Lallana, Surman and Morgan if they go. I've no doubt that the calibre of youngsters coming through the accademy is not what it was a few years ago. The accademy seems to have been overlooked by the previous temporary management. We must go back to stealing the brightest and best prospects for our accademy so that we are in good shape in 2-4 yrs time. Meanwhile we must continue to unearth good loanees and youngsters whom we can sign and develope. The future seems bright to me provided we invest in bringing in new good yougsters. A good stable model for future cuccess on and off the pitch - provided it's managed properly, yes.

LOL at their thread. Anyone else see any similarities between their opinions on Harper and ours on Jermaine Wright. LOL

I made exactly the same point on Saturday. The ball was loose and two players made a 50/50 challenge. That's what happens in football sometimes. FFS, that challenge wouldnt have provoked even a yellow ten years ago - what is the game coming to? Bad championship refereeing really is beginning to spoil my love of football.

Be tolerant guys - he helped us to 3 points a few weeks ago. He's clearly not ready and TBH has not looked ready when Ive seen him in the ressies or U.18's either. Contrary to a few posts above, he was not subbed at half time against Bristol City - he was switched to CM second half. He has looked out of his depth on the left wing both starts he's made but at CM looked completely lost! I was very disappointed that JP experimented in that way during a game that we should have been fighting to win. Surely he should have experimented in training instead? I'd be happy for Oscar to fill a role on the bench in the coming weeks in favour of Robertson or BWP starting.

The only thing this really proves is how a plc structure for a football club does not work.

I am confident of 3 points if we can contain their strikers tomorrow. We have got to be big and brave at the back and first to the ball - we cant afford to let the ball bounce around in our area as we have let it lately. Personally think that this is not a game for young Ollie and that Perry should start ahead of him if he's available. if we can contain them I reckon it will give our forwards the confidence to attack them and to defend from the front. COYMR

I'm delighted he will not be ready for Wolves - Iwelumo and Ebanks-Blake would have made mince meat of him. Watching CCC players wrong-foot Killer and take him to the cleaners is a bit like watching a rusty Mike Tyson being beaten up by Danny Williams - it's just sad. The sooner Killer retires the better.

I don't know what he did whilst he was here, nor do I give a toss about his myspace page. I beleive we gave up on him to easily. He looked our best goalscoring threat last year in the youth team and he not only looks the spitting image of Kenwyn Jones, he played like him too - only much better at the same age I am sure. With the right coaching and mentoring he will become a very good premiership player. Just hope there was a very very good reason to let him go.

We will get a point, but really we need at least 3 from those two.

Lowe out? Yes - but you would have to find someone stupid enough to pay his asking price for his shares and for the shares proxied to him - also someone with enough money and balls to handle the consequnces of holding such a high share in the club by that point. Lowe out as a director but keeping his shares? No, pointless.

IMO the drop is due to several things - 1. Very poor last season 2. Bad atmosphere at games last season - fans getting on the backs of players 3. Playing the youngsters this year - no 'stars' to attract the more fickle fans 4. Lowe 5. Fewer pounds, shillings and pence in peoples pockets 6. Fewer fans at games this year = worse atmosphere = fewer fans (I call this the spiral effect) 7. Genuine disatisfaction or disinterest with football generally/CCC football/poor standard of refereeing etc For me, I havent bought a ticket this year because of reason 2, 5 and partly 7 (I sometimes fish on a Saturday now instead - something I hadnt always had the option to do when I had a season ticket). I can categorically state that Lowe's return has not accounted for the club losing my season ticket subscription this year. I am not that shallow. I still go and see most games one way or another, just for the record.

Bull ****

There's one on the corner of Lodge Road and a handful down Town Quay near the station. All fairly cheap.

IMO administration is exactly what we need and will benefot the club in the long term. I see this as the only way to get rid o Lowe and his cronies. However, I fear that Lowe would rather see us sink down the divisions and play schoolkids to a crowd of a few thousand before he loses money via administration. Unless his current experiment works we are in for quite a painful ride.....God I wish our club werent owned by a PLC!!!!!!!!

Very well written post but I'm not sure it's that simple. We were in financial do do in the summer and the bank would have been looking at what our mid to long term prospects were as well as our immediate prospects. IMO the bank were much more likely to support Lowe's concept of getting rid of the higher paid earners who frankly were bleeding the club dry without any effort on their behalf (save for the last game of the season) and playing hopeful youngsters on low wages. Most important, Lowe and the bank would have been looking at transfer fees that could be generated from the nippers. The concept of employing Pearson to bring in and play senior pros would have been attractive to neither Lowe nor than bank. from this point of view Lowe is managing the COMPANY in what is IMHO the only way that can bring him any financial return. I agree, however that in doing so he has jeopordised the CLUB/TEAM/FANS. But then Low has always shown himself to be a selfish c*nt rather than someone who has the CLUB/TEAM/FANS' best interest at heart. Therefore I would say he is not mismanaging the company but his actions have jepordised the club team and fans which could lead to the lot going down the pan.

Lacks end product. We've enough like that at the moment and can do without him on the wage bill. A fit rasiak is worth two Saga's - perhaps not in terms of running around like a headless chicken etc, but in terms of end product. Saga is the player that has frustrated me most over the past couple of seasons.

Good post. Alps, some may find your post condescending, arrogant whatever given that you do have a history of such posts and the fact that you rely on radio/newspapers/views on here or whatever to form your judgement rather than actually being there. However, you are spot on here. JP will have learnt a few important things about his players and tactics last night as will the fans and the mark of a good manager is what he now does with that information. I think a number of us would be very disappointed if he now reverts back to Saturday's team and tactics for Swansea. IMHO it's about the right time to drop McG and James to test their character and see how motivated they are to improve. Time will tell as regards your rhetorical questions but I beleive the match-going fans will play their part in JP answering them. I have to say that I agree that the four injured players you site (less Killer) are absolutely key to our season and perhaps more importantly I feel Schneiderlin and Holmes are key to a top 6 push next year.