Clifford Nelson

Wotton has done a remarkably good job as a defensive CM with two offensive CMs infront of him in Hammond and Schneiderlin/Mellis. But Wotton is not the future and if AP intend to play this formation in the longer perspective then he need to get somebody in who can take over from him and stay with us for a while. Scneiderlin seems finally to have found his niche as an attacking CM, but I'm far from certain about Mellis. If he isn't staying after January then we need another player in that position as well. The same about Trotman. If he stays then OK, otherwise we need to strengthen there as well.

A good few of the players we want to "get rid off" can't fight themselves into contention for a place in a League 1 team, because that is what we are. So who is going to be terribly interested in taking them off our hands and pay their wages? It is very clear that AP wants to trim the large squad and get rid of those who will never get a game under him, but he is up against the same thing all the time: Nobody wants them! However unpalatable ML will eventually have to face up to paying up their contracts since the only alternative is for them to turn up for training every day with an inevitably poor attitude just so that they will keep getting paid. That is no solution.

So right you are, and if we by way of a very positive momentum stand to sneak in to the last play off place, our positive GD might well be the difference.

I can't quite understand the reasoning. If we are to take on quality loan signings they won't be prepared to come here and warm the bench. At the moment Conolly can't be guaranteed a game, and he's just signed. Or are we gonna bench Lambert? In the striking department I think we are looking at possible understudies, and they won't come here as loans. It's OK to have a christmas wishlist, but let's have an idea of what to do with them.

When Mickey Fialka, the north London letting agent, appeared on the scene living at home with mum, who ran a knicker shop, and dad, who was a taxi driver, claimed to be immensely rich and confirmed to be the power behind the Pinnacle bid. That was when the terribly bad also became the unreal and bizarre, and all hope left. Otherwise we went through what appeared to be a permanent nightmare, which started when Souness waived good-bye.

You can't forget your past. A football club can't forget it's history. We're alright now, but somehow we need to excorcise those few years which soiled our relationship with our club. It can be irritating, but necessary. When we've bleated enough times we will stop, but not before.

Let's get this right. The reason for why you would side with one side or the other in the postal dispute tend to be that you are biased to support the rather poorly paid workers, the rather well healed bosses, or that you don't give a toss for as long as the society you identify with is not disturbed in any way. Since I don't think you are one of the bosses your reasons for expressing your views on the postal workers look highly suspect to me. As suspect as that you are now on the side of Peter Mandelson, one of the least popular politicians in modern times.

If I don't compare Lawrie to other managers, but just think of him in relation to Southampton he appears as a giant. Ted Bates did an amazing amount for this club over a length of career we will never see again. Lawrie did for management and for spreading the good will of this club more in those twelve years of management than all the other managers taken together. In a time when it is fashionable for people to always praise and be grateful to their bosses Lawrie has always spoken his mind. I struggle badly in understanding how that trait of his could be held against him. The man have some principles which I also admire him for. He is the only character in our history who I feel deserves some acknowledgement from the club.

I went back to SMS this season with some apprehension. After everything we have gone through I didn't quite dare to be as optimistic as I ought to have been: 'New owner, new manager, new horizons...so what the hell is going to go wrong next!' kind of attitude. And then I had gotten out of the habit. I am now feeling convinced, although my nerves are never in good order if we're in the lead with ten minutes or more to play. It's the opposite of Pavlov's dogs who salivated when they heard the bell ring before food arrived. Saints in the lead was too good to last. I have expected over 20000 over the last few games, but if we don't break it on Saturday then we will have lost a good many supporters foor good it seems, or have they even stopped following the club even from the Echo and Radio Solent?

I haven't any rosy memories of life before Strachan either. The Dave Jones period, for instance was amazingly dour. There is something which is referred to as "toxic people". Regardless what they might be doing right (coming to work in time; paying bills; getting a drinks contract for SMS; etc.) people around them feel bad, depressed, irritated, angry and/or miserable. And then there are people who somehow excite or encourage their environment even when they are skint or not feeling well. I know what type 'he who should remain nameless unless we name the bogs after him' is. That he also produced a mass of poor decisions didn't help.

I am delighted that with all the stick he kept on getting Wotton has to a degree proven everybody wrong. It wasn't only down to him, but to a team that didn't play well. Now he is doing a similar job to what Nobby Stiles did when he said that the tactics were dead easy: "My job was to win the ball and give it to Bobby." Nobby was my first footballing hero. He was small, toothless, not handsome and seemed to lack a lot of talent, but he was bloodyminded and tenacious. All of that gave hope to the ones of us who weren't born with great technical gifts. If a bit of that is what PW will leave behind when he retires, that's not bad. Round pegs in round holes is what it has been all about. Not only PW looks better than ever, so does Lallana, James and Schneiderlin. All the players I and many like me had question marks against. Wotton is at the end of his career and AP will have to look at acquiring a replacement. I don't think we've got another one in the club.

We both know that AP is fully aware of our comparative lack of pace. He is trying to purchase it in whatever form it arrives. But I don't agree that we are that narrow. With Mellis/Schneiderlin and Hammond coming running from inside Lallana and Waigo, they are forced much wider than if the midfield is encouraged to hold back. It's not traditional wing play with byeline crosses, but then, honestly, where did we last see that? As I already pointed out, after being left alone to fend for himself against Bristol, Lallana got stuck in defending the left flank. It has worked. I can't see the need for a front sweeper, but I can see the need to find a defensive CM to take over from Wotton for the future. The skills of a Jim Magilton at his best comes to mind. He never lost the ball and passed it as well as anybody. And why would 4-3-3 not work in the long run. I'm a bit worried when it is seen as an aberration. There is no specific virtue in 4-4-2, the only thing that matters is what players you have to fit into the system. The disadvantage of it is that every team we're playing knows exactly how to defend against it since they are doing nothing else week after week. AP should by the best players he can find which deals with the shortcomings we have. Pace is very important, but let's not turn down a brilliant pacy player just because he isn't a wide player.

It is indeed for as long as you can do it from the comfort of your own home. In addition to your comments, which I agree with, any opposition in this league and the CCC knows all about how to defend against 4-4-2. They do it every week and have done all through their careers. They will find it difficult to defend against anything else. You will see the argument every so often that it will be different when they have figured out how we play. Maybe so, but to use that as an argument for 4-4-2 is really scraping the barrel. We need to be comfortable to play 4-5-1/4-3-3 and 4-4-2 as well. But you're right, I can't remember a bye line cross at all over the last 20 years or so.

Two issues, Derry. Firstly we tightened up the left side after Bristol. Harding wasn't struggling without help against Gillingham, and I don't believe against Southend either in the same way. Secondly, the 4-3-3 formation has created enormous movement and the scoring of goals in a way we haven't seen for too many years to remember. AP realised that the wingers were not available at this club to play 4-4-2, and I agree. Fish is probably a left back at best, and AP doesn't fancy Holmes. I don't know why, but his judgements have been accurate so far, so why should I argue. I will be much happier to see an attacking team where the opposition doesn't know who is coming running from where, rather than half hearted crosses nobody can get on the end of. Wingers must be bought in if we want them. To be honest I don't think wingers could possibly improve on the attacking entertainment which was on display against Bristol and Gillingham. And on top of that the 4-3-3/4-5-1 system is very much more flexible. It certainly has suited us.

I am one of the non-believers some way into the season. AP's tactical nous have made Lallana into a really hot goalscorer. I apologize, although I always felt he had talent. MS is not the same thing. I've seen him in every home game he has played and I remained unconvinced. I wasn't at Southend, but the story is that he played as an offensive midfielder jointly with Hammond and with Wotton behind him and was MOM. I'm looking forward to seeing him in the next game. To play him as a more offensive midfielder might be the trick, and that is great for the club, but bad news for Mellis. I'm looking to getting a longer term replacement for Wotton, who is doing OK, but I'm looking forward to a younger version who can hold on to the ball and deliver good passes further up the field. We haven't got that player in the club yet, I don't think.

The non-appointment of Hoddle has already been through the press. The board, reported Keith Wiseman and others, turned the idea down because of the way GH left us the first time around. Maybe not a good idea in retrospect, but there was certainly no secrets and conspiracies involved in it.

If you're looking for a first, then think of the first early summer when he who should remain nameless lost Graeme Souness, who made it clear that the nameless one didn't know what he was talking about. For a banker it might have been a good idea to listen to a live manager and wisened old ex-manager, but it didn't happen then and it didn't happen later. Absolute arrogance was impossible to shift until the administrators walked through the door an awful many years later.

And a lot of other experience which we hope Nicola Cortese and ML never get to even hear about.

This is what it's like to be a professional footballer. For us supporters there is only one club in the world, but for a player it is about who is playing the wages and who fancies your way of playing the game. I sincerely hope that Gillett is successfull and enjoy his football in Doncaster. He's a good chap who had done a lot for us in very difficult circumstances. In the end he wasn't part of the manager's plans any more.

Nothing will beat a web site run directly by the club if headed by a good writer. I'm afraid that this is similar to the beer supply. Contract agreed a long time ago which we can't get out of for a long time.

Before this season started I was a great fan of Gillett and he was one of only three players I rated from last season. If I'm looking at the team AP is creating I have to admit that I can't see a role for him. He has never been an offensive creative or goalscoring spark, nor has he got a good record as a wide player. That leaves the defensive CM, which Wotton has played in the last few games. I think this is a position which AP will look to strengthen in the January window, but can I honestly say that I think it would be better if Gillett played there? Last year he had the advantage of being the all action hero in a midfield which was mainly confused. He looked like he was the only thing who could possibly provide a future, but that was in a different team struggling badly and with no confidence. I couldn't understand why AP didn't play him and thought that it was cruel. That's why AP is a top class manager and I'm not. But the truth is that that he was right and I wasn't. I wish Gillett the best of luck and hope that Doncaster falls in love with his style of football and offer him a good long term contract.

Maybe I should have expressed myself a bit clearer. It was at the point of going 3-1 up at Southend that we very successfully shut up shop. In any previous managerial situation, probably going back to Chris Nicholl, but with the exception of Strachan, we would have gone to pieces and defended like schoolboys, which is why most of us feel the end of any game arriving with dread and trepidation. Of course I don't expect us to defend a 1-0 lead, although Arsenal did it for ages with great success. It also lead to the acclamations of "boring, boring Arsenal", and being boring is not within the traditions of this club. The football produced over some of the later games is, and Pardew is starting to combine that flair and attacking football with the sense which says: 'Two goals up in the second half means a change of tactics which will win the game.' Let's not be unreasonable here, total calamities will still happen occasionally, but not every time, and not several times every season. They will be the exception, and Bristol Rovers will mark the end of a long and inglorious period for this club in that respect.

Part of the solution to the ills was knowledge and decent coaching, but the other one was self belief, or more to the point, the lack of it. You might concede a goal even though you don't think you will, but it's certain that you'll concede you think you will. Every conceded goal confirms what you thought all along. The prophecy of failure comes true. This is the lack of "winning mentality" which I haven't included in my list because I don't think that the nut is quite cracked yet, merely because changing mindsets takes time, just read this forum if you need to be convinced. No technical coaching can overcome that shortcoming. Only positive leadership can. Think back on the bosses you've had if you're old enough. Which ones made you shrink and become prone to make mistakes, and which ones made you grow a couple of inches, made you believe you could and encourage you to do what you hadn't dared to do before. The latter type are rarer by far, and now since we've got one, let's hope and pray that he sees taking us back into the Premiership as his project, because somewhere along the line there will be other and very lucrative demands for his services.

They are only struggling with a bit of self doubt at the moment. I'm sure they will have recovered by tomorrow.

Seems like we're members of the same club.