Clifford Nelson

The current predicament is not due to AP, but to what he found when he arrived here, very late in the pre-season, with a caretaker manager who went out in the Echo declaring that we were well prepared and ready to start the season. From last years side we are now left with KD, James, Lallana and Schneiderlin. For three of those players there are still question marks. In spite of all the new players we're still not got natural wide players, nor do we have pace, and apart from Holmes on the left wing for natural width, the other things don't exist in the club. Every player need Character, Pace and Technique. Pace has been neglected for years and has ceased to exist in the club. Character was almost killed off with all the excuses and the non-competitive ethic of the coaching staff. AP spotted this immediately, just like Redknapp spotted the lack of pace a long time ago. AP is getting some of the character back. Pace, however, can only be coached in very limited fashion. Either you're quick or you're not, and the older you get the slower you get. It must be bought together with crossing skills. The only question I've got over AP's judgement is holding on to Lallana and James at any price and therefore ending up shunting them from left to right and wide to central rather than just subbing them. With a fit Thomas or Murty at RB there just isn't room for any wide players if AL and LJ are still to play every game.

Well spoken. Those who work really hard and still fail need to be defended, but those who seem not to care need a rocket. If they still don't get that the professional game is about winning, then we know that they don't belong here. This isn't boy's football anymore, this is the professional game. We are still suffering that this lack of pride and endeavour has been allowed to fester and grow in the club. AP will have to be the one to eradicate it and I have no doubt that he will do so. That is the only way to get back to winning ways.

Fry did whatever he could to drive up the price. That was his job. Was he successful? Probably not since when Pinnacle crashed there was only one option left which had any money, but he did what his employers wanted from him. Thank God it is all over and I can have interesting, and sometimes infuriating discussiona about football. Should we play with more wingers? Harding is a great signing, so there! I think Lallana will make it or break it this season. I can't understand why AP doesn't play our left wingers. Look at those poor buggers down the road. Six losses, no hope, total confusion. What did we get in the end? - No debts and an owner who doesn't want to be a celeb and considers himself a custodian of the club. This must surely be happiness of sorts. Could Fry have done better? For outcome, no, but for the road travelled, yes.

If anybody thinks that the problem in Portsmouth is the manager that must be as deluded you can get. The reason for that is the owner. Anybody who would consider managing them instead of Hart at the moment is either thick as the proverbial planks or in serious financial trouble. I can't see WGS fitting in any category. The one I feel sorry for at the moment is Paul Hart. After everything that has happened over the summer to get it in the neck for being the only one left on board apart from Storrie, who probably will be gone by Monday. A few years in the Premiership created the most appalling debts so that most players had to be sold so that a lying, cheating, self-aggrandising little squirt with no money could take over the club. Whilst there is a part of me which thinks they deserve it, there is another side of me thinking that nobody deserves it. If I had been born in P-muff I could have been one of them!!! And I would have suffered as much as we did until a genuine custodian stepped in to save us from oblivion. They are not so lucky and we will meet them in CCC in a year or two, unless we pass each other going up and down. What goes around...

Since quite a few of us have considered the lack of a winning mentality for a long time it would be madness for AP to keep it quiet. What on earth for? This is one of the attractive traits of the new regime. Some openness and honesty. Hallelujah!

I think you are touching on something I argued earlier. With great players they should be able to interchange and play wide as well as arriving late in the box, but we are not on that planet. Our players can become robotic is shoehorned into a rigid 4-4-2. We desperately need width, but we also need late runs into the box, pace to rip the CBs apart, killerballs, etc. Wingers can't provide it all. Let's not forget that we have signed a midfielder with a habit of scoring with regularity. Let Hammond have his way.

I like Harding and think that he is the player of the season so far, so I can't agree with you there. However, if we are looking at a 4-3-3 formation where most of the width and crossing is to come from the fullbacks, then I'll give it a second thought. I've got no view on Holmes so far, I never saw him last year. Whoever can knock the ball towards the touchline and provide a reasonable cross is OK as far as I'm concerned. I have seen Mellis, though, and I am decidedly underwhelmed. It looks strange to me to persevere with Lallana on the left with so much available alternatives. On the right there is only Papa Waigo who nobody has ever seen play wide. Hmmm...

We have two fit, left footed wide players in the squad with Fish and Holmes. Let's play them and find out who is the preferable left footed winger. It's none of the others, and that includes Mellis who's purpose I have failed to spot so far. On the right we have no fit wide players with pace in the club. Waigo is one possibility, but we haven't seen him there yet. In the meantime I would so much prefer Lallana to play on the right to at least allow one winger on the pitch. Lallana and James are not the answers to our lack of width.

There are a few of us who have argued, both here and in other places, that the attitude amongst the players have been unacceptable in the past. We said this before AP came in, and were delighted that he immediately spotted what seemed clear to us at the time. Players laughing and joking with their mates after leaving SMS after another loss; players being out celebrating on a Saturday with nothing to celebrate; coaches excusing the losses; academy bosses claiming that winning is not important; I could go on. Being a professional footballer has got one single purpose, which is to win games of football. When that is forgotten and we still notice the jolly japes with the girlies and the sports cars and the nightclubs, the waitresses handbags, drunkenness and fighting on the streets, etc. the whole enterprise has lost its purpose. I am delighted that AP object strongly to the nonsense and sees it as an obstacle to progress, because that is what it is. It will, I'm sure, be rooted out.

Hammond is the obvious choice. Give him another couple of games to establish his authority in this squad.

The attack is toothless, just note the lack of goals from open play. It isn't Lambert's fault, but both pace and width needs to be added to him up front. At them moment that's what's lacking IMO. Lambert's fine.

I think Chez has got a point, and so have you. Players must be played in the position they are meant for. I think it is possible to make one exception, but only one, which would be Lallana on the right. Then there are the oval pegs Chez is talking about and the ones I suspect are not good enough, like Mellis and Thomson, at least for now. Mills and Holmes are left footed and used to play on LM. They haven't got genuine pace, but play them until we have somebody who has. What McLaggon can do we will have to wait and see when he is fit. We're not lacking only width, but pace as well. The only genuine speedster around the first team is Waigo. Lallana shouldn't play as a partner to Lambert. He is not direct enough. And he doesn't belong in the centre of a four man midfield. In the hole behind the striker in a three man midfield is a different option. But even there we need pace. Is the lack of that worse than lack of width?

4-4-2 can sometimes become a bit of a robotic formation which doesn't allow individual talent to shine, and as we have seen it's no guarantee of width either. With genuine wide players the formation is less of a problem. Does one dare to think even the possibilities of 4..........?

Is it possible to even think 4-3-3 after last year or will it forever be associated with chairmen whose names we can't make ourselves write down in full? It requires much better players than we had last year. We've got them now.

If you're already wealthy and have some integrity - yes, I know it is a very rare combination - then you might be attracted to neither making, nor losing money, but to set a decent example that success doesn't equate horrifying overdrafts or rich semi-gangsters?

There was a chap of similar age with a light brown jacket on. He was also reported to have gone to Charlton. That's the best I can do.

I think he is immense, but I would like to see him more offensive. With a decent partner he should be encouraged to get himself in the box at every opportunity. But what partner? I don't trust Schneiderlin in CM and on Saturday every other pass was a miss-pass. James may be steadier, and I don't think AP is prioritising this position for a loan.

As before I agree in parts. One of James and Lallana has got to go. You would prefer both. I'd let Fish start on the left wing every time, and I think you agree. I'm far from convinced about Schneiderlin and wonder if James might do better as a defensive CM. If you persevere with him you have to drop James. Honestly I wouldn't be too worried if AP did. In any case Hammond has got to be released to get into the box at every opportunity. I think you agree. Waigo in his twenty minutes on Saturday showed a very acute awareness of where the goal was and managed two shots on goal from open play, (the rest of the team managed one in the whole game), one a stinger at an acute angle, but he hit the target. If Lambert had reached him with a pass he would have scored as well. With our struggle to get anywhere with Saga, wouldn't it be a sad affair to leave Waigo on the wing?

We could offer him some work experience...

And two shots on goal. Since we only had five in all and two were pens he did more in that department from open play than anybody.

Schneiderlin's problems against Yeovil was not being able to hit any passes with confidence. If he has got sublime skills he should be able to hit a ten yarder to the right shirt. He failed to do that on several occasions. I agree we need width and think we need to play Fish and Holmes on the left flank. Lallana is not going to turn into a winger, but I've seen enough promise this season to persevere with him in that position. He is too indirect to be much good as a striker. I am growing to like him. Futhermore there isn't a right winger in the club. With AP we now know a few things, such as that he doesn't like Gillett and that he is not going to drop either Lallana or James. Therefore we are not going to see an attempt at playing Gillett on the right. If James is to play then secure him behind Hammond in the midfield so that Hammond can push on into the box. Waigo also showed enough on Saturday to warrant a start alongside Lambert. He's cute and pacy, and on a couple of occasions it was the latter which made the linesman believe he was off side. I sat in a good position to judge. He can create a lot of chaos around Lambert.

I agree that neither James nor Lallana are wingers. Since we have a couple of left wingers in Fish and Holmes that should at least be the starting point. You can live with only one winger, but not without any. The next question is who plays with Hammond in the centre. Hammond should be encouraged to make the runs, but somebody is to sit behind him, and on yesterdays performance, and to be honest on all his performances I've seen, it isn't Schneiderlin who I now consider sadly overrated. Yesterday he struggled to get any passes to a team mate, although his tackling had improved a little. To be honest I think I prefer James in the middle of the park as a more defensive CM.

Not surprising since they would have seen the television pictures. Saga fell over the outstretched leg of the defender who was nowhere near playing the ball.. That is a penalty, and when I thought I saw a dive at SMS, I was entirely wrong. After seeing the pictures there is no point in debating it.

You could get 20 to 1 on Saints getting promoted last week. Suddenly it doesn't look that outrageous. £100 would turn into £2K! Hmmmm......

The whole of my section was convinced that Saga dived, and so was I, but we were also delighted that our luck had turned. Watching it on BBC last night I must admit that we were all wrong. It was a very unnecessary but absolutely clear penalty. Maybe our views were tainted from sitting in the Chapel end of the Kingsland. It didn't hamper us with the handball, though, which was right in front of us. Handball it was, but some linos might not have given it. This one did, so credit to him, even thought he was the same lino who waved Waigo off side at every opportunity. Admittedly sometimes he was, but not all the time. He is so cute and pacy so that he sometimes looks off side even though being well on when the ball was hit.