Wes Tender

And neither is there any reason to belittle his accomplishments. If he's qualified in a discipline such as that, what has the passage of time got to do with anything? In case you didn't know, he had to retire from being a keeper through injury. Who compared his medical background against the importance of sports science? Oh, you did. Do try a little harder to come up with something better.

There are several players who came back from their holidays at the start of the season, or who joined us as transfers in and who looked overweight. After a few weeks, they were noticeably slimmer and fitter. Lambert is one prime example and Boruc is another. But you're probably right in what you infer, that they're not actually fitter, but maybe have just been on a diet instead. The benefit of having a manager with a background as a physiotherapist, is that he is more likely not to rush players back from injuries until they're fully healed, or to provide an exercise regime that is likely not to cause injuries to them. I just hope that with the new guy, these aspects and also the dietary side of things aren't overlooked.

Who did you have in mind?

Had we signed Michu in the Summer, just think where we could have been now. All very well to look at these things in hindsight and without knowledge of what the situation was at that time and furthermore whose fault it was that somethings didn't happen.

As you're going all the way back to the Aston Villa match at home, we might as well include it, eh? So our home form including that match and the following ones, is 3 wins, 5 draws and two losses. Amongst the draws are those against Arsenal and Everton. Both good points, wouldn't you say? OK, the draws against Swansea, Norwich and Fulham might have gone either way, but Swansea and Norwich are arguably very much like us and have produced upsets against the glory teams, so a draw against them is not unreasonable. You make a point of saying that since the first Villa match we have only won two matches, but then again we have only lost two as well. We perhaps ought to have beaten Sunderland, but would you have expected us to beat Spurs? And as this period covers 19 matches, i.e. half a season, then logically every other team has also had a very similar run of home games too. See, you can spin this however you want, depending on whether you want to show it in a good light or a poor one. No bother guessing which way you're leaning.

Well, he didn't arrive here until we'd already played 5 matches. And then presumably you'd throw him in at the deep end regardless of whether he was match fit and had no time to get to know his defence on the training ground?

We will never know. But we can make comparisons between what Adkins achieved in the first half of the season, against what Pochettino achieves in the second half. Bear in mind also that getting us to 15th included the very difficult run when the players were getting used to the step-up in quality in this division; a baptism of fire. Now they are much more aware of what is required and are accordingly more comfortable and confident than they were as a result.

Well, all you'd need to do is have a look back over my recent posts to see that I've never said that, but if it makes you feel happy to believe that, then fill your boots. The prediction of 10th was what I had forecast before the first ball was kicked this season. It isn't too far removed from what Norwich and Swansea achieved in their first season after promotion and I considered that we were better than them at the same stage. Even now, we are only 6 points away from 10th and whether we get there rather depends on what signings we make before the transfer window closes and also naturally how those teams around us perform. We have an opportunity to take points away from them to improve our position. I see that Turkish feels confident that we could finish up 15th or 16th, when Adkins already had us in 15th, but he will not factor in that maybe two or three players will be brought in to strengthen the team, which is why I think it is fair to say that anything less than what Adkins has managed to achieve with what would logically be regarded as a weaker team than the one we finish the season with can be regarded as a failure. If Pochettino can't improve on the position he inherited from Adkins with a strengthened squad, then what exactly would be the point in bringing him in?

You contradict yourself, but can't see it apparently. In the first three lines, you make a case for how in your opinion Adkins made poor decisions which would lead to us being relegated. And then in the last line, you say that you would credit MP as being a success if we only manage survival in the Premiership, even though Adkins had us currently in 15th place with a 3 point margin over the first relegation spot. And the team has already been strengthened with Forren and is expected to be further strenghthened with some really classy players from Spain/Argentina/Brazil. You set the bar really low and I suspect that Cortese is expecting much more than you. I had forecast us for 10th place at the start of the season and reckon that with additional signings in this window, we would still have achieved it under Adkins. That is probably why anything less than 15th will be a failure in my eyes.

Yes, we should get even better because we will sign new players to improve the squad. But Adkins was denied seeing how he might have fared with those new players. As you say, time will tell, but I've made my opinion clear. If we don't do better than the position that Pochettino inherited, especially with extra players brought in to strengthen the squad, then that will be failure in my eyes.

We were getting even better under Adkins.

I thought that the match was probably not much different to how it would have been had Adkins been on the touchline. Whether the players raised their efforts because they had to impress the new man is a moot point. Personally I'm a little bit disappointed that there weren't more chants for Nigel, but as I had said earlier, one match is enough to register the protest and then get behind the team and the new guy. What was class from Pochettino though, was that when there was a chant of one Nigel Adkins, he acknowledged it and applauded. In terms of how MP saw the game though, I think that he would have been impressed with most of what we gave him. Where we have drawn against some of the top teams recently, we can't be far away from the finished article, although he will soon learn that the substitutes like De Ridder bring very little to the team in terms of quality. In the matches against Arsenal, Stoke, Chelsea and now Everton, they were all matches where we could have gained all three points with the rub of the green and in none of them were we deemed to be particularly lucky to have got the draw. So from now on until the end of the season, the jury is out on whether this change was a good idea or not. IMO opinion, Adkins would have achieved at least the position he left, 15th and 3 points clear of the relegation places. If MP does not at least equal that, then I won't acknowledge that there was any point in making the change.

Naval gazing is probably more prevalent in Southsea, (hello sailor) but here we can only gaze at our navels.

You'd better go on some English Language forums and put them right then. http://www.englishforums.com/English/SpelledOrSpelt/kzmjz/post.htm I'm old probably a bit older than you and have been speaking the English Language long enough to side with Vectis Saint, with the same spelling as his in that context.

It's not a far as it goes at all. If we pay our money to watch the team, we are also entitled to express our opinions as to whether we like what we are seeing and if our payment for a single ticket or a ST represents good value. We are like any other audience paying to see an entertainment event. We can laugh or cry, cheer or boo, chant or heckle. Granted that some forms of reaction might be detrimental to the team's performance so those should be avoided, but any fan that pays to watch is entitled to react to what they are seeing in whatever way they see fit, within the rules of the ground or the law. And also please accept that the people running the club are not always immune from being considered to be helping the opposition either. But it's their club technically, if not spiritually, so they can do what they like. What they can't do is make us accept or like all of their actions.

Will it? Please explain. Were attendances hampered by having Adkins as manager?

Wrong. Both are acceptable.

Quite. And as I mentioned above, the team has already presumably been strengthened by the addition of Forren and might be further strengthened shortly. Adkins never had the opportunity of seeing how he might have fared with this stronger team, so it is only fair to judge the new man at least on whether he can better the points per match achieved by Adkins. Under the circumstances he ought to be able to, or the blame must lie with Cortese for an error in judgement by replacing Adkins with somebody who will have proven to be less capable.

I'm taking it that you haven't contributed. Nigel will be heartbroken to note your absence. And surely if we're all gays, then we would be upset if dumped by a guy? Or do guys call their boyfriends birds? I don't know, but I'll bow to your expertise on the matter.

They probably don't. But it will be good for Pochettino to have somebody to speak to in his native tongue.

Of course the cup match was excluded; it is irrelevant to whether we get relegated or not and even then we didn't play our strongest team. Anybody bringing Chelsea into the equation will pay a lot more attention to the fact that after the cup match, we drew with the European Champions away, coming back from two goals down. As for the media's figures, which media figures should we pay more attention too? The ones where they produced that ridiculous table showing Adkins' record as manager was poor compared to Sturrock's (amongst other stupidity), or his record during the past few games, which showed a significant improvement over the starting matches of the season when we played the toughest opponents? The crux of the matter is that you have extrapolated the points gained against the number of matches played and on that basis have forecast that we will end the season on 38 points. Whether Adkins would have achieved that, or bettered it, we will never know. But we certainly will find out whether Pochettino will better that total. We already have a new player transferred in and possibly will have others before the end of the month. So Pochinetto's team should be stronger. On that basis, anything other than an improvement on 38 points should be deemed to be a failure, right? Most fans had expected survival this season and that we build on it next year. As we now have this new highly qualified young dynamic manager in charge now, I shall be expecting great things from him.

The reason that we lost matches in the past has now become clear. It was because we were chanting "one Nigel Adkins". The same was probably true when we sang the song for Markus Liebherr. After all, he is no longer with us either. So it's plain that if we chant for Nigel, the team will see it is a negative thing and realise that we no longer love them, their heads will drop and the match will be lost. In reality, it is not the same as booing or derisive whistling and is a positive, encouraging sound, which will only be a background noise anyway. As such, it will add to the atmosphere. So I will be chanting it loud and proud, as I'm sure most of the Northam will. If we do well in the match, then Cortese will get off lightly, but if we get tonked, then expect a lot of derision to heaped on his shoulders. It is human nature.

Does he speak English?

Does he? Doesn't speak English, has only had one managerial appointment before, sacked by that club when they were bottom of the league, no experience of managing a Premiership club, not even any experience of English football. I accept that he might well be brilliant and that he is highly regarded by many and might become the next Mourinho. But on the other hand he might be an unmitigated disaster. We'll have to wait and see, but at the moment, until we have evidence to ground a realistic opinion on, those currently fearing that Cortese might have made a dreadful mistake hold the same validity to their opinion as do those who think that Cortese might have produced a management change that is a masterstroke. Put me in the camp that questions whether Pochettino has the credentials to take us to the next stage.

Agree with this word for word. The singing of Nigel's name will be cathartic and then we can move on, having shown our feelings towards him and our disgust at the way that Cortese has acted. Anybody who thinks that chanting "there's only one Nigel Adkins" will somehow disrupt the players, had better explain why that would be any different to us chanting the same thing during pretty all of the matches that he's managed since coming here.