Wes Tender

He said that paranoia was the norm on here, Whitey. We all know that you're not normal.

Always willing to consider others poster's sensitivities. If you would kindly suggest an alternative phrase that conveys the same sentiments as concisely, I will be happy to consider using it as an alternative.

Nobody can argue that the past decade or so has been dull or boring. In many ways, if one had not lived through the reality and read the book as somebody who did not know the club or its past recent history, one could be excused for holding the opinion that the events were a matter of fiction, as they were often stranger than the actual facts.

Wasn't that Lowe who used the reserves and indeed the youth team last season? :cool:

Surely all of us Saints fans are dreamers and fantasists at heart. Despite the lowly position we now find ourselves, I still dream of a return to the top flight and fantasise about us taking Manchester United apart once again. 6-3 would be fantastic and one day we will do it again.

Yes, agreed, it was clever, as I said, subtle. So you don't think I was being paranoid picking up on it then?

The future is brighter because Lowe, Askham, Wilde, Crouch, Wiseman, Gordon, Richards and all those other charlatans are gone forever. It does no harm from time to time to remember the part they all played in the club's worst period of history, but at the moment most are happy to remember how much worse things could have been and how welcome this new chapter is instead.

Both proven to be right with hindsight, although one wouldn't have needed much foresight to have imagined that they knew what the outcome of the mad experiment or the potential of Forecast would be.

Do you think so? So the award was not for excellence, nor for a great coup, efficiency, performance, etc. It was because it was a Pinnacle in their career and purely coincidental that it was also the name of the main rival bidder that ****ed up things badly and might have lost us ML.

Did nobody else notice the subtle dig at Pinnacle in Nineteen's post? I think the award was given to BT for raising the club up from the lowe depths that the former board had allowed it to sink.

I would have been quite content to have carried on with our STs last season with Crouch as Chairman and Nigel Pearson as manager. I think that we would have survived both administration and also avoided relegation. But I am convinved that two factors signed Lowe's death knell on his return. Firstly his return itself resulted in a sufficient drop in attendances to make it increasingly more difficult to sustain a sufficient level of income to remain afloat. Secondly, the dismissal of Pearson and the appointment of the double Dutch and the mad experiment with the youth team playing total football, ensured the relegation and exacerbated the attendances decline when we were incapable of winning all but a handful of home matches. As somebody else said on another thread, when it was suggested a few months back that administration was the answer to our problems, most decried that opinion as the last thing we wanted. Although it is clear that there is no way that Lowe could have kept us going and that Crouch may or may not have succeeded with Pearson, what is plain, is that in actual fact, the best solution for the long term prosperity of the club has been administration. The best benefit of which was to purge the club of all those charlatans that held shares and whose further influence is gone for ever.

As it stands, apparently the FA haven't even ratified this takeover yet, although Fahim is de facto the owner. You could well be right though that Pompey might yet be taken over again within a year, as I do not have much confidence that Fahim is anywhere wealthy enough to keep the show on the road. I suspect that many Pompey fans are wondering how much better this other Arab might have been had Gaydamak not felt inclined to cosy up with Fahim instead of Storrie's choice.

Also have a broad smile on my face. Whereas I agree that it was very wrong for somebody to have defaced this board, the way that Nineteen managed to rake over the coals with his rant at McMenemy, Crouch and Le Tiss was comedy genius. As he said, without realising the irony, some people just can't let it go.

I agree with both the first posts. The professionalism of the operation so far has been exemplary. ML and Cortese just get on with things quietly and with dignity, IMO not having put a foot wrong so far. Just when one thinks that the transfer window has slammed shut, leaving us a little short still, along comes the terrific news on Waigo. Just when it seems that the backroom staff had been sorted, along comes the additional welcome news about Wally Downes. When that seemed to be the end for now, along comes the rumour that it is intended to add a Director of football too. Looking at the calibre of the backroom staff, they have all had experience as managers at one time or another. Looking at the players, again, several have been captains of their teams. We are not just appointing ability, but also experience and leadership qualities. It all bodes very well.

At the moment it's just chaos theory. I'd be bloody happy if it turned out to be a reality though.

All this talk about work permits for Jaidi continues, but nobody has convinced me that he needs a work permit having been here for over five years. At that stage, he could apply for an Indefinite Leave to Remain Visa, as per the attached info on the Border and Immigration website. However, that states that if the ILR Visa is not applied for, then he would have to reapply using the new points based system. I wonder whether that is the problem. If he applied for the ILR, 75% of cases are settled within 4 working weeks. Again, that could be the delay accounted for. http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingintheuk/tier2/sportspeople/

Agreed. If true that he was the main instigator of the Crazy Gang at Wimbledon, then I take my hat off to him. They remain the best known example of a football team with the highest level of camaraderie, the epitomy of the difference that great team spirit can make, translating into playing above your level because you play for your team mates as a unit. That esprit de corps also meant that players were reluctant to leave, as a large part of their enjoyment in playing for that team was derived from the deeper friendships that followed on from it and which they knew they would miss elsewhere.

I think that we are missing the team spirit we had when they took part in character building activities like clay pigeon shooting, which also indirectly taught co-ordination and good anticipation. I wonder whether we have anybody with contacts in the farming community who might be able to recommend somebody able to arrange events like that?

So let's just give up commenting on those things we disagree with in posts, as there is obviously no point in having a discussion, thus defeating the whole essence of this forum.

I feel good about this if true. Coppell is not the big ego that would clash with the manager if the lines are clearly drawn and I think that Coppell would also relish the job, having the spotlight away from him, but still being involved with football. It would also allow Pardew to concentrate on coaching the team full time, not having the distractions of involvement with all the technicalities of transfer activity. This would pretty well complete the entire infrastructure of management, from D of F, Mananger, assistant coach, scout, etc. We would have some highly qualified and respected people in those posts, better than most other clubs in our league position and it will be a further encouragemement for players to come here.

I remember watching the video of Tin Man Delgado when we had signed him and thinking that we had somebody as good as any Brazilian on the evidence of it. But then again, looking at the videos of McGoldrick and B-WP at the time we were selling them, their future clubs could be excused in thinking that they were brilliant players, not realising that for every goal they scored, they'd missed 6 other chances. On the other hand, it is at least indicative that if he was deemed good enough to play for Fiorentino, Weigo ought to be able to cut it down in our third division.

Depending on various factors, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that we could still achieve the play-offs. We have had some bad luck up to this stage, what with the time required to sort out the buy-out from administration, appointment of a new manager, him having to juggle several balls in the air whilst taking training, looking at players and searching for a backroom staff to take some of the weight off his shoulders. Even up to the closing of the transfer window we couldn't proceed until we knew who might stay and who would go. From that viewpoint we had luck with Saga staying and the reverse with John leaving having said he wanted to stay and Rasiak also leaving. The bad luck has also meant that Murty, who looked a very solid and experienced player was injured and there was not enough time to get in cover, although we could make loans. Also, another two players, Jaidi and Weigo, have been delayed and would certainly have made a difference had they been in the team earlier (Jaidi) or last match (Weigo) The way that these things go, some teams will forge ahead and look to be out of reach. They will then falter and fall back into the melee. Other teams that have settled squads will have key players suddenly having bad injuries and will suffer reverses as a result. Good teams will take points away from each other. I have a strong feeling that in many parts of the team we are nearly there. There is no indication that Pardew has settled on what he has now and might well make other signings or loans. Now the transfer window is shut, it is much clearer to many managers who is still available and who is surplus to requirements. I feel sure that once we gain the first win, confidence will grow and we are capable of stringing together a decent run that not only wipes out the remaining points deficit, but also allows us to climb away from the bottom and towards contention with most of the other teams. At the time when we were appointing the manager, I had hoped for either Curbishley or Coppell and was a bit disappointed with Pardew. But I have changed my mind based on what I have seen of him and who he has brought in. I don't think he has done much wrong. Like one or two others, I am just grateful that we still have a club after Lowe almost took us to the knacker's yard and I am also enjoying the feeling that this is our team once more and that the club is run by people who respect us and have ambition to take us back to the top flight. They are going about it the right way so far, taking things in a measured and reasoned progression which should provide stability in the future with a good base.

Good shout! Sometimes incredible passes. Shame about the rest of his game though.

Shush Arizona. You can't disagree with Bizzle's opinion. He could have been a contender himself and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the game from having played at the highest level and an Oxbridge degree, so I understand.

You bet he was a Godsend - and still the main reason that we are where we are in the third division. We wouldn't be having this debate on this thread now, if it wasn't for his bumbling incompetence.