Wes Tender

We are in a state of limbo. We no longer have to worry about whether the club will cease to exist, thank God. But we have no manager and need to replace a few players. Until we know which manager it will be and which players, what else is there to discuss? Apart from how we fared against various minnows in pre-season matches, that is. Roll on the new season; it can't come quickly enough.

Just thought I'd go and renew my ST, (despite not knowing whether Tony Adams might be our manager) There is a queue of about 100 people there at the moment, so I thought sod it, I'll go on Monday instead. But it certainly looks as if ST sales will be good.

Don't be silly! He isn't.

I think that you'll find that there is a difference between scepticism and disappointment that followed WGS's original appointment and the strength of feeling that has been generated by the suggestion that Tony Adams is being considered. Apart from any other consideration, WGS had not managed and failed at Skatesmouth, opening us up to ridicule that our super-duper mega wealthy new owner had to resort to hiring Pompey's rejects.

Perhaps he's not on the shotlist as he has already been chosen as the one

But metaphorically the first rays of sunshine have lightened the gloom the past few days.

Ditto. Everything so far has been exemplary. This would be the first mistake. Get a name in, somebody to inspire confidence and add to the ST and gate sales. Please don't give our main rivals the opportunity to poke fun at us for taking their rejects.

When all's said and done, Pearson has actually demonstrated an ability to keep this club from relegation and then to get another club promoted from the 3rd division. Personally, I wouldn't be that upset if we appointed him, giving him the similar sized chequebook allowance and let him get on with it, as his track record in the management of a third division club of equal stature and size to ours is currently the best most recent one and we actually have a wealthier owner than Mad Mandaric for a change.

I remember going to the ticket office at the very end of the season when it was certain that we were relegated and going into administration. Dave was just sat at his desk with his head in his hands, looking a broken man. I suspect that like most of us he is now somebody with a broad grin on his face and a spring in his step once more. I'm pleased for him, as he has always struck me as a decent bloke.

Says the towering intellect and morally unimpeachable Red and White Army.

Probably not at this moment. He might do so when Wolves are relegated and we are promoted, especially if he spends a lot of next season warming the bench. In the meantime, he can reflect on what a crappy environment Wolverhampton is compared to down here if he lives there, or else how tiring it is commuting down here to see family and friends.

Where does pride enter the equation? He had nothing to prove. It isn't as if we are the best that he could do, that there are no other offers on the table forcing him to take this job as a last resort. He might just relish the challenge of taking a club back to the Premiership from division 3, having far less pressure on him than exists at Celtic. He might favour the quality of life that he could have down here. Who knows?

And as I mentioned previously, Poortvliet felt betrayed when Wotte took over from him too. What comes around, goes around, or is it the other way about?

I can't disagree with anything you say. I'm happy that all over the forum there are signs of unity of purpose and a general feeling of well-being breaking out where a few days ago there was division and pessimism. I look forward to discussing the merits of the new manager, the new players, the results of the matches, the standard of refereeing in this division, the quality or lack of quality of the catering at other grounds, etc. Whenever anything surfaces in areas other than those and criticism arises regarding the way the club is run, all we will have to do is remind ourselves of how close we came to either going out of existance, or being taken over by one of the tyre-kicker groups and sanity should return.

I don't know whether anybody has mentioned it and I can't be botherered to look, but there is an explanation on the OS about memberships. Whether it has been put there since this question arose or not, I can't say. It states that although there will not be any membership this season, the records of past memberships and match attendances have been recorded on their database and should a match be restricted to those who have had a good record of attendances in the past, that information is there to help decide who should have tickets. Although the club could have had additional revenue from memberships, it seems credible that this encourages ST sales, at the same time also ensuring that when ticket sales are restricted, they go to ST holders and those who have been to most matches. Fair enough?

Whereas I have some sympathy for Wotte, that does not mean for one second that I would have kept him on to give him a chance to prove what he might achieve in this division as some have suggested. I seem to recall that there was some ill feeling towards Wotte from Poortvliet when he was ousted, so there is an element of the biter bit about this. Anyway, I never considered Wotte to be a suitable manager for us in the first place and predicted our relegation with Poortvliet and Wotte a season ago. The situation has changed totally from a few days ago. We might have been forced by financial straits to have accepted a manager who was willing to do the job for low pay and accept that low pay invariably brings poor quality with it. But as we now have serious ambitions to return to the Premiership within a short time frame and can afford to put in place the optimum factors to achieve that, the best players for this level and the best manager for the task at this level, why would ML risk jeopardising our prospects by keeping on a manager or players who are not the best, just for the sake of sentimentality?

For once I totally agree with you. My opinion of Administrators now has them top of my league of despised professions, ahead of Traffic Wardens, Estate Agents and Politicians. Yes, of course I'm thankful that they managed to get us bought by the dream candidate, but I agree that it seemingly took much longer than it needed to and that the monstrous daily rate they charge is in itself a disincentive to finalise quickly. This profession falls into the category of a license to print money. For many smaller businesses, the fees must also be a disincentive for a buyer, as they must often be totally out of proportion with the company's worth.

I have a feeling somehow that we deserve this change of fortune after everything that we have had to endure these past years. It has been annoying that we have developed some decent players through our youth academy, only to know full well that we would have to sell them because we could not afford to keep them. It really would be nice for a change to know that if a player of ours had offers made for him, the decision would no longer be based entirely on financial considerations, that we would be able to tell those buyers that he isn't for sale for less than some ridiculous amount and if you don't like it, you can go and get stuffed. I hope that instead of selling one good player and replacing him from the proceeds with three average players, we are now in a position to be far more selective about choosing those players who the other teams in the division would envy us for having. I'm delighted especially that with one owner, we will not have the incessant bickering between egos that we had before, the distructive nature of which was a major cause of the club's demise. So for many reasons, I am really on cloud nine, confident that we will also choose the right manager for the job too.

I thought that the FAPP worry was that there could have been others in the Consortium who might not be acceptable, people like Shinawatra for example. Or is the bid coming just from Fahim? He doesn't seem to be worth all that much in comparison to our owner for a change. But just to correct an inaccuracy in your post, ML is not the crane dealer. He has his own engineering businesses, but even the family are actual manufacturers, not dealers. It's a bit like calling Henry Ford a car dealer. Is your guy entitled to call himself Doctor? And that "Al" thing; is it a bit like "Al" Fayed? He isn't entitled to use that as I understand it. Is your guy?.

And if there is any truth at all in the rumour that you didn't get on with Wotte, well, he's gone. Why not wait and see who replaces him? It ought to be somebody with great motivational skills, somebody with the ability to get the best out of players and you might reap the rewards of benefitting from it.

I echo those sentiments.

Are these caused by numerous Peters having a crap in the same place?

I feel like going up to them and saying "Why don't you support your local shops, you plastic shopper? Just because we have Premier League shops and yours are third division. Where were you when ours were crap?

Originally Posted by Window Cleaner Mystic Meg

It might be sensible to run the business in a certain way, making decisions that are deemed to be correct without interference from the fans. However, the owners of a club need to be aware that often the financial success of a club is dependent on having as full a stadium as possible by offering good value entertainment and not ****ing off the paying customers. Now ML is wealthy enough to continue for some time with an empty stadium if he wanted. But having read a bit about the guy, he seems to be making all the right noises that he was attracted by us as a family club and wants to help restore our fortunes to where they were. I am entirely confident that although he might not wish to be bothered every five minutes by fans' demands, he will otherwise deal with us fairly and with respect, gaining respect from us in return. I'll happily give Oldknow a chance to prove himself with a clean slate and respect that he is the choice of our saviour. However, if he antagonises the paying customers, ML has the right to know if he is alienating the fans and affecting revenue streams. Whether he replaces him then, is entirely up to him.