sadoldgit

If we didn't want Cork why did we offer him another contract?

I'd be interested to know how many sides have bounced straight back up again. I see Fulham as a similar club to us in terms of size and they have struggled. Not easy.

Apart from the fact that Cork turned down a new contract with us and decided to move to Swansea. And perhaps Clasie is a better player?

I think we need to use everything we can in order to compete. We are never going to be a "brand" like Manure but we can use the stepping stone approach for players and managers to our advantage.

Thanks for the heads up KB!

As it was America (don't know which state) it could be that at 17 they were still below the age of consent in that state?

Quality quality controller!

My bad, it does say left back!

The Guardian have Will as one of 20 youngsters to watch in The Premiership. 18 year old CH who can play left back. Played 45 mins against Leipzig. Not seen him mentioned on here before. Anyone seen him play?

Used to love those reports in the old days about the trialists. Also the feedback we used to get from the training sessions. Remember Minty getting some grief from the club about giving away details of a set piece corner kick. Happy days!

If you as a club had a great player you would want to tie him in for the whole of his career. If you were said player and agent you would want to keep your options open with a shorter contract surely?

Duncan, if you are still reading this thread - there is a good book to be written about Lowe's time at the club. Do you think he would be interested in telling his side of the story?

A question you could ask of many football club fans.

To keep a Premiership club in the Premiership with crowds of 15k would entail some level of competence wouldn't it? Or was it just luck? You also need to look at what Wilde and others did to the finances when Lowe left.

It was on the bottom of a web page I was looking at yesterday. I will try and find it again. The mothers of the "boys" were saying they had been abused. I really doubt that they struggled much. From what I gather none of them complained!

I think many people thought that Redknapp was the man for the job. Clearly in hindsight it was a mistake. Wigley and Gray were both highly rated coaches and other clubs had used coaches and directors of football to good effect. The Dutch model also made sense on paper although once again it didn't work out in theory. For the failures there were also some good and high profile appointments Strachan, Hoddle, Jones etc - so it is not as though everything he and his Board did was a f**k up.

I see a woman has been jailed for 22 years in America (a teacher) for having sex with three 17 year old lads. 22 years? For a start I doubt very much if she had to tie the guys down but you wouldn't get that for murder here.

From what I read Les had not problems with Athletico and it is only when the player himself decided to join Spurs instead that we had problems. He was very complimentary about them.

We have had many decent players over the years but have rarely been able to keep them together. Even back in the 80s Keegan left before we brought in Shilton, which is a shame.

There is an article by Adam Leitch in the Echo about "Lowe's legacy" (MS) and about a meeting he had with Lowe and Wilde at the start of Morgan's career which is worth reading for those who think that signing Morgan was luck. It also gives Pardew a lot of credit for bringing him on.

Nice to see someone leave with a bit of class. Did a wonderful job for us and as much as I hope Manure have a crap season I wish him well in the future.

I would send Gazza out on loan to give him more experience and to see if he is ever likely to make it and bring in another on a one year contract.

On the outer reaches of the solar system.

The only difference being that when we bought Schneiderlin it was for his potential. Apart from that, spot on!

There is another thread here about deluded Spurs fans. Moving the debate along I have to say that I feel sorry for anyone running a football club and managing the fans' expectations. Keeping a club competitive when so much is about money nowadays is a tough nut to crack. Would MLT have stayed if he played for us now? Would Lawrie Mac had been able to bring the European Player of the Year to SFC now? Debatable. Even after the good work that the Board did last year and the brilliant season we had there are still those looking to get on the backs the minute something perceivably goes wrong. I see Lowe now getting the blame for hiring Redknapp where at the time I think most of us thought it a prudent move. No one knew that he would do such a crap job and blow £6m (which was a lot of money for us in those days) on rubbish. Still nothing I say will change anyones minds so I'll leave it to you guys to continue the debate.