sadoldgit

Woot woot. More of the same please!

Apparently someone put a transfer request in the day the window closed. Perhaps it was him?

From that post the other week I thought you knew Nicola intimately, so it now appears that you know no more about him than I do. As for your last point. I spoke to a lady whose son works at St Mary's and she told me that he wasn't liked by the staff. Perhaps she was lying because she has an agenda, who knows? Still, you will discount anything that shows him in a poor light because it doesn't suit your position so we cancel each other out don't we. How do you know that we didn't give it our best shot? We one of the highest scoring team in the league, hardly a sign that we were saving ourselves for cup games is it? Anyway, we won today so who gives a f***?

Yay!

Pradew has either signed something saying that he will not speak about the sacking (which is most likely) or out of dignity he has kept his mouth shout. There are two sides to every story. Cortese will have his as will Pardew. To draw an inferrence that Pardew must be guilty because he hasn't said anything is your own choice.

You really need to read a post before you slag it off Alps. As for an agenda, yesI do have one. It is to try and get some decent discussions going but that isn't going to happen unless you clear your mind before you start with your usual knee jerk reactionar response. Why don't you try and eal with the subject matter? How do you feel about the current situation? Did you feel we had turned a corner only to find that nothing had changed? If so, why do you feel that is? I see from anothet thread that you say we are heading for another relegation. If you really think that why is it when we have a supposedly better set up now? Don't you think these questions needed to be discussed? It has nothing to do with any one individual, but be honest, what really has changed?

I am not burying my head mate. I just have not read anything that said screw the league I am going all out for a cup. If he said it fair enough, but maybe he said it because he thought that a cup was winnable whereas after the slow start and the minus 10 he had less chance of getting up? As you seem to know what is in NCs mind so well, was it part of the 5 year plan to go up last year at all costs? You still don't say how you know what is in NCs mind so well but as you do, I'd be interested in what he thinks about his poor relationship with the staff at St Marys?

Why doesn't Pardew's silence do him any favours? No doubt he has had to sign a "gagging order." If Cortese gets credit for keeping his mouth shut perhaps Pardew should do too? What I am interested is not so much the reason for the sacking as you say, there are legal reasons for that, but the reason behind their falling out, if there was one. The sports pages are full of gossip about various managers and their CEO not getting on, bot not a word about Cortese and Pardew. Cortese employed Pardew so must have rated him at the start. His obvious lack of public support later though showed that something was very amiss.

How do you know this for certain? I don't recall Pardew ever saying her was prioritising the cups? I thought he wanted both. He said, quite rightly, that the club had been starved of success and needed to get a winning mentality back. Winning a cup was a huge boost for this club last year. I'd be interested to hear how you seem to know so much about a man who is a mystery to most. As for liquidation, how many clubs has that happened to? Sorry but I don't get that. There was more people interested according to the Administrator.

No we don't need to know every little detail, but I think big details like the sacking of a manager are quite important, don't you? As for brilliant football club. We are in the relegation zone in the Third Division. I don't think that is brilliant and I would like to know why that is and what is going to be done about it. Silence doesn't cut it.

So perhaps if we were to be given the facts, for example the truth about Cortese's relationship with Pardew, then maybe we wouldn't spend so much time on conjecture?

Everything is cyclical, including these forums. I have been on a number and they all go the same way in the end. Same old arguements, diffent names. What becomes tiresome is the constant negative slagging. Cortese, Pardew, the team - there are plenty of issues to be discussed but it always turns into schoolyard name calling session. You couldn't have a balanced discussion about Lowe, Wilde or Crouch and now it seems we can't have one about Cortese. People need to lighten up more too. These are only opnions at the end of the day so why get so upset? I can't think of one issue that has been discussed on this forum where people have agreed 100% - and wouldn't it be a boring place if they did?

I think you just need a good Communications office and better relations with the press both local and national. I don't hold with this they have no right to know our business attitude currently prevailing at the club. Football is big business in this country and people want news and gossip. So provide it. Of course thee will be critisism but these people should have tough enough hides to deal with it as part of their job. If you are going to make unpopulat decsions, explain why. You only hack people off even more if you don't. And it is not enough to invite a select few to a nosh up and press some flesh. Just communicate properly with people. It is not hard.

These things may seem a bit petty, but I see lots of police reports at work of accidents were people have been killed or maimed because a driver was texting and you can imagine how a bereaved family feel about it. It reminds me of the arguement about speeding too, better to be late here than early in the hereafter. If there any text worth sending that is worth more than someone's life?

You could look at most clubs and critisise their manager for a variety of failings Ron. I think the issue with those of us who were disappointed that the CEO didn't seem to fancy Pardew and were very disappointed at his sacking was that we feel that, after a slow start, he did a really good job for us last season and were looking forward to him building on that and taking us up this year. Hopefully Adkins will get it together and I appreciate he has only been here 5 minutes but I do findthis Pardew was rubbish and Adkins is a great manager stuff hard to understand. I appreciate that those for whom Cortese can do no wrong will back his decision and Adkins to the hilt. They will also have a go at Pardew because that supports their pro-Cortses agenda. But whilst he made mistaks, he also got a lot right and but for the -10 we would have made the play offs and more than likely gone up. He has left us with a decent squad that only needs a couple more players to be a real force and he deserves credit. If Adkins goes managed to get uspromoted this season it will be on the back of Pardew's work. All this stuff about poor close season preparation is also questionable. Lambert himself says he was in the best condition ever (ironic of course that he should then get injured!). Also let's get something straight. Cortese did not save this club from disappearing off the face of the planet. If they hadn't bought us someone else would have done. Like CEOs before him he needs to judged on his decisions and progress. After the way we played for most of last season the expectations this season have been huge. Instead, at the moment, we have gone backwards and it is not unreasonable to ask questions of Cortese as head honcho becuase they sure would have been asked of Lowe, Wilde and Crouch. If were are still in the bottom half of the table come Christmas will he still be fireproof to those who think he can do no wrong?

I hope he does read this forum. No matter what he thinks, he needs to improve his PR and his relationship with the fan base. In order to do that he needs to understand the fan base, something he seems keen to avoid. Ok, we have have the supper charm offensive, but more direct and honest communication would not hurt with more than just a select few.

You are right Panda. I too think fondly back to the "good old days" but in truth we did get beaten a lot even with the greats like Davies and Paine playing. I think the reason I wrote the thread was because I felt very optimistic about the club this time last year but as the season wore on and it looked like there was a problem between the CEO and the manager the gloss started to fade a little. Then when Markus passed away and we lost yet another manager it seemed like we were just slipping back into Groundhog Day. A few wins and things will look better of course, but after all of the hope that was generated by the new management set up last year it is still hard to understand what has happened over the summer to date. But as you say, things may look up next week. Here's hoping!

I thought I read in an OS piece that he said he was the fittest and most prepared he had ever been this season before the season started? Something isn't quite right.

How so?

" I Like Grils" "I Like Girls (Grils crossed out Girls added)" "Wot's wrong with us Grils?" {ok, it looked better on the loo wall}

Few and far between nowdays Gordon, but yes, I do have them!

I think if you had bother to read it properly there is very little mention of Lowe. The post is about the various people who have run the club, the expectations they brought with them and the fact that were are currently down the botom of the third division despite everything.

Do you really believe that the team has progressed Nick? We seem to have completely lost the knack of putting the ball in the back of the net which could come back next week, but may not come back for ages. The players we needed to progress have not (for whatever reason) arrived yet. Without them I don't think we will achieve what we achieved last season, which would of course be regression. It could all come right starting against SW but even if we win we still need at least two more quality players to keep any kind of momentum going I think.

Would it be down to him though Duncan or Markus's family? Cortese may have the stomache for it but without the family jewels what can he do? If there was any substance in that rumour you heard earlier about ML/NC thinking of selling then perhaps we will have yet another new devil soon? Still, at least we are in a better position now for a potential buyer should it come to that. Both ML and NC are businessmen at the end of the day and they weren't blind to the fact that getting to the Prem would give them access to a lot of money (and prestige of course). It is one thing having a 5 year plan, but what if we are still languishing in Div 1 next season and, God forbid, the season after?

Yes, are you a panda?