sadoldgit

And he did like to play certain players, like Telfer, who many didn't rate. It works when you get results, it doesn't when you don't. Strachan didn't fancy Kevin Davies but the bloke is still doing a decent job in the Premiership.

Whilst I am not a big fan of Platini, I do think there is a lot to be said for clubs being forced to live within their means. A wages cap on players would be near impossible these days but a cap on clubs wage bill in line with their turnover could work.

Ah but is it still warranted? We were tagged with being an "Alehouse" outfit by Bill Shankley (and the comment was well warranted!) but would you say that was still true of SFC?

You are right, many people have plenty to hide but probably have done nothing wrong. The point is that if you have not committed a crime you should not be worried about your details being on a database. Supermarket chains and marketing companies probably know more about any of us and our habits than the police!

Sadly crime exists. Many crimes are solved when DNA tests are taken and checked against the database. If records were constantly destroyed there would be no sizable database. My details are on file even though I was not found guilty in the case I was involved with. Not great but I would rather that the police's job was made easier than worry to the nth degreee about my own civil rights. You are right about convictions but half the battle is finding the correct suspect and building the case from there. DNA identification helps to pinpoint suspects. If people didn't rob, murder, rape, fight etc etc we wouldn't need to give the police such measures. People can moan all they like about their civil rights but once you are the victim of crime you cab bet your life that you want the people that did it caught and convicted as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Leeds may have been "dirty" in the 70's but many of those players are either dead or long retired.

They are a hazzard, but less of one. They are only a hazzard to those who think they are on a race track. Speed kills, not lack of it. I work in a police station and see the pictures that are the result of people driving too fast. Not nice.

The problems on the roads aren't caused by the slow and cautious, they are caused by the idiots with no patience who think they own the roads and need to pass everything and everyone in their way and the at the speed limits are starting points not limits. The standard of driving on our motorways is appalling and they are death traps. I was chatting to an advance driving instructor recently who said that her job was not to improve people's driving, but to help them stay alive on the roads. Pretty much says it all.

It always nice to arrive at your planned destination a little late rather than A & E or the Crematorium though isn't it?

I lost interest with the Brigadier and Unit and all that Earthbound stuff. I suppose your favourite Doctor is a bot like your fav Bond, the one you started with. I liked the early balck and white stuff with Harnell but the best for me was Tom Baker (nice line in sidekicks). The Doctor has be relatively not some young trendy geezer.

Thought it was the 1st January, not 1st April

Interesting post John. As with the property market, we keep waiting for the football financial bubble to burst, but will it? Murdoch is a clever guy. He ran up debts so big that the financial institutionscould not afford not to carry on funding him. Perhaps it is that way with football. To many it would be unthinkable for football to implode and go bust. Perhaps the financiers will continue to fund it despite what is going on with the global economy? Despite its current dire state many footballers wages are still ridiculous and apart from the the odd club threatened with admin the grvay train rolls on and on. Would clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool be allowed to collapse? No one gives a stuff about SFC or what goes on with Brighton but can you imagine the fall out if one of the big clubs went?

I don't like the Big Brother thing but if people think they have more chance of being caught and found gulity if they commit a crime then I think it is a good thing. Lots of old serious crimes are being dealt with better now due to the use of DNA leading to the conviction of murders and rapists. Like anything though, good if in the right hands, wrong if in the wrong hands!

Building teams is all about chemistry. SOme should work but don't. Some shouldn't work but do. Sometimes you find the right combination by luck, sometimes by hard work, sometimes not at all. ferguson took a while before he got it right and very few managers hit the magic formula straight away and run with it. If Pardew had had the whole pre-season to bring in players and work with them I think we would have had a better start - not ideal having your pre-season at the start of the season! Still, without the minus 10 we would be sitting in the play off positions and you can't really ask for more from a new manager. It took Leeds several seasons to get it together so why do we think we will get it right overnight? We still have a way to go before we can match the Leeds and Norwichs consistantly but I am heartening by the fact that we have won matches when we havn't played particularly well. If the players that Pardew wants are available and want to join us there is no reason why we can't continure on an upward curve. Finally we seem to have a set up that is focussed, pulling in the same direction and is financially sound. So long as we are patient I am sure that better things will come.

No big deal with Alpine, he expects everything/one to fail! Jonah was one of the few to call it right when most people were going ape about the prospect of a new team in charge - before we knew anything about them.

Feel sorry for Wigley, did a good job for us before he made the step up. I wonder if things had been different if someone like Bobby Robson could have been brough in as DoF to hold his hand while he got used to the new job. He was hampered by injuries to key players and not being able at that point to bring in players. Still, it is all in the past and I wish him well.

Still spot on about Wilde though

Great player but I think he has some serious flaws as a manager (as much as I love his post match interviews). Despite his success with Celtic I don't think he was widely loved up there - shame he didn't take the Scotland job, that would have been interesting! If we can keep hold of Pardew I think he could become one of our best managers. We need to give him time though.

Hi Dune, do you know Jonah? I shared a pint or two with him once and can assure you he cares as much about the club as any of us do. He is also not a "Lowe Luvvie" and was not unhappy to see him go. What he did understand though and tried to articulate is that the running of a club like SFC is very difficult and he saw the need for prudence and running a tight ship. Okay, ultimately it failed, but I think we would have been in worse shape quicker if the Board at that time had not kept a tight hand on the reins. It should also be remembered that Jonah was 100% right about Wilde. He understands finance. Many of us here don't have a clue. Sadly football now is a business first and a sport second. And I would second what someone else posted - wouldn't a better question be where is Michael Wilde now???

To be fair I think the demise started whilst WGS was still here. Some of his purchases were not the best and I also think he made some very poor decisions. His team for the Cup Final, for me, showed that he was more concernd with losing than winning and we lost the Cup Final at the previous drubbing at Highbury. Strachan is a good manager. I wouldn't say he was Top Class though. Let's see how he does with Boro. We had a good enough squad to stay up after he left but injuries to key players did not help. Nor did the fact that Redknapp didn't seem at all bothered about keeping us up and for a man known for his nous in the transfer market spent £6m very poorly.

I woulkd have a chuckle if he took over there but can you imagine how it would feel if he turned things round there???

Considering the stick he got when he posted warnings about The Wilde Bunch I really don't blame him.

I don't deny that the two relegations have been very damaging. They have also damaged clubs like Leeds, Charlton and Norwich, none of whom have been run by Lowe. Yes the club was settled. It was also in a hoplelessly outdated ground. To keep a club like ours going in the top flight for 10 years was no mean feat. If Lowe was useless and knew nothing about football why did we not get relegated and go into admin earlier? Every club has it successes and failures ij the tranfer market, it just seems that in our club it is okay to slag one man off for the failures but not give him proase for the successes (which would imply that he does know something about what he is doing). If Delgado had been fit we would have had a World Class striker for a brgain £3m. I seem to remeber McMenemy splashing out £400K for Charlie George (a fortune then) who was actulaly crocked and finisshed at that point - it happens to everyone. You can only judge anyone by their results. If the current owners don't get this club promoted you can bet your life cyber jockeys like Alpine will soon be calling for their heads. But don't you find it interesting that Lowe is pilloried about supposedly knowing nothing about football or running a football club yet the Alpine's of this worls have not raised a peep about the fact that neither ML or NC know anything about it either? Same old double standards. Still, as many of you would say, they won't be told.

"Liitle sheep"??? You are a strange person Ottery. The whole point about the Lowe debate is that he was not as bad as you and others would have us believe. !0 years of Prem football, a taste of European football again and a Cup Final proved that he hasn't been a total failure. To keep a club like us competitive on crowds of 15k was no mean feat whilst at the Dell. When we went down we had a decent squad, many of who are still playing Premiership football. Loew made some mistake with his managers but also brought in people like Strachan. For someone who didn't know anything about football he turned down a request from Strchan for a certain keeper and suggested Niemi instead...not bad for someone who didn't have a clue. As for knowing anything about football, what previous experience do our new owners have Ottery? If you had bothered to read any of Jonah's posts you would have seen that he wasn't one of Lowe' so called foot soldiers. All he was trying to do was to point out that Lowe had a tough job keeping the club afloat and competitive within the boundaries of the budget and was trying to redress the very one sided debate on here. Your post shows that you have learned nothing and are still harbouring some pretty silly prejudices. Yes Lowe made mistakes, yes he is probably not a very nice fellow (have you met NC by the way?) but to try and pretend that his time as SFC was a total disaster is nonsense. You are the loiterer Ottery. Still pedling your tired and flawd old agenda. Lowe has gone. We have new owners. Get over it mate and move on. If they can provide us with 10 years of Prem football and a Cup Final as Lowe did I will be well chuffed. Baaaa

Whilst things have improved enormously at SFC things are stil pretty much the same here. We win a number of games and all of a sudden were are certs for the plays offs. Lose a game and it is doom and gloom again from the Usual Suspects. Pradew had one a fantastic job so far but we still have a long way to go. A few months ago we were hoping to avoid another relegation scrap and now we are complaining because our push for the play offs have stalled slightly. I read that one long term supporter i not hapopy because we are not looking like workd beaters every time we play? Go figure. After what has happened to the club a mid table finish this season would be no mean achievement but you get the feeling if we don't make the play offs the knives will be out again.