sadoldgit

It is not the formation that is the issue. There are teams that play 1 up front with plenty of goals on the board. It is how you play it. So long as you get players forward when attacking it doesn't really make any difference. We actually went through a period of scoring lots of goals with 5 in midfield and people were complaining when we changed to 442!

What exactly is a "stupid" mistake? All managers make mistakes that some fans think are "stupid". Thing is, if they know so much why aren't they managing a football club? Having just won a trophy and turning this club around in less than a season, I expect that Pardew has already "resurected" himself. I don't see him as arrogant at all. I also don't think you can suggest that someone's career is on the slide because they are managing in Div 1. Perhaps he sees that he can do a job here and get a decent club back to the Premiership. I don't think he would have a problem find a CCC club and is probably better than a number of Prem managers. Please could you explain to us why he is apparently so "know it all"???

As you say, the stats don't back up what a lot of the negative posters think is going on.

Have you moved to Scotand Alps???

Because we are the mighty Saints dontcha know and because a kindly old gent has thrown a wad of cash our way! Our managers are not allowed to behave as every other manager in the league does and make mistakes. Our team is not allowed to lose football matches.

awesome

It would have been funny if Burnley has staged an amazing fightback and won.

You really are a very deluded and one-dimensional person Alpine. Please feel free to go back through my posts and quote where I want them to leave. While you are at it find where I say I want L0we back. Only in Alpineworld. Must be the rarified atmosphere. It you want a grown up debate about the merits of NC and RL thats fine. But stopping prentending that I am saying things that I am not. Frankly I would be "f**king delighted" if you walked away and took your negativity and poisoned agendas with you. Feel free to quote me on that. THis is precisely what you do with other people's write ups of matches. You read the bits that you think fit in with your own negative agenda, run them through the Alpine filter and spout of a pile of bile and rubbish back out. Give it a rest mate. You accuse me of stalking you but you are all over anything I post like a nasty rash. Do us both a favour and put me on ignore. I have tried doing it to you but because so many people pulll your posts apart they are all over everything I read. Just so as there are no futher misunderstandings... 1. I DO NOT want Lowe back. 2. I think there are a lot of double standards (from the likes of you) about Mr Cortese but I have never said that I want him out of the club - just that I hope that he modifies some of his behaviour we have seen so far. Two very different things. 3. The only "negative" thing I have said about our delighful owner is that I think he looks like a bit part actor from Dad's Army as he reminds me of Godfrey. Hardly hoping that he packs up and leaves is it?

What is it with this football snobbery? Swindon are playing well. Fair play to them. What gives us the right to Lord it over this division anyway? So we have spent a couple of million quid on a couple of players, so what? Price tags counts for nothing when 11 players line up against 11 players. The grief aimed at Pardew this season is beyond belief. He has done a decent job and without the minus 10 dragging us down for so long who knows where we would be now? We are/were never going to walk this league. Getting out will be along hard battle full of ups and downs. MLT has said that Pardew is the best manager in Div 1 yet there are people here who probably could not kick a football to save their lives saying that he is out of his depth? The bloke has the credentials and he is doing well. Get off his back and grow up. It is like break time at school here everyday. Bicker, bicker, moan, moan. We should be doing this, we should be doing that. Pardew isn't good enough, blah blah blah. We have just had an excellent win at Wembley a week ago and are easily one of the best outfits in this league. A far cry from being potless and useless as we were this time last season. Be thankful. Support your manager stop behaving like petulant children (or there wil be no Easter eggs for any of you!)

I find it incredible less than a week after actually winning a competition the manager is getting this sort of grief. We have undoubtedly improved since the turn of the year and are heading in the right direction. Other teams have done even better - nothing to do with Pardew. Pardew deserves the support of the fans. Yes, he is not immune to criticism. But if the cyber jockeys on here who think they know better could actually manage a football club, why aren't they? No one knows why he makes the calls he does, but he will have his reasons based on a better knowledge of the gme and his players than anyone on here. Support the manager FFS and stop whinging!!!!

Nope; although he did a great job at IPswich and probably would have won trophies with Hearts. His aim with us was to make the play offs and that he did in his only full season. Not good enough for some I appreciate, but hardly a dismal failure.

THis is the thing though isn't it? Some manage more with less but none of those managers are manging in the Prem. Why is that? Putting a team together is not an exact science and sometimes it can happen by complete chance. Pardew has done well but this team is not the finished article. He has spent money and he has brought in freebies. If ytou are lucky enough to have kep positions already sorted half the battle is won. LIke Burley, Pardew has been expected to come in and get it right in hos first season. A tall ask for any manager. In Burleys' only full season his team were as good as any in the top 6. I would say the same for Pardew right now. Translating that into results is the tricky part and if it was easy all the teams would cancel each other out. Huamn frality will always enter the equation. With a stronger mindset a couple of Burley's players would not have c*cked up and we would have made the play off finals. Pardew has a decent defence but they can still switch off. Is that his fault or theirs? I heard a manager the other day say that the key to getting a winning team togther is their mental toughness. He can check out a players skill but it is harder to get into their heads. Some players deliver come what may, with some it comes and goes. Pardew's job it to find more mental toughess, or instill it if he can in others. That is where he earns his cash. Getting what he needs out of the players week in week out. NO easy task as can be seen at Leeds right nowo

Typical, every time you are put on the spot to substantiate your negative agenda you back off. I am still waiting to hear how much you think it will cost to buy our way out of this division? Also, how does someone rack up over 12,000 posts spouting the same old negative stuff?

All any manager can do is win games with the team he has. I don't think it is unreasonable to assume that managers who have a high points to games ratio have done a decent job. It might not be the job that you were hoping for but that is down to individiual perceptions. That is the good thing about stats. They take away the subjectivity (or should if you don't have agendas like some on here) and just presents facts. No matter what you think of Pardew as a manager he has managed so far to average 1.9 points per competitive game. Even the Mighty Alpine would probably break into a half smile if we had a manager who could average 3 points a game. We all know that is not possible but the nearer you get to 3 per game the better. Pardew so far has the best figures so that should be a good thing. Apparently not though in some camps.

Bit harsh! We had a makeshift team out a Wembley including Harding playing out of position (who had a terrific game by the way) and Wotton in midfield. No the football was not great but we have played better and lost. We are only a Div 1 team remember and still did enough to see of Carlisle with plenty to spare. We have scored a lot of goals this season and won a lot of matches. He must be doing SOMETHING right surely?

Exactly.

You won't get an answer. He prefers to zone in on other people's views (as long as that fit in with his negative viewpoint) and rehash them. Watching a live game for him only confuses the issue.

So winning a trophy at Wembley and reaching the play offs were disasters then? I will ask you the same querstion I asked Alpine. How much do you have to spend to guarantee promotion?

How so? Tell me how many teams have bought success overnight against those that haven't managed it? For every Blackburn there is a Manchester City, Tottenham and dozens more. Chelsea have spent the size of the national debt of a small country in trying to become the best club in Europe. Tell me how many European Chamions ships they have won? If you are so sure we can buy our way out of this league, perhaps you would be good enough to tell Mr Cortese how much that would cost exactly!

I am talking about spending money not being guarantee for success.

So it is a "crime" that Chelsea have still not won the Champions league? That Man City are not going to win the Premiership this year? That Ipswich spent £8m this season and don't have a cat in hell's chamce of going up? Where does it say that spending money guarantees you success )other than in the parallel dimension of Alpineworld)? Everything is relative. When managers managed in the premiership they had better quality players. We have Div 1 and some CCC quality players. WE went down with a squad that contained the likes of Crouch and Phillips, many of whom are still plying their trade in the Premiership yet finished bottom. It is no easier to get 1.9 points per game in Div 1, the CCC or the Premiership. YOu still have to beat what is in front of you with what you have.

It doesn't matter what the team costs. Other managers have spent much more and achieved much less elsewhere. It is what you do with what you have.

No mate, you are a crystal ball reader. Do you really think that anyone would published stats that skewed??? It doesn't mean jack-sh*t to you because it doesn't fit in with your agenda. It also is a very positive message, something that you will never, ever get your head around.

I don't agree that it is pointless. It would be pointless running a league because no team is going to play another team under exactly the same conditions are they. What it does is remove the subjectivity (that is all to ripe on here). I am not saying that Pardew is a better manager than TB or LM. What I am saying is that both Pardew (and Burley) get dog's abuse on here yet they both have excellent records when it comes to winning football matches for us. It you want to dig further you could say that LMs record should have been better as he had the likes of Ball, Channon, Osgood and MacDougall to call on when in the old Div 2, but that is for another arguement. People will use stats when it suits their agenda and ignore them when they don't. We can spend all day talking about the merits of Pardew as a manager for us, but what no one can take away is his record for is so far, which is far superior to any manager we have had to date (well, certainly since the 50's anyway). I think most managers in the game would be delighted to chalk up 1.9 points per game. Shame that we have an element of the fanbase that thinks that is deserving of a sacking.

No Alpine, once again you completely miss the point and the facts. The basis of the points per game was done for 3 points for a win for every manager. But don't let that stop you making another stupid and misguided point.