OldNick

Well I suspect every manager is brought in to win the league but being realistic only 1 can do so. I wonder where the season after next came from.I do recall the fans saying we must be patient and give him 3-5 years.That of course didnt last long. He definately failed to do so, that season ended and the team was stripped of its best players to try and plug some of the holes in our finances,due to the new board spinning the roulette wheel and getting it wrong. As for AP only havung this season just shows how things have changed.LM our mist successful manager had us relegated first season and it was 2 years later before he got success.

They talked a lot of stuff, I dont recall much talk like that.Unless it was to get the fans to buy tickets or love them a little more. Perhaps I didnt have such high expectations and so am not so bitter about it. We didnt have pace in the side and no side will succeed unless you have it though the side. It is something i worry about in the current team.

No doubt we all re write history to suit our agendas, but also we all se things through different eyes.Some of what you say is clearly correct.The defender you mention ,has he gone on to do well? I do know that our medical teams had got it wrong about Killers return and that clouded our judgement.May i also say that Bennett played a game and was slaughtered by fans who said hewas the worst player ever to wear our shirt but he proved us wrong and I suspect many would take him back without a second thought. Myself i dont get the played out of position stuff, they are footballers who have preferred positions but surely should be able to adapt.Many forget that WGS was prone to do the same ie Fernandes. We had too many who could play in lots of positions (some of this down to GB's signings and others before) but not be outstanding in 1 set area. As for the play off semi final, there were lots of 'if only's' The way the ref allowed our star forward to be kicked out of the game and so was missing in the 2nd leg was appalling.Best would not have been on the pitch if not for that. He is so self confident that he would ask to take the penalty and if you have that it is foolish to turn it down. I have been a great fan of Kelvin but on that day he did nothing to increase the pressure on the penalty takers and was surprised he didnt try a bit of gamesmanship, i know they did. saga missed a few golden chances in the first leg and in the 2nd we went down in glorious defeat. I cant recall the league games you mention and so go with it, I assume that the Watford game it was bad management, was it the one where we wre dominating until they got a scrambled goal in first half stoppage time? The Scunnygame is a fog to me. It does seem odd but he may have rated Saga at that stage as much as i do, very rarely does he come up with the goods.

Kelvin has been a star, hardly a lynchpin though.Many would say Rasiak and saga (not me)

As i say you had higher expectations than the board or manager.

The season when these players made a name to be sold was in the play off season.The season started with them being fringe players.With his nous he turned them into saleable assets.I never rated Baird and still don't. Bale is a classic case of leaving a club too soon for the bright lights and Kenwynne has done well, and still will improve more.So they weren't worth 20m and still not but we made them look better than they were.At the start of tha season they were not must plays at the end they were so.Thier departure was massive to the clubs players and fans moral, i find it impossible for fans not to see that. GB added players to the squad and in the main were a success.He delivered what he said he would, it is not his fault the fans expected more than was possible.

ye-p pushing the boundaries a bit

no change there then

I thought we made 2 subs at about 65 minutes, that is not late.If we are talking about a 3rd one in injury time, most teams do that when you settle for a point at the league leaders.I just wish HR had done so when we played Boro in the PL instead of having Brett standing waiting and not wasting a bit of time when we were winning to break up the game.

I would have thought with Rasak gone the wage bill would have been reduced dramatiocally add to that the others gone and if Saga goes in jan even lower.

I dont agree he bought badly, there were some very good buys some average ones and some poor ones.Tell me a manager who has only bought well? I cant recall who we bought to be fair, Davis Rasiak the Columbian, Pele.There must be more. As for Bale baird and Jones.Only jones was on the fringe when GB came and Bale was played at a young age, as for baird he had been cast aside and going nowhere.You must admit he trned him from a free transfer to a multi million pound transfer.

I went on page 2 to just see a smiley and a comment about the said smiley

I have said many times that they are Wigan of the South and nothing has disproved that to my mind.A small fanbase with a sugar daddy that has put them above their true worth. Many Pompey fans are decent people and i do like a lot of them, but they are a small time club.If they get real investment and a decent period of success the plastics will turn up in numbers.

It may be garbage to you IYHO CB but not as i see it.We were far from united and whilst many were delighted and behind the Wilde bunch it was not all settled.Yes he did spend money but it does take time for a lot of new faces to gel.At no time did GB or the club say we would get auto promotion and realistically made the play offs our target.That was achieved, I never thought we were good enough to make the auto promotion places, did you? Pointing to the money spent is misleading IMO, we had to replace the quality sold or released and to do so you have to spend money. The following season Gb had pointed to mid table after losing the top players, again realistic not head in the clouds that we will walk this league etc..

i hope that the experience of our impatience will put us in good stead for the upward but slow climb back to success. To me in the main Gb made some very good buys and made us more than we spent

perhaps you cold guide the Al Farraj brothers to a proper football club.

CB I dont agree with that.When we were relegated the team lost a lot of players.Palace and Norwich did not, we then had to rebuild a team to make a push for promotion.All happening at the time of rela boardroom unrest and politics.The club was divided, I think it was impossibl to manage a club in that position,I doubt there would have benn anyone who could. I hope we all have learnt from that expereince and this board and the club is now a much happier place with our new position.

I have only seen fleeting bits of the incidents. To run the pitch was asking for trouble and I doubt we owuld be very happy if it happened to us, we dant forgive Derby for their fans celebratios after the playoffs FFS

Lets hope the Al Farraj brothers find another club.It will be galling for them to yet agian find anither sugar daddy.ours is not a sugar daddy but a disiplinarian although loving.

To be fair if you dont have the players it is hard to sort out anything.To be a good manager you have to be lucky, he hasnt been that and so he cant be called a good manager.He did ok here.

Lol but he doesnt have the services of KDto call upon

DD GB turned 3 players into 20m worth of talent.How much would Spurs or Fulham get for the 10m worth we sold them now?

stats prove nothing but give an idea of someones performance in general. You have to stand back and think aobut it clearly. When he took over the squad had been culled.We had lost a team of star players (most underperformed) , the club was in turmoil yet again and it was during a massive power struggle with the fans divided. he was given money to replace players in positions that had been left open by players leaving.Wilde bunch came in and gave him a free rein.Interstingly 2 of his purchases still cause friction by the protagonists who dont rate him.Rasiak and Saga both brought to us by him.Yes he bought some bad buys but he also brought some good ones. He turned a reserve full back into a player of the season, who was then sold for £m's, the same can be said of Kenwyne who many thought was rubbish.Add bringing Bale as a 16 year old into the team and he did quite well.In fact selling those three kept us from administration earlier (could be a bad thing of course as there was more money around thenand we may have found a big spender) We then went into his last season where we sold the 3 Baird Jones and Bale, the heart had been ripped out of the team.Gb got Stern in who had a purple patch to fill some of the void.Jan came and the statement by Hoos? and that again rocked the boat.The fans were again in unrest , they had lost their confidence totally in Gb and we had the chance to get compensation for his departure. Not since have we been in a position in the league that he left us in. This is of course a potted history and many will disagree with but his signings and transfers work does stand up to examination. He has gone and i hope that AP can take us back and above where GB left us.

Rinny apologies it was in fact my mistake.It was my figures.It does put the % more into perspective.

CB I think that was the first season where away goals didnt count double, they had until then