OldNick

I think that is true to a degree but HR had plenty of games to work his magic as Mr Houdini. the players assembled were of poor and weak character add that to BT wanting to go marsden and Bridge pairing gone and some poor signings.The biggest factor in the playing squad as far as i can see was not replacing Killer with a top defender. RL has without a doubt been a major factor in our demise,but he is not the only person to have been responsible. We as a club have been cursed for a long time with some poor decision makers and i would like the lot to be rid of.

I have read WGS's book and I cant recall him saying that he was vetoed in his spending. The salary cap must have been a hindrance, Im sure HR was not impressed by it.

So you have summed up the problem we faced. The players on the books were on too good contracts and nobody wanted them. This was following on from Jones, Hoddle and a very short tenure of Gray. Who was culpable? RL was the CEO and should shoulder some of the blame but all the managers need to take some as well. WGS didd not invest in quality but liked the energy and enthusiasm of players like Ormerod and Telfer. I think you can dissect every club and point the finger, it just is that we are in a dire position and so it is more pertinent at present.

and they did what about it? WGS especially had time to cut the squad.

I think what you say is fair. The problem seems to be that we had a squad that was too full of mediocre players who were on big bucks. The CEO I assume is expected to back the manager and so bought them. If he set ceilings for wages then that would have cut the choice on offer. It is hard toargue against budgetting the books though.I know it hurts us and so we should have ploughed on and overspent but sooner or later the chicken comes home to roost... although its taking a damned long time to come hoke at Pompey sadly

Ok thanks. His lack of communicating skills is a massive disadvantage. If he could have been less confrontational or giving then perhaps he would have had an easier time of things.

and we would have scored about 5 goals less. DMG pliopughed a lone farrow up front and di well considering. Saga has done well but he has had a player alongside him to help him ,although he hasnt scored for 6 games, but dont let your predudice blind you.

I notice that the Villa fans boo Aglabonhor (sp?) who is in similar mopuld in respect he looks not interested.Its pathetic just because DMG doesnt chase around like a headless chicken(although he does chase) fans perceive that he doesnt care.Well when he scored he showed he cared.

Thanks London,I want to see how our league position went week to week that season but not bright enough to work out how to do it.

Exactly what NP did strangely enough.

At half time saturday i felt that w3 may well have been doomed. A point was better than i had feared.This time last season we had lost to Hull 5-0 and then followed that up with a 0-0 at home to Coventry. What our league postion then was Im not sure as Im having trouble finding a league table at that stage.

I have become cynical of it as well. I doubt there are many on here who once they had played for the club of their dreams would not then move on to earn a kings ransome.

I do hope that is not a swipe at me LTC as the statement made by Victor MAY be found wanting.I will bow to him being an architect and is correct. I doubt that somebody worth his salt wouldn't come on here and show up his professional knowledge by making such sweeping statements without being 100% correct.

So you are categorically stating as an architect that there are not regulations about the distance from the playing surface to the stands for safety reasons?

That could well be the case but he also knew the financial situation facing him. If we could have afforded NP and if NP was prepared to loan and play the lpw budget team, then it was a major mistake getting rid of him. I still do not think NO is the great manager he is said to be on here. Co-incidently this time last season we had just lost 5-0 away to Hull.(a lot of unfortunate injuries had occured of course)

he was left for 4-5 games too long. A big mistake. As for him being appointed in the first place i dont know the full financial facts at the time and so its difficult to assess

Into the valley of death they rode...

If you are an architect for football stadiums you would know. I am not an architect and i know that is the reason as i asked the question when the staium was mooted, 'why could we not have the stands nearer the pitch' and that was the reply i got. If you remember the stadiums were going up after the Heysel Hillsborigh Valley Parade disasters and so the stadiums were designed with that in mind. It would have been cheaper to have built the stadium with the stands closer to the pitch i would have thought but you may be able to tell us more on that one.

i think you will find that Drogba was stopped by him not having played enough internationals, Adebayour was not taken if I rememeber correctly as WGS did not like his attitude. There was also talk of Defoe coming.

I love the 'We want to stay at the Dell with our 15000 crowds and also compete'. A fan on the board LOl. The stadium was not why we went down, and I like the 3 managers in 1 season bit, LC was here 6 months and he had the same. We were on the slide when GS was here, I know many will not like this but the finger needs alos to be pointed at WGS. He allowed the club to drift when he failed to buy the better players.Buying Mccann, surely we he had a better selection to choses from? That is when the rot set in and we had a massive squad of grafters, no violinsts. I agree we could have spent 10m on a couple of players but only if we could have rid ourselves of some of the other dross. We released for free Kevin Davies who under the right directioon has turned into the player that was always there but never correctly utilised. Do fans really believe we could have kept Bridge??? he was going to Chelsea who were going to pay him what was then massive wages and the chance to win medals. There are many factors to our demise, some of it can be pointed at the fans at their impatience, a lot can be pointed at RL and I believe the most at the players who did not have the balls to pull us through. It was not down to the stadium as the atmosphere during the Norwich home game in the relegation saeason was as dramitic as I can recall and then add the derbies and it shows it is not the stadium.

This is a brilliant bit of pot stirring by DH. this site has been slow and Duncan has thrown in a hand grenade and then walkewd away Lol. Well done Duncan it has livened the site up

Well you cant have the stands nearer thepitch as it is against the law when you build a new ground. You have to have room to drive ambulances around in case of a major incident.

Come on Wes however you dress it up a closed shop is a closed shop that ultimately cost us as a fanbase. We also dont know what investor may have wished to buy us years ago.Many a wealthy man has been made from our city and some may well have wished to invest. The cosiness may have stopped us being going bankrupt of course but to me it was just a gentlemans club and that is perhaps why we never pushed on properly during the LM era

I dont know the legalities of the takeover. I usggest that they were legally correct morally wrong. At the same time i do also think that the way the ownership for decades before being a closed shop and the shares only able to be sold to a select few was wrong as well.

Lol