Ken Tone

Here is what I posted on the 9th>>>>> I feel obliged to say clearly at the start of this post so that some might actually read it rather than just react to it in blind prejudice --- that I do not like Lowe, like Wilde even less, and whilst accepting his good motives, simply do not rate Crouch as being very clever. There seem to be some fans who see administration as a minor inconvenience, worth suffering to get rid of Lowe. a) Administration is much worse than that. The administrator's job is not to run a good football club; it is to run any sort of football club, with the main aim of getting money back for the creditors. He looks for a buyer but his main responsibility is to see creditors get their money. Keeping the club viable in the short term is a secondary aim in achieving that. Keeping it viable in the long term is no priority at all. So unless a big investor suddenly appeared to buy us up and pay off all the debts etc ( about as likely as us getting promotion this year) the administrator would sell off anything sellable, including all our young talent, probably at a 'fire sale' bargain price, release on free transfers any other players he can persuade to go, and sell the ground too if he can get a buyer who will guarantee *for the short term only* to lease it back. No guarantee not to evict the club and use for housing in a few years time once the recession is over. Many more 'incidental' staff would lose their jobs ...stewards, kitman, ticket office, etc. Training ground would be sold. The academy would almost certainly close completely, with all facilities sold off. b) There would be a fair chance that Lowe would then re-buy his way into the club for a nominal sum. Bates did it. Didn't one of the many recent owners of Bournemouth do it too? It is not uncommon for management or other insider buy-outsto follow administration in industry . So we could go though real pain, and then still have Lowe. Do not wish administration on the club if you really are a fan. K. The situation is still the same, but as a minor addition I'll add that presumably all loan players would immediately be returned to their clubs. But on the bright side, in response to someone else's comment about season tickets, I think that we were given reassurance about that last year, to the effect that as long as the club remained trading, season tickets were safe. K.

Well they justified it for Bournemouth -- and was it Rotherham or Luton? Why did you think Bournemouth started on -17 this season and are now possibly about to go out of the league ? It's as some posters keep trying to point out, administration is NASTY. If we end up owing tax, in effect we'll get -17 points next season as well as -10 this . At present I gather we do not owe taxes, but the danger is as we go absolutely skint will we be able to keep paying tax or will we go into debt there too? K.

As Minty says the new bit is the reference to the 3rd week in March. does anyone know any more about this? I thought that the points deduction carried over into the next season if a club went into administration after relegation was inevitable. Surely the date for that would vary according to the club's number of league points. It might not be inevitable until the ;last day of the season for some. Is this March date just a guess by the Mail reporter , or ....... K.

Qute agree. Poortvliet seems a decent bloke and I *want* him to succeed. I presume he's been piggy in the middle for many of Lowe's decisions, and not fully in control, but formation surely is down to him. Playing wingers on the wrong side is a reasonable thing to do occasionally. It unsettles the opposition defence and allows the winger to cut in and shoot on his best foot. But NB 'occasionally', not all the time. The particular irony of saturday's formation was that even with a left-footed player alrready on the right wing, he still sent a right-footed payer to take the corners...and vice versa. Every single corner was an outswinger. The move to 3-5-2 (I think?) was somewhere between bold and desperate, but it took an unforgiveable several minutes for the players to work out where they should be playing. K.

Well that's what makes football interesting to discuss. I always thought Mills looked better than Crainie .. or at least looked a better prospect. Crainie had (and presumably still has) class on the ball but, like Kenton and Baird, is too short to be a top CB and too slow to be a top RB, and I reckon he'll spend his whole career as a nearly man specialsing in neither one nor the other. Mills, I thought, had the height to develop into a good CB and showed real promise. I was very sorry he left. But at the time, I also thought he left for the money, not for first team football. I also thought Mandaric, rather than Redknapp, bought Craine just to upset us! K.

With Chelsea it's even more precarious than that. In effect all the money Abromovitch has put in is officially a loan. There is a view that he only bought Chelsea as way of having money safely stored out of Russia if he had to leave in a hurry. In any event if he loses interest they could have to pay the lot back suddenly, and no bank will lend them that much to do so. K.

Maybe you should try 'search this forum' before you reply? K.

Large numbers of posters on here were apparently certain that Surman and Lallana were off as soon as the transfer window opened. There were even claims back as early as november that Lallana had actually *already* been sold ..to spurs I think it was. That was in addition to the "he's going to Fuiham in exchange for Baird" statements. Anyone want to eat their words? Of course either or both may still go before the window closes, but it is clear that those confident claims of done deals were rubbish, or they'd have gone by now. Frankly the reality is bad enough without doomsayers making things seem worse than they are. K.

Simple. Because he has the potential to be a good player. (As has McGoldrick btw) K.

I feel obliged to say clearly at the start of this post so that some might actually read it rather than just react to it in blind prejudice --- that I do not like Lowe, like Wilde even less, and whilst accepting his good motives, simply do not rate Crouch as being very clever. There seem to be some fans who see administration as a minor inconvenience, worth suffering to get rid of Lowe. a) Administration is much worse than that. The administrator's job is not to run a good football club; it is to run any sort of football club, with the main aim of getting money back for the creditors. He looks for a buyer but his main responsibility is to see creditors get their money. Keeping the club viable in the short term is a secondary aim in achieving that. Keeping it viable in the long term is no priority at all. So unless a big investor suddenly appeared to buy us up and pay off all the debts etc ( about as likely as us getting promotion this year) the administrator would sell off anything sellable, including all our young talent, probably at a 'fire sale' bargain price, release on free transfers any other players he can persuade to go, and sell the ground too if he can get a buyer who will guarantee *for the short term only* to lease it back. No guarantee not to evict the club and use for housing in a few years time once the recession is over. Many more 'incidental' staff would lose their jobs ...stewards, kitman, ticket office, etc. Training ground would be sold. The academy would almost certainly close completely, with all facilities sold off. b) There would be a fair chance that Lowe would then re-buy his way into the club for a nominal sum. Bates did it. Didn't one of the many recent owners of Bournemouth do it too? It is not uncommon for management or other insider buy-outsto follow administration in industry . So we could go though real pain, and then still have Lowe. Do not wish administration on the club if you really are a fan. K.

Yes-ish. "Zigger zagger. zigger zagger. oi oi oi" was a chant invented in a play in the late 60s about football violence ..a sort of earlier 'Green Street'. It was then taken up by real football crowds in the even later 60s and into the 70s. Would be good to resurrect it for Saga. K

There never was much of a saga song. Always thought personally that 'zigger saga zigger saga, oi oi oi' was obvious , but I suspect most of you are too young to remember that chant. K.

How is the team even-further weakened? We've lost Cork and Pearce but arguably Schneiderlin is as good in midfield as Cork if he really is fit again now, and if this new Dutch centre half is any good, and if Saga is anything like Saga mk1 as opposed to Saga mk2, it could indeed be an improved team. None of the other loan returners, Pekhart etc, were any good. Surman and Lallana haven't gone yet in spite of all the predictions that they'd be gone by the end of the first day of the transfer window. Still quietly confident of promotion personally ;-) K.

Look at it this way. If we didn't know Saga at all and we'd just heard that we'd signed, even on loan, an experienced, Polish full international striker with champions league experience, wouldn't we all be pleased -- delighted even? Personally I always thought Saga was much better than John at holding the ball, and in general play, regardless of goalscoring. I too thought Burley really messed him about, like he did Rasiak as well --- seemed determined to undermine their confidence, which affects all strikers more than most players. This has to be good news. If he is anything like motivated (and that's up to Poortvliet to manage) he will be an asset to the team. If we are lucky and he scores early on, then the confidence boost will make him a *real* asset. K.

It was "City are going down with a billion in the bank", and it was to an Oasis tune to rub it in because they are City fans. Your mistake only goes to show that Oasis really do rip off Beatles tunes. ;-) Why on earth would Man u fans have a song for us? K.

Personally I thought they were beginning to showboat and take the pi** at one point,then Rooney came on and shook them up a bit, as if Ferguson had told him to stop the pi**ing about and make the team get on with it. Why else bring him on when he was being rested? It's not as though they were getting worried about losing. K.

What is this obsession with 4-4-2? Too many people are listening to Merrington on Solent it seems to me. United didn't play 4-4-2. Berbatov was clearly playing behind Welbeck, not next to him. Liverpool don't play 4-4-2. They play 4-2-3-1, not unlike us ;-) In fact really the most valid criticism of Poortvliet's tactics is that 'total football' is common place nowadays, not the novel idea he seems to think it is. At one point I saw Rooney covering at left back against us! If that is not total football, what is? K.

Well it is now getting on for the end of the office day on monday. Any sign of Dailly actually signing? I'd like it to be true. K.

Just sour grapes from a failed player. When he came on a sub in hs first game he didn't do much in general play but scored a real striker's goal and I thought "we've got a good 'un here". But then he was given a whole game and did absolutely nothing --- looked appalling in fact -- and showed no sign of scoring either. That was why he ended up sitting in the stand. He just wasn't very good. K.

Joking apart, is there any chance that the game will be off? The lake near my house is frozen over, the car thermometer shows -2 still and the garden is absolutely solid. Given we don't have undersoil heating ,and what is more that I remember one game at the Dell being called off becasue the toilets were frozen even though the pitch was playable ... there has to be some doubt surely? K.

There'd be no point at all in our paying up his contract in full. However, financially, it might make sense if he is on a big wage to offer him say half of his remaining money, thereby saving half and from his point of view making him a free agent to find another contract. Whether it makes sense in football terms is another matter. K.

Well I reckon it took 6 posts in this thread. Do I win this round of the game ? I agree wth the sentiment of your post, even though of course it wouldn't work,as ths very thread has already proved. Personally I am sick to the back teeth of the repetitive anti- (or pro-) Lowe posts on here. I don't like Lowe either, nor Wilde for that matter, but for goodness sake let's occasionally just discuss football. K.

Well if you're like me, most weeks, you'd be sitting at home whingeing about the number of games that are now on sundays, mondays, saturday evenings, etc ;-) But I will be renewing season tickets. I'm a fan. That's what fans do. K.

Just thought this was worth drawing attention to. If we're in relegation trouble, so are they. Every cloud has a silver lining. K.