PokingFun

15,000 on Saturday is not a realistic guide I suspect as it was: A) On Sky, and B) Against lowly opposition who brought only a couple of hundred fans themselves. I would expect an average gate this season of in the region of 17-18k. Not sure how that compares to last year and I guess much will depend on how results fare between now and xmas.

JP has stated that he will play midfielders in full back positions within his system. That suggests to me that he IS deciding who to bring in. After all, surely a person thinking about football as a basic commodity would bring in two recognised full backs and probably not play the system we do. There is a common thread to the players we are signing....they are either experienced to add that to the youth of the side, or comfortable on the ball so they can play a quick passing game or versatile so they can play several positions thus allowing them to interact on the field. The signings suggest to me that these players being brought in have had a large amount of input and thought from JP / Wotte.

Maybe we should stick to the facts here guys. The facts are this: We have played 6 games since pre-season and won three and narrowly lost three. The three games won we have done so convincingly enough if you count the fact that we totally dominated Derby in a 1-0 victory. The three lost have been one in added time, one where we dominated for a period against Brum (league) and a poor performance against Blackpool where even then we could have gone in at the break in front. Even though we have no 'recognised' full backs as such, we have still only conceded 6 goals, keeping 2 clean sheets in the process and an average of one goal per game conceded is acceptable for most teams. This does not suggest that full back is a huge problem, but against teams with genuine pace on the flanks we may get exposed. We have scored 10 goals in those six games and missed a few chances from what I have seen, but fundamentally it seems that Lallana, Holmes and McG will weigh in with goals. I am sure that Stern and this new czech striker may also do so and I have no doubt that Surman may get the odd goal, as will Dyer so plenty of attacking options. Jan is happy with his squad. He did not say whether he chose the players or not, but has continually suggested that he is happy with the quality, it is clearly his formation they have adopted and on balance it seems to work well for large periods of games even against quality opposition. Maybe those teams that are less adventurous create more of a challenge for us as they will try to counter attack swiftly and directly. Fundamentally, JP is stating he is happy regardless of who has selected those players. I suspect he and / or Wotte will have at least seen videos of the signings to confirm they are of the desired quality, but they are young and will have games where inconsistency kicks in, which is what we saw against Blackpool. A balanced view says that we will end up mid-table or maybe narrowly below IMO and I think we would have took that at the start of the season. If we do better, is anyone going to give Lowe credit? No, of course not - at that point it will be JP's team and JP will be the hero. We need to give this time now. JP sounds to me to very much know what is required. He is intelligent when he talks about football and seems to have the respect of the squad. The team has generally played good football, maybe a bit naive at times, maybe inconsistent at times, but on balance reasonably good and the results have been acceptable to date. So, lets put aside any questions over who is making the player decisions for the moment and look at it this way; This is JP's team, he makes the footballing decisions as to tactics, who plays etc. He also is happy with the squad. Therefore, for me the buck stops firmly with JP for results. We have been forced to sell / move players on and everyone seems to be getting on with the job in the knowledge they are doing what they have to do. Maybe the fans should now do the same, get behind the team and hope for a good season.

Agree totally but we need to exercise a little caution and not pressure the young lads too much with expectation but that was a great performance. It was pass and move football and the lads never stopped trying even when the odd mistake gave away possession. Best of all, we really did not look like conceding. We bossed midfield completely and I have to say that I think Lallana will become a fantastic player for us. I really hope that he gets a new contract now because any more goals like tonight's will have the vultures circling for sure. I was also extremely impressed by Spiderman, Holmes and Cork. Thomas also played exceptionally well.......no nonsense and not so good on the ball but added the steel we needed to come through unscathed. Make no mistake this team is light in years but they are certainly not lightweight and equally fight for every ball as much as they pass and shift it quickly. Finally, hats off to Jan. He has moulded a good team with less resources than Burley or Pearson and I can see him being worth a few apologies from some quarters come the end of the season. Quality display tonight and well worth the £15.

Burley did not do as well for us as some may have expected but he still has a decent track record overall and the fact that an international side wanted him as their manager really does not suggest that he is a very bad manager. Also, the fact that people were pro Burley does not make them fools it just means they have a different opinion to yours.

Pearson was distinctly average. He had enough games to turn things around and nearly succeeded in relegating us. He even got 'lucky' by having three goalkeepers injured to be forced into signing R Wright.

Err, we have lost two, won one in case you had not noticed....great performance at the weekend but a long road to follow.. Lowe is in no way vindicated for gettign us relegated...

Agree they are risks but we should wait and see how we go now as there is nowt we can do to influence matters.

There will likely be a loan fee involved to us and he will be off the wage bill.

You do not seem to understand even now that we are skint and need to reduce our costs significantly and therefore Saga, Rasiak and Skacel all have to be moved on. Whether this is down to mis-management by Wilde, Hone or Crouch who all seem to have sanctioned big money deals at various stages is largely irrelevant as blaming people does not turn back the clock. What Lowe is doing now is ensuring action is taken to stop our freefall toward administration. It is what i call essential maintenance and it makes sense because the only other option is gambling with our future and we have already tried and failed with that!

Also, why on earth would Celtic only want to make a play for him now when they could have had him for next to nothing when he was out of contract. He would cost 3-4 times more now than any tribunal would have offered before he signed a new deal. None of it makes any sense at all in that respect.

Probably on the basis that SJ has been in Jan's pre-season squad regularly whereas Rasiak has not really been anywhere near it.

FFS Alpine calm down - Rasiak has not played for us properly for over 18 months..

Lets hope it is Svensen and not Svensson that gets injured in that case...

Oh come on, I am only PokingFun... ;-)

Nearly fell off my chair...

Well done boys good away win - that's all you had to say....

I have seen no-one at all suggest that Lowe is waving a magic wand. The fact that some fans have been impressed by the team that have put out is nothing to do with bigging up lowe or not as the case often is. It is about giving some credit where it seems due. The fact is that Lowe is taking tough decisions that need to be made and actually making them but trying to balance that with the purchase of young players that may have potential or giving our better youngsters a try. Whats your solution? You only ever criticise, but I have never seen you put forward an alternative. Come on lets hear your way of reducing the costs and still competing genius? Welcome back to the forum Alpine...

It's interesting that a comment made by JP suggested that he wants players who are / have been in midfield to play the full back positions, as he needs them to be comfortable on the ball so we can begin many offensives from those wide positions. It seems to be a clear plan of his to play the experienced lads at CB to cope with any the threat through the middle but his mantra is to play football from the wide positions from back to front. I like his thinking.

I think you might find that BWP's record is as good as Saga's and for the record I was not talking about BWP so your point is kind of redundant. This is a thread about Saga and his wages effect on the club finances.

OK, apologies if I have misread something but my sentiments remain that lowe will manage the financials assuming a further drop in revenue i expect to satisfy the bank.

Where did I say that Alpine? What I am saying is that Lowe will be working to a financial plan agreed with the bank and it will very likely factor in a further drop in revenue. That will satisfy the bank. At the moment most supporters seem to be satisfied enough with our progress under JP and are willing to keep an open mind regarding how well this young team can do. If the 21000 sold for Brum is actually correct then it strongly suggests that the support is holding up and may continue to do so.

Professionals should be able to motivate themselves as well Alpine. Saga was not played by Burley as BWP and John were in good form for a while. When he did get a chance he ran around a lot but created little and scored even less. Get your blinkers off FFS.

But who created the silk purse in the first place? Others were responsible for ****ing the money away not RL in fairness to him. Financially I think he has always managed the club pretty well. Football decisions in the relegation season were his downfall. So far, he seems to be going in the right direction again financially and I will see about the football after the first 5-10 results.

Apparently 21,000 tickets had been sold last week for the Brum game so that seems to suggest revenue might hold even though we are playing our non 'superstars' cough cough.