Legod Second Coming

CB, how is Jewell getting away with this after Billy Davies????

Yep, as much as the Captain flying them back this morning...

I admit DD, at the time I supprted GB because he had achieved the target set him. But in hindsight (and with maximum apologies to my old mate CB Fry) the idea of having £7m to spend (however it was raised) and not aiming for automatic promotion is criminal. Absolutely criminal.

I believe for a long while Icarus considered his new-found wings a glorious success as well...

What are Shearer's qualifications for the job again? Even as a footballer...

Perfect sense.

LOL. Like your standard-setting. But better to AIM for 18 than expect them. We're still building and we mustn't come away with 16 feeling downhearted...

Now, you might say Australian's are a little biased and, frankly, they have every right to be bitter about Woodward, but I do love this piece from the Sydney Herald: WHETHER you think of Sir Clive Woodward as a misunderstood, charismatic genius, or favour the increasingly popular view that the man should spend more time with his marbles, you would still hesitate to ask him to help you change a lightbulb. By Woodward's way of doing things, the entire process would last a few weeks, involve a phalanx of consultants, coaches and motivational gurus, and end with an invoice for six figures. Oh, and no guarantee that the thing would actually work. That, at least, is the most obvious conclusion to be drawn from the latest despatch from la-la land that was Woodward's explanation of his, eh, thinking on the development of Britain's most talented competitors ahead of the 2012 Olympics. In his role as the British Olympic Association's director of elite performance, Woodward wheeled out an array of top coaches, told us each athlete would soak up around GBP150,000 of funding per annum, and introduced Melissa Reid, a 20-year-old golfer who claims to have benefited from the weary old hokum that is Woodward's most familiar register. Reid's prescribed regime apparently involves watching old Clint Eastwood movies. No tittering at the back now, but by recalling one scene from A Fistful of Dollars, she is reminded to concentrate on the details of what she is meant to be doing and focus on the task in hand. Admirable principles. So admirable, in fact, you have to wonder why Woodward has not been following them himself. Sorry to come over like a crashing pedant on this point, but if Woodward is picking up a salary in the region of GBP300,000 for improving Britain's Olympic medal prospects, wouldn't he be better applying his visionary methods towards a participant in an Olympic sport? You suspect the same question should also have been asked by his paymasters at the BOA, but it is devilishly difficult to have faith in the judgment of a body who were so dazzled by the solitary peak on Woodward's cv England's 2003 Rugby World Cup triumph that they chose to overlook his series of failures in the Six Nations championship, his catastrophic stewardship of the Lions in New Zealand in 2005 and the unhappy and predictably brief time he spent muddying the waters of Southampton Football Club. Surely, though, somebody in high office must have spotted the pattern of calamitously inappropriate appointments that have peppered Woodward's past. The decision to take Alastair Campbell to New Zealand as the Lions' communications director was only the most infamous, for Woodward was to demonstrate the same muddled approach when he brought the "football skills" expert Simon Clifford to Southampton as head of sport science. "History will show he will be a major acquisition for the club, " said Woodward at the time. History was not long in coming. Clifford lasted two months. It is against that backdrop that the supposedly elite team of coaches unveiled by Woodward last week should be judged. One or two have the sort of respected professional qualifications and backgrounds that imply expertise beyond reproach, but many slip all too comfortably into the category of Clive's Old Mates. Beyond that, the line-up descends quickly into the realms of the weird: it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Tag Lamche is the nation's leading expert on sensory motor skills, but you suspect he caught Woodward's eye because he was (briefly) the drummer in Ian Dury's Blockheads. "The coaches on this programme are not cheap, " admitted Woodward when he introduced his gallery of gurus. "They are the best in the world and I intend to pay them the commercial rate." As Woodward's calculation of the commercial rate amounts to around GBP3 million- GBP4m per athlete over the next five years all of which would count for nothing if the beneficiary happened to twist an ankle at just the wrong moment we should not be sanguine about the expenditure. More than that, though, we should be downright alarmed that Woodward's figure is about double that calculated by UK Sport, the body generally recognised as being responsible for the elite performance of Britain's medal candidates. To make matters worse, senior figures within UK Sport have already expressed serious reservations about Woodward piling into an area in which he has no significant experience and where he is in danger of cutting across their own work. While the BOA and UK Sport have been obliged to make soothing noises about each other recently, it is understood that Woodward's plans have soured relationships between the two bodies. None of which is likely to dissuade the former rugby coach from careering ahead with a plan that looks horribly half-baked and says less about elite development than it does about his own gullibility to the overtures of the charlatans and snake-oil salesmen who populate the sporting landscape these days. Anyone who has read even a few pages of Woodward's toe-curlingly glib semi-autobiography "Winning" will appreciate his fondness for self-aggrandising mumbo jumbo; the pity is the heavy price that British sport might have to pay for that weakness. Copyright c 2007 Newsquest Media Group

Oh Lordy, Lordy... Might we actually give a little credit to the cycling director of elite performance and his entire coaching team? And the swimming? Oh and the athletes who have been training for the best part of their ENTIRE adult lives for this event?? If you think Woodward had an input I suggest you contact the 18 - of 28 - EXISTING Elite Directors of Performance at the various sports like cycling, rowing, and sailing who have had NO contact with Sir Clive and his experimental Olympic structure which has thus far only been used on a fecking teenage golfer!! He isn't even responsible for the structure and development of our athletes, UK Sport are, while Woodward is Elite Director of the BOA. The Olmpics are only every four years. The athletes are competing ALL the time in their sports at local, national, european and worldwide events, as well as building towards the Olympics. So tell me, how is it possible this man influencd Chris Hoy?? Actually, I think there was one sport where Clive had a role. Yes, Judo, I believe...

If you want to back us for promotion, your best bet is to do it now, not (even assuming you can get on) when we are 3-0 up at half-time on Tuesday. Take the risk now. You know you want to...

Agreed, I really like his post-match comments as well - he's as bouyed by the result as we are. He talks about wanting to have fun and win games. Isn's that all we want? To have a go??

No arguments here friend. Anyone who says they're staying away because of Lowe needs to PROVE to me they boycotted the Cup Final... otherwise, they're hypocrites who are either too tight or disillusioned to watch Championship football.

And you stand by your comments about Portvlieet not being up to the job?

Ruud Nistelroy Robin Persie Jan Hesselink **** Dyke... Somehow don't have the same ring do they Dave???

You mean we played professionally!!!??? That alone shows that we finally have players trying to get the basics right.

There's no doubt Andy, he's done a far worse job than Billy Davies! How he got away with it last season is beyond me. But they're even worse now!!!

I'll be there. Come hell or high water. Just really cheesed off that I shall be in Paris on Tuesday to miss us exact revenge... grrrr!!

Seriously mate, you should find it on-line. It was like watching a housewife mount a pork joint in Waitrose meat section...

Tongue in cheek, missed that bit. Was that before or after she tied him up...

Ooo no, he was all fat and sweating and it was so predictable - tarty blonde bent over his motor in stockings. Perhaps if he did a little less dogging and a bit more training, Derby wouldn't be the mess they are... I want him there all season and Derby down, with us putting the final nail in... please God...

Spot on, absolutely spot on. To me, this year (in every game I have seen) we look a 'unit'. Last year we looked like strangers. Not helped last season by the selection scrabble Burley played every week...

EXACTLY!!! It is vital that people come down to SMS and show these boys that we CARE that they are putting passion and commitment and FOOTBALL back into our club! Irrespective of results, these young lads deserve to be supported because they represent EVERYTHING we have been asking for since WGS left.

It'll still happen there though won't it?? We're better off building something sustainable and just waiting for football to eat itself. And it will.

100% agree. All I have ever wanted from my team is 100% effort and to play with a smile on their face.

Is it me or has Rupes been taking advantage of the Saints catering...