Legod Second Coming

How about saving a club that people feel passionate enough about to post all day??

The wonderful thing about cynics is that they DO care. Apathy is much harder to combat. Turn a cynic around and they almost always become an advocate and vociferous in their advocacy. Take former smokers for example. What we need is the marketing brains to bring fans back. Of course, winning helps!

...for all of you who think it is the answer to rid this club of the current management. First, staff will be laid off - not the board or players, but groundsmen, ticket hotline operators, etc. Next, will go the catering staff, cleaners, etc. Then any pension provision for those people will be wound up. Then all the obvious assets will be sold. Then the Administrators will take their fees - FWIW Grant Thornton charge £130 for a secretary to type the letters to fire the ground-staff... (oh, the manager who oversees it, try around £600 per hour) Then the taxman will be paid. The then secured creditors. Then the unsecured ones. Then what remains is sold to the former management, who have overseen the demise. Who take back on the previous staff. On lower salaries. And reduced benefits. And fewer of them. To work twice as hard. STILL think you want to inflict this on the people who ACTUALLY run your club??

Steve, people are paid hundreds of thousands and year as Creative Directors of agencies to come up with promotions. Between us we could probably create at least half a dozen that would work... Like you, I would rather a full stadium with people spending than satisfy myself that I got the best value in the ground.

They simply must do something to increase attendance as our key revenue stream. And they must do this without affecting existing ST Holders. I would like to see more, many more, ticket offers constructed in such a way as to: 1. Reflect the value of the ST Holder and their contribution to the club, but also: 2. To attract lapsed customers. 3. To attract more kids. 4. To attract more 'referred' customers - friends of friends, etc. Not only have we been hit by falling attendances due to performances on/off the pitch, there is also a recession looming and discretionary spend is under pressure. We do need to act as marketing savvy as humanly possible to ensure we generate more matchday income. And fast. Our clear priority is cost-cutting. But we must not forget revenue generation wherever it may come from. This means also working harder in selling the E&L business of the club and the merchandise. Perhaps is we could forgeo a %margin and give away socks with a shirt for example, that would encourage Dad to also buy the shorts?? That's what we need. Ideas.

Yep, that journalists do not report on games as they occur, simply as befits their story... It's a sad state of affairs when even the Times resort to tabloid journalism... and a sadder reflection on the buying public...

Firstly, most of these nibbles have been from people who do not have the clout to buy the club, lest it would have been sold. SISU was our only realistic purchaser. Second, there is no guarantee that ANY buyer is any more likely to buy us out of adminsitration when the club is STILL loss-making. Few people buy loss-making businesses, fewer still when staring down the barrel of recession. Third, the points loss would relegate us, making it EVEN more difficult to turn the business around and therefore even less saleable. And finally, because the most likely buyer of ANY business that goes into administration is either the incumbent or former management. (That's what comes of being married to a bank manager, the son-in-law of an accountant and the brother-in-law of a receiver...) Our ONLY hope of survival is to match out income to our outgoings. Frankly THAT is the only hope of ANY business to survive. You don't like Lowe, I don't like him. But to launch us into administration to try and oust him is a guarantee of relegation. At least his way offers us hope of survival.

Who do you think will take us over when we got into administration?? Like most businesses it will be the INCUMBENT management. Christ, are you genuinely this naive???

What are these demons and what is your proposal for confronting them, out of interest??

That was my experience exactly, only with Surman. At one point Surman moved the ball up the left wing beautifully, carved open an opportunity on the outside, passed the ball inside to Holmes who lost it (when tackled from behind, unfairly imho) and then Surman (on the overlap) was given a roasting from the stands for not getting back. Only an idiot would fail to comprehend the Usain Bolt could not have tracked back from that position. But what cheeses me off is not the lack of football awareness, it is that if you intend to berate players for trying their hardest and doing the best job they are simply capable of, what hope have they of ever satisfying some of the morons we seem to attract?? Our footballers are not the best in the world - shock news...

How about the 15k fans who thought it was appropriate to come and watch us beat survival, come back and SUPPORT the team that is now predominantly made up of OUR YOUTH. That might help raise some of the £4m needed...

And your first choice full backs are??? We don't need to change a system that is working - we simply need to improve at it. Or tell me, would you like to inflict long ball football on those of us who watch? James played well. Anyone who says otherwise didn't watch the entire first half where he created most of our attacking threat. Surman played reasonably but was let down when he passed to a colleague who lost the ball and he was then left miles out of position, at which point I guess it was the job of someone else to cover if that's the system, albeit they didn't always do it effectively. I listened to people in the stands screaming at players to track back and do this and that, totally oblivious to any instructions they may have been given by the manager. It wasn't James and Surman who were at fault for us not winning, that's for sure. So why suddenly are we debating their relative strengths?? Saturday was a good team performance. We lost. It happens. But the nay-sayers want to be proved right, that this team cannot compete, it's the wrong players, the wrong formation, etc, etc. Well I have SEEN the evidence and funnily enough most of those others who have are the people on here who are confident we are playing better football that will ultimately result in better results. But what was your expectation? That having seen our side decimated by financial mis-management, we would win the league???

Would it not be a little odd for a manager to say that actually the most important person at the club is the first-team coach?? Or the bus-driver?? Just a thought... (Although I have to say that I agree 100% with him (and you) - but ask a fish-monger to recommend dinner and he's hardly likely to suggest bangers and mash is he... )

Skacel I'll give you. James showed more skill and pace then Thomas I'd have thought?? Didn't 90% of our attacking threat actually come from James??

No, since they are wing-backs I would have to agree... and frankly, what is the alternative??

You need more proof????

Well, I can't be the only one to have seen him at the game??? Surely...

I thought he was oustanding. He played a ball through in the first half that Le Tiss would have been proud to call his own. It resulted in a clear chance that was fluffed, but time and again he found McG in space or created an angle for an excellent cross. There seem to be so many fecking doom-mongers who don't bother to watch games that they've forgotten to mention the superb save from Maik (that frankly he knew nothing about) and the clear miss from John (that he should be ashamed of) that would have seen us leading 3-0 on 47 minutes with the game wrapped up. Pity.

Freddie Shepherd as Chairman eh??

In a court of law, someone who has WITNESSED something tends to have a touch more credibility I find... Of course, while you are depriving the club of funds by not attending, feel free to dictate how the team plays for the benefit of those of us keeping it afloat...

I thought what he said was spot on, but then I went to the game with an open mind and open eyes, which seems to be becoming a rarity on here... Maybe if all those people who are with-holding funds from Lowe would just like to club together and buy Ronaldinho for us we'd be fine...

I see the debate rages but the point is missed. John scores a free header, we win. He misses, they score against the run of play, we lose. We've all seen a thousand times over on MoTD. It happens. It does not detract from the excellent play for the vast majority of the game. It means neither we'll go up nor down, just that right now we have conceded as many goals as and are just 3 points behind the favourites for promotion.

Generally, I have no problems with refs getting things wrong. I do honestly believe these things often balance out. However, a bloke who weighs 14/16 stone and is sweating after the warm-up is not fit to referee (or run the line) by the true meaning of the word 'fit'. If I was a ref, which I am not, I would make sure I could keep up with the game by laying off the pies and spending a little more time in the gym. A factual observation my friend - condolences to your brother.

lol!!

Seriously, what a bunch of fat unfit officials? Did you see that lino?? I thought he was going down with a coronay. It's not good enough. We play pacey football with width, we HAVE to speak to the league about getting refs and linos who are a little more Carl Lewis and a little less Jerry Lee Lewis...