Gorgiesaint

Good one DPS - I'll back the Great White - I think 3 feet is enough water for to still be able to turn. The one that comes up in our pub discussions late on a Saturday night every now & again is a polar bear against a silverback gorrilla, over 3 rounds - one is in the jungle, one in the arctic & the third on neutral territory. I nearly got thrown out of Edinburgh zoo after monkey feeding time when the girl on the mike asked if anyone had any questions!!! Edit: Back the the thread - Think we'll end up in the 90's in terms of goals - Lambert to get about 35

The great news is that this squad just continues to gel. We now seem to be getting performances from some of the back up players - Bart, Thomas and Waigo. Good to hear that James also did ok when moved inside. That will certainly help us if we pick up injuries and/or suspensions - and we didn't pick up any bookings either.

Brought up just outside Bournemouth - my dad was a Chelsea fan due to living in South London in early 70's despite being brought up in Southampton but fortunately my uncle was Southampton through & through. Missed 76 and knew nothing about it until a few year later, but taken to watch us play Cardiff in 77 I think, when we won 3-1 and I was hooked. Think my dad was surprised how quickly I got into it as we went to a couple of away games that season - Brighton and that game against Orient!! Despite living in Coventry & Brighton, I ended up living in Hedge End for 14 years. Sadly had to move to Edinburgh 6 years ago but always try to get back for at least one home game a season and watch us up north when I can. Wouldn't dream of supporting anyone else. I have mates up here who are Celtic, Rangers, Hibs & Hearts but nothing compares and whilst I'll watch their teams, I couldn't pick one to support. The first game I saw up here was a Hearts v Hibs derby at Tynecastle, midweek under floodlights but it's nothing like the buzz from walking through the turnstiles at SMS (let alone for one of our derby games!!)

No chance, he's been told by 2 surgeons that he won't play again. Pardews good at what he does but he isn't a miracle worker. Plus Ashton won't want to miss his pay day.

Some valid questions. As to who the real money man was, we will never know as they wanted to remain in the background at that time, and will remain so having pulled out. Having Crouch pay the £1/2m should have raised suspicions but do we know for sure that Liebherr was prepared to pay that amount at that time to gain exclusivity? My recollection (and I'm happy to be corrected) was that this was payable to be able to final due dilligence on the books and was non-refundable. I don't recall anyone wanting to put their hands in their pockets under those terms. My feeling is that Fry asked for the £1/2m, the two bidders declined & Crouch backed down very quickly through fear of the club going under. I can only speculate as to what would have happened if Crouch hadn't stepped in. Maybe the club would have gone under, or maybe Fry would have gone back to both bidders with plan B - who knows??

Pompey owed HMRC about £10m, not sure how long its taken them to run up that debt but more than a few weeks I would guess...

From what I can recall from the statements made at the time, the Pinnacle bid was originally a consortium (which potentially provided Fry with the necessary proof of funding) which they whittled down to Micky Fialka on his own. If Fry had already seen proof of funds but was being assured that everything was still on track (which Tony Lynam was doing at that point), then he may hav opted to still prefer the Pinnacle bid if they had made the largest offer at that point. Whether Fry should have re-requested funds in that case is open to debate. Ironically it is similar to whats happened down the road, although for the blue few, their man with no money actually managed to take over!!

Its rumbling on because of human nature wanting to know everything that went on during a 'traumatic' period in our history. However, we are unlikely to ever find out the truth due to NDA's and those involved trying to paint their picture that bit better than reality was. Doesn't make wrong to have a thread though, a sort of on-line physchiatrists (sp) couch as it were....

It just keeps us under the radar for a bit longer. Allows AP to concentrate on working with team, and helps keep the players feet firmly on the ground.

Still on 2% this morning!!

I know this away from the original topic of Barcelona's GP track, but regarding Silverstone's negotiations with Bernie who is not budging on the costs, I seem to recall an article on the BBC website which said that Monza does get a reduced rate from Bernie. Does anyone know why this would be the case (if true)?

What did Chelsea do after Mutu got banned? If I'm right didn't they sue him for the transfer fee?

But does playing slightly long in the first half give the team more space for the passing game in the second, given the defence will sit deeper to protect against the longer ball?

Wotton has been part of what has been a successful team over the last 6 or so games so he shouldn't be a whipping boy - no-one should. After all, he's going to be part of the team until January at the earliest. But that doesn't stop us looking around to see how we could improve the team further in January.

I've heard Tony Adams is available.... .... and by the time he's got some money on it, he'll be the bookies favourite !!

I'm not looking to blame anyone LTC. What I'm questioning is how we can better. The discussion was around whether 4-4-2 would be more effective than 4-5-1 (or 4-3-3) depending on how you see it. People have talked about scoring goals at one end of the pitch - but both ends are equally important. There was much talk on this forum during the early part of the season that we had the best defence in L1. As I've previously stated, I'm not in a position to judge the reasons. I am interested in informed debate but not looking for blame to be apportioned. We have done well recently, but I'm sure even AP will be looking to improve things.

Agree with much of what you said in this post but I will make a couple of points: you say we're not conceeding many - we've not had a clean sheet for 8 games now which is a slight concern - if we can keep scoring 3 goals a game then we won't have any problems but as yesterday showed (as did Torquay) if we conceed two then getting a win may be a problem. Anyway you may be right about us thinking too much about formations but what else would we talk about Last point, I haven't called for a move to 4-4-2 as you indicated, I actually agree with you why change what has been a winning formula. But I am keen to keep improving things - hence my comments about keeping clean sheets and can we improve personnel to get even better? and if so who?

Players missing chances has nothing to do with the formation. You're right (from what I've heard) in that we created chances with both formations. As someone commented earlier, it's nice that we have two formations that we can play & change if required.

Not really, it's about fans expressing their opinions - not saying Pardew doesn't know what he's doing. Look at Man Utd, SAF keeps playing Anderson & Nani, lots of MU fans criticise him for it as they don't rate those players. Does that mean SAF does not understand what is required? Pardew's doing okay at the moment. For me, the discussion is how do we take ourselves to the next level up (i.e. win six out of the next six), hence my earlier questions about keeping clean sheet. If discussing the formation forms part of that then thats part of the debate. Sure as hell beats talking about the boardroom and which picture should be on the wall!!

I'm sure Pardew will continue with the way we are playing whilst it is still bringing in results. It sounds like we still had enough chances yesterday to have won the game easily, that happens so its probably not worth making wholesale changes because of one draw. That said, what is starting to concern me is that we have not kept a clean sheet in the last 8 games. We should have one of the best defenses in this league, but seem unable to keep that clean sheet. Interestingly in those 8 games, we've conceeded 12 goals - 7 of which have been in the first half when we're playing our more defensive formation. Due to work commitments & living in Scotland, I've not yet seen SFC this season so I'm not in a position to comment really, but for the regulars - what needs to change to keep a clean sheet - do we need another RB to replace Lloyd (and Murty is still out)? or should AP be looking to sign a replacement for Wooton in January? and if so who?

If Tony Adams is backing himself to get another job as a manager then yes, he does have a gambling problem!!

Steve Williams - moved to Arsenal and made very little impact with them (Agh - you beat me to it 70's Mike!!) I would have also said Matt Mills, moved at the wrong time as another few months and he would have broken into the first team - Man City was always the wrong move for him but did well by joining Doncaster. Not sure how he'll do at Reading. Possibly one to watch if we swap divisions with Reading as a long term replacement for Jaidi?

That is a statto's paradise!!! Anyway, if we needed to be on 75 points to be in the playoffs that means we need to garner 85 points - which is 1.85 points per game. After 14 games that means we should be on 26 points to be on track for the playoffs - we've gathered 21. So we're not that far away from where we needed to be despite our slow start. If we can maintain our current form then there are real possibilities.

Have to say, if we had to get an away draw then this was the one to get. Not much motivation required - just reply the video of that game & the game at SMS earlier this season. Key word - Revenge!!