madruss

The most sense that has been written on this thread by a long way. Alan Pardew has a lot of experience and will know what is needed to get out of this league. I'm sure if he wanted he could have signed 5-6 players by now, but that would be a knee-jerk panicky approach to managing a football club. He has to assess the players that are already here, how they fit in with his style of play and then decide which of the players available on the market will complement or add to that. Panic buying is the worst thing you can do when you have a long term strategy.I'm sure if Redknapp had had more time he would not have signed Bernard and Davenport in that fateful January transfer window... We signed a lot of players in a short period of time during Burley's first full season in charge....the hangover from that binge sent the club into admin. AP will sign players by the end of the transfer window, of that we can be fairly certain. To complain that he hasn't signed more in his short spell already is impatient and petulant to say the least

Exactly. We didn't say "Stern John didn't sign because he couldn't get a work permit" We offered him a deal and he didn't accept. This situation is completely different

Chinese people? Noodles? It's all fitting together....

I think the best lesson the new owner can learn from Lowe is: If you find a strategy that works, I.e. appointing an experienced manager (WGS), and letting him get on with his job, stick with that strategy!!! Don't, under any circumstances, think that you know better and adopt a completely different strategy, I.e. appoint a novice manager in a 'continental set-up', when the old strategy actually worked fine!

Be Quiet! You're scaring Paul Allen away

Ah, I understand now!

Indeed. I thought he'd reported 2 bids had been made before last Wednesday's 'bid deadline'. What a pointless deadline that was

He surely meant Friday

He'd score goals for fun in league 1, so if it were at all possible we'd have to keep him. Can't see it happening myself, there'll be a lot of championship clubs interested, most of whom will be able to offer far superior wages. It still makes me laugh (mainly with despair) that one of the reasons JP gave for loaning out Rasiak, other than wages, was that he "didn't fit in with the team's style of play" - The reason being that the 'style of play' was to make a lot of pretty passes and create very few goal scoring chances...no room for a goal-poacher in that ingenious system

Saints beat Forest on the last day of the season and we end up on the same points, goal difference and goals scored? Would there be a playoff match to decide if we get points deducted next season, yet Forest would be safe from relegation whatever happened. What a bizarre match that would be

If it's that simple, then how come in 2006/07. A certain SFC who spent more than any other Championship club FAILED to win promotion. And probably had the highest wage bill for that matter. It's not all about money and you know this, so stop trying to defend that arrogant F*ckwit Lowe for what was an unforgiveable gamble to take with an already struggling football club. Also, what money have clubs like Doncaster and Plymouth got? Our wage bill is probably still higher than theirs, plus we've ****ed more money up the wall than them even this season (take a bow messrs Schneiderlin, Gasmi, Pulis..et al)...yet they're safe from relegation and we're not...just money is it???

Spot on there. This despite the fact that most football success stories come from teams where the manager is the UNDISPUTED number one at the club. Lowe could never grasp this concept, mainly due to his massive ego, hence the cause of his most spectacular failure culminating in the nadir of the F*uck-awful Dutch experiment

How many years has it been since Skacel did a decent job in that role? He played in midfield in the playoff season and was largely ineffective (how may goals was it, 2? 3?). Yes, he was really good for Hearts in that role, but that was in a league where Sutton, Samaras and the like score goals for fun. That said, he could hardly do a worse job than Surman is at the moment so perhaps there is some merit in swapping them round for tomorrow's game

He might not be the best, but he's still 10 times the player Ryan Smith is. If we could afford to give Dyer a contract then surely we could afford to pay his wages instead of Smith's??

What a fantastic description of Lowe's masterplan...I applaud you sir!

It might make sense, but it's still a gamble to put someone with no coaching experience in charge of coaching a demoralised team comprised mainly of youngsters in dire need of guidance from someone with coaching experience. Maybe Killer will make a good coach some day, but is this really the time and situation to be testing that theory out. The same level of gamble as putting two Dutch coaches with zero championship experience in charge of the whole operation. It's the same sort of gamble that Lowe's been unsuccessfully inflicting on this club at various points in the last 13 or so years. The sort of gamble that's had Lowe thinking "If it pays off, I'll be heralded as a visionary, an insightful leader in the world of football". This despite the fact that the most successful periods at the club under Lowe's tenure were with an experienced manager in charge.....but anyway that's been done to death. Back to your original point - No Killer should not be free from criticism, but he should also not have been given such a high profile, high pressure job as his first coaching role.

If Wotte was 'no mug', why could he only get a job as an assistant to someone with no championship experience, at a struggling championship club which paid very little? You get what you pay for in this world, Lowe appointed inexperienced Dutch managers on the cheap and got sh*te management in return. That's why we're so bad, and that's why we're in the position we're in. The only hope is that there are some equally shocking teams around us, so the odd couple of wins might well be enough. It's no longer in our hands though, we just have to hope the other teams f*ck up more royally than we're doing

"Didn't see that coming....Oh no, hang on..."

True. There should also be a manager hiring policy put in place so that only "promising young English coaches" are given the job, certainly not anyone with any English football management experience.

Tell me, what exactly has Wotte been doing at the for the rest of the season (ignoring yesterday's game). He was an integral part of the 'revolutionary management structure' that was brought to the club and he is therefore integral to the reason we're second from bottom in the league. So I would agree that, overall this season, Wotte has been a 'load of rubbish' and still has a long way to go to prove anything. May I remind you that we beat Preston earlier this season and also beat Reading at the Madejski. We've had no problem picking up one-off, impressive wins this season. The real test of a manager's capabilities is to put a run of results together. Wotte's run of results thus far has been 5 points from 15. If that rate of return continues, we will be relegated.

Have a little look at the league table my friend - even with hindsight the protest had merit and purpose. It wasn't about Wotte, and it certainly wasn't about 'the boys'

What's really stupid about saying "We deserved more from the game...blah blah blah...etc" is that he's assuming the opposition wouldn't have upped their game if, by some remote chance, we actually did manage to score. The fact is, today's game proved we've made precisely zero progress since we last played Bristol City where also: - Kelvin saved a penalty - City took an early lead - We didn't start playing until the second half - Jason Euell missed a sitter - We didn't f-ing score - We 'deserved' more We're so down.

Last season we didn't drop into the bottom 3 until April, and in fact we were about 14th at the beginning of February. This season, the picture is so much bleaker. Not only are we already in the bottom 3 in February, we're more than one win adrift of safety. Last season we were always in with a chance due to the points built up in the 1st half of the season. This time we haven't got that luxury, nor do we have a competent manager with relevant experience. Doomed, in other words.

I don't often agree with your posts Alpine, but this one is bang on the money=D>

Maybe we could get Leicester's manager in. I hear he has those sort of qualities :mad::mad: Seriously I get the financial constraints the club is under, but I'm completely at a loss to believe that the difference between the combined wages of Poortvliet, Wotte & Gorre and the sole wage of Pearson was really that much. And even if it was, I would still rather have Pearson than Schneiderlin (I'm sure the annual cost of those two options, including transfer fee...etc, would be fairly similar) Even when a club is hard up, its most valued resource should be the manager. He should be in charge of everything to do with the team, and he should be accountable if things aren't going well. Lowe's master strategy has been to employ a manager on paltry wages, put him in charge of some things to do with the team and not make him accountable for disastrous results (as Norwich, Forest, Charlton and Watford have done). Surprise. It's not working