Wes Tender

The trouble with struggling early on, is that a large part of the team is inexperienced youngsters who were successful in the reserves of academy leagues. They are used to winning. If they lose badly and continue to do so, they will lose the confidence that is necessary for success. How this pans out remains to be seen, but I'm glad that you're confident for some reason that if we get off to an early struggle, we'll somehow do better later on. As for the bit about it being the fans' fault if attendances fall, I would be very pleased if you can explain that one to me. Pardon me for misunderstanding that we can sell any of the quality players, experiment with foreign management unproven over here, play youngsters, have our club run by unpopular failed past chairmen and yet expect the fans to turn up regardless or accuse them presumably of not being real fans if they don't. I suspect that early on attendances will not be bad, for no better reason than people are curious to see how we will do under these bizarre circumstances. But should it all go badly pear-shaped because of the reliance on youngsters or cheap jouneymen, then nobody will be to blame except the people supposedly running the club and it is disingenous to attempt to blame us, the poor bloody foot soldiers.

Big deal! Why don't we save even more money and get somebody out of the conference. I'm sure there are some big lads there who were player of the year for their teams.

This is such a short-sighted view. John's goals might well have kept us up whilst Davies was injured, but this does not acknowledge at all that having Davies absent through injury meant that we were weakened defensively and therefore drawn closer to the drop as a consequence. Why were we relegated from the Premiership? Because we didn't score enough goals, or because Killer was out for most of that season and there were also injuries to Claus too?

I couldn't agree more and hope that you are right that it is only paper talk. Just think what a signal it would send out to all the other clubs that we are prepared to sell a player of his quality for such a paltry sum. Everybody must know by now that we are deep in the sh*t, but doing something like this will send out a message loud and clear that anybody and everybody is up for grabs. There are probably several clubs just waiting to see how the youngsters fare before offering us derisory amounts for them, knowing the lure of deserting this particular sinking ship for the Premiership will be enough to entice them in January. It can't do much for the egos of those more experienced players knowing that just because they earn an amount commensurate with their abilities, but more than a certain figure that we are deemed not able to afford, that therefore they are not wanted here.

Why do you feel the need to begin a new thread when you said exactly the same thing on another thread? Plus there is also another thread up and running about whether we are selling Davies.

There has to be a point where we say that there are players we have to keep because they are worth more for what they bring to the team than the money we get for them. This is a concept that the money men have never understood. There could come to pass a situation whereby the weaker defence means a bad losing streak followed by loss of morale, followed by more games lost, followed by fewer people through the turnstiles, followed by bigger losses. So we are f*cked by following this path also, but will probably go under with a whimper rather than a bang in the process.

If the rumour is correct, then my attitude is that we might as well just give up any chance of staying in this division. We have already got rid of many other players who had a bit of quality about them and are down to the bare bones in that respect. Andrew Davies was one of the players that we should slap a huge price on and tell other clubs that he isn't for sale unless we get way over the top for him. Provided that Killer can keep fit, the partnership between him and Davies is what might just make the difference for us when we are playing youngsters in front of them and are short at full back. At the moment, devoid of any real proven quality apart from John and arguably one or two others, Davies is the only player who could be deemed to be of Premiership quality. We would be stark raving bonkers to weaken our defence still further at this time by letting him go. But with Lowe in charge again, nothing would surprise me, frankly.

The timeline? Easy. It will be either when hell freezes over, or alternatively when whole squadrons of pigs take off for the skies in a V formation. Isn't that right, Scabby?

Quote:Originally Posted by buctootim Quote: Originally Posted by Windmill Arm 2 Originally Posted by Windmill Arm 2 Quote Misguided Missile: Yes, exactly; a wild guess. Definitely a misguided missile and far wide of the mark, having no substance enabling any reasonably intelligent person to make the leap of reasoning that you did. You must be slipping. A bad case of two and two making five in your mind.

I've met Roger and he is a fan, Scabby. And as he will go to some away matches, I suspect that will mean that he goes to more Saints matches than you, making him a better fan than you by your twisted logic.

And equally of course, if you find yourself loving the Chairman obsessively then that's also a pretty good indication of the pathetic priorities that exist in your life. Isn't that so, Scabby?

I bought a ticket for me and my son just 20 minutes ago. I asked how many had been sold and was told about 17,500.

Won convincingly = had the majority of the possession, played well within ourselves, had an extra gear or two in reserve, Exeter never looked like scoring. This doesn't quite stack up against Exeter dominating the first half and having several chances to score, but we took the lead against the run of play just before half time. Then although we were much improved in the second half and scroed again, as you say we should have run out comfortable winners. But they pulled one back with sufficient time that they could have scored again and took it into extra time. Fortunately we scored again right at the death to put it beyond doubt. But what would you have anticipated as the outcome had it gone to extra time? Sod's law when it comes to the Saints would have been them winning. Tranmere was the perfect example of us screw*ng things up, but thankfully we weren't playing the Posh again either.

... and you were able to breathe a sigh of relief, as was the other Nick. Go on, admit it. I certainly did.

Come on Nick; be honest. Was the Exeter game a convincing win, or is the fella wearing his rose-tinted specs?

Well, personally I thought that he let down the rest of his argument within the first paragraph when he said that we had won convincingly away at Exeter. From most accounts we were rather lucky to go into half time with a lead and then survive the closing stages at 2-1. Had they equalised then instead of us scoring the penalty at the death, things could have been very different and I believe most breathed a sigh of relief. Apart from that, IMO you could have substituted the name of Nigel Pearson and written something very similar about his attributes and wished that he too would have the chance to develop the team in his chosen direction. But when some urge continuity as the way towards stability, the recent board changes and the management changes went right in the face of that proposition. It remains to be seen as to whether JP will be here for some time or whether he'll be gone by Christmas. It all depends on results and it is far too early to make any reasoned judgement at this stage.

I was just being picky about the repetition of the word doubt rather than it being incorrect. Perhaps the first one should have been "undoubtedly" to vary it a bit. As for the "and" challenge, I prefer to use commas instead. And how did that apostrophe creep in? LOL

But the so called Pofessor was expressing doubt, which adds another negative. So correctly, I'm assuming that what he meant to say was "No doubt Rupert Lowe's rating as a businessman is a matter that is open to opinion, but I doubt that Camberwell Saint is either qualified as a psychologist or party to any information about RL's mental state but presumably that was just... And IMO one to many "doubts" too. I believe the first one to be superfluous. HTH

No Nick, from what he said and the context of it, I was able to discern correctly that it was he was being stereotypical and disdainful of the working class, whatever that currently might be. Or do you mistakenly believe that the Northam or people who are generally critical of Lowe are the aristos who wear the flat caps when they go hunting or other country pursuits? Was your mispelling of cap a freudian slip, as Andy Capp is probably the most stereotypical working class wearer of the flat cap?

The flat cap thing was a great way to shoot him down in pieces, as it was easy to prove that many aristos wear them when out shooting. I had attempted to get a photo of Lowe wearing one, but to no avail. That would have been precious, but I failed.

I think this is the one of the best wind up threads in a long tima and great amusement value. It's great to have somebody like Scabby for pure entertainment value, even if he is a troll.

Again, it shows that people on here are prepared to credit SCW with amazing powers of motivation doesn't it, just because he had some fleeting connection with us. As you rightly point out, the vast majority of the credit goes to the girl for maintaining her focus for many years and the coaches who taught her. I am presuming that as well as being instructors, that they also have some powers of motivation. If not, then I have a simple solution. Let SCW coach the coaches in motivational powers if they are lacking in them.

What a load of tosh. Worthy of academic research? Are you trying to make us believe that you are an academic and perhaps it is something you are capable of doing if you had the money by way of a grant? One thing is certain, if you were a professor, then I'd have to worry about the state of education in this country, as often your thought processes are full of holes. If you knew anything about psychiatry, you'd know that the behaviour patterns expressed by the fans of this club are entirely normal and commensurate with those of most other clubs in our position and in most sports where there are tribal elements and in any event, there has been plenty of academic research into these phenomena already and I doubt that you or anybody else could bring up any fresh data peculiar to our position here. The only thing that you've said that is reasonable is that the dislike felt towards Lowe and indeed Wilde, will fade following a string of good results. That does not mean that people will change to liking them, but they will attract less hostile reaction as long as there is a discernible improvement in our fortunes.

He was the best in his field in the country? Not necessariy so at all. He might have been the one with the highest profile after the Rugby World Cup, but to say that he was the best in his field is stretching it. As I said, there are plenty of others who are probably better qualified who just quietly go about their business as paid consultants that most have never heard about and frankly I would have preferred one of those with the lowered profile in the media.

Could this be the same argument trotted out that the fans changed the board's mind about employing Hoddle the second time around? Either we have more power to our elbow than we thought, or the board are weaker than they ought to be. I wonder which it is?