Wes Tender

He might be Chairman of the PLC board, but apparently over 27 million punches thrown at him suggests that he is the second most unpopular person in the UK according to this site. Are you suggesting that quite a lot of those punches are thrown by people other than those who are supporters of this club? What do you reckon then? Pompey supporters? Ex-school colleagues who fagged for him and who he bullied? City rivals? The local Wildlife protection league in Gloucester? Anyway, thanks for giving the thread a bump. Appreciated.

I think that you're right. But obviously if a manager devises a strategy that is devastatingly effective early on, then provided that the personnel are there with the same skills to exploit it, others will have seen the marker laid down and if they have half a brain, they will see the way forward. The question then will be whether JP has other ways of varying play to keep them guessing, or whether we will be a one trick pony.

I concur that there is no magic formation that conquers all Although the traditional formation of 4-4-2 is what we can generally expect to come up against, we have dabbled ourselves with other formations as a Premiership club with varying degrees of success. Hoddle often employed two wing backs to switch between 5-3-2 in defence and 3-5-2 in attack. Ball had his Christmas tree formation of 4-3-2-1 which could quickly be switched to 4-5-1 or 4-3-3. Currently popular in the Premiership is the midfield diamond that is popular with some teams. Is it the case that the formation we play suits our youngsters, or our manager? Certainly it is entertaining to watch as long as it is working, but will it become less so if other teams deploy a strategy to negate its effectiveness? The concept is great on paper, keeping possession by quick decisive passing, with player movement to keep the opposition chasing shadows. Presumably that did not happen after the half hour at Cardiff, or it would be a connundrum if we truly only had 34% possession during the match. But as you say, no formation conquers all and it will be interesting to see how long it is before we are sussed out and our strategy negated.

But taking things down to our level, the fact is that the style of play was negated by the clever use of tactics to counter it. The clever managers in this division will watch how we play others and set out a strategy to negate our play or counter it. The Holland team's style was negated and countered and showed the way that it can be done.

No, the really realistic posters will wait and see how it all pans out after say a dozen games. The optimists will say that all his troubles are over and the pessimists will say that his injury will return after a few games and that he is on borrowed time. Do you see the difference?

Let's forget this sh*tty girl and go for Neil Lennon and the number one spot. We're only 4 million short of him, whereas Miss Sh*tty isn't even on the radar overall.

We will undoubtedly improve as the season goes on; that is almost certain, as players get used to playing the new system. Many of our players had been used to playing together before, so for them there is less scope to improve their understanding of each other, except with regards to playing with the couple of additions to the squad. But what needs to be taken into account also, is that the same thing applies to all of the other teams in the division. They will also be improving, bedding in new players and increasing their understanding of their own colleagues.

Just as the Dutch were neutralised in the European Championships after making a fantastic start. The difference between them and us was the undoubted quality that the Dutch team had at their disposal, whereas we have had to sell quite a lot of ours.

Quote: Professor Ah! I see (I think) It wasn't me who said this. It was "people like me". That is why you cannot find me expressing those exact sentiments. But your conclusion that you reach that "people like me", (but not me), is faulty. It has not been proven either that JP is not up to the job, nor incapable of managing in this division. That remains to be seen over the course of several more games.

Well, why don't you tell us the truth of it then?

Yes, I'm afraid you're probably right. After all, the jury will probably conclude that as the victims were wearing Saints shirts, they probably started it by being lippy. The defence will probably paint the perpetrators as being victims of society, coming from broken homes, living on estates where violence is a way of life, having watched too many violent films, or playing computer games where blood and gore is sprayed everywhere and where violence and yobbish behaviour is glorified. They might get an ASBO which they will wear as a badge of honour, or a slap on the wrist such as a few hours of community service which they will treat as a huge joke. With more normal people, it is helpful to show them the effect on the victims families where somebody is killed from similar actions, the upset mothers, the grieving widow or the children whose father was taken away from them. But this sort of tactic is wasted on cretins like this, as they do not have the brains to understand, unless of course it happens to their loved ones.

RobM...I am reminded of the tourist travelling around Ireland who asks a local for directions. The local, leaning on his gate and sucking his straw thinks for a minute and then replies...."Well, if I was you and wanting to get there, I sure as hell wouldn't start off from here." The crux of the problem as we both agree is that we are where we are, like it or not, regardless of where the blame lies and we need to take measures to redress the situation. Like any reasonable fan, what I want is what everybody wants; a successful club. The detail of how to best achieve that is where differences come into play. If we become a financially stable club, we will attract investment from one set of investors and put off others, who would rather get us on the cheap, freeing up money to spend on the team. Also, I would contend that if Lowe and Wilde get the finances stable, they are less likely to make way for others. Experience tells us that inward investment has not been the benchmark of the times when either Lowe or Wilde have been Chairman. Building the club towards financial security is going to be a very long term strategy along those lines. The drawbacks are that the youngsters who shine might be sold, the policy requires a growth in confidence gained from winning, which not only will motivate the players, but encourage the growth of crowds. The other side of the coin is a run of bad losses, loss of confidence, a siege mentality and falling crowds. We both agree that the likelihood is that Lowe will hold on to this experiment as long as possible to avoid loss of face, but that might be very detrimental to us and possibly ensure our further relegation. Nobody knows at this stage which scenario is the more likely, but it is as well to be aware of the possibilities. Given this choice or the hope that a White Knight will arrive on his charger to take us over, I'd prefer that, provided that the new people do not incentivise the takeover by financially rewarding the directors as SISU tried to do.

One can only hope that modern technology in the form of CCTV will have captured the entire thing on camera and that pictures of these moronic thugs will be broadcast over their local media. Undoubtedly these twa*s will be boasting about how well 'ard they are to anybody who will listen and it is only a matter of time that word spreads to somebody intelligent enough to realise that instead of being something to be proud about, it could easily have ended in a murder charge and that person will report their names to the police. Hopefully, if a prosecution ensues for attempted murder, having seen the CCTV footage, a suitably horrified jury will throw the book at these sub-species morons, lock them up and throw away the key.

Ah! Lowe now knocked Shilpa Shetty (whoever she is) off the top for the week now, with a little help

Please show me where I have said either thing? I might have expressed severe doubts based on several factors taken into account, but I'm pretty sure that I've advocated the realistic approach of waiting to see whether results in matches that really mattered would show where we stood. I haven't even concluded what the likely outcome of the season will be based on the one match. You on the other hand have rather foolishly taken the result of the only match we have played in the fizzy pop league with this team and manager and already reached a conclusion that you are not reasonably able to make, as one match is not grounds enough for any sensible conclusion.

I'm glad that you're so sure that the money raised will be ploughed right back into the squad. I wish i shared your optimism, but a decade of Lowe has made me rather a cynic, as you probably gathered. I'm afraid I'm not into buying pies from the sort of catering establishments found at football grounds, as I'd hate to think where some of the ingredients came from.

I was trying to be realistic, as I hope that I have been ever since the massive changes took place. As I said, if the statistics are correct, we did not have enough possession, which as far as I am aware should be something that is fundamental to the style of play that we are attempting to achieve. When you consider that we presumably had cut out the chancey launching of the ball upfied by the goalkeeper and also the head tennis element that has been a characteristic of our play the last few seasons, then without them the possession percentages should have increased. So, I ask the question again. Was Poortvliet really impressed, or was he putting a brave face on it?

Was Poortvliet really happy, or just putting a brave face on it? According to the match statistics, Cardiff had about two thirds of the possession. I had thought, perhaps mistakenly, that we were to be playing total football, denying the opposition possession by passing the ball around between our players, tiring them out by chasing shadows. I had read on the OS that the youngsters had learned quickly to play that system. So what conclusion can we reach? That they had not learned to play that system fluently as yet? That the older players had hampered it? That Cardiff had not allowed us to play it once they had sussed it out after the first half hour? So we were within a minute or so of a creditable draw; but whether we would have deserved the point is debateable.

Michael Svensson is indeed a remarkable individual with an incredible personality, full of self-belief and determination. He is a shining example of the best sort of professional to all the youngsters who are playing around him. If he can remain fit, then he will be a very valuable asset to the team and will be one of the major factors towards whether we succeed or fail. But there is the nub of the matter. We have signed him on a pay per play contract purely becuse the odds against him continuing to play are in the balance. As the article says, he has been back before and lasted 7 matches. If his knee problems have been solved and will stand up to the rigours of a full season at this physical level, then we will all be delighted. But like Killer himself, let's take one match at a time and have our own confidence and sense of good luck increase with every game that he plays. His ability or his attitude and worth is not in doubt.

Just because he looks at things in a different light to you, his point of view is no less valid. All he asked was whether you would still like it as much if we lost our first three games, which you have not answered yet. And for that he gets categorised as "people like you" and told that he is not worth having a good debate with. I also do not know how from his comment you could discern that he thinks the season is already over and that we're already relegated just by his tone. What exactly do you mean by support? Us the fans, or inward investment? No real sign of the latter from the current incumbents. If you meant us, even if we filled the stadium every match, we would still not raise enough to start a massive rebuilding of the club. The reality is that as things stand and without a takeover happening by people with serious dosh available, that we will struggle on with cheap youth and older journeymen released on frees. If we have serious injuries to the squad, we are down to the barebones and will survive in this division if we are lucky. Even if we repeatedly keep our head above water, we will become a feeder club for the Premiership sides, as we will constantly have to sell any youngster who displays any real talent. This is my point of view and you can either dismiss it as the thoughts of "somebody like you", or I'd be interested to hear your arguments against my scenario if you wish to debate it.

Agree wholeheartedly. And as somebody else commented so pertinently, if we do require any of the oldies to step forward to cover for injuries to any of the youngsters, any who remain, that is, what is their mental attitude going to be? If they were to think, right, you want me now you're in the sh*t, it will be quite understandable.

Derry made the assertion that Schneiderlin was the best playmaker that the club had had since Alan Ball. Since then, there have been several names put into the hat that fulfilled that role for the club and I personally await his response to my question that if he could chose between Schneirderlin now or Le Tiss at the same age, which one would he have? I've nothing against Schneiderlin and hope that he develops into a really good player, but I just thought that the gushing was a bit premature. What happened to him today? He was substituted, but most thought that he had been effective. Replacing him with Wotton? What was that all about? Was he carrying an injury?

I have an inkling that a game like today's is one where Saga would have shone and added the necessary bite in the final third that we seemed to be missing. But we might never know now, as apparently Mr "Never mind the quality feel the width" Lowe seems to have made up his mind that Saga's wages are too much. If things continue in this vein and John doesn't make up for this deficiency, the penny might eventually drop. I wonder whether there will be enough time before the season's end to remedy the situation?

The figures are a travesty when we are supposed to be playing total football. Unless I've completely misunderstood the concept, the idea is to keep possession by passing the ball about the pitch, making the other team run around chasing shadows. Seems that from these statistics, it was us doing the running around. Thank God that they are youngsters and fit! I had thought that another part of the new philosophy was that we were to shoot on sight of the goal, but somehow managed only 7 shots, two of which were off target. I had seen some exciting total football, or what I took to be that against West Ham. Would anybody who was there venture an opinion as to whether that was the style we played today? Otherwise I'll have to wait until Saturday and see whether there is any evidence of it against Brum.

It doesn't matter whether the ball had crossed the line or not, we didn't defend it properly in the first place and we have no points. We seemed to be playing well to begin with, with plenty of good passing and movement, but slowly but surely Cardiff came back into it and it was us who were on the back foot for the last 15 minutes of the first half. It appeared to be much more even in the second half, but their goallie hardly had a save to make all afternoon. According to Radio Solent, we lacked a cutting edge. I also noted that Lee Holmes didn't do that much on the left, neither did Thompson on the right. Things looked much brighter when they were replaced by B-WP and Dyer, although they are both right sided players. Although he scored, which will be great for his confidence, McG didn't seem to do much else. I don't know what conclusion to reach from this. We were close to a point which would be a fair return for a first game, but despite Svensson having an awesome game, I'm still worried about the ability of our defence to defend set pieces on the one hand and the inability to score from them at the other end.