Wes Tender

Yes, you're right. We will have a far more rellevant indicator as to where we stand this afternoon than anything else we have wintnessed so far since the end of last season. Naturally I hope that we play well and win, but I would sum up my thoughts if we do as a triumph of hope over expectation.

I agree. But naturally there are some circumstances where it might be detrimental; Rasiak playing in goal for example, just because the manager requested it. I am using an extreme example to illustrate a point. But as I said in the cases of Rasiak and Scacel, I am not privvy to the workings of Burley's mind, but Raisak scores 20 goals in a season or whatever it was and he is then persona non grata the following season. Scacel had been scoring for fun in a wide roving role for Hearts, but is played at left back by Burley for much of the season.

Read what I said in reply to Slickmick. It isn't my problem. The situation is very clear, that we need to offload most of the players who are earning above a certain level. It is indeed very unfortunate that it apparently matters not a jot whether some of those players might add the extra bite to get us promoted, they have to go regardless. Those players are on contracts that will continue to be binding unless they can be torn up by mutual consent or some other club comes in to buy them, or the club can prove some breach of contract such as gross misconduct. If those players do not want to go. or if nobody wants to buy them, then there is not a lot we can do, is there? As such, the problem is Rupert's and the Quisling Wilde's. They are both employed by the club to think of solutions, so why would I want to do their job for them? Our best hope if nobody buys them, is to get the best loan out deal we can, so at least they are off our wage bill. Otherwise, we might have to let them go for free, which would be a travesty considering what they cost us, but this is the direct result of the board's strategy of selling everything that isn't nailed down. Any expectations of getting a reasonable price for them is dependent on two or more clubs wanting to buy them. I don't see a queue forming, as the sensible buyers of any product that has to be sold wait until desperation is at breaking point before buying.

Ah! So assists aren't playmaking? Am assist is a pass to another player who scores from it. In other words, the most deadly and effective pass of all. MLT sprayed passes around from midfield any time when that was the best option. I personally have never witnessed any other player at this club who did that quite so well. I think that his goalscoring prowess tends to have him labelled as a roaming striker, but his assists and passing were also way above the abilities of most players in the game. An interesting question to Derry that ought to put things into perspective. If he could have Schneiderlin or MLT both at 18, which would he choose to play in midfield? I suspect that most on here would say it was a no brainer.

I deplore these constant attempts to rewrite history. These players are fine when they are here, but as soon as they might be going, they all of a sudden turn into crap. If they did not reach their full potential, then there might well be other factors that determined that which were not their fault. It could for example be down to Burley's constant tinkering, or playing Scacel out of position. When Rasiak had a settled run, he was capable of 20 goals a season, but then Burley dropped him for some reason. Presumably if he had played to his potential, you would expect 30 goals a season.

Me neither, Mike. I hope that Schneiderlin is a revelation, but worry that if he is, he will soon be of to Arsenal if rumours are correct and we will be back to square one again. But saying that he is better as a playmaker than anybody in the Southampton midfield since Alan Ball just shows how some are prepared to make broad sweeping statements in support of their claims without foundation of deeper thought. Matty was the obvious glaring example that knocks the statement for six, but apart from the others I mentioned, further thought has produced another couple of glaring omissions. Jimmy Case and David Armstrong would surely have qualified. I'm sure that there are many more. Less of the hyperbole I think, until there is more evidence to back it up.

I invite anybody else who has seen MLT play over many years to debate whether he was a great playmaker or not. I'm amazed that I seem to be the only one challenging this assertion from Derry that Schneiderlin is the best playmaker we have seen at the club since Ball. The number of assists that MLT had credited to him over many seasons was testament enough to his prowess as a playmaker. In sharp contrast, you seem to have gone orgasmic about this Schneiderlin fella based on half a dozen friendlies, half of which were against lower league sides. How do you know that he hasn't shone because the rival midfield hasn't closed him down and denied him space? Until we have seen him play regularly against the other teams in this division, it is foolish to credit him with this over the top praise. Just a simple question that I'd be interested to hear your opinion about. If players are slow, disappointing, overpaid, under-performing, unmotivated, unfit and disinterested, then is that their fault, or the fault of the manager?

That didn't pass me by either. Bit of a shame Davis being all gung-ho about it on the OS when his manager has hinted that he is surplus to requirements if we can get some dosh for him.

I don't have any particular desire to be rid of them, so why would I suggest ways to offload them? If others have shown no interest in buying them, then that is very astute of them. No doubt they're waiting for us to become so desperate that we'll have to give them away. Your move, Rupert.

Is caution or realism negativity? I don't think so. Look it up in a dictionary if you don't agree.

So Matt Le Tissier was a really crap passer of the ball and not as good as Schneiderlin? But you don't even need to look to players even as illustrious a footballer as MLT. Both Belmadi and Idiakez were skilled passers of the ball, as was Berkovic a few years back to name a few names that spring to mind. I think that until we have actually played some games against other teams in this division, some people need to get a reality check.

OK. You disagree with what I wrote. It's your prerogative. So you don't think that Pearson had improved the squad's fitness levels. There are several on here who had commented on how they felt that Pearson had improved fitness levels, but i'll just have accept that you are not one of them.

This Golden Duo you talk about. Not Dodd and Gorman, surely?

It was a statement that seemed to be flawed to me. I'll pick if I like.

Yes, all of the players who got us to within penalties of a possible return to the Premiership. Isn't it ironic that Lowe who has a reputation of astuteness in his dealings of player purchases and sales now finds himself in a position whereby because of financial crisis at the club, all of the players on wages above a certain level have to be sold? As has rightly been pointed out, the quickest way to reduce a player's value is to show desperation to get rid of him. What a shame that player's of this calibre weren't available a year or two ago from other club's who were in our current position. What a lot of money we could have saved. It must really be irksome to the board not having the whiphand in any negotiations regarding the sale of these players. Everybody in football much know of our precarious position.

Until we actually start playing matches that really matter, like the one against Cardiff on Saturday, the more realistic amongst us will proceed with caution when it comes to making predictions.

Let's just speculate on their mindsets using a bit of amateur psychology which may well be wide of the mark, but might also have some bearing on things. I'm surmising that having absorbed the fact that we are skint and on the verge of administration, that we have already dismissed a manager that the players respected and who had motivated them and made them fitter and more focussed, he is then replaced by a couple of foreign managers that they have probably never heard of. The board has been replaced by the two people who were arguably most responsible for our demise and who have no particular affinity for any of them. It is made clear that because of our parlous financial state, we need to bring drastic surgery to our wage bill and that we propose to axe any player earning over a certain level and replace them with cheap youngsters or cheap journeymen. On that basis, is there really any surprise that those players are demoralised, unmotivated, despondent? Yes, they can fight for a place in the team, but what's the point? The club would rather sell them, or get them off the wage bill by any means possible. As the same nervousness and demoralistion pervades the backroom staff too, there is a poisonous atmosphere about many areas of the club at the moment. If the youngsters do well, then things will look much brighter. But as never before, if things go badly wrong, the foundations are in place for greater rumblings of discontent than ever before.

An interesting but rather black analogy. The answer is rather dependent on a couple of factors. Usually one would reply that it is better to die with dignity, but perhaps if one feels that one is being executed whilst innocent, the chances of dying squealing like a pig are more likely. Then there is the possibility of a life hereafter if one's religious views are in that direction. In the real life though, or at least in connection with businesses like ours, there is indeed precedent for a life hereafter, in fact an actual reincarnation unhindered by many of the hindrances suffered in the first existence. I'm not advocating it, merely pointing out that it is not necessarily curtains for us when the trapdoor falls.

Agreed that Lallana and McGoldrick have an understanding; that was developed through playing together in the youth teams. But it is not as easy as stating that and saying QED. An understanding in the youth teams does not necessarily translate into the senior ranks. McGoldrick was scoring for fun with the youngsters, but seemed to be firing blanks last season most of the time and his confidence dried up as a result. Notice any similarity with the problem most likely associated with Saganowski? Lallana scored an incredible goal at the end of last season when Pearson gave him an outing, but hasn't exactly set the World on fire so far since. Perhaps he is the main one to provide the amunition for McGoldrick, but many believe that is precisely the role that might have suited Saga, with his good lively runs into and around the box. What happens if McGoldrick or Lallana are injured, or their goals dry up?

I disagree. The fact that he is selected by his country demonstrates that he does have the quality to play at the top level. As has been argued by others, there may be several factors as to why he did not produce the goods for us last season. For a start, he only made 14 starts and 16 appearances from the bench. During last season, Burley made many switches between the strikers, trying to find the best combination. I don't think that he had made that decision even at the time that he left. A settled partnership develops an understanding, whereas Burley's constant tinkering never allowed any of our strikers to settle into a rhythm and sapped their confidence. It isn't clear whether Poortvliet didn't consider him as an itegral part of his plans because he could not play his new system, or whether it had more to do with the fact that we needed to get somebody else to either buy him or pay his wages. I suspect the latter has much to do with any decision currently.

Yes, dead easy to replace a player who was picked to play for his National team at the European finals. We've got any number of youngsters better than him already at the club. Most of our youth are better than most of the Polish national team.

I highlighted my comments in green as I took on board that blue induces a state of narcolepsy in you. I know this to be fact, as I could see how dozy your responses were to anything I wrote highlighted in blue.

Isn't it inevitable that by making the statement he invited comment on it? From one point of view I welcome it. But that is only on grounds that he is supposedly the football board chairman and yet with all the developments on the footballing side of things, we heard scarcely a peep from him; Lowe commented on everything, even when some matters were not in his domain as PLC chairman.

Well, as Poortvliet has such great motivational powers, perhaps he ought to do a job on Scacel and get him fired up to play for us. After all, we're still paying his wages to do nothing at the moment. Or is Poortvliet's motivational prowess only applicable to youngsters? It seemed to me that Pearson did a bloody good job of motivating players who had been accused of lacking pride and passion only a few weeks before. Are you also inferring that he is only capable of lifting seasoned pros? I'd have thought that if so, although a ridiculous opinion, it would nevertheless be a much harder job than motivating the youngsters, who are more naive and full of youthful idealism. And anyway, even as assistant to Pearce, Pearson did actually have the opportunity to have that motivational talk with the England lads, as because of contractual obligations, Pearce was unable to manage the game against Italy, which was a 3-3 draw, the first match played at the new Wembley.

Which chairman was this? The football chairman or the PLC chairman? The organ grinder, or the monkey? Anyway, there's goes some more quality out of the squad. Now let's watch him show his worth in the Champions league.