120+ pages. It may give you Sheena Easton's icey black heart. Can you manage it?

[lambourn red]

Why are they all demanding the same exact same wage as Holloway?  Have they come to some managers agreement?  Or are they all planning on spending the same amount on players?

Apart from DB, JW and the non-leaguers?

Ian Holloway is NOT a big manager name if he is too expensive then it rules out all the pie in the sky names that have been banded about unless we go for someone dour like Ward who will probably take the first thing offered to him. Ling would mean compensation as would Calderwood. So that leaves Dave Byrne and someone on the cheap from Non-league.
What I am saying if Holloway is the benchmark for what we can afford then I can't see too many socks being knocked off!!!!

[Batch]

Seriously, if Fitton goes down the cheap route (Ling/Ward) route then he'll have made the same mistake twice. Build the fans expectations and bring a turkey out of the hat instead of the rabbit.

I don't think he'll do that again. It just shafts the new man coming in.

[Rich Pullen]

Fitton is keeping everyone guessing.

He's said that it's highly unlikely that we'll go with anyone below us division wise... However, he also mentions that some on the list are employed which can apply to either Pearce or Ling.

It's always going to be an anti-climax but to me, the most important thing is that we get someone in ASAP, for stability alone.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

 Unfortunately most of our fans have gone into slavering overdrive about fantasy names, which straight away puts the new modest name on teh back foot.

To be fair Reg, I don't think you can blame people for speculating about big names when Fitton makes comments like this.."There are a couple of names in there that would really surprise people. In fact, they would blow them away I think."

FWIW I don't think there's any chance it will be Ling (just my humble opinion. I am not stating that as fact as some do when discounting certain candidates as if they have inside knowledge) I can see it being some one who absolutely no one has mentioned. A 'left field' appointment if you will. I just hope it's an 'Ossie Ardiles' left field as opposed to a 'Maurice Malpas' left field.

Just one other thing. Fitton has consistantly said that they would 'not throw money' at the club. Quite right too. But we don't really know what that means do we? It's quite a nebulous kind of statement really isn't it? He may think, for example, that paying 250K or 500K (or any amount you care to name) per year for who he believes is the right man for the job, is simply paying the 'going rate' and would not consider it to be ' throwing money at it' at all.

Any way, I think we might as well let Victor Chandler make the appointment. All this 'bookie's favourite' stuff is starting to get silly.

[Sussex]

If Pearce was doing this along side the U21's, might that mean he'd be prepared to take a more 'reasonable' wage (ie: in AF's wage bracket), for the chance of day-to-day club management and get us into the championship, to enhance his prospects and mangement career for the future?

Or am I just a thick cunt and have missed something glaringly obvious?

Probably the latter. :jfw_emoticon:

[Don Rogers Shop]

I agree sussex

[Rich Pullen]

It's annoying that thisis are running headline articles that involve betting patterns because it's largely irrelevant. Owen Houlihan must be completely out of the loop.

I honestly can't see us wasting money on paying compensation to Orient. Well, I'd be very suprised anyway.

[jim]

interesting.

i can also confirm jim's sources are pretty much always spot on, he's also a top bloke and i miss him around here.

Aww! I'm blushing now 

[Rich Pullen]

Aww! I'm blushing now 

Any more inside info Jim?

[Reg Smeeton]

To be fair Reg, I don't think you can blame people for speculating about big names when Fitton makes comments like this.."There are a couple of names in there that would really surprise people. In fact, they would blow them away I think."

FWIW I don't think there's any chance it will be Ling (just my humble opinion. I am not stating that as fact as some do when discounting certain candidates as if they have inside knowledge) I can see it being some one who absolutely no one has mentioned. A 'left field' appointment if you will. I just hope it's an 'Ossie Ardiles' left field as opposed to a 'Maurice Malpas' left field.

Just one other thing. Fitton has consistantly said that they would 'not throw money' at the club. Quite right too. But we don't really know what that means do we? It's quite a nebulous kind of statement really isn't it? He may think, for example, that paying 250K or 500K (or any amount you care to name) per year for who he believes is the right man for the job, is simply paying the 'going rate' and would not consider it to be ' throwing money at it' at all.

Any way, I think we might as well let Victor Chandler make the appointment. All this 'bookie's favourite' stuff is starting to get silly.

 FWIW I take not throwing money at it to mean their own money, any money spent must be generated within the business, which is partly why MM went for failure in the cups, particularly the JPT.  I think AF quite rightly thought we could go all the way in this so generate some cash.

 I heard some pundit saying that MM was probably the first manager to go for losing in the JPT.

 I believe AF looks towards John Madejski for a template...it's often forgotten it took years for JM to find a decent manager, because he refused to throw his own money at it

 At no stage did he go for a big name expensive boss.

 He hit on Coppell almost by accident...we'd offered Coppell the job but he could see STFC was a basket case so turned it down.

 I agree that AF was bound to get this reaction by his statement, just not sure whether he meant to.

[leefer]

Getting Ling would be a much cheaper option than say Boothroid or Dowie....compo wouldnt be a big issue cos Ling wouldnt cost the earth to pay.

[jim]

Any more inside info Jim?

Yeah - apparently a fat chap in red will be visiting on about 25th December, but keep it to yourself.

[Rich Pullen]

Getting Ling would be a much cheaper option than say Boothroid or Dowie....compo wouldnt be a big issue cos Ling wouldnt cost the earth to pay.

Still, it's something we haven't done in since the 1970's though (unless we paid for one of the old player/managers)

[Rich Pullen]

Yeah - apparently a fat chap in red will be visiting on about 25th December, but keep it to yourself.

Good work - I shall have my baseball bat at the ready.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

I can't believe it will be Ling. God I hope not. I wasn't keen first time around when we ended up taking Malpas. A lot of people were wetting their knickers over Ling and I just could not see the attraction.

Oh well, if Victor Chandler say he's the favourite.....