Rich

The bookies were right about Redknapp, in fairness to them, much like they were with Capello weeks before he was appointed (before the Mourinho storm arrived.) At the minute, the sensible money looks to be on one of Mark Hughes or Martin Jol in particular, with Shearer obviously being in the mix as well.

I'm with you mate, agreed. Modesty at it's finest. No other bastard replied to it and I was getting desperate the idea got some recognition. :-[ It's been mentioned quite a few times now fella, Parky even has his own thread about it, which was posted 2 hours after your quoted comments, mind.

I'm with you mate, agreed. Modesty at it's finest.

Howay man! Are you telling me we've sent out five different contract offers, or something? Redknapp was offered the job, offered a contract, and turned it down. He's said so himself. He wasn't simply "sounded out" about taking over, or asked if he would be interested. I applaud the optimism, but let's get physical... I mean "real". maybe the redknapp episode was an elaborate charade, a smokescreen to throw the media off the real scent. on monday we'll see mourinho unveiled, i'm sure of that... A pig has just flown past my window, dressed in an expensive-looking grey woolen coat, so anything is possible. You're meant to be the optimistic one! My optimism is now based on the fact that Allardyce was a dead duck that was never going to be supported and who played terrible football, and the man that replaces him, while not necessarily supported by the fans initially, should have a better chance than Allardyce of doing something here because he'd be Ashley's man with better backing. That's the only way the board can redeem themselves for the Redknapp thing - which cannot be coloured as anything but an error, despite people's best efforts.

...back to square one? Pretty much - but the difference between us and Allardyce and us with Hughes or whoever were he to be appointed is that the man would be properly supported in a way that Allardyce wasn't going to be. So, in a roundabout way, if Hughes is on Sam's level, but better supported, then we'd be better off. Am I making any sense? I don't know if I am. Christ almighty, someone finally makes the important point. I've been waiting for about 3 hours for someone to post something like this. Give that man a gold star.

Easy now Dave, that's crazy talk. In fairness, Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez should all be on the park, so there's bound to be some good football played. Touche, just feel personally I can't really enjoy the football if the decent stuff is being played against us. I can't speak for him, obviously, but I think Dave may have been insinuating that the good football would be played by Man Utd as well. If he wasn't, then your "crazy talk" comment stands and is seconded.

Howay man! Are you telling me we've sent out five different contract offers, or something? Redknapp was offered the job, offered a contract, and turned it down. He's said so himself. He wasn't simply "sounded out" about taking over, or asked if he would be interested. I applaud the optimism, but let's get physical... I mean "real". maybe the redknapp episode was an elaborate charade, a smokescreen to throw the media off the real scent. on monday we'll see mourinho unveiled, i'm sure of that... A pig has just flown past my window, dressed in an expensive-looking grey woolen coat, so anything is possible.

Easy now Dave, that's crazy talk. In fairness, Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez should all be on the park, so there's bound to be some good football played.

Howay man! Are you telling me we've sent out five different contract offers, or something? Redknapp was offered the job, offered a contract, and turned it down. He's said so himself. He wasn't simply "sounded out" about taking over, or asked if he would be interested. I applaud the optimism, but let's get physical... I mean "real".

Miller's not in the squad.

Derby now have the most mental midfield in the Premiership, an' all: Savage, Ghaly, Robert (all start today).

More importantly than all of that: LAURENT ROBERT STARTS FOR DERBY! What odds on him scoring? (They're home to Bramble's Wigan.)

Will you be saying the same if Hughes or Jol are appointed?

Dave, see it for yourself

it's just possible they have more of a clue than you think. was redkanpp offered the job or did he pull out at the "talks" stage..the statement mentione that they have "spoken to a number of potential candidates" could it be he wasn't actually offered the job but we wanted to talk to him,aswell as others with a view to deciding who would be best for us If he wasn't offered the job then it makes all this look a bit off: Pompey chief executive Peter Storrie admitted he was "very worried" Redknapp would leave. "It has been 50/50 for a few days," Storrie told BBC 5 Live. "Last night I thought it might be going slightly the other way, but we met up this morning and with a bit of verbal persuasion he has decided to stay." Storrie indicated Redknapp felt he still had unfinished business at Fratton Park. "This wasn't about finance, this was about ambition," he said.

If the next manager is a success I'll not give Redknapp a second thought. I think they sacked Allardyce because they supported a manager that they hadn't chosen themselves but wanted to give him the opportunity to show what he could do. The football was shite and the results were just as bad so they made a decision to get rid of him, a decision which has probably been made at the wrong time due to the transfer window firstly and managers being mid-season secondly. Did you expect a lawyer chairman to tap somebody up? I didn't. Probably not Mort himself, but with Ashley's reputation in the business world I thought we'd be a fair bit more ruthless than we apparently have been. I would personally support some cut-throat activity if it got them their apparent first choice, business is business after all. And you might got give Redknapp a second thought if we're successful, but unfortunately not everyone shares your viewpoint - plenty others will.

Dear me, that's a bit of a flouncey post. I'd hate to be in a scrap with some of this forum, I tells ya, some people have no stomach for a fight. Of course Mourinho and Redknapp are completely different, but then so are the Newcastle and England jobs, if you want to be as basic as that about it. if you're going for the proportional argument, then if england is to newcastle what mourinho is to redknapp, is our capello going to be someone like steve mclaren or steve bruce? we've fired our manager without anyone lined up, spurs waited until they had ramos in the bag before getting rid of Jol. no suggestion that spurs asked redknapp for a job either, pure speculation, they were after ramos for ages, kept the same strategy all the way through and ended up with the man they wanted. different situations. would love it if we end up with a ramos type but i feel it will take a shift in strategy from the board. even looking at sports direct it's clear that ashley prefers to appoint people he's known for ages and is comfortable with, so it'll take a seachange from the big man to go out and ask mort for a foreigner. ps all the shite about flouncey posts does you a disservice, try and stick to discussions as you're usually a good poster. All the flouncing shite does you a disservice as well, for the same reason, which is why I pointed it out. The argument is that, rightly or wrongly, it would appear that Mourinho was the FA's first choice and Redknapp was ours. It's not an entirely proportional argument of course, but if Capello was the FA's second choice then the point I was trying to make is that this isn't an utter disaster, just yet. People are jumping the gun a bit, but if you want something concrete from me then I'd assume our "Capello" will be someone Mark Hughes or Martin Jol, rather than the two names you mentioned. Not exactly awe-inspiring, upon first glance, but hopefully not a disaster. As for Spurs, if Redknapp didn't say "no" to that job, then who else could it have been? Chelsea? Why would he come out and say he turned down an approach for what he considers a "massive job" otherwise? The sensible money points to Spurs, who were derided in all quarters for the approach they took to appointing a new manager if I remember correctly. Yes they look like they got someone who was very high on their shortlist, quite probably the first choice (as you said), but their method was surely more embarrasing and public than ours has been. I dread to think what the reaction to Mort/Ashley behaving like the Spurs board did with Jol/Ramos would have been like on here. Do you not recall the mockery Tottenham suffered during that period? From everyone, not just their own fans. Personally, I'd rather we took an approach like that and got our first choice (Redknapp), instead of playing it "nice" which is what appears to have been done. Mort has said today that there have been more people sounded out, so I suppose all we can do is wait and see if we get our second choice, or third, or fourth.

Second choice doesn't make somebody worse, it just makes them second choice for a reason we don't know. Yes, that's true. But that would be by accident rather than design. If they get someone better, it would be because they were lucky, but still clueless. That's that stick I was talking about.

The timing is poor, I agree. In fairness to HF and Parky, the only get-out clause for Mort/Ashley pulling the trigger on Allardyce was if we replaced him with our first-choice immediately afterwards. Then they'd be covered by the fact that their "plan" had worked brilliantly and they'd executed it exactly the way they had intended to (even if the truth is that Redknapp wasn't sounded out properly prior, which is apparently illegal anyway). The fact is that this hasn't happened and so they've left themselves with a bigger hole to dig themselves out of. I'm disappointed in things so far, it must be said. Even if the next manager proves to be a success, they'll always have the "but Redknapp was our first choice anyway, so they got lucky" stick to beat them with. The real work starts now for them, as Parky has intimated already.

Fair points all of them. I just wonder if the zero sum game might be wait four months and get a high quality candidate by using time and thought and all appropriate channels or get a reasonable man now. I'd be happy to wait. Realise most won't go for this. Waiting would be a big risk, obviously, which is what worries me most about it. I realise threads are overlapping here all the time, but I can only repeat the same sort of sentiment to what I've been posting elsewhere. I believe that we will act now and that it will probably be for the best, taking everything into account, but then I believed that Redknapp was a formality...

Dear me, that's a bit of a flouncey post. I'd hate to be in a scrap with some of this forum, I tells ya, some people have no stomach for a fight. Of course Mourinho and Redknapp are completely different, but then so are the Newcastle and England jobs, if you want to be as basic as that about it. Our first choice has turned us down, much like has happened in the past under Shepherd, and it's obviously not great, but judgements like you've just ventured surely cannot be made until we see who we end up with and how they are supported. It seems fairly common practice to me that clubs/nations draw up a shortlist of managers and go down them until they get their man and we're not quite into the realms of the Souness debacle just yet. If Redknapp is to be believed he also turned down Spurs when they sounded him out, and they ended up with Ramos, so let's not count our chickens just yet.

Exactly, and it's fair enough that you're looking at the bigger picture and suggesting alternatives. Like I've just posted elsewhere, I'm actually disappointed that Redknapp said "no" because he's obviously been the first to have been made a firm offer and therefore was Mike Ashley's first choice. All I'm hoping for is that we have a Plan B and a Plan C, or a shortlist of decent candidates at least, much like England did. Not too many people were upset with Capello after The FA couldn't get Jose.

I'll make that judgement once we know who we've got. Redknapp wasn't as bad as some make out, I can understand why they went for him, I don't assume that the second choice is worse than the first either. The main thing I'm taking heart from at the moment is the England situation of recent times. For all the hoo-ha about Mourinho, they still managed to get in Capello after the "Special One" allegedly turned us down, or ruled himself out. As pertains to us, you'd hope we've set things out in a fairly similar way. If Redknapp was our first choice, the only solace I suppose people can take is that we genuinely must have been entirely above-board with our approach, which I was surprised to see. Whether people view that as a good thing or a bad thing is obviously open to question. Of course we're not England and don't have that sort of pull, but I'm hoping people can see my logic here. It still would have been nice to get our first choice, which is what it appears Redknapp was. I have to say I'm fairly disappointed with how things have turned out today.

Season ticket sales are an issue. But not if we show competance and put a quality manager in place in the summer. Surely if we wait until the summer then we'd have to see what changes there were after Euro 2008, a tournament which I assume won't finish until the very end of June, which will already see over 6 weeks of the summer pass. I'd just worry about how much further we could fall behind between now and then without a "proper" manager in place. A lot of the support isn't far-sighted enough to take the approach you're suggesting, and if the Pearson/Round caretaker thing was put into effect I could see the fanbase being as disillusioned as at any time under Shepherd. It would be catastrophic unless it was done with the like of Mourinho publically agreeing/privately signing a contract to come and manage us next season. Even then, the rest of this season would be practically worthless.

Season ticket sales would also be greatly affected, which for them will be the main thing. They have to act now, or they should have just kept Allardyce.