London Irish

Spot on - Brown is benefiting a lot from the hard work that Gannon put in. What happened was probably for the best as he clearly wasn't settled here but don't see the need to belittle Gannon at all, just as silly as the juvenile backward-looking potshots at McGhee. I think Gannon will do very well at Posh next season, there is a gulf between Championship and League 1 and as shown by the number of teams that yo-yo up and down between those two leagues, Posh are a classic example of a club that spends enough to do very well in League 1 but not enough to hack it at the higher level.

He played behind a very poor defence, that frequently had a man sent off and was unlucky enough to always get picked for games against the likes of Leeds. Norwich, Charlton etc while his rival got the easier League 1 teams. None of this mattered overmuch to Brighton fans who turned on him pretty quickly. Good luck to Graeme at Hibs.

Graeme Smith has ended his doomed stay at Brighton and has signed for Hibs.

This for me is one of the most important points made on here. Motherwell fans should be proud there is an actual debate on this matter. A debate like this would simply not be possible on the football messageboards of many English clubs, anyone arguing against special treatment for servicemen would be simply shouted down, abused and threatened. For me, the issue about this current media bandwagon of "heroes" that is undepinning a lot of this positive discrimination for servicemen stuff is that you cannot morally seperate the personal courage displayed in individual situations by our servicemen and the concrete effect of their actions. The actions of our servicemen in the Middle East has been little short of disastrous for the peoples of the Middle East, untold deaths, suffering, collapsed infrastructure, political chaos. And it's been disastrous for our security here too, creating numerous enemies for us across the globe. This isn't "heroism". It's misguided, naive blundering - and that's using the kindest possible words for the actions of our servicemen. It's simply wrong that when we have so many sections of our society carrying out socially beneficial dangerous work like firemen and police officers that they get ignored yet a group of workers who have been used as blunt tools by a lying and manipulative establishment get a pat on the back by football clubs. Some might argue, calm down, it's harmless, a bit of happy-clappy publicity for communities. But I would question how much this propaganda about "heroes" is being used to bolster support for our continuing disastrous occupation of foreign countries. The WMD argument failed, the biggest electoral fraud in history by the Afghan president our troops are helping to prop up, well, that's another pretty embarrassing one - so what's left for the government to churn out, ah yes, some sentimentalised mush about squaddie and his hardships. Yeah, they'll buy that and the entire warmongering show can be kept on the road.

Talking of Motherwell-Brighton connections........... http://northstandchat.com/showthread.php?t=161852

He has a way of doing things, which is to keep a big distance between himself and the players. He isn't going to change, that's what he's comfortable with and that has brought him success. You have to accept managers, warts and all. I don't think his taskmaster approach to players should affect anything beyond the squad itself, so I don't see a problem.

News of the World saying Adkins the Scunthorpe manager and Sunday Mirror are saying Guy Poyet are now the Brighton favourites.

Brighton have told their local newspaper today that they feel they can get Gannon to change his mind. No one was quite clear why Gannon turned down Brighton earlier this year but I can remember a Stockport fan saying that he had not been impressed by chairman Dick Knight and had been misled on the amount of money he would be offered. Brighton now have a new, more wealthier chairman. I agree it would be fairly incredible event for Gannon to move there at this stage, albeit everyone has their price. http://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/4726375.Bl...arrows_it_down/

That's my view but now we have the truly absurd situation of Motherwell fans falling out over what kind of abuse is acceptable to throw at him Really small time and pathetic but it's up to you. It's remarkable the passion the guy stirs up in his former clubs - I was at the Millwall v Brighton game last night (two of his exes there) and there was even a fair amount of stuff about him now in the Millwall fanzine! (Relatively positive, sorry to disappoint the red meat brigade).

Throw in Roswell and the Grassy Knoll and I think you'd hit perfection there.

Well, I like both McGhee and Gannon, but the latter is a bit more of an unknown quantity. It will be a great feat to finish top 6, just staying out of the relegation fight would be good enough really.

I don't see it as a big mystery. He is probably the best CB at the club and he does organise those around him well, hence when he's out of the team, we play more poorly. However, that doesn't mean that there might be a better option out there for us. I'm not 100% convinced he'll be a big part of the Gannon rebuilding process, but maybe my scepticism will prove unfounded, we'll see

Depressing thread. Can understand some panto knockabout with McGhee now he's at Dons but too many people in this thread come across as if they actually mean it

Why on earth would I be negative about my fellow London Irishman? He's a superb manager and was my No1 pick to succeed McGhee, and I was saying this many weeks before he was appointed, probably before he was being interviewed by Hibs. But style-wise, he is different to McGhee, not necessarily worse or better - there are more than one way to get to a desitination. It's an interesting difference, Gannon prefers to keep his distance, McGhee generally tends to cultivate a closer relationship with his players. Tactics wise, we need to see them play similar standard teams to judge really how different they are, if at all. The Welsh and Albanians I dion't think have given us much to go on so far, in my view.

OK, cheers

In fact his style is much more abrasive than McGhee's and that will cause us problems from time to time. But the end will justify the means. But laughable to talk about what he's acheived here so far, we might have some clue by October/November time maybe.

The Northampton fans are entitled to their opinion, but on the couple of occasions I've seen him he's looked decent and certainly someone who can develop with the right coaching. Gannon is a renowned disciplinarian and possibly that approach will be good for this player.

Fair play to them if they are! But I think they're away forever back to their beautiful women

Probably

Great signing for Norwich, shame for them their manager is so untested, don't think they are certs to go up at all. Incredible amount of money but Norwich are a biggish club.

Good player, always features regularly in the "who would you like to sign" lists among fans of League 1 clubs. Northampton very unlucky to be relegated last season, they pass the ball around nicely and he's been instrumental in that.

Quite right, he made his money as a player in the Asian betting markets. So no worries there then

Ha, ha - we'd have been happy with plodding along during some of those disastrous times. But it's all about to change, apparently. We're told we now have an owner who can fund a £90m stadium out of his own pocket. If that's true, and no one has disproved it so far, then Smith won't be the first to leave a higher profile league like the SPL to slum it with us. I agree he has primarily gone for money, but we have a decent shot of Championship football during his contract if things go to plan. And both Virgo and Iwelumo broke into the lower reaches of the Scotland set-up while at Brighton and Wayne Henderson was capped in his position at keeper for the Republic of Ireland while also a player there. Can I explain "Buzz" to Brighton fans? Where'd that start?

Very similar to the intervew he gave when he signed: http://www.theargus.co.uk/search/4469843.S...appy_to_gamble/ Worth noting he says: "Over four years I felt I did well for the club and it's sad to leave so many good people there."

Not a great game but I thought we did enough for the draw, although the penalty miss affected us badly. 1-0 is not terrible but their goalie looks solid under crosses and high balls. Another good early test for Gannon.