blonde poker forum

(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03459/apprentice-group_3459892k.jpg)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/the-apprentice/11904546/apprentice-2015-candidates.html

Lord Sugar and his advisers, Karren Brady and Claude Littner, who replaces Nick Hewer, will put a new group of candidates through the toughest business contest on TV when The Apprentice returns on Wednesday, October 15 for an 11th series.

Regards

TE

Judging by the meet the candidate programme, it could be a good series

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p033hb07/the-apprentice-series-11-meet-the-candidates?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=apprentice_apprentice_iplexc_ogc&ns_linkname=http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p033hb07/the-apprentice-series-11-meet-the-candidates

Regards

TE

In, bloody love the apprentice.

Regards

L

Ditto

Regards

G

The chap I saw on the train is in, Richard Woods.   

Regards

G

It'll be interesting to see Claude over an extended period of time - he won't be able to keep up the hard-as-nails facade whilst he's following the teams about.

Regards

A

In before Red Simon pinches my initial.


Regards.

R.

Love this show, definitely in! Claude should be good viewing!!

VD

Subscribed


B

Locking it up in case

Regards

G2L

This.big upgrade on Nick,  can't stand the guy on countdown especially.  Just read sugars autoniography on holiday. Great read highly recommend if you haven't already read it.

Regards
Arb

In

Cringeworthy videos of course....plenty to rule out.....might have a fiver ante post on Brett and Natallie.

In, any demand for a sweepstake?

£20 a man?

B2B

you are unstoppable

(In)

Regards

TE

In for £20

Regards

EK

In for £20

Regards

C

In for £20

Regards

AG

In for £20

Regards

D

Also in for £20 please.

Regards

RG

In for £20

Regards

Ri

In for £20

Regards

RB

Pretty sure Alex should be CA tbh

Ill start a new thread.

Regards.

B2B.

Cant wait for this.

Regards.

T

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=66180.0 (http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=66180.0)

Register your interest for the sweepstake on the above link please, and we can keep this thread to apprentice chatter.

Regards

B2B

Subbed

Regards,
HGF

this could be a good series, full of lunatics

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRGWvxRWEAA8oqg.jpg)

regards TE

That's got to be made up.

Surely?

Regards
C

Tonight, 9pm

looking forward to it

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRRErgoWUAAbKJG.jpg)

regards TE

So excited about this years show, wish claw75 was still a regular poster, she used to love giving her regards on this thread.

Regards

S

you forgetting something important?


regards

I

How did the Regards thing start, and why?

Regards

B2B

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=53262.0

Regards

G2L

Where it all began

Regards

S

So, April has come across as (or been presented as) the much better leader of the two.

If this goes according to normal, the other team will flounder while April's will do brilliantly all day until they unexpectedly lose.

Regards

MT

i think lord sugar is in trouble if he has to work with one of these people



regards


I

I think Claude will be a great addition, nick will be a big loss but Claude is a good replacement.

regards

B2B

Dan is basically a young George Osbourne.

I have visions of the survivors going back to the house and saying 'he fired Dan' and the others going 'which one was Dan?'

Regards

A

I'd have got rid of both Dan and Brett - one useless, the other stubborn and nasty as well as useless.

Impressed with April. Potential winner unearthed there.

Regards

MT

If that's not a level then we can have a wager, and it can be as big as you want it to be :)

Loving Claude, think he's going to be fkn awesome!

Regards

LD

They seem to be less knobish than usual, possibly have a good bunch of people here.  I say good, but I don't mean good, just less knobs.

I like the older lady, thought she was pretty good on the task but that suit she puts on....tsk tsk.

My man Richard seemed to do OK, didn't come across badly, did his bit on the task.  I thought Dan was going to be OK until he started talking in the board room.  The more he talked the more I realised he didn't do that much but I think he was unlucky to go, it was clearly poorly managed.  That said, April probably will be a better contender.

Is it just me that feels SAS is getting more tedious?  He seems to make more stupid comments as the series goes by, a bit like Greg of Masterchef.   I expect they're told to say these things but I wonder what the show would be like with another pioneer of business in charge rather than Mr Sugar.  Just a thought.

Regards

G

No stand outs so far

Iv entered into the worst bets ever vs Alex because I was steaming at the Caribbean girl.

Also is entirely Stato's fault, so if anyone sees him and fancies hurling some abuse at him then please do

Stato and I drafted up these two teams just based on the 1min interview clips on the BBC website. Both were super happy with our teams - neither wanted many of the others picks etc. Lil Dave backed Stato's team blind, probably wisely assuming stato was sharkier than me.

How would you price up these teams now?

(http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc416/cambridgealex/BF7DBE31-CD65-41E0-B612-48DB0427C8EA_zpsjbodzcae.jpg) (http://s1210.photobucket.com/user/cambridgealex/media/BF7DBE31-CD65-41E0-B612-48DB0427C8EA_zpsjbodzcae.jpg.html)

The bets btw are:

winner 100
interview bit 25 per person
first fired -50
"with regret" used pre firing +25
boardroom only has your people -25
2 of yours fired at once -25
Winning pm 25 each week

its early days but on the evidence of last week's task (thursday) i would want more of the blokes than the women, and josePh and richard especially. Joseph i think looks the type (young wide boy like the ricky martin fella who won) who could really appeal to suralan.

i'll take stato please. 4 blokes to 3 i think.

regards

TE

they aren't allowed to use google in the scavenger hunt task?

just a directory and make phone calls?

regards

TE

Does seem strange that they don't Google it, they even have smart phones in their hand

The American lady was lucky last night, I'd have booted her out without thinking.  Failures aside, she was a right bitch to the others.

Regards

G

I know there's no natural hierarchy and they're used to running their own businesses but really is amazing how they all seem to get the fundamentals of leadership wrong. You'd think they'd learn from previous years at least?

Regards

G2L

There must be some rules about what they can and can't do.

Why would you not;
a) Google the shit out of everything
b) Everyone just sits in a room ringing around for an hour, locate items and best prices, then go directly to confirmed item pick ups
c) Drive off the Ferry straight into a Carrefour, buy the cheese, the mussels, the snails, the boat etc etc

they had overnight to do it too, so I'd be under the covers on my phone googling stuff, like WTF is makers lace or w/e...

I don't really know why they always donk off on this challenge, maybe its just way way harder than it looks but I feel pretty confident if you gave me a driver a bunch of money and a list of things to go get id get them all.

I'm up for a Blonde Apprentice. This is a game we could easily recreate.

Lots of betting obviously.

They have never been allowed to use online searches, normally the yellow pages is the most they can use.

regards

r s

Can they not phone someone who can google on their behalf?

Regards

C

I am pretty sure that the production staff are well aware of ways the contestants could cheat and take steps to ensure they can't.

Regards

A

In this day and age is using the Internet cheating?

Regards

C

Seems very odd to me.  Maybe sugar stuck in the dark ages in more ways than one.

Allowing the internet would kill the task as a TV event, so they have to ban it. Therefore using it would be cheating.

Regards

A

won't spoil by giving names or hints

but this morning a 66/1 shot was backed into 7/4 favourite in the apprentice winner market

episode 3 this season tonight

regards

TE

They made 1% of the phone calls I would like to have made. Hard to know what they make of it sometimes. Not yet enamored with the series but I'll keep watching

Am I the only one finding the eliminations a bit bizarre?

Regards

Cf

A lot of deadwood needs clearing.

Liking Scott and David ftw - both did v well this week as pms imo.

Ruth was 0% to win the series.

"you've been together three and a half years now? you are a beautiful couple. congratulations"

GTFO and sell some dog beds

Deservedly gone is Ruth

Thought Selina should have gone too, claude and karen steered him strongly that way

Regards

TE

It is a shame to lose Ruth but I agree she deserved to go.  For someone that teaches sales she did very poorly.

I don't know why Alan said he wasn't bothered about the business plan at this point, it's clearly all about the business plan otherwise he'd have kept people in before and booted out others long ago (inc last series)

Regards

G

Thought it was nailed on for a double finger of doom last night - given both Claude and Karen were super critical of Selina (more than I can ever remember Shuggsy's lieutenants being before) I was surprised he gave her another go.

Ruth just seemed like a very odd woman - I'm not sure she's quite right in the head.

I assume David will be in for the long haul - he literally did not feature at all in any of the first three episodes and gave a very good account of himself as PM. Scott was lucky - he was a major ditherer with no spine for a decision but got handed suitable candidates for the chop by people who sold nothing. 

Regards 

A

Was David the guy who moved to 7/4? I think that would be a cracking lay if we knew there wasn't anything untoward going on. The business plans are such a big deal and we have seen them allow good candidates go far with 0% chance of winning.

Starting to dislike Rich more and more (smarmy pm guy from a while back.)

Regards Ap

Yep....you start with the business plan and work backwards......Ruth was probably starting up a super juice bar chain!

Regards

Ri

Scott vs David

Regards ld

Something has been niggling away at me.

Last season some guy came up with the ingenious idea of buying a toy skeleton instead of a real one as it covered all specifications of the task. Suggsy ripped him a new one and fired him.

This season some guy came up with the ingenious idea of buying a toy boat instead of a real one as it covered all specifications of the task. Suggsy lauded him as the second coming.

Firstly, what's the difference? And, secondly, did this occur to anyone else?

The show is good entertainment but Sugar just makes shit up as he goes along and I don't like it.

Regards

Ric

Yep exactly the same thought occurred. Inconsistency between the seasons

Regards

G2L

The business plan is the difference.  Thought the paper Skelton was a great idea and the boat was the same

Regards

G

Agreed sugar spent most of his life under cutting people and pulling stunts to get on in his early days. He looks two faced on TV when he belittles outside the box thinkers who do the same to gain an edge on his TV show.

Bumped into Felipe (said chap) in the Wharf a couple of weeks back. Said hello before I had clocked where I 'knew' him from.

#awkward

One or two others might be good lays too 😉

Shouldn't it be this guy that we all plough our hard earned dough on?

Agree.

Regards

Ld

She had to go

clueless and unremittingly negative each week

Regards

TE

Quite glad he survived, coded for spoilers.

Regards,

RFG

Such a pointless task this week - entire first half taken up with making the books, then the quality of the books not referred to at all in the boardroom - it was just 'how many did you sell'.

Though You're Fired did show the wonders of what a decent haircut can do for someone.

Regards

A

Agree she had to go. Ultimately I think both books weren't a bad job, I mean they only had a day to do it!

Felt sorry for Sam, and have admired many people throughout the series who refuse to throw people under the bus. Sugar seems to rip into them for that, yet definitely have respect for that.

Next weeks task looks fun, I have to be in TeamCharleine because of the sweepstake but I don't like her as a person particularly!

Best wishes,

VD

He could have dropped the three of them. Let's face it - Sam and Brett have zero chance of winning.

Scott was so good - potential winner.

Really enjoying this weeks task. Pretty tough to expect them to have any type of DIY skills. Pardon the pun but Id be screwed on this task!

Regards

G2L

Congratulations Elle, you've just managed to be the most useless anyone has ever been on this show.

Regards

A

Such a silly task. 

May as well ask them to play a 7-a-side football game against each other and fire the one with the lowest pass completion percentage (hopefully bret)

Daft.

Regards Ric.

.

Regards

EK

There was no reason to fire April.

The only decent totty on this year's show.

Regards

MT

Not sure why people hate Bret so much. He's ok. I made two bets this (randoms) Mcgib in £200 winner takes all last longer and female vs male for $1k, morale extremely low rigjt now, anybody thinks there's a chance a woman can win? Varna sneak in through the back door?

Who is everybodies prediction for top 3? Joseph quickly goes into the lead I think? Maybe second behind the impressive Richars.

Regards
Pbl

I thought Brett did a good job last night.  I'm amazed at the lack of common sense for most of them, how do they cope in life?  Whilst Brett and Joseph did a great job, they were made to look good by the lack of common sense by the others.

Sad to see April go, she's lovely.

Top 3 - Richard, Scott and Joseph.  Vana for the highest placing female, could be a top 3 but I'm not sure.

Regards

G

the weakest group of females in this that i can remember. Varna the only one with a chance to win it?

Joseph and Scott clear of the rest for me.


last night was i think the first time he's fired a project manager before the final 3 and promoted a sub team leader to project manager?

Regards

TE

I think so.  Pretty sick move to fire the PM, promote a sub team leader to PM and then fire him too.

Regards

G

I think he was hoping to fire the whole sub team


Regards


I

Brett seems poor. Demotivates his team whilst going on about having exacting and high standards before completely messing up finding out what the actual task was. He got very lucky he sailed home or the chewing gum debacle would have been the reason he had gone. It really was shoddy and he strikes me as someone desperate to fit in with the buzzwords rather than someone who is good at business. At least when April used the term upsell, she did so correctly. How Elle hoped to win when she is happy to confess her job involves convincing people she knows what she is doing. Absolute incompetence that should cost her, her real job.


Richard is going to win and set up.some sort of beige curtain marketing firm that will tilt me enough to not watch any more till next year.

Regards regretfully, rfg.

I thought this, if I was her boss I would have been busy photo shopping Big Al Shugz and her P45 ready for the morning.

Pretty sure that Elle was planning an exit from that job anyway - 21 years old, pretty, got herself an agent, don't think she was planning on going back.

Regards

A

pretty?

regards
pbl

I was thinking the same.  maximum sell at pretty.   What is she planning on doing with her agent?

God only knows. The agent has got one hell of a job on his/her hands, she is a right dumpling.

Yeah, pretty, though I didn't really see it until she was on You're Fired - on the show itself she always wore bad clothes and had a grumpy face.

I quite liked the task - quick bit  of marketing, needed a reasonably quick decision about what the group was actually capable of doing. Then pricing, selling, leading, managing,  doing etc

Thought it was a lot less contrived than many of the tasks

I enjoyed the episode from a purely entertainment standpoint. 

Felt the task was too specialised. For example, I thought that Joseph was the only one to come out of it well and that's because he was pretty handy with a saw and hammer.  You could either be the project manager and take decent jobs/take shit jobs using common sense/no common sense or you could be a worker with the skills to either sink or swim.  Not much scope for excelling in a business capacity in my opinion.

And also, Sugartits sets a task requiring handywork, a guy can't put a shelf up, everyone has a piss laugh about it in the boardroom and then he gets fired anyway. What was that all about?

This series is the first time I've had to turn away from the telly on more than one occasion because I can't stand to look at someone making a pure tit of themselves.  Usually bret who I find loathsome.

Regards,

Ric

Sam was the right choice to go i think

did make me laugh trying to flog Haribo at £2 next to a Poundland shop

regards

TE

beyond Joseph (consistently good i think) and Varna (best of the ladies by a long way)

I am really struggling to think of four who will get to the interviews

what about you?

regards

TE

Joesph
Richard
vana/Scott
Gary

Regards

G2L

David will make it too, he's solid. Think Richard might not from your list.

One of my favourite bets I have this year is that if someone in your drafted team gets fired with the line "with regret" or "regretfully" then you win £25 :D

Often Sugar sympathises with / relates to a candidate like he did with Mergim, and you can see it coming, but last night it just came out of nowhere - Posh boy Sam, not really shown any potential and the clear choice to go - for some reason was fired "regretfully", I was loving it. Dave and Stato, not so much "D

Let's fucking go Vana

id like to see that footage again please

His Lordship...."its regretful that I have to say,I have concluded, that Sam you're fired."

gg

richard got this locked up?

GG Sam, I hardly knew you at all...

Selina's effort to get paid for the party bags:

Selina:   "Can we still give the goodie-bags away. They have cost us £10."
Mother: "My instinct is to say no."
Selina:   "Okay."

The mother was persuadable but there was no attempt to do so. If she still wasn't having it, there should have been an attempt to get her to at least pay half-price for them, but I think she would have paid in full if someone else had been handling her.

David shouldn't have been sacked - the difference between the teams was more than the cost of the tee-shirts. Boring Gary was more responsible for the loss.

chocolate spread, may contain hazelnuts?

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CUr_Ki3WUAURYis.jpg)

would you want these in your party bag?

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CUr8p-wWcAAeC-X.jpg)

felt we were quite unlucky not to get a double exit, david and gary...and as for the lady being called back from half way out of the door, just lol

regards

TE

The preview suggests next week is going to be a bloodbath.

Regards

C

there are 8 left

it has to finish before Xmas, and there are 4 wednesday's til Xmas 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd

interviews is final 4

last week/pick a winner is final 2

so that leaves 2 weeks to get rid of 4 people....

Regards

TE

I'd have been tempted to get rid of Charlene, loud and just tilting. Gary's general execution has been underwhelming throughout. I think he got carried a bit by toiletworld being so successful, and this largely being down to better pricing then the other time, rather than his vision of the customers walk. Thought David was a bit unlucky, I'd only fancy Joseph in the process to get the t shirts right. Lots of bitchiness and comments being made and I can't quite remember it being this bad before. They seemed to get into the "I need to be able to sell" mode, much faster than any other group.


Regards,

RFG

Charlene's early walk off is the highlight for me so far. Cringeworthy

Regards

G2L

Struggling to find any redeeming features in Charlene.  Seems completely gormless yet escapes the sack every week. Must have some business plan.

Regards

Ric

i thought the only one coming back from the boardroom would of been Joseph, the other team game them a £100 head start but they totally cocked it up


Regards

I

This seems to be a rather formal & polite board, so to my dear fellow Apprentice followers,

Charlene knows she dodged a bullet there. Sugar probs wanted to fire her too - in fact fire them all, but the producers told him there were no more candidates to parachute in, and there's 2 more weeks to go before the final.

Kindest regards
4KS

Don't overdo it

Regards

N

Think the show has become somewhat of a farce since they changed it to a £250k investment, although the candidates that they get do their very best to make it the most cringeworthy show on tv. Based on performance so far and just having some common sense I would have Vana and Joseph at the top, would included Richard but I can bring myself to do it for some reason.

Regards

O

Format seems tired now. Tasks have become formulaic and LordSirAlan's final summary before the coup de grace gets more contrived week by week. Reminds me of the sequences when Nasty Nigel from whatever that pop show was before X-Factor used to go and break the news to the wannabes.


Regards

D3103

Yes format remains the same but I still enjoy it immensely unlike the X factor which I'm pretty bored of

Regards

G2L

Me too, as an aside - there was a sketch of a children's party on You're Fired - the child star of the sketch was my mate's daughter and it was filmed at their house. I feel like I've been on TV

I'm amazed either parent paid just over £1500 for either party.  Our local bowling alley, sports centre, trampoline centre etc etc do better children's parties for about £200 and that includes food!  How they can justify £1500 for either of those shite parties is beyond me.

Regards

G


P.S. Love the series still.  Thought I was anti it after week 1 but by week 2 I'm into it again.

P.S. Regards

P.S. G

I think the 1st couple of weeks are always the worst in the Apprentice as you have no idea who the hell anyone is. Once you get to know the candidates, so you can mainly laugh at their idiocy it gets a lot better.

Regards

L

i really dont like Charliene, just seems like a terrible candidate!

got her in the sweepstake though, so cheering her on!

getting up quickly thinking she had escaped the call up into the final 3 for eviction and being called back was one of the classic Apprentice moments

Agree, gold.

The look on her face for the rest of the boardroom was great. She was absolutely shitting it.

i am enjoying it i dont normally watch all the episodes of a series and most series i miss the lot
but the sweep stake got me an interest now but i keep getting selina and charmaine mixed up
i want them both gone even though i have selina on the sweep

regards

I

Jo / Joseph ? Runs a gas repair firm near where I live
My mate who's in the same line of work and was recently here to fix something ,said he heard 1 st or second plus he went from 20/1 on bet fair to 11/10 on !
I don't watch it abs loathe Alan sugar along with ant n Dec if I was ever King for a day they would be top of the going in the blender list

i won't spoil who so don't look at the market if you don't want to know, and please don't post the name on here

there is currently a 1/4 favourite to win it at the bookmakers...

BFSB and Bwin put prices up for this. Sort of ruined the series when I clicked on the betting a few weeks ago, as it's obviously one of three.


?

BFSB are Evs, 2-1, 5-2, 18 Bar.

ok there was a 1/4 favourite a few days ago when i saw a tweet saying this

Anyone think this series has been absolute dog shite?

I think the show is running out of ideas on how to freshen the whole programme up. Same old tasks and the kids party one? really?

It would surely be amusing to see maybe in the next series if they did something completely different. Perhaps instead of two teams, they had 3 or 4 or completely different tasks, rather than the same tasks with just a little tweak!

Have any of them been better than dog shite ? Personally I don't think so
1 winner got the sack ? - I think
Another contestant who didn't feel he lived up to expectations killed hisself
Very very few people will make big bucks like Alan sugar
But you can run a small business that provides regular work for employees and an income fr yourself without having to be billy big bollocks ? Can't you ? Many do !
Why are we so obsessed with being millionaires /earning thousands constantly
It's not the real world for most it's a slow grind with some fun along the way ?

hold on, thats quite offensive

stuart baggs, and police confirmed it, died because of a sevfere asthma attack

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-33805875

Wasn't meant to be offensive - sorry if it came across as that
I obv got it wrong

no problem

i am not sure if any of the previous winners have seen huge success with their £250k investment?

stella english i know fell out with suralan and they ended up in court

anyone know about any of the others?

Stella English was the last of the employees

I think quite a few now have prominent jobs.

Think everyone who has won investment are still working on their initial businesses and making money

I know Susan Ma has a skincare range which Lord Sugar has a piece of

Regards

G2L

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3181546/Apprentice-star-Stuart-Baggs-dead-27-worked-death-slept-just-four-hours-night-say-friends.html

"Working 18 hrs a day eaten up by stress and worry "
So sad in my opinion that people put themselves under this pressure to be " successful " is the point I was trying to make

Tom Pellereau developed a new range of nail clippers, how can you say that's not a great use of £250,000!  They even have 3 out of 5 rating on Amazon.

I wonder if Selina's tweets might lead to a backlash that will hasten the show's end.

Probably not if it wasn't already looking tired but, at this stage, could be.


Regards

MT

Provided they're spoiler-free, what did she say?

Regards

A

Apprentice contestant Selina Waterman-Smith has taken to Twitter to claim the BBC programme is fixed, it has been reported.

The 32-year-old is said to have shared a message with her 35,500 followers saying the 'finalists are picked from the start' and that the 'whole show' is 'set up'.

The outspoken businesswoman has previously made headlines after reports emerged that she and fellow candidate Charleine Wain were involved in a catfight outside the boardroom.

According to the Sun, Miss Waterman-Smith posted on Twitter: 'The finalists are picked from the start, the whole show is fixed and set up'. The tweet appears to have since been deleted

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3340527/You-fixed-Apprentice-contestant-Selina-claims-BBC-rigged-finalists-picked-form-start.html#ixzz3t595PUKA


there is a hint at a spoiler on an exit tonight in the full article

spokesman for the show denies it is all that is relevant on the rest of the link

How on earth did she get 35,500 followers on Twitter?  Does she have that much to say?

I thought everyone would know by now about the explosives on tonight's show (not relating to Selina).

If stuff is already all over the internet, it's hardly a spoiler.

Regards

MT

(http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAfQh71.img?h=226&w=570&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f)
(http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAfQh72.img?h=228&w=570&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f)
(http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAfQe8Y.img?h=225&w=570&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f)

(http://i.imgur.com/cXEQ3cW.png)

Probably helps.

Ah, that'd do it :D

Just off to follow.....

Selina may well be the top posh totty of this series, but I think it was pretty obvious from the outset that she wasn't a contender. Strikes me as being a pretty cold, calculating type. And I think big Al is probs of the same view.

Wow

Regards

G2L

Surprised Scott quit but I do think Shugs and Karen were quite rude and hard on him.

Regards

G

We want to sell a million-pound apartment.

Let''s save a couple of quid by putting out a plate of the cheapest nastiest-looking cakes we can find.

Have a funny feeling Charlene is going to take this. All depends on the business plan but she's been an underrated contender, Varna too.

I think final three will be Varna, Richard and Charlene.

thought varna was very impressive. sold £4m+ of flats without a floor plan, took some doing. more impressive than richard too

scott just threw a wobbly? most odd

regards TE

Has to be some rigging going on with the sales, I doubt it's that easy to sell £4m worth of flats with no floor plan, no show flat and no idea what you are on about.  Even the losing team took £29k in commission for the day - that'd do me.

Regards

G

start of the programme, the candidates are on top of the tower in hard hats and hi vis

suralan, karen and claude turn up no hard hats, no high vis

whats that about?

Selina seems like one horrible young lady.

I thought any criticism of Scott was entirely fair. Came across as a thoroughly unpleasant person over the last few weeks. Yeah sure the edit might be partly responsible but there's been at least two occasions he's blanked people when leaving the board room and other incidents.

Regards

C

if you had to bet now would the winner be male or female who would you bet on?

no knowledge of the business plans

would say Vana, therefore female

but 4 out of 6 left are male so that has to be a strong favourite

Most embarrassing episode ever?

Deary me.

Incompetence heaped upon incompetence.

Charlene must have some business plan. Can anyone tell me me what she offers?

Richard looks like the heavy favourite to me.

Suddenly these future tycoons are expected to be capable of cooking up something innovative, healthy, and tasty. At least the dehydrated veggies were different.

LordSirAlan must be getting bored with it all if he needs to set up a goalless draw to make it interesting.


As ever the interview week will be the highlight as long as they don't get too tricksy with the edit.

Charlene has obviously discovered a genuine anti-aging serum. She's 83 you know.


Regards
D3103

The "background of the 5" programme last night was enlightening.

Charlene went to war at 17!

I see Claude is still doing interviews....excellent!

Regards

Ri

man alive, both the ladies were lucky to still be in after last night

Charlene was a car crash in the kitchen, and the encouraging premise of the dehydrated raw vegetable crisps was completely overcome by the incomprehensible Vana decision to completely ignore the amount of oil recommended in the recipe


three go next week. who are your final two ahead of seeing the business plans?

regards

TE

without knowing the business plans and the various issues of copyright, securing web addresses and having a business plan that stands the first scrutiny it's hard to say who gets through next week. Based on no particularly scientific approach I'm expecting Vana and Joe to make it.

It's a complete unknown at this point in a sense as it just comes down to the business plans. Without knowing the betting markets I don't really know.

I'd say Richard and Vana seem the most competent. No idea how Charlene survived last night.

I thought the crisp idea was good and the branding was also strong. The issues they had of needing to sort out the amount of oil and put the USP on the packaging is quite minor you'd think. I do sometimes have sympathy they only have 1 day to make the product. Given a second day having received prototypes I'm sure they'd have had those issues fixed. Still, doesn't make for as much car crash tv I suppose.

Regards

C

Joseph vs Vana in the final I reckon

Regards

G2L

one of the best programmes of the year

Interview night

"are you gonna cry?"

a great preview

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03bqpjh

regards

TE

Will be nice to see Claude back where he should be.  In his office destroying these wannabes over their CV's.

Brett should have gone during the cleaning task. Messing up the spec and wasting time was such an awful mistake. He bandied about the corporate jargon but said little of substance. He did seem like a nice guy though. I think Vana had a reasonable escape, they had absolutely no chance of selling a product that was so poorly made. She would have stayed but she faded the scrutiny that can add up over time. Charlene in the kitchen was such a disaster, it seems really obvious to me that two people should have gone and tried to make the product, the branding could be done solo and it can be done well as long as the ideas have been discussed previously. Really hard task overall, I wasn't surprised at all to see no orders. Fairly happy we will finally get to see what the whole program is about, I really enjoy the show but the premise is so flawed. Its so backwards examining the business plans at the end. I wonder if Charlene has survived based on her business model as she can't seem to hold herself together anywhere. I think she is a really weak candidate, even if she does keep trying. I hope Joseph has something special, he seems to have the most to offer. It will make me sad if Richard wins 250k for another generic marketing company like we saw last year with the SEO guy. Major zzzs.

Distinct lack of etiquette with regards to last couple of posts.

Brett was swayed by Suggsy's words about Tricky Dicky in the last task, pretty raw. I get the impression Suggsy is not a fan of Dicky and sees a lot of a young sirlord alan in Joseph. It really is all about the business plan so the tasks and interviews can be subjectively viewed in anyway the panel see fit, then it's up to the production staff to turn it into a comedy sketch. They are my views and as such Jo v Vana in the final 2, with my girl to win.

Regards CB

I wish that the interviews where a 90 minute or 2 hour special.

Regards

B2B

Looking forward to this.

Regards

C

Was at a function in London last week where Nick Hewer was guest speaker.

V funny. V interesting.

The contestants clearly aren't chosen for their business acumen. To get 15 Harvard Business Grads would be too boring and no bugger would understand half the chat.

Phones taken from them on entry. No TV, hence why they are regularly seen chatting together. Tasks done almost every other day, so majority of series completed long time ago.

More later.

Regards

A

Claude knowing the candidates have taken the sting out of his interviews

Regards

G2L

Yes was worried about that.  Think Claude needs to return to previous role.  This show is always the best and Claude was always the superstar. 

Still a bloodbath though.
Not a decent business plan between them imo.

 Regards , er M ?

Quite interesting to see the total breakdown of Richard.

Almost warmed to him after the interview with the plastic lady

Regards

A

:D

Regards

G2L

Alex nailed his side bet I think- had most in final and Charlene got "with regret"

Regards

G2L

Charlene needs some more socks

You read it here first


Regards

D3103

To the guys who saw the odds, were they right?

Regards

B2B

i am sorry you would think that the business plans would of been examined before they got this deep into the exercise
sir allan was left with 5 contestants and only 1 business he invest in and even that is a very long term deal


Regards

I

LordSirAlan has a clear choice between a slow steady accumulation of profits from Joe or a bust or boom investment with Vana. 
How much of a gambler is he?
Take out an ISA or stick it on 23&neighbours...


Regards

D3103

Vana and Joe/Joseph (?) were the two short ones when I checked. Not watched any of the show but those were the names at the top. Seems the bookies knew. Who could have foreseen?!

Regards,

T

They were both evens each of two after the first show of course.  Why else would bf offer prices on the rags who couldn't win (it is illegal to do this under GC rules) but happy to offer the correct prices on the yet to be recorded final?

You're right there George, it's been a sweet series for Al.

Only low point was when I had both pms last week, and you get £x for winning pm, so I'm a lock - nope, no winning pm for first time in shows history :D

But ran good on the "with regret" part of the bet, knew Charliene would be nailed on for that one.

Vana ftw pls, she's my girl, Joseph is Dave/Stato's.

Vana must be like 1/10 to win the final.  There is no upside at all from a plumbing business for sug.  Pimlico pumblers has the kids business plan wrapped up decades ago in London.  

bf sportsbook make the bird an 11/4 dog?  Wtf is this already recorded?

I'm not sure I can cope with this next year. 5 terrible business plans. Honestly no clue what anyone was thinking going in with these models. Charlene and Joe have to escalate so quickly that despite being safe bets as the businesses will be profitable, the upside is a bit low. Vana has absolutely 0% chance of being a success. I have absolutely no idea why anyone would use a dating app without being able to see the person they are talking to. Furthermore, her point about attracting the good guys seems absolutely ludicrous. Surely every dating app has to appeal to women and men will follow. I know Ashley Madison had a ridiculous ratio between males and females and I think the appeal of Tinder is that women feel a lot less pressure and can be more selective. These apps need to capture market share and I think her USP was a huge negative instead of an actual selling point. Gary's model was an absolute waste of space, I wish big Al got rid of him weeks ago. Richard just put his foot in it and I really enjoyed him getting punished.

How did the new interviewer claim that 3m in revenue = 3m value of the business too by the way. I'm not sure if it was a weird edit or the beer but it seems like a completely bullshit statement too. A little underwhelmed by it all as I was really looking forward to this. I think I'll stick to Shark Tank in the future instead of this load of cobblers. They need to fix the premise of the show, it just makes no sense and I hope the pile of shite we saw today will force them to do that.

Apologies for the lack of etiquette earlier,

Regards RFG.

Interviews were somewhat anti climactic.

Can't see  vana winning. Has sugar ever chosen a true punt which stands to burn cash alarmingly. Give super Mario a couple of vans and a few tools and he can prob triple his biz in a couple of years. Some kind of return from a kid he likes and with an investment considerably south of 250k.

Regards

N

probably the right winner

he would have had to invest more than £250k and give a chunk to 3rd party investors with Vana.

regards

TE

Bit off topic but I think the You're Fired episodes this year have been really bland

I like jack Dee but don't think his style suits the show, Dara O Briain much better imo and able to go with the flow much better

Also the jokes with Romesh Ranganathan at the start of each episode make me cringe

Several times over the shows jokes have been made with zero response from the audience

Regards

HP

Yes, You're Fired has been a bit of a disaster. I actually really like Romesh, but Jack Dee has been really flat and the change of set with the audience behind them just doesn't work.

Also too many guests have been shit - that business woman tonight was a complete waste of space.

Regards

A

would any of the dragons from the den invested  in any of the 5 businesses we saw plans for?


regards


I

Probably not as a start up company.

Love it when sug says 'i am a gambler'.  No you are not you are a monster nit sug.  Totally agree with what you say.  He never punts it up any year.  Just goes for the steady easy route.  When you worth close to £1bn surely you should be punting it large every series to try and hit the jackpot.

Poshies win something for once.

Joseph Velante remind any other Luton regs of Gary Banks?

Watched about 10mins of You're Fired! all cereal. This is O'Breen's show, end of.

Regards,

C

Fully signed up to the 'bring back dara' campaign.  Dee has never been, and never will be, funny.  Stealing a big living for 20+ years.

Isn't the point of the research to get honest feedback from the public, so changes can be made based on it? Joseph's team's decision to lie to him and not tell him the negative feedback wasn't helpful. His logo looks like a swan giving birth, but now it has had this exposure, he should stay with it.

Regards

MT

Vana's site seems to be up anyway. https://dateplay.co/
Wonder how much remains to be developed. Presumably she should be able to raise the dosh elsewhere.


Or maybe you'd like some wine.  http://vanakoutsomitis.com/b/vino-vana

What's the point of gambling to try and hit the jackpot when you're worth close to £1bn?

Business plans of all five were pretty poor but Joe's was the only one with a semblance of reality attached.

I think he could have made a really solid return just selling the lot when they go to the second round of financing. Just ride the back of the Apprentice success.

http://www.alphr.com/business/1002276/the-apprentice-vana-koutsomitis-date-play-is-a-terrible-terrible-app-idea

Disappointing end to the series really, I think I'll skip next year but I feel like I said that last series too.

i cant believe i havent watched the final after watching the whole series i was just so disappointed with the business plans of the final 5 that i lost interest


disappointingly

regards

I

I had the last 4 shows recorded and deleted them all without watching.

It was always daft, it just got too daft.