Was Lord Sugar right to fire Dan? Which of the three candidates at risk should he have fired?

april for me. she took the fish off the first vendor, without shopping around.
she ignored the one with the tartan suit (forget her name)about costs

Right firing for me, especially when you admit you can't do most of the things required from the show to to Lord Sugar.

April for the bloody £9 salad

I liked Dan

Brett, but I vote on entertainment factor, I don't think he'd add as much to the show moving forward as the other pair would. Also I like how Dan can admit he screwed up whereas Brett is as oblivious as ever.

April will probably bring drama so I'd keep her around.

Dan. He was awful.

April made mistakes, which she admitted to, but also showed some strong qualities and seems promising.

Brett didn't impress and was annoyingly stubborn, but he was still better than Dan.

I think April should have gone.

Yes it was a selling task, and Dan was woeful, but April was autocratic, ignored the advice to check what had the best margins, and didn't shop around for deals in the fish market. Even if Dan had sold like a superhero, the team couldn't climb out of the hole April had put them in.

I'm only basing it on the task, i think she's a much better candidate than Dan, who if he'd been PM would probably still be in the market, looking lost.

Yes I'd agree with that. It was definitely her way or just shut up.

I think it was the right decision. They'd all made mistakes on the task, but April and Brett had at least had some good points. April was decisive and managed to cut through all the arguing and rowing (which Selina failed to do on the other team, although I think she was a better PM all around). She also got what Brett missed - that the fishcakes were too big. Brett seemed to keep order quite well in the kitchen, and I think was quite a good salesman (though someone may need to correct me on that last one - takes me a while to recognise everybody). Dan, on the other hand, didn't seem to do anything right.

I don't think Dan should have gone. BUT I think he was too nice for the programme.

If I were in his position, I'd not have rattled on saying "I can't sell, I know I can't sell" - I'd have said I could learn to sell, but Brett's ridiculous attitude of having to stick to the rules regardless of outcome (ie demonstrating no common sense) would be much harder to unlearn.

I think ultimately he wouldn't have provided enough entertainment value by either being a complete clown or being a vicious backstabber. He was too nice.

(I will concede anyone who keeps saying they can't sell in what is basically a job interview requiring sales skills arguably deserves to be fired though!)

Where is the option for all of them?

Dan was the right decision since he basically was telling Lord Sugar he couldn't do anything pointing out his weaknesses. His ridiculous name suggestion for the task the sugababes. But I still likes Dan but he didn't seem as good as the other two.

I think April has potential if she learns from her mistakes and Brett wasn't too bad.

April should have gone. She ignored concerns about the costings; it was like she pulled a price for the salad out of thin air, and whatever she said was final. She didn't listen to other suggestions about what dishes to make and she didn't shop around in the market.

But as far as the process goes, it's probably a good thing for Dan that he got fired. He's way too nice; if he managed to toughen up and get ruthless it would spoil him, and he might also have been dragged down by the bitchiness and personality assassinations.

I think Dan was mainly there to take the piss really (Sugarbabes, hands in pockets constantly, not really taking things seriously) but even then I still think April should have been fired over him.

She was completely useless with pricing, negotiating and I'd argue team management in the kitchen too, all for an area in which she claimed to have experience with.

I personally would have liked to have seen Dan given another go round, to see how he'd have handled other tasks and if he'd have improved at all.

I would have said April and Dan; I don't see the problem with Brett and I think without him giving instructions and managing the kitchen, it would have been a bigger disaster. He was also following the recipe for fish cakes so I thought that was fair enough. The quota needed to be looked at in reference to the individual sizes before hand and it couldn't be changed between one and another. April came up with products on her own and the costs/ pricing were ridiculous; £3.30 cost with a £9 sales price for a salad? That is never going to work; they should have all looked at a cost price below £1 with a resale at £4-5 as it is street food; they could have done a tuna salad at that price I'm sure. Serious lack of logic on her part and a lot of the others seemed to sit back and watch task fail in that team. Dan didn't really make an effort to do well on the task, if he wasn't a sales person, he should have tried to help with getting costs, quantities and pricing right but he didnt so fair decision.

April - the idea of fish cakes, which are laborious to make, was not good. Didn't she say she knew something about Jamaican food? Why not do a Jamaican fish stew? No faffing about with deep fat friers - it would have been much quicker, and easier to sell on the street.

Felt sorry for Dan. At the start I thought he looked like an offbeat Tom Pellereau type, and I think he could have developed as the weeks went on.

I also found it refreshing he wasn't fond of the business jargon crap they all talk. We need someone like that to do well rather than these people spouting jargon that means nothing at all.

Yes, he seemed to be in it to just have a go, and learn from the experience. I reckon my approach would be much the same.

Also the reality TV stars of the future to follow Luisia and James are already looking like Wannabe Hugh Hefner and Mister I haven't a clue what Veganism is.

If Dan had done his sums instantaneously, and if he'd also been the best seller on the team, they would still have lost. They'd have got to their sales pitches too late at 1 rather than too late at 1:30, and their sales would still have been too low

They lost because:
1. they didn't cost their stuff right/at all: April's fault.
2. their production was too slow: Brett's fault, April at fault for not stepping in

Any of them could have went really and I think Dan became a bit of a fall guy as he didn't contribute any less than some others in the kitchen and not everyone is good as selling, also I'm not sure any of his mistakes had a huge impact on them losing the task.

That being said Lord Sugar probably knew Dan was one of the weaker candidates and that's what swayed it. I'd say he just about made the right call but April and Brett can breathe a sigh of relief.

I easily liked Dan the most and wanted him to survive, but I was struggling to come up with a reason that would justify him not being fired.

They were all bad, but I thought Brett was the worst, despite making the fishcakes "exactly to spec." No initiative.

April has already established herself as a big character with balls.....she'll be in it for the long haul regardless of potential cock ups.
Dan was always going to go as he's quiet and didn't fight for his life in the boardroom. Sugar really doesn't like these quiet types who try and hide in the background.