The competitive aspect of the Apprentice is over. What remains is just opinion. Next weeks interviews are purely subjective and the 'result' of the final is, of course, not binding.

So who's he going to pick. I checked my ball and I see SAS choosing Kristina and Lohit for the final. However Kristina, citing some lame excuse, pulls out.

With the prospect of a monumentally dull final looming SAS considers offering Katie the chance. However having to announce Lohit the winner after Katie has summarily thrashed him in the final SAS decides to promote the hopeless Tre instead.

Lohit of course is 'Hired'.

Katie,of course, is the real winner having achieved considerable fame/notoriety without the embarassment of having to work for SAS.

Snowey

How can Katie be the 'real winner' when all the world knows how much she looks down on her customers and her colleagues, how jaw droppingly nasty and cruel she can be and how much she laughingly believes herself to be somehow intrinsically better than everybody she has ever met.

Agree totally

This is a very interesting article about Katie.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1879

I got the impression very early on that she had no intention of working for SAS. She talks to him as if she is better or equal to him. I hope that nobody in the media ever employs her.

I can't see Lohit winning purely because in the boardroom Sir Alan has never really seemed to take to him. I just don't think he likes him very much.

Though to be honest I haven't got a clue which of the others might win either. If Nick Hewer was making the decision then it would be Simon but since it's Sir Alan ... who knows!

Lohit and Katie in the final is a scenario that wouldn't happen IMO. SAS asks the person that quits whether they want the job or not or whether they're in it for the wrong reasons. Two names spring to mind , Tre and Katie. Since Tre will not quit judging by the episodes I reckon it will be Katie and Tre and Kristina will be in the final.

which means kristina will win this series

But surely it's all just down to one man's opinion at the end of the day? Objectively speaking, on the basis of last night's task Simon should have been toast. But Sir Alan had obviously decided beforehand that he wanted to keep him, and spent the whole boardroom bit making up reasons to sack Naomi.

I haven't seen last night's programme. But, if he is bad as you all say and is still in the running (especially as it's following on from last weeks poor performance) then I think he must make it to the final. And if he makes the final then he's won the Apprentice. The trainer task was when he really pulled out all the stops and impressed everyone. Although the ideas came from Tre, it was Simon who did his damnedness to make it all work and kept the whole thing upbeat.

And let's not forget that SAS stood up for Simon when debating in the BR with Nick and Margaret. I think he's still a strong runner.

The mail article linked in this column is as good an explanation of why Katie wins as you'll get.

Who would really want to work for the dictatorial SAS anyway? Katie has played the real apprentice game to perfection.

Snowey

How well she has played it and how well she has done for herself will ultimately be her down fall because at the end of the day, Sir Alan wants an *APPRENTICE* .. big word there because I struggle to see Katie dropping down to being an apprentice, esspecially after hearing of her 90k sallary. I think Sir Alan will be advised that she is beyond the job and would struggle to be told what to do on a daily basis. Plus she is frankly too old. She did well and she won't be upset by the result.

I heard him remark last night that he looking more for someone to be ready and able to work for him now rather than needing training/mentoring etc.

Maybe why he had a downer on the younger candidates..I think it was Naomi's youth and inexperience that got her sacked.

Although she did let her team down and was having personal problems, he also said the same about Jadine last week.

He's already condemned Tre and Simon as complete foul ups so they wil look plain silly as winners given he has said he wants someone reliable. He's also pointed out that Lohit is invisible and Lohit has been far less visible than Michelle with no momentum at the end - he would be an incredible winner.

He only has two people he hasn't slated and its a toss up between Katie's off task persona and Kristina's getting a few more decisions wrong.

I would expect mental gymnastics any way. He either claims he could trust Tre or simon isn't a foul up or Lohit is a star or Katie will fit in or Kristina is smarter than she is.

Katie vs Kristina - who is least likely to let him down by going off with someone unsuitable and deciding that sort of life is not really for her?

I reckon Lohit will win.

But that seems stupid as Tre is only 27 and Simon is the same age (ish) surely? So as Naomi is only 26, why is her one year less experience than bumbling Simon, really that important?

Anyway, I still think Simon will win and it is between Katie and Kristina as to who quites for their kids' sake...and I get a feeling it is Kristina.

I may have missed something along the line, but I still reckon Katie is going to pack it in at some stage, given that she sometimes seems to lack the fight that comes over some of them when in the boardroom. It could all flare up nicely next week...

Kristina won't quit for the kids! Her son is 18 years old!