I agree with Tre's assessment of the task and the firing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice/column.html

Raef's contributions were evident throughout the series. Sir Alan chose to ignore them. Raef should not have been fired over Michael like in the previous week Helene was not fired over Sara.

Sir Alan was the one who put Raef as PM in the first place and it was clear that Sir Alan could not wait to get rid of him. The way Raef was fired was the worst this series. He simply didn't deserve it.

Er, that's why I said "on this task"! And I'm right the fact is when they were head-to-head, same task, same posititon as PM Alex won.
I'm sure if Raef was that much better than Alex (and I don't think Raef is) he would have won this week. After all he had a very experienced team and an extra team member.

I completely agree!

I agree with you-Tre's assesment is correct. While not everybody will agree that the firing was unfair-something has gone from the show for me since this firing. I am not saying that he should not have been fired. But look at what we are left with.

None of the remaining characters have much intergrity to work for SAS. But I suppose like Tre I wonder what SAS is looking for in an apprentice I shall never know. Unless they have been edited out. This is the worst bunch of BS Apprentices I have the displeasure of knowing. Raef will never have worked for Sir Alan. But I think the BBC should examine their recruitment selection if they are going to have a legitimate show.

Raef will do fine out of this. His interview with "The Telegraph" sums up why I liked him and what he brought to the progamme fourth time around.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/ma...rentice122.xml

Babeth

Good interview. Thanks

I hope he learns from his mistakes and I do believe that being fired may prove the best thing that have ever happened to him.

I always said he didn't really need to win to be the ultimate winner. He has been the stand out candidate of this series and will have plenty of opportunities coming his way...

I'm sure Reaf will go on to have big success, he's a natural.

That was only because Michael started to lie and turn on him, taking all the credit for the success (yeah, right!) of the task. Raef had to defend himself, he wasn't going to let that pass without saying anything or else that could have come across as him agreeing with everything that Michael said.


Absolutely brilliant. That sums up anything and everything that I like about Raef.

raef was an absolute legend.hes bigger than the show.
sir alan lost all my respect when he fired him.
what is it with him and sophocles.
if this show was viewer voted raef would have won by a country mile.

I agree. Why is it that when Raef makes one mistake, he gets fired, but Michael has made numerous mistakes and was probably quite close to getting fired before, and yet he's still in the competition?! Sir Alan's recent decisions have baffled me.

I ask the same question myself?

I have come to the conclusion that we all have to assume that its something we the viewers are not allowed to see-edited out to make our blood boil.I have given up.

Its SAS's organisation and he can employ who he wants to even if they are useless.

It makes me wonder what sort of mistake Simon Ambrose made when working for him. SAS made the point that he has learnt the hard way from his mistakes-what has he learnt? Maybe that has some influence on his feelings towards Raef-from similar backgrounds. Just a thought.

Babeth

Sack Sir Alan

Hire Raef

For me, Alex was less good than Raef. He's not been in the boardroom for the last two tasks, though. He was in the frame for Morocco, but obviously there were bigger fish to fry then.

Lee is OK. He's not been violent yet. I think people take him as being more aggressive than he intends. He did a good job as project leader, and was one of the few to get on with Lucinda. He's won his last 4 tasks.

I suppose I'd put him roughly on a par with Raef so far. If anything, slightly higher because Raef has done a few questionable things in my eyes - not bargaining for the cowhide, arguing against changing the date of Singles Day, arguing in favour of selling ice-cream to ice-cream makers. And of course, the fiasco of the advert task. What bothers me there is that Raef continued to defend his work. There is a pattern of him being unable to accept when he is clearly wrong.

I don't know about the singles day but arguing in favour of selling ice cream to ice cream makers: Didn't Claire make her largest deal with someone who said they make their own ice cream?!!!!!

Regarding the advertising task, he clearly saw what went wrong and he said in many interviews that it was a school boy error.

Don't forget his schoolboy error on the fish task, when all he had to do was match the boxes of fish with pictures in a binder yet still he managed to mess it up. And his contribution in the photography task were his sole contribution seemed to be to transpose a photograph onto a mug the wrong way up!

Don't forget that the schoolboy error in the fish task was done after consulting with his team members Alex and Simon.

Helene allocated the role of making mugs and puzzles to Raef and she said he did a very good job all day when she was arguing with Lucinda.

So not only was he incapable of peforming a simple task on his own, he tried to shift blame by involving Alex & Simon? This coming in the same task where he was asked to be project manager but shirked responsibility and weasled out of it.

eta.....and lets not forget he was also in the group that sold 100s of pounds worth of fish for £50 near the end of the task.

Well if putting photos on mugs upside down is considered to be doing a "very good job" he should have walked it

You do realise we only see a fraction of what candidates do on a task, usually that which is considered entertaining? Therefore they doubtless did not show the rest of the work he did that Helene was so complimentary about.

We saw him put one photo on one mug the wrong way round, and it was obviously his first attempt.

I hope you always get everything you do at work right first time, even though you've never done it before.

Alex allocated roles without considering individual skills. He gave pricing to Nickolas (Why?!!!!) and labelling to Raef (why?!!). Raef then looked for help from his team members. I think that is reasonable if you don't know about fish.

As for negotiating the 100 pounds worth of fish, it was Michael who took the lead and it is well-known that you don't interrupt someone's sales. Remember this was their first day together and they don't know the strengths of each other. He showed a sense of responsibility when he said at the end we all share the blame - rarely happens in the apprentice.

Yes, very true. So on the one hand we have Helene saying he did a good job and Lucinda saying that his contribution was virtually zero. Strange how most people have dismissed virtually everything else Helene has said yet seem to agree with her on this point.


If its something a 6 year old could do then yes. There was no need to show him getting it wrong more than once, once was enough to confirm opinions formed about him after task one.

Or to intrepret it another way, it was my responsibility to identify the fish but I got it wrong and rather than take the blame I'd like to claim everyone was culpable.

Nice guy, useless at business or anything practical.

He said that it was his responsibility in the boardroom and that he labelled the fish incorrectly. He also said it was not a job that he should be an expert in as other members of his team were also unable to identify the fish which was the truth.

Alex who was the main reason they lost the task didn't admit that he made any mistakes.

Personally, we can argue till the cows come home about Raef being good or useless. At the end of the day we only see what BBC wants us to see. Its a reality show that thrives on drama.What's the point of showing us what they did right all the time?

In mine and many people's eyes who rate Raef I would trust him and do business with him. These petty errors that people are pointing out have no effect in the "Real Business" world-well for me anyway. If they wanted perfection none of the apprentices qualify.

In fact what is more important to me is, has any of these characters left have any intergrity, respect and honesty? The answer is no! So it does not matter how we measure our perception based on the performance of the show and what we saw from Raef.

Babeth

I just read on Heat World that they have an interview with Raef in this weeks magazine (presumebly taken from the questions submitted to their site last week?).

I wouldn't normally even look at Heat, but I may have to sneak a look tomorrow to see if it looks worth buying......