I was very intreigued by the final pairings picked by Suralun.

Personally I find it very hard to believe he'd actually want either Alex or Helene as the Apprentice. If that's right it's very risky to put both "employable eggs" in one basket and then announce he'll pick the winner only from the winning team. If it were me I'd certainly want to split my two bankers so I was comfortable there'd be one employable option for me at the end.

Do you think he really is running such a huge risk and is absolutely confident that Lee and Claire will wipe the floor with the others - or does he actually rate Alex and/or Helene..?

Then again, final thought, I guess we have no idea how the winner of the final task is to be decided - it might be SAS's judgement call in which case he's safe whoever he puts in each team.

I think he's put one of each of his choices in different teams so that he's in a win win situation and I believe those choices to be Claire and Alex.

I agree

I really think they're all going to struggle. They've whole lot of them have got this far because they've had people to pin their mistakes on. Not one of them can organise or plan as well as Lucinda could. They were silly alienating her because whoever would have had her on their team would find this task a lot easier. Instead what they are left with the candidates who can back stab and bitch but, don't know how to work. With the exception of Raef and Simon I wouldn't trust any of those coming back to help me plan a huge event such as the one they're being tested on.

I believe that Sir Alan genuinely has not made his mind up on the 4 remaining contestants.

Based on comments he's made through the series and my general opinion, his favourites are Claire and Alex.

He has therefore put them on opposing teams.

doesn't he decide which team wins anyway? its like the tissue ad, they dont win based on how many sales etc, its who he decides performs best. surely he'll pick the team who has the person he wants to hire, he's probably already made his choice as to who he wants.
thats just what i think anyway, the final task he always decides who wins, right?

But what you may see as the final two employable bankers may be completely different to how Alan Sugar sees things.

We know nothing really.

He does decide which team wins, but his decision has to have some basis and I don't think he could get away with appointing an apprentice from a team that did not deserve to win.

In series 1 I think Saira was clearly the stronger candidate but it was clear that Tim had succeeded in the final task.

The same is true in series 2. Ruth was so much better than Michelle throughout the series, but on the basis of the final alone, Michelle got the job.

In the final of Series 3 there wasn't so much to choose between them and Sir Alan could have gone either way.
Last edited by The-Apprentice : 05-06-2008 at 16:20

Yes, and it'll probably be completely arbitrary and subjective.
Who we see as performing the best is not necessarily the same thing as Alan Sugar agreeing with us about who he wants to hire.
He can make the result fit any way he wants it to fit if he's already made his mind up.

We thought we knew best a couple of years ago, and based on what we saw on screen we thought Ruth Badger walked it.

I was going to post this. Then at least he will get one of his favourite canditates by putting them on seperate teams.

I agree that throughout the series she was better, but not in the final.

Her show was not as polished or appealing as the Michelle's.

She didn't do herself justice in the final.

No, I remember in the final that on this forum most people were confused as to why Alan Sugar decided that Michelle had won it. Most people felt that Ruth blew her away.

The final is always a very subjective thing so you can swing it either way if you really wanted to.
In the previous tasks most of them are sales based, but in the final it can spun any way you want it to in order to favour one or the other.
Sales have sometimes been involved, but the result often comes down to a subjective whim.

Absolutely.

Michelle was the clear winner.

i'd be fuuming having to be put in pairs for the final task - your destiny for the job is in the hands of someone else and that ain't good.

can't wait to see all the old faces but i wish they'd all come back rather than just some of them.

I agree. ^

If Lee mucks up he's taking Claire down with him - I hate to do that to someone.

That's one of the options that crossed my mind when I saw that Claire and Alex hadn't been paired up.

I did also think though, who's to say that he won't move the goalposts again? He has fired two people in one week, fired one in a week he was supposed to fire three ................ he may well decide (for whatever reason) to sack one member of each team.

Wasn't that the year where Saira won it on money but Tim had the better long-term business plan. It could have gone either way, and it seemed to me Sir Alan picked the one he wanted regardless of final task performance.


As others have pointed out, that isn't how the final task seemed at the time.

And I disagree about Ruth being better in the main series. She only won when Michelle was on her side. When Michelle was on the opposite side, Michelle always won. That happened 4 times, plus the final. Ruth was a good saleswoman but not as strong as her reputation.

According to rumour, I reckon he'll pick which one he wants, and then declare that person's team to have won the task.