Ex Lion Tamer

I posted this on the other thread but its completely wrong to say we're not spending - there are 12 others teams that have spent less so far this summer: http://www.betinf.com/england_transfer.htm

I enjoyed it but it felt like just a good action film rather than a real classic. I found myself thinking 'am I really watching another film where a bomb is ticking down they need to defuse it?' how many films have had that plot? Also Bane actually said 'i will break you', I thought I was watching Rocky for a second

The problem is that the irresponsible owners are often long gone by the time the club goes into admin and faces points penalties. The only way to solve it is to stop clubs spending too much in the first place. That's why they're bringing in financial fair play, though it remains to be seen if it will work. This is why American owners are buying clubs over here, it's because they love the free market way we run sports, where they can get away with anything. Ironically sports in America is massively regulated and virtually socialist

According to this there are 12 clubs that have spent less than us: http://www.betinf.com/england_transfer.htm Plus two of our signings were out of contract so they are worth a lot more than we spent

I do think though that if we sign a CB, LB and RM of the same standard as Clyne and Davis then we will stay up. If not we will struggle. So as you say it depends how the rest of the window goes, but I think our signings have been decent so far.

You're the one who said the club was complacent and indecision will do for us! I don't particularly think they are working on a yoyo strategy as they have built up expectations for European place, but I do I think they're being unrealistic about what we can achieve. Personally I'll be happy with 17th and even relegation wouldn't be a disaster, so not really that concerned. Anyway, I think we'll stay up with a couple of solid signings, but time will tell on that.

I must admit I am a little less positive now the signings have dried up. But we have to be aware that often clubs wont sell for reasonable prices until the end of the window as they are hoping someone will come in with a bigger bid than we can offer. Equally we are hoping they will be forced to drop their price when the deadline approaches. Its frustrating but we have to be patient. If we haven't signed a couple more quality players by the end of August then we can worry

If you're good enough you'll be able to adapt to an individual's qualities pretty quickly. 300 games in the champ or the prem aren't going to make you able to run any faster, or think quicker. Its fair enough if you don't think the players we're signed are good enough or experienced enough, but I just don't think where you get the experience is all that relevant. Countless players have thrived in the Premier League without having played in it before.

I disagree with this idea that top level experience is essential. I think its important to have experience in the side, certainly, to keep younger heads calm under pressure and to organise them, but whether they got that experience in the Prem, Championship or overseas is pretty irrelevant.

People had enough trouble spelling Kelvin's name properly, not sure what's going to happen if we have Davis, Davis and Davies in the squad!

My presumption was that as a Saints fan you'd generally be quite interested to read the threads on this forum, and therefore, like we do, would notice when a thread about a potential player is being overtaken by a pedantic argument.

If a thread is going off topic cant the mods move those irrelevant posts to a mega *****ing thread in another forum, just leaving those relevant ones?

If a thread is going off topic cant the mods move those irrelevant posts to a mega *****ing thread in another forum, just leaving those relevant ones?

I don't think anyone is saying we should confine ourselves to Championship players, just that our business so far has been good and the Championship has some useful talent we can utilise. Clyne is hotly tipped as Prem quality, Davis is prem quality, JRod should hopefully be but we have plenty of strikers if he isn't. Gazza is a backup. What is to dislike about our dealings so far? Olsson is linked today, Kayal yesterday, these are decent players! People are just getting over upset over one link, with Dann, because he looked shaky on occasions, but then Hooiveld wasn't rated either before he came here. Just need to be patient

But no one arguing your point seems able to name any of these proven Premier League players that we should be signing

Foster would be good but he was already on loan at WBA and was probably happy there. Jaaskelainen is getting on and is not the player he once was. I'm hopeful that we will still sign another keeper but it remains to be seen doesn't it? Jarvis would be a good signing but Wolves have demanded £10m which is on the expensive side, so it looks like, for the moment at least, we are looking for better value elsewhere. Rodallega is ok but only scored 2 goals last season, and he would probably prefer to go to a confirmed mid-table club like Fulham after years of battling relegation. People need to calm down and assess our transfer dealings at the close of the window. All the players we have signed so far have been in positions where we were decently stocked in terms of first team players already, and in doing so we have managed to find excellent bargains with potential to add a nice mix. Better still they will improve in the coming years, helping us to combat second season syndrome. The real problem positions of CB, RM still need to be sorted but we will have to see what we end up with there. Scott Dann does seem a bit of a risky one but we haven't actually signed him, we could end up with someone else entirely! Still a long way to go.

GDP down 0.7% in last quarter, what a disaster. Can we now agree that you can't cut your way out of a recession and that the government's economic policy is doing real damage?

It's a tangent but I'd like to know why Gareth Bale doesn't score free kicks anymore too

Obviously it's hard to judge on YouTube videos, but I think €10m sounds quite reasonable. Works out around £7.2m, so if we've got the money and rate him, then let's do it. At present we've bid very low

I thought it might be useful to compare Lens' videos with the video of another hyped player from Holland, but who went on to fail in the Premier League: "Ryan Babel Liverpool's New Signing" To me Lens looks much quicker with his skills so I'm quite optimistic that he could cut it

Don't f__k with me Kelvin

*has!

Fortunately George had started to see the error of his ways: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/whisper-it-osborne-has-embraced-keynesianism

Just because they can't/won't put a figure on it, doesn't mean the slogan is meaningless. It signals their intentions. Anyway, I was responding to the insinuation that labour don't intend to make cuts, when they have said they will repeatedly. The exact extent of cuts isn't really the issue, there's no magic number. It's about what you do with the money you decide to spend -things like a VAT cut (a concrete labour suggestion) would give people money to spend, creating demand in the economy and creating jobs and growth. That's how to reduce benefit spend, raise tax returns and pay down the deficit. I don't know why they have opposed all the cuts and don't have time now to do detailed research. Perhaps because if you believe the government is cutting too much, stopping them in whatever areas you can is worthwhile. Perhaps simply to make trouble for the government - I never said they were perfect. Child benefit is a tricky issue for labour because they believe benefits should be universal - means testing is an expensive business after all. PS Rachel Reeves is something which Osborne and most of the coalition's treasury people are not - a trained economist

It's the right strategy not to come out with a whole range of policies at this stage, as they'll seem old by the time of the election and the best ones will get taken by the government. But for example, calling for a judicial inquiry into the banks was the right one even though it would probably have been embarrassing for labour, as it showed how the tories are in the pocket of the banks. Labour had said all along that cuts are necessary, but these ones go too far and too fast. Unfortunately the paradox of Keynesian economics is proving difficult to explain to the electorate.