Chez

quite simply he is even better than you thought he was. Best player in this league IMO.

the game reminded me of a trip to Manure a few years back when we lost 3-2 but we dominated a second half and came away happy at a tremendous performance. We were outstanding in the second half yesterday. Lallana just got hold of the game and with the whole tam supporting him we carved them open time after time. We kept the ball so well, and every flick, trick, one-two and through ball seemed to come off. Every second ball was ours and we simply stopped them getting out of their own half. If only we had taken a couple of the great chances it could have been one of those 3-1 down 4-3 win games every away fan yearns. I came out saying we are going places. This is why I go to away games. tremendous support, great day out even if I did have to bring the mrs with me. Davis 8 not sure how good the two second half saves were as I was square on, but one looked top corner. Distribution spot on all day and made the right choices too, all game. Richardson 6 Our passing game demands posession and he gave it away a few times, not lots, but enough for Adkins to take him off. He's been very good this season, but a fraction below that very high standard. At times Guly leaves him a little short of cover. Fonte 8 Much improved from last week, one or two tremendous tackles in the second half. I thought we kept their strikers quiet. Seaborne 8 Made one poor choice right in front of the fans but he instantly recovered with a perfectly timed tackle. I have althought he was a good footballer but not strong enough in the air, but he has been dominant and top notch. He has been very good this season so far and more than holding his own. Harding 7 came inside a lot when I'd liked to have seen him get to the byeline. Gave the ball away cheaply a few times. Hasn't looked quite as comfotable as others in posession, he is very left footed after all, but no complaints. Fox is going to come in at some point soon though and I can't see how he will regain his place once he does. Hammond 8 very good second half display, lots of unfound runs beyond the strikers. Kinf of goes unoticed a little bit as Cork dominates posession and then Lallana grabbed the eye, but he has been playing well. Cork 9 Stand out Saint in first half.Came short to get the ball fromt he keeper and git us moving. Brilliant passing game. Very surprised we dropped him to right back - it seemed a waste, but he attacked well from that position and never ever gave the ball away, so comfortable. What a great signing. Lallana 9 Terrible first 15 minutes, looked miles off the pace, but then he just got in a groove and was untouchable (apart from one crippling tackle). With one sock round his ankle he just took charge finding all manor of gaps. He should have scored, 1, 2 maybe 3 goals when through (and that's why he has a 9 not a 10) but his interplay and first touch on the run was sublime. He caused them so many problems and if you squintd your eyes he was Messi...of the Championship. Guly 7 He will be slated for one occasion when he held the ball too long, losing it and not chasing back, but people may not have spotted a great work rate prior to that which I simply do not expect of a flair player like him. He's not the answer at right midfield, but he is doing a good job there. Lambert 8 some tremendous flicks, one touch passing, link up play. Won a fair bit in the air. It was a massive foul on him for the own goal. Disgrace that the ref or lino did not give it. A few times the ball didn't stick, but not many. Connelly 7 A couple of times his touch was not good enough and the ball didn't stick. His lack of pace does restrict us as everything is in front of the opposition, but it makes us play an attractive slow passing style. He keeps scoring, but some of his shooting lacks power. Morgan 7 just added more posession and quality. Strong. We ran them ragged in midfield in secod half. de ridder7 looked more inclined to take the man on although still hasn't beaten anyone yet, but he looked sharp and caused them problems with his off the ball running, some half decent crosses to fox 7, good ball retention and some first class crossing. Good impact sub. How did we not score an equaliser?

QPR spent £3.5m on Faurlin this season before last. I think that was their biggest transfer. Big for this league 2 seasons ago.

have we? We made a loss in the first year if £7m and our wage bill went up in the second year (and will have again) so depending on how much money the new owners are willing to lend/give whatever you want to call it, there might not be the £6m available. Yes we bid for Sharpe before the Oxo money came in, but it always was coming in (his Dad said as much at the end of last season). I don't think we are going to be spending that sort of money (£6m) on one player.

1 year deal. He must have been desperate. Jaidi will be fit just in time to have this lad in his pocket come derby day.

for starters the Williamson deal was £2m rising to £3m based on appearances. So the truth falls somewhere between the two, admittedly he didn't get to play those games in the end. Me getting one of your players fees slightly incorrect (it is reported differently depending where you read it) is slightly different from you understating your spending by £6m+. I wasn't go to and never have used the phrase `we had to play the kids'. So you are arguing with yourself there. But seeing as you brought it up we did play a lot of players that were very young and not ready for the championship such as Schneiderlin himself, Thomson, Pekhard, Robertson, Gillett, Gobern, Holmes, James, Lancashire, McClaggon, McGoldrick, Mills, Molyeneux, Pearce, Patterson, Smith, and White. Even Lallana was in his first full season with almost no second tier experience. Cork was 19. They may not have all played 30 games, but we played a lot of young players throughout the season. What we did do was not spend any money. The only transfer fee was for Schneiderlin. This was for a maximum of Euro1.2m with almost nothing up front and based mostly on appearances. His wages were also tiny. All the others that came in were rock bottom free transfers, again on rock bottom wages. Also none of the loans incurred loan fees. None were high wage earners either. We brought these budget players in and let all senior players (we could) go out to reduce the wage bill. I honestly don't think we could have done much more to reduce the wage bill. You could say the same I suppose, except BTH on £38k a week kind of ****s that up for you. I personally didn't have a massive problem with what Lowe did. He had no choice after the previous chairman completely ****ed us. That regime did gamble and lost - similar to yourselves, but as soon as we lost we cut our cloth in order to pay our debts, tax and mortgage. There ends the similarity as you just continued to spend. Do you not agree that was the case?

when you say now, do you mean now teams are trying to take the **** because we have the former right wingers transfer money in our bank account? Or do you mean now we are competing with other big clubs with money available to pay higher wages, or do you mean now we have Cortese at the helm?

I love that *****. He makes West Ham fans look like mugs.

You what? You disproved the square route of FA. You stated clearly that you had spent just £2m, but that figure was false, it was £8m minimum and possibly a great deal more (Awusa was half a mill in fees alone) so your arguement was based on a nothing more than total fiction. pwned might be suitable here perhaps? Not satisfied with that you then try and justify your spending as it was only 18% of income. Thanks for that wonderful calculation. Sadly I'm not blinded by stats or figures. The fact is it should have been 0% and all income should have been used to pay off debts. But no, you stuck two fingers up at the tax man and spent over £8m anyway. I'm amazed anyone would try to defend this, but I guess we'll say anything possible to get one over on our rivals... I have to laugh at the phrase `we weren't going for broke', blimey that's a statement and a half, well the fact is you were over £100m in debt and you were struggling big style to pay it off so you shouldn't have been spending anything at all, especially half way through the season when you were already doomed. The key here is that you didn't cut your cloth accordingly. You reduced spending, yes, but the right level should have meant £0 spent on transfers. Instead you spent when you shouldn't have. It wasn't even a gamble, it had gone beyond that. I think that's the point many posters on here have been trying to get across to you. My advice is to just accept that fact instead of fighting it all the time as it just makes you look like you are happy to support a regime that stuck two fingers up at the tax man etc.

never liked him simply because he dived and fell over all the time. I hate cheats even if he was winning free kicks for us. Some of the`falls', especially when he was defending close to our own corner flag, were embarrassing. That's my opinion and nothing will ever change it.

You're sure? Well case closed then. Far be it from me to defend Cortese, but the impending buyout at your place put the kaibosh on all incoming transfers for weeks, so could it not be conceivable that QPR were the cause of the delays in the Puncheon deal that then affected the Gorkss move? Far easier to believe every word that come out of Colin's mouth I suppose.

looked pretty good in posession at 1.28 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14514567.stm when he scores his third

the hatrick he scored the other day was superb and he looks like he is absolutely flying right now. He looks like he has the ability and confidence to create and score goals off his own back rather than needing them supplied on a plate. I like that kind if striker a lot. He was "excited" with the move to the Posh. I would have thought what we've got going on right now might. I notice the following "I don't want to name the club, the club deserves the respect to not be named." quote from the manager. There seemed to be great respect between the two clubs when they agreed to the postponement, I wonder if that wording is significant?

really, there's me thinking you spent £1.8m on Tommy Smith, £4m on Boatang, and £3m on Mike Williamson, as well as loan fees (on top of wages) for Dinande Awusa-Abeiye, Vanden Borre, Jamie O'Hara and Hassan Yebda, not to mention the probable signing on fees for the likes of Ben Heim, Steve Finnan and Michael Brown. The fact you gave Ben Heim £38k a week suggests you weren't exactly looking to reign in the spending. As for the part exchange deals, they still would have a value. If you had not taken them off Stoke's hands when you sold Begavic you would have had £3m in the coffers but instead you chose to effectively spend £3m on them.

what's his injury by the way? Seems to have been out ages when you take into account he got injured towards the end of last season.

good player and their best signing for me.

who said terms were agreed. In the Sharp case no terms were agreed and there is nothing to say terms were agreed with Gorkss.

agreed. Felt like a Thomas signing to me. Not sure why fans get so worked up when potential signings they hear about fall through. For every one we hear about these days there will be five or six enquiries that we never hear about that will have fallen at the first hurdle.

tough one, he either says his player has a dodgy ankle or he says his player is greedy.

He's predicted 17th and that's his opinion. Why give him stick for it? Promoted sides don't always shine like the three did last season.

Let's just loan Craig Dawson from WBA for the season.

who can't head?

I don't think we were ever in for Gorkss. We already have a slow unit in Jaidi, why sign another? We are quite clearly after a reasonably quick ball playing centre back. Gorkss doesn't fit that bill.

Not sure which forum you read of which thread, but certainly when I looked (might have been the local paper comments from fans under a news story) they pretty much all thought he was fantastic and it was a real loss not getting him back.

check out the chance at 1.12 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14609091.stm on Saturday when Henderson beats him all end up in the air. Fonte is good, don;t get me wrong, but against Henderson and one or two others (less these days than when we were last in this league) you need a Jaidi like figure if you ask me.