The Kraken

Which of course is entirely fine, and I respect your opinion while of course disagreeing with it; I am just of the opposite opinion. Next season, then absolutely I could see the logic, just this season it was a needless risk IMO in so much that we didn't spend similar sums on areas of the pitch I deemed more in need of strengthening. And as I said earlier, Lallana was being primed in pre-season for the number 10 role, which IMO plays to his strengths much more than playing hm out wide. We didn't spend anywhere near as much money in other areas as we did on Gaston (or on Rodriguez, for that matter). It took us significantly into September before realising we had a problem with our goalkeepers, and then we had to sign a keeper who was plainly not fit and not ready for first team football at that time. We went after Astori but got scared off by his £12M price tag. Yoshida was a bit of a gamble, and while I think he's done pretty well this season I'm not sure if I see him (or Jose and Jos) as of good enough quality for a top ten Premier League side, which is where we obviously will be looking to progress to. If we stay up this season (looking ever more likely) then it'll be very interesting to see what our summer transfer priorities will be. I still think an imperious CB is very much a requirement, and the goalkeeping scenario is an interesting one. I hope Boruc stays with us, but we'll have to see I guess.

Dear me. Are you that much of a plank that you have to try and distort my actual opinion? Of course I was pointing out that a so called "worker" has scored more than Ramirez. The reason this is quite clear is that you mentioned both Cork and Morgan as workers, yet i only highlighted Morgan. Because its quite impossible to forget that he has scored a few goals this season. Sorry if it makes you appear a bit daft, but that was clearly the point being made One this one I will admit culpability; it's what happens when you rely on wiki for stats. Nonetheless the point still stands; worker bee Morgan has scored as many league goals this season as flair player Gaston. And once again a silly statement, that someone else came out with. Of course we wouldn't have signed Dembele. Or Lloris. I've already said this. But don't let that stop your angry rant. They were simply used as examples of signings made for similar money that we paid out for Gaston, and how such areas of the pitch were IMO more in need of work. Never mind, I'll remember instead that I should just pick a player who didn't get signed for someone else, as that's clearly more relevant. Indeed. I love it too, as I always do when Saints players do well. So pretty much all Saints fans get to clap, really. Happy days.

He said he was on £2M euros a year, net. Plus a £1M net signing on fee.

Quite right Baz. For this season I look at Norwich who brought in Michael Turner and Seb Bassong for less than half what we bought Ramirez for. Neither are top 8 type players, but they're solid enough to pretty much ensure Norwich another season of Prem experience and the chance to establish roots and push on further. We could easily be above Norwich right now had we adopted a similar policy IMO.

I was waiting for this type of response What would you have preferred I do? Say something such as "I think we should have bought Ashley Williams from Swansea, I reckon £12M would have got him"? Of course we wouldn't have got Vertonghen, or probably any of the other players listed. They were used as examples of decent signings for similar money. Surprised I had to explain that part. And being as Ramirez himself claimed he's on upwards of 80K a week plus signing bonus, it puts your other guesswork into perspective.

I think that's an object lesson in missing the point. I highlighted Schneiderlin as you classified him as a worker who was needed to complement the forwards and flair players, yet that same worker has scored more in the league than the flair player. And 3 league goals is IMO at least a poor return for a number 10; a lot of his job is to score and create goals, which he largely failed to do as much as hoped for. Quite simply, I wouldn't have targetted spending huge on a number 10 (and being as Lallana was being primed for that role I still think it would suit him more than being played wide). I perhaps would have looked to strengthen other areas with more of a marquee signing. We spent £12M on Ramirez but apparently refused to stump up that much for Astori, so I don't get the impression that we prioritised other positions as much as we did for Ramirez. I'd have preferred we prioritised a really solid keeper and/or centre back, rather than the "make do" attitude we seemed to have in comparison to our determination to sign Ramirez and Rodriguez. A bit like Spurs did with Vertonghen and Lloris, either of those would have been fabulous signings IMO. Or we could have gone a cheaper route and gone after the likes of Ben Foster or Seb Bassong. Boruc is working out for us now but had we had a safe pair of hands up to Christmas, we could be pretty much safe by now, again a factor of us not getting our priorities right IMO. You seem to be asking for a huge list of players; I get the feeling you're trying to make a point that Ramirez isn't the only player signed for big money who hasn't quite worked out as expected for the fee. I know that; in fact there have been quite a few other clubs who have spent fairly big and not gotten decent returns. That doesn't make theirs, or ours, any less of a low return on expectation. there have also been clubs who have spent big and have got the returns expected; such as Cazorla (£16.5M and a superb return), and I really rate Dembele at Spurs, plus Lloris and Vertonghen as mentioned. There have also been some utter bargains, obviously Michu but also Ben Foster, Berbatov at £5M was a steal, and various others under £5M who have proved to be decent captures and show that you don't have to make double figure millions signings to get value and quality. My point about Gaston is not that he will be a failure of a signing; he surely must get better than this in future seasons. And we're not the only club who have spent big and not gotten the return hoped for. But I've always maintained that Ramirez wasn't the right signing for this season, and I thoroughly stand by that. He may come good yet, he may not, but I think it was a gamble we needn't have taken.

F*ck you man. Dubai Phil is definitely the most ITK man in th world. He's awful at golf but he's played with Westy, with Monty, with RorDog and even the TIGER, man. Phil is da MAN. As such, he knows things. Yeh?

**** off Ron, yeah?

No, you're right, I'm sure they're all true. I mean, no-one would want to go so far out of their way to create an image of how great they are.

I bet Phil, after all his bluster, is actually quite average at golf. There, I said it.

You got me spot on. Spot on. At least golf Phil is here to cheer me up with tales of how he is so fantastic. Huzzah!

I'm going to start my own poll. Mods, you've got 10 minutes, and I'm only drinking more wine, and with Mrs Krakenetta in bed snoring I'm going nowhere....

Is SuperMikey the school kid?

Where is silent nightshift mod when you need him? OI!!! NIGHTSHIFT!! Get a wriggle on with the poll, yeah?

Watch out, Mike's been on the turps and is a bit larey.

Ah, really? Don't leave me this way.

Cry for help. I'm glad I'm the first to post on this thread. Although I have the usual suspects on ignore, so maybe not so much.

Erasure? Andy Bell was just a fat, poor man's Jimmy Somerville. Talentless white t-shirted non-entity. Smash Hits know their stuff, don't get me wrong, but Bronski Beat; wow, that was music, man.

Spudcheeks, I'm saying nothing more until someone declares my song the winner. Thems the terms.

Get it right, Spudface. Cry for Help was Rick's top moment, and if Turkdog doesn't admit that it's the best love song ever I'll cry and cry until it hurts.

You can see why I've got you on ignore after that comment, can't you?

Great stadium tbf, they did well from Tesco!

Me too. Went to uni there, went to a number of games at the then Dean Court. And I've looked out for their results since. They'd love a rival though. A proper one. Dorchester Town just don't do it, and we're not up for it. Bless em. I do hope they get promoted though. I've even been to watch them twice this season!

You can see why I've got The Kraken on ignore, can't you?

Thanks for that. Most interesting. Truly.