The Kraken

You wouldn't believe how common that mistake is! On my first winter season I needed to get from Tignes to La Thuile; as the crow flies a distance of just 30km. Unfortunately there is a bloody great mountain range in the way, and other than hiring a helicopter for an hour the only other way over there involves a half day circumnavigation of the Alps to get there. As I'm sure you found out when there, the summer road (petit St. Bernard) actually becomes a winter ski run (quite a tranquil run down into La Thuile). Your comment about an elevation of 1850m being snow sure is correct; however the majority of the slopes in La Ros are very much south facing and can struggle lower down towards the end of the season if it gets a bit warm.

Awful whatever the spelling. Should have looked at the full picture really. Which, unless I'm mistaken, is Channon junior...

How much money would you put on? I'll give you odds of 8/11. You can paypal me your stake.

So it is. So much for that theory; as you were!

Another classic miltonroader thread that fails to run its course.

I'm sure its not true too.

Maybe. A shame that he was also bought for the present but it hasn't quite worked out that well. £7M is a hell of a spend on the future for a recently promoted side.

I find that to be one of the least reassuring statements I've heard in a fair while.

Sadly this.

Yeah, fair point. Fingers crossed that the Astori deal gets done today or tomorrow. Pretty sure when we signed Fonte he came straight into the team after just a few days (although he wasn't moving abroad, of course).

Even if that is the case, would you mind not repeating out loud too much? I get chills just at the thought of Jos Hooiveld lining up in our defence.

I'd say there's a chance.

Cheers, so a Puncheon replacement (something it's looking likely we'll need by the end of the season at best as there's no new deal for Punch yet). We went in for Matt Phillips in summer so perhaps not a surprise we're still in the market for that type of position. Can't fault the quality of the player, of course. Other areas of the pitch are a priority, I'd say, but if we can do them all then great.

I don't think I made that accusation nor am I aware of who did, so that's a matter for them and not me. Prejudice takes many forms so I'm not going to brandish the race card against a post I've not even seen before. I was commenting on your noticeable objections to Guly in particular since Lallana has been injured, and in particular for the last game when we were bereft of certain other options. You have previously criticised Guly but have seemingly deliberately and obtusely refused to explain the reasons why you think he has been abject, and also without suggesting an alternative. Its fair enough of course to hold an opinion, you've just previously been reluctant to expand upon the reasons why, other than that your lad didn't rate him. In the summer its fairly common knowledge we were in for Matt Phillips. Tom Ince has also been regularly mentioned as an urealistic target. There is a new thread covering our reported interest in some attacking Brazilian playing in Italy. So its not as if Guly is being lined up as the answer to our season, he's a stop gap measure. That's all.

Where does he play? Or, more to the point, where would he play for us?

As of Saturday we didn't even have £2.5M worth of defenders on the bench.

Lets go on yesterday's game, for which you presumably wouldn't have picked Guly. From your list: Ramirez: injured. Rodriguez: played up front. Lee: a striker, is he really a solution at LM when we're playing the European Champions and trying to keep it tight? Mayuka: the SFC conundrum, God knows what's going on with him but he's certainly well out of the reckoning. Though, tbf, I don't think he's played left wing all season. Fox: a left back, and not even on the bench (injured??) I don't think many people would try to suppress you having a certain point of view. You're just being asked to justify it, rather than say "he's cr*p, and my 6 year old agrees with me". Personally I find it surprising that you question the Guly role so heavily given that he's not a first choice, and he doesn't seem to be keeping another more suitable candidate out of that position. And he'll be dropped as soon as Lallana returns. Its a bit like criticising Hooiveld for not being as good as Fonte when he came on. We know Hooiveld is not good enough, we know the club should probably go out and buy someone better, but right now its really all we've got.

I don't think many others do either, so I'm not sure I see your point. As skipper I'm sure most people understand that Lallana will walk straight back into the side. Given we have that injury problem; and given that we haven't been in the transfer market to bring in another winger (which I'm halfway hopeful we could still yet do); I'm not sure where such scathing of Guly comes from. Unless there's another obvious candidate to play instead of him right now?

In the case of Fonte I doubt the club know the true extent of his injury yet. Diagnosing injuries often isn't an immediate thing; for example, sometimes any swelling has to reduce before a proper diagnosis can be made. So I don't think your made up little conversation is valid as a negotitation tactic in this instance, no.

You also write like Neil Allen.

Ditto. I know that one club that were in for him in the summer would still love to have him on board now, but they're sure he'd go to a bigger team than them. If he doesn't go over January then I think he'll definitely be off in the summer. And if we don't replace him properly, we're f*cked; with the current squad we're a much worse side without him IMO.

I think we all know your feelings on the matter. A lot of people share those opinions. Quite why you seem to take so much glee in players failing to prove your point is an idiotic trait though. I also think Boruc isn't the answer (though the best of a bad bunch of three). I also think we need to bring someone else in. However, if Boruc sorts himself out and proves me wrong with some consistently decent performances, I'll be delighted. You, on the other hand, seem like you'll either be really disappointed to have been proven wrong, or you'll simply refuse to accept it. It's really quite odd behaviour.

Our ability to not beat the first man on such a regular basis boils my p*ss at times; there's just no excuse for the terrible standard of delivery we constantly see.

I thought the same. He was on the bench the previous week, but Ben Reeves made the bench against Chelsea at his expense. There was a good deal of interest in Richardson earlier in the season; in fact he was being lined up for a loan move to a Championship club before Clyne got injured. I wouldn't be surprised if that gets resurrected, the club he was originally potentially going to are still looking for a RB.

I think there's probably a little more to it than that, if I'm honest.