The Kraken

Sorry, I just can't go along with that. What we spent is nowhere near enough to justify a clamour for us to be in the top eight come the end of the season. No way. But it should IMO be plenty to have us a few more points away from the relegation struggle; somwhere comfortably between 10th and 14th, if the money had been spent better. I really don't see how you can say that when in recent years Swansea and Norwich have spent far less than that and survived comfortably without even flirting with relegation, and West Ham look like they're going to this season.

You close the gap by buying better than your opponents. The amount spent is no guarantee of quality, but it helps. We spent way more than other clubs this summer but much of it has, so far, been wasted. £7M Rodriguez mostly on the bench. £3M Mayuka on the bench. That's around what Norwich, Swansea and QPR all spent on transfers on their promotion to the PL. Its a hell of a lot of money. £30M is an almost obscene amount of money to spend for a newly promoted club. So, I completely disagree with your assessment. With that sort of spend I expected better, and I can't agree with your assessment that the £30M was well spent (which given you don't think we should be higher up I presume you must think we spent well?)

Yes. I would say its fairly realistic, if Sunderland are still moping about in the lower reaches. What are your expectations of Cardiff coming up and spending £30M? Where do you think they should finish with that sort of outlay. I also think Sunderland should be doing better with the amount of cash they've spent in recent seasons, yet they've perenially struggled because I don't think they've particularly bought well. Same for us; we've spent a lot but not bought particularly well for the short term, hence we're doing worse than I consider we could be doing had we spent differently.

Indeed. I can see the logic for that sort of transfer strategy in the years to come; get young, largely untried players in who can develop and improve with the team. On our first year back in the PL? No way. We needed at least one or two players of top ability to come straight into the side. Worry about the future when we're slightly more secure. I just hope we address it in January; our recent results have papered over the cracks that we've been taken apart by a lot of the better teams we've played.

The Football Supporters Federation have got the ball rolling. http://www.fsf.org.uk/petitions/view/support-safe-standing They've also enlisted something like 12 clubs who are willing to get involved on a trial basis of safe-standing technology (folded seats, barriers every row). That has been denounced by the Hillsborough Families groups, who don't want to even countenance the idea of a return to standing at top-flight football, perhaps without truly understanding the very nature of what they're fighting against.

Nowhere near £30M for what Norwich spent. Even if it had have been, its had a huge effect on them. Not sure if you can say that about our signings. Not yet, anyway.

It should have been enough for us to be at a Norwich level right now. If not team-changing then certainly enough to plug the gaps and be a 10th - 15th ranked side. £30M is a huge amount of money however you look at it (hence why we were the 7th highest spenders in Europe). How many other promoted clubs have been afforded that luxury of spend? not too many.

We keep getting Norwich thrown as an example; they spent much less than £30M when they came up and finished comfortably mid-table. They've again spent far less than £30M this summer and have pushed on further. So I disagree; to some extent you can expect £30M to buy you a good team.

And in our case some average ones too....

Firstly the regulations would need to be changed. And, because of Hillsborough, that is a hugely emotive issue. There is a massive lack of understanding in this country as to what "safe-standing" actually entails. Some German clubs still have the old style terraces that we had here; that's not what is being pushed for. But that doesn't stop a good deal of ignorance being shown publicly by those who can't see any distinction between Hillsborough then and football grounds, policing, stewarding and emergency produres now. If terracing was so inherently dangerous it would be banned throughout football. As it is now, only sides in the top two leagues have to provide all-seater stadia. Lower league clubs are allowed terracing. Why? If standing up at a football game is so dangerous, why are 99% of the football grounds in this country allowed to have standing areas? There needs to be a big information drive to show exactly what safe-standing is, and how in many cases it is actually safer than people standing in seated areas.

I'd definitely rather have Pogrebnyak than either Rodriguez or Mayuka. Unproven? 8 goals and 33 games at international level for Russia. Won the league in Russia, and has played in the Bundesliga as well as having a decent scoring rate for his short time in the PL. He's entirely the type of striker we should have bought in the summer instead of Rodriguez IMO.

I think we'll bring in 2 players at most. I think a centre-back, but only if he's better than what we have. Whether that happens will I guess be determined by how much money we are able/willing to spend. And dependent upon how extensive Lallana's injury is, also a winger. In fact with the deliberation around Puncheon's contract perhaps a winger anyway. I read someone the other day describe our attacking four (Puncheon, Ramirez, Lallana and Lambert) as "free-scoring". They really aren't. Puncheon has 3, Lallana and Ramirez 2 each. And Lambert has 7 from 18, which while being a decent return is worrying in that it's pretty good without being outstanding but still more than twice as many as anyone else in our squad. Put simply, our forward 4 need to contribute more goals.

That's also a bit of a double-edged sword. The better a team we are, the better the academy graduates need to be to get into the team. It is a good aim to have; but as you say highly improbable, and it shouldn't be seen as a failure not to hit such a target. Having 2 or 3 academy graduates in the team at any team is a success in itself. Expecting 5 or 6 at one time, very unlikely (unless its in a League Cup game).

I'm fairly sure they also see it as a source of potential players to play in the first team. Which in itself can potentially save the club an absolute fortune. How much would it have cost to go out and buy Adam Lallana and Luke Shaw? There's cost savings to be made from running an academy too.

Predominantly yes, but not totally. Jos was late 20s when we got him, Steven Davis is 27, about to turn 28. Whether we'll ever sign anyone 30 years old or above, perhaps you're right. But IMO it's really short sighted to rule out players that may only be able to give decent service for a season or two and who will have little re-sale value; I hope its not the case that we have such a policy in place, if only just for one or two players.

He would be a fantastic signing. Probably high wages, but could perhaps be offset by having no transfer fee. He was an absolute beast in both games against Fulham, he is an organiser and a leader, he has bags of experience and at 31 still has (one could presume) at least 2 or 3 years of top performances within him. It would be an outstanding signing if we got him IMO; better than any signing we made last summer.

Merry Christmas Bear-features. http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/fulham/151423/fulham-1-1-southampton-berbatov-bags-his-fifth-boxing-day-goal-but-whites-can-only-draw-with-saints-photos-highlights.html There's a video of the MOTD coverage if you scroll down.

Yep. 2 goals in 11 games is not a great return for a player in his position. Playing him out wide is a nonsense really; he's our most creative and potentially effective player yet wasted out wide. Having Steven Davis in his position makes it even worse! Gaston needs to be played central, and he also needs to get into scoring positions more often.

A great shout; but I imagine Celtic would put a very significant price tag on his head, and would be quite relucatnt to let him go.

Hangeland is just an absolute beast. Signing someone like him would be perfect. Even Senderos had a pretty decent game.

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Thanks for pointing that out, genius. I had no idea. At fulham today, tell me if you saw a team benefitting from an experienced old head on there. I must have missed it; well, for us anyway. But then I saw Chris Baird and thought he had an absolutely great game, so what do I know? And Berbatov was pretty superb. But apart from that... We do not have a team of experience. We don't. But carry on shouting it if it makes you feel better. Keep crossing those fingers to Feb thoug; that'll do it.

What's the point? We were asked to do this in the summer, as to which centre backs we should have signed. And despite naming such players that moved and have proven to be a decent acquisition, such as Bassong and Turner to Norwich etc, pretty much all ideas were dismissed out of hand.

Strangely enough, no. Its an opinion. Of mine, specifically. Surprised I had to point that out. IMO.

As has been said, they can't start a second successive season in administration. What is perhaps unknown at this stage is what happens if they come out of administration after the season finishes but before the new season starts. My inclination would be that the minus ten would fall under the same rule as if it had happened after the March deadline (i.e. points deducted for the previous season unless the club are relegated anyway, in which case they carry through to the next season). But then this is the FL, and as we know too well they like to make up and change their own rules as they go along.