The Kraken

Does it? What does it say? That we should only be looking at centre backs of the calibre of William Gallas? Or better than him?

Amen to that. What I would like, and what we don't have, is a proper conduit between the management of the club and the fanbase. A forum to bring up issues that get given a little more than lip service; where customer service concerns and problems can be raised and ideally put right. Running of the club by fans? No thanks. Too many personalities at work all vying for attention, and often the ideal of putting the club first gets lost in all that. I do find it quite funny though that, despite financial mismanagement stretching back over the oast 50 odd years, the Skates are now trying to take the moral high ground in how clubs should be run :lol:

Just wondering why you're so keen to get him in? I've seen him a couple of times this season and also had reports from a friend of mine who is a scout and has seen a few U21 games; opinions from both of us are shared that he's nowhere near ready for a first team showing. Perhaps you see something else in him. In any case, if we go for a youngster I get the feeling Ben Reeves will get a chance before Shaw does.

Have you actually seen Shaw play?

All rather straightforward; yes, sometimes it difficult to get good players. That we failed to strengthen in what I consider much more important areas than 2 extra strikers and an attacking midfielder (at a cost of £22M) suggests its a little more than that, and that our priorities weren't necessarily focussed in bigger spending in defensive areas. That said, Fonte and Yoshida could yet do ok; so long as we can stop Yoshida playing at full back and let them start generating a partnership together. Fox also wouldn't look as bad if Lallana can get more disciplined and offer more defensive cover; our deficiencies down the flanks have not been entirely the fault of the full backs.

So all of the positions that were highlighted in the summer. What a shame it will potentially have taken an extra 6 months to get to that point.

Kept us in what? We weren't even in the relegation zone when he took over.

Yep; this is entirely true, it really is this black and white.

Only comparitively for a top 6 side. What I'm saying is that his spending was consistently among the highest in the league, and a 4th place finish is testament to that as much as decent management. Like I say, he managed well at Tottenham and having money is no guarantee of success; that said, a highest finish of 4th is around about what you would expect of a competent manager given the resources available to him.

I've never bought into that, it was always a myth that 'Arry peddled to make himself out to be an amazing manager. Spurs had spent around £40M on transfers that summer; they'd had an appalling start to the season but they had a decent clutch of players and their league position was entirely false at that time. And Redknapp was then allowed to spend a similar amount in the January window, so they were a rich club with a great deal of potential. I think the relationship deteriorated due to Harry being a gobsh*te and Levy having had enough of him. Harry did well at Spurs, no doubt; but he/the club spent a lot of money too and didn't achieve far above the levels that sort of spending might have been expected to return.

I admire the optimism, but :lol:

No space for JWP? Harsh....

Theoretically I'd agree; and we had a similarly type of formation a few years back with MLT and Berkovic in behind Ostenstad, so its definitely got form with us! In any case I think Cork has been a big miss for us; its not a commonly held view but I rate him higher than Morgan.

That looks great going forwards. Defending, it offers even less out and out support to our full backs than our current formation does.

Redknapp never had full control at Spurs. Where has this myth come from? How many times was Redknapp asked about incoming players and he used to respond "you'll have to speak to the Chairman about that; he deals wiv those fings." Levy has a Cortese-like role at Spurs and oversees all transfers etc. Commolli didn't work out for them but Levy adopted that position with Harry.

This "prem experience" thing has gotten out of hand. I don't think anyone suggested that every player we signed should have Premier League experience. However, in 2 or 3 key areas throughout the pitch I believe it would be huge leg up. A solid keeper is a first step; if Boruc gets his sharpness then he may well be that, but in Kelvin and Gazza we've not had that yet (Kelvin's previous PL experience merely served to prove that he is out of his depth at this level). Gazza looks a very good prospect; but you only have to look at de Gea at United to realise that young goalkeepers often aren't the finished article yet. We have a back line with barely any appearances at any top level of football; a centre back with experience would have been a huge help. I too think that Yoshi will turn out ok; saying that, coming from Japan, he is still something of a gamble. Since releasing Jaidi we haven't truly replaced that type of player; someone of that ilk and status is exactly what we need IMO. We have Steven Davis with PL experience in the middle; and I believe Ricky Lambert is enough of a talisman up front to negate the experience tag. That's all it takes IMO; one or two extra players with experience to knit the team together.

Only a Saints fan would consider that Roy Hodgson is not a good enough manager for this club. Bizarre.

I think that is pretty obvious to anyone who is prepared to admit it to themselves and others. At the moment our defence is very much Championship standard.

Also most reports of his transfer fee I've seen are £4M, not £6M.

First of all; I consider most on that list a step up from what we have. I think Yoshi could yet prove to be decent, so we're probably missing a second decent centre back and a left back (a replacement for Fox; but as it is we don't even have a backup for him, hence why I mentioned Shorey, though clearly you prefer playing our most accomplished centre-back at left-back instead). Secondly; it really isn't hindsight. This is simply a continuation of concerns consistently brought up through pre-season and beyond and why many consider it folly to have implemented such a lop sided approach to transfers (£10M+ on 2 reserve strikers plus £12M on an attacking midfielder; around £5M-£6M spent on 2 defenders and 2 goalkeepers. I'm not going to get into your nitpicking of players; as I said I fully expected nothing but scorn from you, but you asked for a list and that is merely a list of players who actually were signed by other clubs, so an indication of the type of player available. Safe to say I'd have any of the players listed ahead of our current incumbents of Fonte and Hooiveld. Hooiveld has been woefully found out; Fonte needs a strong presence next to him or he goes to pieces. And we've suffered from not providing ourselves with an even an adequate backup to the already struggling Danny Fox.

Just some examples off the top of my head. We were linked at one stage with Robert Huth and Jonny Heitinga; no idea how much they were being talked about for so don't know if we could have affored them, but either would have made a fantastic difference to us and I'd have liked us to prioritise a signing of this type (Heitinga was player of the year last season for Everton but now playing second fiddle to Jagielka and Distin). Ryan Nelsen went to QPR on a free; higher wages perhaps but a decent acquisition for a year or two. Norwich signed Michael Turner and Sebastian Bassong; a couple of very decent signings. James Collins has been mentioned already to West Ham; also George McCartney. Ron Vlaar at Aston Villa could yet be a good signing, he certainly looked it at the time. Danny Rose went to Sunderland on a season-long loan, even Nicky Shorey (to Reading) is an example of a back-up left back we'd probably have benefitted from in the short term. The type of defender we could have brought in isn't going to be a world beater; and admittedly not one to make people say "wow, what a signing" in the way that Ramirez was. And I fully expect people to scoff at some of the names I've listed; maybe they would have worked, maybe they wouldn't. But its fair to say that pretty much all of those listed would be a step up from the basic error-ridden pair of Fonte and Hooiveld (Yoshida hasn't had nearly enough time at centre-back yet to form any realistic opinion of him), and would have solidifed to some degree an area of the pitch where we are very much at our weakest.

Yoshida was at fault for at least 1 goal on Saturday; arguably two (4th goal he put his head in his hands when it went in). He has shown that he is demonstrably terrible at left back and shouldn't play there ever again. Dickson or Reeves are the only viable options and can't do any worse than the shambles of Yoshida.

Not as a full back though; he's been horrendous when put there.

Tottenham have currently got Kaboul, Vertonghen, Gallas, Caulker and Dawson on their books. All five are infinitely better than anything else we have at centre back.