The Kraken

Skintsaint is the real villain in the piece, very conspicuous by his absence

Of course, I'm willing to wait until the end of the window to judge the sum total of our signings. I expect us to bring in at least a winger and a CB in that time. I don't think we'll get more in that time, if we do I'm happy to hold my hands up. Do I trust the club? Of course, I've never for once stated that they are not active in trying to bring in targets. There's a few issues I have with some of our reported transfer dealings but that's by the by; in general our management and transfer committe have got far more right than they have wrong. I just recognise that the Hooiveld transfer was a real gamble last season, and we may have to pull of the same again this season. Some gambles pay off, some don't, and the longer it is we don't sign a CB the more that risk factor goes up IMO. And also having heard the manager identify 4 or 5 positions for strengthening that haven't been addressed (that's nearly half a team) I'm obviously concerned where that leaves us if we don't fulfill our targets.

Good. Torres is skipper in my dream team, nice points.

I think its a test for the newly signed mods. Do they take a Howard Webb approach, a stern word and tell TDD to to get on with it. Or do they take a David Elleray approach and wield the ban-stick. I think JustMike seems reasonable, but skintsaint seems a bit of a maverick so anything could happen.

I think its the minimum we need, yes. And I reckon we could get away with just two for now, but would probably need to look at a loan deal or a decent splurge in the new year window. Ideally of course we'd get a new keeper, 2 new CBs, a left back and a winger. I think its fair to assume that won't happen, the club have even distanced themselves from going for another left back. And the keeper issue is a strange one, I think Premier League rules state that the squad of 25 has to be made up with 3 keepers. Still, 8 days to go and I could quite easily be proved wrong yet. But I doubt it, as I say I think the best we can hope for is 2 signings by the end of the window and make up the rest as we go along. And yes I agree it would be a very decent window, I just feel so far we've addressed positions which are less urgent than the outstanding positions.

Have to say, in some respects I agree with Alpine here. The apologists for our lack of transfer activity are completely missing the point that Adkins himself wanted to bring in a number of players before the season started, and if the Ramirez deal falls through we're no closer to seeing the signings the manager stressed he needed. Yes, I'm sure there's lots going on behind the scenes in terms of sourcing our targets, but its a simple fact that every one of our intended targets this summer has been leaked in the press well before they either signed or the deal fell through. So we're going to have to zoom into overdrive with a little over a week to go in the transfer window and still at least 3 or 4 players away from the manager's initial assessment. You can kind of accept that one or two deals will go the full distance, that's the nature of it. But (again, by our manager's assessment) we're short of 4 players in key positions and its going to have to be a spot on transfer policy to identify and recruit the players we need in the time remaining. I don't think its possible, I think at best we'll get a winger and one central defender.

Yeah odd, not on Sky.

Well I guess we'll get a good idea if Reading can do what we couldn't against City, and hold on.

Reading's two summer signings Pogrebnyak and Guthrie have scored against Chelsea; Reading leading 2-1.

With appleton stating that he needs £60K for wages until Xmas time I think we're due to see yet another of Tricky Trev's deadlines missed. So Trev can f*ck about with a bid that is never going to come to fruition and bump up his fees even further. I'm quite surprised Chainrai hasn't yet sussed this tactic and sought to have the business wound up so that he can get his paws on the £3M in parachute payments they've just received.

That must be against Premier League rules, surely?

Not really, Adkins has already commented about it.

Fair play to them for surviving in the Premier League. They only got accepted into League football in the 70s. Back then they had crowds of around 1,000 - 2,000. Their home average is now 18,000, so their rise has been rapid. And they have 9 or 10 other more established and popular clubs all within 25 miles of them, so competition for floating fans is extremely fierce. Don't know why people feel such antipathy towards Wigan; they're a small town success story, plus they have a decent manager and play a good brand of football. their away support is often laughable but in general tersm I think they should be applauded for what they've achieved so far.

I think Bompey could easily be very much on a fast track to emulating our friends from the other end of the M27.

Wigan's allocation is up to 1600, but I imagine they will take much less than 1,000. This is their away following from last year's game at Norwich. Add in a few corporates not being sold, seats being used for segregation, and potentially not selling out the home allocation around the ground, between 30,000 and 31,000 seems a reasonable estimate.

Or we could go by the opinion of the manager instead, who has openly stated a need to replace certain of the positions listed? Might be a good place to start.

OK. I'd suggest Puncheon isn't good enough for that. I'd suggest Rodriguez on the left wing isn't good enough for that. I'd suggest our central defensive duo aren't good enough for that (at best one of them with a more capable new signing, preferably 2 new signings). And I'd suggest JWP needs to be nurtured, and should probably lose his starting place to Steven Davis (as he surely will). Oh, and Kelvin Davis too, I don't think he's up to it.

QPR have signed Ricardo Carvalho on loan from Real Madrid. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19334852 Carvalho and Dawson at centre-back; none too shabby.

Depends what the objective is really.

Bang on 2,700 left now. Blocks 43 and 44 account for some 1,300 or so of those, the other 1,400 are Itchen and Chapel. Completely sold out from blocks 30 to 42 (Kingsland and Northam). And no, corporate seats are definitely not included in those.

Forget about the LB, the club have already said nothing will happen there now.

I hadn't heard that, but it seems you're [almost] correct. http://www.caughtoffside.com/2012/07/26/emmanuel-adebayor-wants-manchester-city-to-pay-50k-a-week-to-charity-before-agreeing-to-tottenham-switch/ Apparently he wanted City to pay his charity £50K per week for the Spurs deal to go through. Fair play to him if that's actually true and/or went through in the deal.

Yep, absolutely incredible really.

] Same with Adebayor to tottenham, a £5M transfer fee is relative peanuts but it accounts for his absolutely phenomenal wages (rumoured to be around £170K per week at City).

I do laugh how, when there's a negative article about Saints, the journalist/author in question is ridiculed, its speculated that he knows nothing, he only writes for a tawdry rag etc etc. Yet when there's a positive article about us its taken verbatim and without question.