The Kraken

Why rise to his aggressive and desperate attention seeking? Just remember the "let's not go for promotion and settle for the playoffs" thread, and chuckle at the sheer inadequacy of his thinking. And then laugh some more at how he stands by that initial thinking, and still claims it was correct. He genuinely is a troll, in fact the very definition of an internet troll, he is only ever looking for an argument all of the time; well, either that or some desperate search for attention by starting threads on topics that (most of the time) already exist. And he consistently makes himself look spectacularly stupid and petty in doing all of that; he knows it, and everyone knows it. I find it easier to laugh at how tragic that amount of effort is, than to actually breathe in the nonsense he continually thinks worth the effort of spewing out.

Norwich & Swansea maybe; QPR, not so much, did you see who they signed? Plus I don't recall Norwich or Swansea shouting from the hilltops about their ambitions for Champions League football.

A very worrying sign if that's how we're viewed by exactly the type of player we need.

I think you must have missed MLG's various reassurances in this regard. Apparently its not the amount you spend, its how cleverly you spend it. So, you see, we don't HAVE to spend £10M each on players to get within reach of the Champions League. We can use half of our graduating academy, and then do what other clubs currently don't do, which is to spend less money but spend it cleverly on players. That way we can save money and be successful.

You have to give credit where its due. After the initial fiascos of playing the wrong anthem and displaying the wrong Korean flag, you feared for the worst. The spectatcular opening ceremony put those fears to rest and made you proud to be British; and since then the games have been an absolute triumph in every single department, most notably the crowds who have been immense and of course the performance of Team GB. The arenas have been incredible, the BBC's coverage has been completely first rate, and the commentary teams have been very good (although often let down by the celebrity commentators such as Reggie whatshisname and Michael Vaughan who haven't really got it). Overall, absolutely brilliant and it reflects so well on the nation. Really looking forward to seeing the closing ceremony too, I think it could be really spectacular (I'm assuming Danny Boyle got that too??)

In fairness its been one of miltonroader's better efforts.

I don't know why anyone takes Alpine seriously. He's just a very angry and bitter man who loves confrontation, flies off the handle and gets uber-aggressive with anyone who disagrees with him, and is spectacularly wrong on a significant number of occasions (yet will never ever admit when this happens, the "let's rest players and aim for the playoffs" incident being a point in case). Quite tragic really.

Google searches show a few outlets putting the Maiga deal at £4.7M. And Collins at £2.5M. Could be wrong, but there's a few independent sources quoting those figures. Jarvis offer rebuffed for £9M being reported by credible news sources, so I don't think I agree with you there. My personal opinion is that WHU suffered from the weight of expectation last year. Much more than we did in League 1 when we came 2nd. And I think, player for player, they should have achieved much more than they did. They were the better side in both games against us and, but for the sending off when Billy went down like a sack of sh*t, the result could well have been very different. I think Sam will have them doing a Norwich or a Swansea, but again it won't be all that pretty to watch.

Agree very much with that. Hence my statement that I'd love to see us sign an experienced head akin to Radhi to bring it all together. We've got a lot of youth throughout our squad already; Clyne, Cork, Scheniderlin, JWP, Rodriguez, Gazzaniga all comfortably under 25, Lallana an experienced head at 24. 2 of our 3 older, experienced heads are the centre backs we're looking to improve on, so I think its imprative we replace experience with experience (albeit of a higher level).

Well I'd disagree then; but only very slightly!! I'd say we were up there at the top in terms of being able to play it about. But I thought our main strength as a side was that we could mix it, and that when we didn't/couldn't play through sides we had a superb outlet for going long or more direct, which is why we were more successful than, say, Blackpool. In any case, beauty is in the eye of the beholder so I genuinely don't think there is a right or wrong answer, just differing opinions (of which my one is the correct one, of course....)

The team that plays the best football aren't necessarily the best team. Swansea were extremely attractive to watch and finished bottom half. Arsenal are famously extremely pretty on the eye yet haven't won anything for years. A lot of our fans seem a bit precious about comments that we aren't the best footballing side. We play some nice pass and move stuff, and we play some good, direct stuff particularly to RL (diagonal balls to him at the far post were rather our speciality). It doesn't make it any less entertaining for the fan, it isn't a criticism, but neither does it make us the best stylists. Which was what was asked.

We played functional football last season; great at times, long at times, direct at times. It worked for us, and it was very entertatining, but it wasn't like watching Brazil. Blackpool played some great football, I enjoyed watching them (apart from when they took us to the cleaners). Our new kit has been done to death, I'm yet to meet anyone in real life (Saints fan or otherwise) who actually likes it.

Sorry, but this simply isn't true. It was an excuse wheeled out last season and the season before; that the 25-man squad restriction would mean that we needed to wait for squads to be announced and then go for the out of favour players. It doesn't work out like; most clubs will have their squad level under control, I think last year only something like 4 or 5 notable senior players didn't make their team squad list and thus became available for transfer. The year before much the same, Michael Kightly was famously one left out as he was injured. I'm not sure if I agree totally. Yes, the UK transfer market is stupidly inflated, but that doesn't mean there aren't bargains to be had. I personally would quite like an ageing CB, say 32 or 33 with a couple of very good years left in him and who can come in and marshall the defence and get a grip on the team. In much the same way that Radhi Jaidi did with us in League 1. I think QPR have made a very good signing in Ryan Nelsen in this regard.

Stephens has had a poor start to the season, he looked extremely shaky against Wolves. Certainly not up to a senior place yet on the basis of those two showings.

I'd rather we concentrate on the progression of player's abilities rather than focus more heavily on winning matches. The amount of players we've had come through the ranks recently suggests we're doing ok in that department, with JWP the latest in the line of players coming through with spot-on technique.

And the point on this needs to be stressed. There is a very big difference between being a hard negotiator and striking the best transfer fee for your club, than to being awkward and difficult to deal with such that you put off players and clubs so that they actively search out another buying club.

Because Hughes has a decent track record as a manager? Because they have signed some decent players? Because they can attract good players on decent wages? So far they've attracted some decent "been there done that players" and also some attacking options in Park and Hoilett. Their transfers have an element of short-termism to them, but they are good solid signings and QPR will not go down this year, I'd have decent money on it.

You're missing my point. I'm not saying we definitely should have bought Gorkss (although he clearly was a great signing for Reading). What I'm saying is that we got well down the road in negotiations with 3 players, and then for various reasons didn't complete on the deal. The Fontaine deal in particular showed an extreme naievety in carrying out the necessary research, scouting and evaluation of the player (up until he popped out of the taxi on his crutches FFS). This doesn't set a brilliant trend, however you try and spin it and say we don't know the full story. Whether that's happened this summer I have no idea at all, and don't really care. i just hope we've learnt from previous mistakes and that the players we go for are the right players, and ones that we'll actually sign, because time is running out fast and we can't afford a saga for every single transfer we're yet to make.

We didn't hear one side though, we heard two sides. Gorkss himself said he heard nothing more from the club so ended up going to Reading. Whatever the rights and wrongs of whether we should have signed him or not, its a shoddy way to do business.

We know the direct quotes of the player and his then manager as to what happened. Not many conclusions to jump to, are there?

It would be better to have identified the right target in the first place before getting through negotiations with the club and to the point of signing and then, well, dithering. Gorkss was clearly a player who was decent; he had been promoted with QPR the season before, and this season he played for the team with the best defensive record and who finished champions. Yet he signed for someone else NOT because we changed our minds, but because we dithered about. Jemmal is a mystery but we changed our mind on him when he got here. And the Liam Fontaine debacle; we showed interest in a player with such an injury that he turned up for a medical on crutches and subsequently missed nearly half a league season. If you think that's doing business well, and how it should be, then we'll just have to disagree.

The amount of fannying about and pulling out of deals last summer for a CB wasn't a great example of how to do business, that's for sure.

I think the majority on this thread realise that. One or two bedwetters do have the belief that the scouting team sit around scratching their arses until a signing just suddenly appears, but they've been consistently shouted down. Most people just recognise the concern in Nigel Adkins making a statement that he wants to bring in up to another 6 players and the fact that we've completed just one of those since.

Ridiculous comment, isn't it? BFS will do alright for West Ham, think they'll finish top of the promoted clubs.