The Kraken

Sorry, what? The BBC were reporting that the Jancker deal was on at the time. How is this more substantial?

Hallelujah, that clinches it for me. Proof if it were ever needed.

You must be p*ssed. You said it in post #169. Enjoy the wine.

It is quite fuuny how a repayment of the £5 fee seems to gain complete absolution on here, and after the inital power-hungry bravado of the banning exercise, the flurry of new coinage into Saintsweb coffers atones for all past sins.

Pompey Online were good enough to tell me why they b-anned me. (To be fair it was obvious, I was a fackin' scummah infiltrator who finally got rumbled, but they were very kind to let me know nonetheless. Good b-anning etiquette).

I think you've missed your point. Allow me to refresh you: I think it's a given that the last day is the busiest day. But not that more gets done on the last "final days or hours" than the entirity of the transfer window.

We can only dream; it might get us into Europe, after all.

We're going to be the new Middlesbrough; millions spent on players like Juninho and Ravanelli up front, supported by the likes of Curtis Fleming, Robbie Mustoe and Steve Vickers behind them.

Good job you're not applying pap; you'll have us all banned for user-name implied racism before we all know it.

Its difficult yes. But we can either attract the players we target, or we can't. We're not competing with Man U or Arsenal for players; we have our own level and that is not it. Our peers are the bottom half of the table, that's who we're in competition with. And, having stepped up a division, we need more new players than existing PL sides. So we're behind and playing catch up from the start of the season.

Denied by the bear.

Bear Man, I owe you an apology dude. I was rude to you a while ago; unnecessary. You seem like a nice chap. Still mates?

Per my post above, do you have figures for last summer?

I think you've missed my point, that article just lists transfer window dates. You said "outside of the mega-signings league (Van Persie etc) there is little done until the final days and hours of each window". Which means that (according to your assertion)most signings are all done in the last few days of a transfer window that lasts for many weeks. What I'm asking is this: do you have some stats to back this up? Some numbers which show that the majority of transfers are indeed done in the final few days? Because I just don't think its correct, and I'm wondering where you're getting your figures from.

Really? I think that's completely wrong. Can you substantiate this at all?

Its also very much a generalisation to say that expensive players take much longer to sign than cheaper ones. Have we paid over the odds for Rodriguez? I'd say that's the going rate. Steven Fletcher is a very average Premier League player who scores around the 10 goal mark per season, yet Wolves have just turned down an increased bid of £12M for him. Its hard to say this given that we've spent £10M so far; but maybe the realisation of just how much you have to spend to compete in the PL is coming home to roost. £2.5M for Clyne is a relative bargain, Davis was a pittance too. They are the exception; to get proper quality it takes a good deal of spending.

We already got Rodriguez. That was quite ambitious, wasn't it? And as I've said there have been plenty of big money signings that have gone through so far; how have they all happened?

That's almost in line with the amount of players NA says he wants. Up to £20M would be an incredible amount based upon what we've spent so far.

I'm thoroughly confused. We spent £7M on JRod to get him in June, but this type of thing isn't possible for other players. Although Arsenal clearly haven't had similar problems, they bought 3 players for £40M by early August. Like you say Chelsea got Hazard (plus Marin and Oscar for big money), Man U have got RVP, Man City have got Rodwell, QPR have got Hoilett, Liverpool have got Borini, along with many others from the PL clubs. Hmmm.

What about all the players who've transferred to clubs for fairly high transfer fees so far? Like RVP today, if you like. Why have they gone through if its so difficult?

Sorry, I don't understand why a higher standard of player takes longer to bring in? What evidence is there of this?

Well yes. neither I nor anyone else AFAIK have said that we won't bring in players before the transfer deadline. But if the manager deems it imprtant to bring players in before then, then I defer to his expertise. That it hasn't happened must be a disappointment to him, as it obviously is to us. My biggest fear is that we end up taking a Hooiveld-type gamble again. That worked for us last year, but surely no-one can argue against the fact that it really was a last minute roll of the dice. JH had been turned down by Copenhagen (where he had been on loan) and was massively out of favour at Celtic. yet he was our last throw of the dice and thank God it worked out positively. I'd like to see us avoid that type of last minute gamble this term. I'd also have liked the opportunity for the starting XI to play at least one pre-season game together; that opportunity has long passed. According to NA we're on the lookout for up to 5 more players. And we have 2 weeks to get them. We'll see what happens. As to your saying you don't believe it was realistic to get players before the season's kick off; I'd simply say that Reading set that target for themselves and achieved what they wanted to do in plenty of time.

Well you missed the most obvious one. 7) Player deferrals of £8M+ to be re-negotiated down to the £2M that the trust have available. That there is the ball game. No agreement with football creditors = no golden share.

No. And paying your fiver might be a start to getting the gig, you bloody tightwad.

I love it that Scotland are going for the Jack Charlton Rep of Ireland squad selection route by picking, well, Englishmen. Matt Phillips, Dan Fox, Jordan Rhodes; keep that going and we'll have a whole new B-team.