The Kraken

I've paid so little attention I probably couldn't even get all the managers right.

Oh dear, I think you've just scuppered your deal there sonny........

Rafa Benitez has let himself go.

I used to think the same way about Alpine. I thought about chucking him on ignore, but then I realised that his general nonsense, how utterly angry he gets all the time, and how he is so consistently often wrong about so many things were things that actually made me laugh more than anything else, and putting him on ignore would deprive me of endless mirth at his expense. There's always an upside.

Oh right. How odd. Yeah, seems little reason to stress the point of ignoring someone if you're actually not (and actually making more of an effort than usual to read what they've said). I find the whole ignore feature a little strange, as if its designed for people who have no self control over what they choose to read and respond to.

How did you know he was disagreeing with you in the first place? I've never been inclined to have anyone on ignore so I don't know how it works (or why people bother).

Bet you can't see this.

What an impact by the substitute!!!!

This is like watching Cameroon v Argentina in World Cup 1990, ridiculous tackles going in everywhere from the over-enthusiastic Africans.

Cortese out. This is symptomatic of us going for the cheap option instead of paying the going rate for proven Premier League apparatus.

With the era of player relegation clauses and hugely enhanced parachute payments I'm not sure I buy this argument. Before anyone jumps down my throat about it: of course I'm not advocating doing a Pompey. But I don't see too much wrong in reinforcing the team with 1 or 2 players with proven experience, and it will likely cost a little more than a Championship youngster (although its fair to say that JRod will be on a pretty penny anyway after signing for £7M). In any case, if Cortese is driving our transfer activity based around potential relegation it flies in the face of every single thing he's said about our ambitions.

Do we? When we already have one? Why would we rule out getting a more defensive-minded left back, out of interest? Particularly when we know that Lallana's attacking instincts often leave us exposed at left back and we may need to shore that up against better sides.

Well done, you're in the running for the "didn't read the whole thread properly" award.

I'm still not sure you're not getting my point. I don't dislike anything about our transfers so far, I think they've been good. Clyne I think will be a real star given time, JRod plenty of potential, Gazzaniga one for the future (if not this season) and an experienced head of Davis in there too. All good to date and wouldn't question that. There was just a lazy comparison being made that seemed to suggest it was either to sign an established PL star "like Joey Barton, Anton Ferdinand and SWP" or just young players from the lower leagues. I'm simply seeking to highlight the shades of grey in between, of which there are very many.

Indeed. And it will also act as a bit of a deterrent to the likes of Scott Dann, David Dunn, Junior Hoilett (albeit out of contract) to try to engineer a massively cut price deal away.

Neither are those advocating only going for younger players from the lower leagues, are they? This is a generic point about the types of player we should be going for (a mix of both, of course). I reeled off that list, off the top of my head alone, to show that there's plenty of options available that don't cost a fortune. If I had the inclination I could probably give you a realistic list of 20 or 30 players we could go for, but it would be ultimately pointless. The point is there are lots of these players out there and we don't have to console ourselves to "only" signing young players from the Championship.

I read a couple of quotes from Blackburn fans regarding the Scott Dann transfer, both seemed fairly sure that Venky's don't need to sell players to sustain the club. Could all be talk of course, but the fact there's not yet been any massive clamour for their players to leave is somewhat telling.

I think you miss my point. I'm not saying we should sign those players. Just dispelling the myth suggested by others that you can't buy proven PL players without breaking the bank. You can.

Also previously mentioned by Bailey in the Buttner thread.

You've just identified 3 players to create your argument and discounted many, many others who would be suitable to go for. Us signing Steven Davis is proof that it can happen. The "next level for us is hitting 11th - 17th in the PL, anything above that this season is wildly optimistic. As previously stated Reading have signed 3 proven PL players without breaking the bank. Matt Jarvis would be a great signing. West Ham have got Jaaskelainen on a free. Fulham have got Rodallega on a free (high wages I'm sure but negated by the lack of transfer fee). West Brom got Ben Foster for £4M, IMO a bargain for a keeper of his quality. Plenty of sides in the bottom half of the table have been in for proven PL players, so lets not pretend it can't happen without bankrupting the club, it clearly can.

Premier League rules state you must give 10% of stadium capacity or a minimum of 3,000 seats to the away side, whichever is smaller. So 3,000 is the default minimum. We allow up to 3,200 due to the configuration of St. Mary's.

Oh yeah, up front was superb. No surprise we let in 3 goals against 10 men with that rearguard and midfield though! Richard Dryden and Ulrich van Gobbel FFS!

Blimey, that's pretty harsh, June. Have a look at the team that thumpred Man United 6-3, it made me laugh how mad it was: Dave Beasant, Richard Dryden, Claus Lundekvam, Ulrich van Gobbel, Simon Charlton (Graham Potter 70), Jason Dodd, Alan Neilson (Jim Magilton 75) Matthew Oakley, Eyal Berkovic, Matt Le Tissier (Gordon Watson), Egil Østenstad.

Man City played 19 homes games last season; they won 18 and drew 1. They scored 55 goals and conceded just 12, which is close to an average of a 3-1 victory every game. Keeping the scoreline respectable is going to be an almighty challenge in itself, if we play our typical open game we could get absolutely mullered.

Well I can't say I agree with all of that. As I said it was just a technique used by some, not everyone. But its quite prevalent, nonetheless. Some threads I suppose can become a bit predictable; but its not as if they get in the way of anything, there's no proper football on right now! The message board would go into hibernation if we only talked about the games, so this is just one way in which it stays alive. It will become more normal in the next few weeks as we approach kick off. I'm on who actually takes interest in the threads about the ground expansion, training ground etc. I've posted fairly extensively on them, and I agree there's a certain amount of mickey taking and such like but in general terms I think that's been worthwhile in actually finding out exactly where we are. There are a lot of great things being donw by the club, and a lot of corporate spin that associates itself with that. And its all very well saying "we want Champions League football", another to say how its going to be done. I don't see any criticism, just trying to break down exactly what we're doing, how it compares to other clubs around us, and how it will allow us to achieve the lofty ambitions stated by the club. There do seem to be some polar opposite views, and a fair bit of middle ground. I just find it strange when some questioning of what we're doing in relation to others suddenly turns into the notion of criticising the club; its weird.