The Kraken

It seems to be the standard reaction from some; when you don't tie the line of SFC being absolutely exceptional, just becoming (an impressive) one of a number of other top level sides. Some people choose to read that as inherent criticism of the club and throw out labels like "unambitious" and "Dell-sized mindset". Its thoroughly bizarre.

Hmmm. I think there's a line that can be drawn; don't give out any season tickets, but have 10 or so tickets free for ex players for every game. Players have to apply each time for a ticket, and they're given a table in one of the coporate suites amongst other fans. I did that in the old Ambassador's Suite once, Lawrie Mac hosted it and that day there was Jim Steele, Glenn C o ckerill and Jimmy Case with him. Jim Steele did a 5 minute speech to everyone, Lawrie Mac hosted it, the ex-players chatted with the guests, it was brilliant. Its a touch that the whole "keep ex players at arm's length" approach of the new regime hasn't yet come close to replicating IMO, which is a shame.

Surprised the club even let him buy a ticket and did an Illingsworth with him.... MLT

De Ridder is probably our fastest player. Jonathan Forte wasn't labelled Jonno Quick because he could whip up an omelette in record time. Pace on its own is worthless, there has to be an end product. I'd rather have someone like Matt Jarvis (fairly quick but with skill and an end product) than a headless chicken like Wayne Routledge.

Yes. We also have the benefit of seeing what that potential actually turned in to, don't we?

I'm not saying we should go for him. I know little about Davis but I'd suggest Guthrie/Davis about the same type of player. I was just responding to the comment from someone else that he wouldn't be a good signing. If we'd have signed Guthrie instead of Davis I'd be just as happy in that respect, so its a bit like saying if reading signed Davis it wouldn't be a quality signing. Our next signing will tell us a lot. So far we have captured 3 lower league players (with great potential) and 1 with top flight experience. Who all add to a squad with limited previous top flight pedigree. I see Lambert as a typical example of someone who perhaps doesn't need to have PL experience to show his qualities. So its not the be all and end all by any means, and I'm not suggesting it is. Just that, a lot of times, it can be better to have a "been there done that" type of player in the ranks.

I'll repeat; he started in 19 league games. That's half of the games Newcastle played in the league, plus sub appearances. Even if he's a backup squad player he played half the games for a side that finished 5th. Can we really say he's not good enough for us, if only for the short term? Any signing is a gamble. Rodriguez for £7M is an absolute gamble. Conor Wickham for Sunderland at £10M was also a massive gamble, which clearly hasn't worked out (yet, he may just need time). Pogrebnyak has top level experience (including last term in the PL), albeit not hugely prolific in some seasons. JRod has no top level experience, he may be awesome, he may be below par, we don't yet know. I admit I wouldn't be overly enthused with Shorey at Saints in the long term, but he's a bit of a Butterfield signing for us last year, a solid and decent option for the shirt term. And again, he's being written off because he's being released by his former club. He still did a decent job in the PL, and would good short term option (which is presumably all he is being looked at for). Yep, of course we have to take some risks, but there is also the case of finding a balance. Look at the late 80s under Nicholl, we had a brilliant set of young players breaking through alongside the likes of Jimmy Case and other seasoned pros. You mention JRod and Clyne as proven quality, I don't see they are. I think they are great quality at Championship level with an awful lot yet to prove at top level. Most indications are that they will do well but we simply don't know yet. The likes of Guthrie and Pog, you know what you're going to get, and their experience is as important as their ability.

Perhaps because there is even more risk to that sort of approach?

I think there's definitely a reality check needed for some fans, yes. Pogrebnyak has played for years in the top leagues of Russia and Germany, and won a league title previously. Danny Guthrie started 19 games last year for the fifth placed team in the PL, Shorey started more than that for a team that finished in the top half. Yet, somehow, we should be aiming higher than these players, but with players that come from the lower leagues.

Why? As has been pointed out, Reading have signed three players of PL quality without breaking the bank. Getting PL quality doesn't mean poaching from the likes of the top 4's best players. There are still good deals to be had for decent, proven players at the top level.

If Guthrie was good enough for what? Newcastle finished 5th and want to at least consolidate that position, perhaps push on. Are we now saying that players that played in 21 games (starting 19) for the side that finished 5th in the PL aren't good enough for us? I think we've signed some decent potential, I worry about the expectation level of some of our fans, there's an aura that this season is going to be a walk in the park just because Norwich and Swansea did ok last year.

Have we really? We have bought potential; Clyne and JRod looked quality in the Championship so we'll have to see how they step up. And we've signed a young keeper, also with potential. Davis obviously has PL quality. Reading have signed Danny Guthrie and Pavel Pogrebnyak. We've seen first hand the qualities of a young Danny Guthrie, Pogrebnyak did well last season and has also played in the top leagues in Russia and Germany. They've also go Nicky Shorey from West Brom (he started 25 games last season) and Stuart Taylor from Man City. In addition, Reading have also signed Garath McLearey, Adrian Mariappa and Chris Gunter from the Championship. No doubt, our signings look good so far, and at the end of the window may look a lot better than Reading's. As things stand I can't agree with your assessment that we've bought better than we have, they have made very astute signings so far.

Agree with the first part, I think we're relatively weak at CB and RM right now. Adkins has said already that we'll bring in one or two at CB, so that's being addressed. We'll see if we get anyone at RM; Matt Jarvis would have been a great signing but I imagine his price tag put most clubs off. Closer to the end of the window we'll see if anything happens, but I don't see any of Guly, de Ridder or Chaplow as a good enough starting option. CB is a definite problem position IMO. Fonte and Hooiveld together looked shaky last term (considering how strong we were everywhere else) and both prone to individual errors. IMO they would get torn apart in the PL. And the thing is, with the way our signings have gone so far with transfers from the lower leagues, I'm not sure there is a Championship defender I can think of who could come in and doing the job we need. Even Scott Dann, with his £6M boyout fee, is apparently not the player we need, he needs a commanding centre back next to him. Apart from Davis K and Davis S we have very little top level experience, which while not at all being the be all and end all, does highlight to me an inexperience in key areas. There's still plenty of time until the transfer window closes, but I'd hate for us to do a Hooiveld and leave it until the last possible minute to bring in a new CB (or two if we so choose). We have a really tough start to the season, and need to be on the money from the very first kick.

Looks all decent Flyer; most rational people would probably agree that both QPR and Saints developments will do well for the club and give them up to date training facilities more in-keeping with a lot of the clubs in the Premier League. What's going on with your ground? I heard there were plans for a new location and bigger stadium. Its a shame in a way, I love Loftus Road, its a proper subbuteo stadium and I've had some cracking away days there. But there's obviously no growth potential and its properly hemmed in, so a move is the only option.

Apparently this doesn't matter anyway. At least it didn't when Tottenham were spending more than us on their training complex. Although confusingly it did seem to matter than we're spending more than Stoke are on their new training centre, so maybe it does matter. I'm not sure.

Aboslutely spot on. I'm hoping we lose every single game in the Premier League. Just so I can say i told that we wouldn't............., erm, we wouldn't......., well, um, I'm not sure yet what, but I definitely told you so anyway.

Celtic has just as well sell their best players and save themselves a packet. Their reserve team could probably still win the SPL, for each of the next 3 years. Might also make the league competitive too.

Apparently Swansea's is not very good as they don't wholly own it. Do we wholly own Staplewood now?

Erm, yes. I'm sure Saints have got a very good idea of the price. Turkish seemed to have made an error in his calculations though, so I was correcting him. I was surprised you hadn't already, to be honest.

£20M for 20,000 extra seats? I'd bite your hand off for that price. According to Lowe/Cowan's previous price estimates it was £3,000 per extra seat. Wolves new stand was a bit cheaper, they demolished old one and built a new one, cost £18M for 7,700 seats (£2,333 per extra seat). At that price it would cost over £46M.

Whose being uppity? I was genuinely interested where you got the pictures from. And therefore how credible this source is with relation to the scale our supposed long term Cortesedome. No need to be over-sensitive about it God. Sheesh.

Who took the photo? Was it Groundskeeper Willie?

Great news.

How does it not do that? The top line is for blocks 1 and 2 (written blovks 1/2).

No-one knows for sure. The online system, which shows how many tickets are remaining AVAILABLE to buy, show that 21,661 tickets are "sold". However, as has been put forward by several people, that figure is unreliable as some of the stadium blocks are being shown as completely unavailable but its known that the club holds back a certain amount of tickets for comps, club officials, development players etc etc. This could, potentially, be applicable to some other areas of the stadium. So its perhaps likey that the overall figure is a bit less than the 21,661 figure quotes. Between 20,000 and 21,000 is a reasonable estimate to make IMO.