The Kraken

Depends on the fee. Just like Dann I think Fonte would look a lot better with a top quality dominant CB next to him, so I'm not sure exactly how much more we'd be getting than we already have. Dann went to Blackburn for £6M, I can't see them wanting to take too much of a haircut on that. Even £3.5M would be a lot given his past 2 years.

He only played 20 games that season. He was injured in the January and didn't play again for the rest of the season. He then moved to Blackburn in the close season, and by all accounts looked a shell of the player he was before. Big gamble IMO.

Not from what I've read. A lot of Brum opinions I've seen are that on their own Johnson and Dann were ok but that together they formed a brilliant partnership. There's a Daily Mail online article today where a couple of Blackburn fans are pretty scathing about Dann, a positive comment from a Brum fan is tinged with the fact that they think he needs to play alongside a better, more dominant centre back to bring the best out of him. I've not seen enough if him to know if he's better than Hooiveld or Fonte, so for the price being mentioned its a definite risk. Edit, link here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2177550/Southampton-want-Scott-Dann-Blackburn.html

No. I don't.

Yep, that was pretty much my reaction to this thread too.

This is the crux of it for me. Clyne, Gazza and Rodriguez are all highly rated and potentially decent signings, but I think we're still one or two players short of proven top quality. In the spine of the team we have Davis, who while being an older head was rather found out at top level in the only season he was there. At centre back I think we'd be extremely suspect with Fonte and Hooiveld together and think (as Adkins has hinted) that we need to bring in at least 1, maybe 2 centre backs. Steven Davis is a much needed addition at CM. Up front I think RL is still plenty good enough to be the fulcrum of the side he has become, but the strikers around him will need to step up. I hope we get at least 1 top CB. I think Clyne could well become a star, but I still have concerns over left back and right mid and I have no idea at all if JRod is going to as good as we're all expecting from his price tag. And it is due to be a massive season for Lallana where we'll finally see just how good he actually is against top level defenders.

I'm convinced the Laughing Man is one of us in disguise anyway.

This. The ratio of fair minded Pompey fans to deluded souls who can't even fully blame the club for their previous shambolic dealings is quite staggering low at times on their boards. Some just refuse to accept any blame on the club at all, and that's its all the Football League's fault for allowing their owners and not exerting enough financial checks and controls.

For me its still entirely dependent on one or two signings; I'm convinced Jos Hooiveld and Jose Fonte are nowhere near good enough as a defensive combination to consistently cut it in the Premier League. Perhaps one of them alongside a new signing would be ok but I think they're both too prone to individual errors and we very much need a commanding leader for them to play alongside. Get a proper decent CB in and I think we'll finish around 15th or 16th. Get 2 in (which despite Adkins hinting at I don't think we will) and I think 10th is possible. Get none and I think we'll get relegated.

The thing is, the constructive answers come from the fans reps and forum mods, who (to be fair) have always seemed to have had a more balanced view. No problem with people like that who accept that the club is 100% to blame. Its the idiots who bleat on that its the Football League's fault for the Fit and Proper Test, who can't/refuse to see that the latest -10 points is entirely fair (if anything lenient), and who say they wouldn't swap the cup win for being run properly and potential liquidation, that I have no sympathy for whatsoever.

You do make me giggle, God. You do. Hats off to you

Well of course you were #desperate

Yes, and you weren't wrong petal.

There should be a "like" function on here, just for instances like these.

I don't disagree with the sentiment of setting out to win every game. I certainly ascribe to the notion at all of finishing as high in the table as we possibly can. And I agree that the "well we've got 50 points, we're safe now approach" is far too defeatist. But when a "dream" of winning the league gets turned into a full on plan and those who don't ascribe to it are put down as having no ambition is when it all gets a bit silly.

I'm thoroughly calm thanks. I just picked up on your thoroughly inaccurate generalisation, that's the thing. I'm yet to come across anybody apart from a handful of WUMs or weirdos who don't think we have more potential now that for a very long time, certainly in the more modern cash-rich era of the Premier League. Most people seem to think a bigger stadium is a very realistic possibility. Most people seem to think there's a half decent chance we could push on and even complete for the European spots in the league, and certainly in the cup. Yet those who don't quite agree with the mantra of "we're going to win the league" are consistently shot down as lacking ambition, having a Dell-sized mindset, not seeing the bigger picture etc etc. Its a lazy and throughly inaccurate generalisation.

Of what now?

Its called a Dell-sized mentality. I should know, apparently I have one. Who is saying they have no ambition, by the way? Who is saying the club can't grow, and perhaps be even bigger than its ever been? Point out those posters to me please, would you?

I'm sure you miss the point deliberately just to try and be obtuse and contrary.

Oh God, here we go. Nope, still the same.

Oh, ok then. I took it as a wishy washy statement that kind of suggests we won't spend money we don't have, if anything at all. Its totally non-committal about anything and therefore a bit pointless to base any future plans or intentions upon.

What has he said? If you're referring to this: then I don't think that's proof of anything at all!!

I think Richard Chaplow is a bit balder than CMFG, so that could work in the current squad's favour.

We've got a film star, we've got a film star, you ain't, you ain't. Pretty sure no-one anywhere ever got that one.