The Kraken

Not the full details of how and why; of course not. The whole 3.15pm cut off is a huge factor at the centre of controversy, and it deserves at least further investigation and enquiry.

Say what you will about Cala (and the guy is clearly either barking mad or a Chinny patsy), but this quote of his stands out: Its about the most realistic and achievable ambition to have come out of that shambles in years.

We won't be if we finish 17th.

Not first team, no. Came through the same youth team as MLT and Franny (plus a few others like Mark Blake, Allan Tankard etc), played a few reserve games aged 17/18 (as I recall) then got a horrible, horrible injury and unfortunately never really recovered from it for a pro career. Still used to turn out for the ex-Saints a fair bit.

Quite right. A gun would be much more effective for that.

From that camera angle I think you'll notice if she does.

He's my cousin. True story.

Personally I don't know why we bother signing players. Its far too risky a strategy. Stick with what we've got, I say.

Kenwyne Jones was completely unknown when he came to us. He was just "a very good athlete", he wasn't even a striker when we signed him, he playd in midfield. Apart from the shocking strike incident, Kenwyne's playing time with us can surely only be described as a success. I'd have Mark Draper in there. Not as big as some of the other names mentioned in this thread, but up there with David Hirst in the "well what was the point of that?" signings.

Not good enough for Juve or Barca? Get him out, he'll never cut it in the Championship.

This. Criticism that we're not doing enough is a bit ridiculous IMO. This lad sounds a good signing on paper, and strengthens us in areas where we have the least quality cover. Lee sounds decent enough too, though the jury will clearly be out on both. But its encouraging enough to see what we're doing, so I'm not sure where the pessimisim comes from.

Hopefully this'll make the bedwetters who are moaning about the apparent lack of transfer activity shut up for a day or two.

The slopes into Mottaret are always icy; even when the snow elsewhere is really good. I want to get over to VdI at some point this season; love the Espace Killy.

I'm out in Meribel for the season. Could do with a bit more on the lower slopes and obviously off-piste. Looks like we're scheduled for a heavy snow fall from Thursday onwards. Happy days.

Exactly this. There seems to be a trend by some here to assume that the only thing standing in our way of promotion is a top quality striker signing. And therefore that we should be willing to lash out on him. This is such a ridiculously simplified way of looking at it. The idea that its "just a few thousand more" per week is not right; its the total sum of his wages per week that is extra; so if rumours are true, £35K per week for Sharp. You then have to take into account any players who might have clauses in their contracts that make them the higher wage earners at the club; a very common thing for football clubs. So you could just as likely be adding many extra thousands per week onto the wage bill, just by signing one player. Imagining that its "just a few extra thousand per week" is as naive as assuming that one decent signing is all we need to wrap up promotion for this season, and that if we don't do it we are surely destined for failure.

Well of course it is, it always has been; but it also has to be on the right terms. The information given out by the club was that Sharp was very much a target, but not enough of a target to justify the significant expense on him. The same with Jay Rodriguez; it was investigated and deemed not worth it. I don't really know where this conversation is going so I'm off now. I hope we do sign some players that Adkins has indentified as what he needs, and within our price/wage range. But I'm also glad that we have a club that won't be held to ransom over players financial demands, as that's a very, very rocky road to start treading and given our history down that road, one that we should be extremely careful to tread again. And that's all.

You're assuming again that the difference between promotion and not is Billy Sharp. We're going round in circles so I won't bother regurgitating what I've already said earlier on the subject, but I stand by it. And if Adkins chose not to captiluate to Sharp's financial demands, and if he didn't quite see it that way (as the club would have us believe) then I have no compunction about standing by the manager in that regard.

I can only repeat my earlier answer. Here you go: I thought that was pretty cut and dried myself. You can disagree with the substance of it all you like, but tryinhg to say I didn't answer the question is just daft.

And more insults. Well done you.

I've honestly got no idea what you're on about now. I think I've wasted enough time for one night.

So throwing money at a football club is a guarantee of success then?

What on earth are you on about? I just answered your direct question. Dear God.

My opinion of Billy Sharp is that he's an excellent player. Again, entirely irrelevant to my point. If Adkins believes that breaking the wage structure for one player would be detrimental to the whole squad then he's right not to do it. Particularly if it can't be justified financially. Pompey had to same idea of spend spend spend in pursuit of success and we know what happened there. So no, I don't believe we should break the wage structure; as I said, throwing money at the situation is not the definitive answer.

I think it is irrelevant. There's no guarantee that Billy Sharp is this "missing piece" of the jigsaw. He's scored 5 less goals this term than our first choice striker, and 1 goal more than our second striker Guly. We have the top scorer in the division plus the 5th highest scorer in the division already on our books. Plus a free scoring midfielder in Lallana who pretty much every side in the division would welcome with open arms into their team. I see no evidence that the only barrier between us and promotion is the recruit of a 30K striker; I just his his non-recruit as an excuse to criticise the manager for a run of current poor form. A poor run of form with the same set of players that previously set the division alight. Transfers may turn that around, they may not, what's much more important to me is that Adkins gets the right man, not just the expensive available one.

Irrelevant. Throwing money at the problem is no guarantee of anything; as Leicester are proving. Our whole club is built on a "together as one" ethos. I much prefer Adkins' approach of squad harmony and integration, rather than a knee jerk approach to something/someone who may or may not be the answer.