The Kraken

I got into a drunken bet with my Liverpool-supporting mate just before the start of the season; I told him that Kevin Doyle would score more league goals than Caroll and bet him £50 To be fair, I'm winning 1-0 at the moment

The expectation levels have risen so sharply since the start of the season that I think this is a genuine concern; many people's predictions of where we are going to / should finish are going up every game, whether those expectation levels are realistic or not, only time will tell. I still very much believe that reaching the playoffs would be a fantastic achievement, although I still have to remind myself of that after every game, there was a part of me that was inwardly critical of the side from Saturday before I realised that I would have bitten your hand off for that result at the start of the season. We're currently very, very reliant on Lambert and Connolly being on form and injury free, with no Barnard to call upon as an option we're looking very light in that department, and that would be my one criticism of the transfer window that we didn't strengthen there.

Indeed. I have no problems admitting that I was sceptical of the appointment, but more than anything I thought we'd made a mistake letting Pardew go. Very glad to be proven wrong. I still think Pards did a very good job for us (his forways into the transfer market have proved to be largely excellent and his signings still provide the spine of our team), but there's no doubting that NA has taken our form and our style of play up that extra few notches since his arrival.

Gorkss is not exactly young but he went to Reading for less than £1M. Would have been the ideal signing IMO. I'm still expecting Fox to be a much better option than Harding, hopefully just needs games to settle in.

Edit: never mind.

In much the same way as a Buy One, Get One Free offer, I'd imagine.

No it wasn't.

They'll have to pay a fairly substantial portion of it if he ends up in the Championship, whichever club he ends up at won't be willing/able to pay most of that. Still, not a hope in hell of coming here. And from what I've been hearing about Danny Fox, I'm not even sure I'd want him here. Look forwards, not backwards.

Yeah, our track record for signing highly rated England U21 internationals like Jack Cork should indicate we just shouldn't bother trying to sign anyone. Adkins out!

:lol: I'm beginning to warm to the dalek, for the simple reason that his wind-ups are so atrociously obvious and bad, despite him putting in so much effort.

Now you're talking.

Forest bringing 2,000. No summer holidays. Saturday 3pm game, not on Sky. I'd be very surprised if it's under 25K.

Unfortunately I agree with this. At the start of the summer I hoped we'd sign a right back as I don't think Butterfield or Richardson are good enough for a team with aspirations for the top spots. Seems NA had it in mind to strengthen the other full back position, which I thought with Harding and Dickson looked much stronger. He's not a bad player, by any stretch, but I'm yet to see a game with him in it where he's done better than "OK". Saying that, I thought he coped with Gradel well when we played Leeds this season.

Agreed, and often just get used for spamming purposes anyway.

I think Bursledon Beckham has a slightly higher class ring to it.

Someone on twitter has said that it's a done deal.

Ah I see, a leopard can't change its spots. Fair enough then.

Not a hope in hell. He was lined up to go to Everton on loan but City refused to subsidise any of his wages, apparently £38K per week.

No, I haven't forgotten it at all. I just don't think it's relevant now, it was about 10 years ago, maybe more. Even if he was a bit of a tw*t back then (and I'm not sure how being filmed in a consensual sex video actually confirms that), he's since been married, had kids and grown up. I've never met him but I'll take the word of two of my closest mates about him plus any number of respectable press opinion compared to the blinkered tabloid sensationalism.

Yeah, get him in. We'll make his wages back in shirt sales anyway, and might actually sell the advertising hoardings around the pitch with brand Beckham on show. He can move back to his previous home and commute from there, Posh has Gunwharf just down the road for her shopping needs. I can't see a reason why this wouldn't or shouldn't happen.

Well said. I often hear Lampard being grouped in with "the likes of Ashley Cole and John Terry" and described as being an arrogant, big headed egotistical tw*t. Yet any reasonable description of him of I've heard (in particular from a couple of friends who've met him a few times through mutual footballing connections) describe him as a down to earth, well educated polite and affable guy. And anyone who doubts the committment level and desire to win from these professionals needs to have a word with themself.

Exactly right; many a time saw Claus and especially Tessem in the Rhino, ****ed out of their heads.

Seriously though, whose fault is that? Why is there such a disparity between expectation and actual results? We haven't been genuine favourites for a major tournament since 1996, and even then only because we played every game at Wembley. Yet the press go completely overboard about our chances. Why. Because they want to build up the team to the nth degree before they bring it crashing back down to earth. And all in an effort to maximise their newspaper sales by creating a massive national scandal. Every tournament we slump out of has a whipping boy. From Turnip Taylor in the World Cup 94 quali failure, the press has vilified Beckham, Keegan, Sven, Hoddle, Rooney, Mclaren and now finally Capello. Spot a trend?! No rational thought whatsoever, just a need to have a hate and blame figure to plaster all over the front and back pages to boost circulation. You blame the England setup for the way you feel; but we are not that good a side and we should not expect to win or get to the semi final of every tournament we play in. 1/4 finals is a good achievement for us. Perhaps England fans should blame the press, and dare I say it their naievity for the way they feel about the national team? I know I gave up my expectation of winning anything years ago.

If he carries on like it'll soon make the £12M look like they got the better end of the wedge. I'd love to still have Chamberlain here, he'd tear this division to pieces.

Exactly. I still struggle to see, when it comes to various topics particularly also including new signings, you get the moral crusade brigade who come on and effectively say "let's wait and see what happens before we make a decision". As if new transfers can't be correctly predicted unless they appear on the OS. As if the potential abilities of new signings cannot be judged until we see them in a Saints shirt. And as if genuine witnesses to the Seaborne incident can't be discussed until it's gone through the law courts. This is a chat forum for crying out loud, it lives off of rumour and conjecture! It would be a bloody boring place without all that. You kind of know what you're getting when you come on here, so quite why so many people bleat about it, I'll never know.