The Kraken

A strange comment when you're on a message board commenting on it Human nature to talk about it; nothing sinister in it.

Fourth official was last week claiming we were going to sign him, and put money on Saints to win the title off the back of that. Although tbf he does get a lot of other stuff on the nose.

Indeed; a truly ridiculous statement to make about Jaidi. I'd still like him to prove he can do at this level, he's such a great pleayer to have on the pitch for your side. He does struggle with pace of course, but I'd love to see him able to step back up again. Sadly, the jury is still out in that department.

Depends on how you categorise need, I suppose, and what the expectations are. A proper shot at promotion, I think we need another striker for the whole campaign. Who knows, Barnard could be that striker. But I think the fact NA has targetted as an area to spend big money suggests he sees it as an important area to bring in a top player.

I'm not sure how you deny it. We've had a £3M plus bid accepted for Sharp, and a rumoured bid in excess of £4.5M turned down by Burnley for Rodriguez. So I theorise from that that adkins want to spend a bit of cash on a striker, and as we haven't spent that sort of money on other position he deems it as a bit of a priority. maybe he's changed his mind as the summer has progressed though, but I don't see it personally. Silly money, yes I agree, £6M for Maynard or Rodriguez is over the odds. But it'd a definite conundrum, is that money better in our bank, or is it worth our while spending it. Particularly if doing so could (massive could here) gain us promotion to the bigger bucks.

Nigel Adkins clearly feels very differently to you about whether we need a striker or not.

You could argue that we can afford to take a risk. We already have a very good squad for this level. We're looking for 1 or 2 more players to add to that quality, so theoretically they're a lower risk signing, we're not looking to plug any obvious deficiency. 1 week to go in the window. We know the club want to bring in a CB and a CF. I'll only judge them at the end of the transfer window, of course, but passing on Gorkss while turning down Fontaine is a clear setback.

Sorry but I don't agree Seaborne is good enough for a promotion-seeking Championship side, which is clearly what we're striving to be. He's definitely a good squad player to have, but the gulf in class between him and Fonte is considerable, and that's the level of player we should surely be aiming for. Up front, there's no denying Connolly's quality, while Barnard is an unknown quantity at this level. I don't see any point bringing in someone who'll play second fiddle to those, we need to look to improve on what we have or sign someone who gives a completely different option to what we have. I think a Maynard-type player does both of those things.

Exactly this. No point in signing squad players, we have plenty of those. We only need to target players who would be first choice and are better than those we currently have.

So you think the best way for us to improve the side is to NOT get promoted? To NOT make use of the many, many extra millions that would be available to us from TV rights, prize money, extra gate money, corporate sales etc? Even if we got relegated we would be due however many tens of millions from the parachute payments, which in itself would fund a major squad overhaul. But no, much better to not get promoted.

In which case it would be nice to see if a late bid might change their stance.

It doesn't for me either. As I said, I'm convinced its the right way to go at all. However, it looks like it's either pay that amount or go without a top Championship striker (at least one that we're currently after). Which is why I wonder if its better to spend money we clearly have, rather than gambling and letting it just sit in the bank. I don't know what the correct answer is. Personally I'd prefer we go for Ebanks-Blake if we're talking that type of money, but you've outlined that situation quite well!!

I'll spell it out if you don't understand. You said "Failing that we will have to make do with what we have got and hope for luck to help us our, ie no injuries or suspensions". My point is that I believe we already have 3 centre backs who are much of a muchness in terms of quality; Seaborne, Martin and Jaidi. So the occasional injury or suspension or two to one of those three won't impact us massively, so I don't agree that we need to massively rely on luck, we have a good squad depth as it is. My view is that I would like to see us sign a player better than all of those three, to increase the quality in the side, yet still have a strength of depth in reserve. Hope that's clear enough for you.

First one from Solent sounds like they couldn't even test the ankle, which could mean he is fairly significantly injured right now.

QPR's prices for season tickets and match tickets were an utter joke in the first place. For match tickets they've also introduced a lower category of ticket; instead of the lowest prices being £35 - £50, they will now be from £25 - £50 for Category C games. Still sounds pretty pricey.

Are people not allowed to speculate on how good a particular signing might be? Or must all such conversation be limited until they've played a game for us? It's a weird world if that's true, especially on an internet football forum.

I don't disagree it's overpriced. But are we better off with the money in the bank and not getting a player like that right now, or getting a youngster in who needs to improve? The football market seems to move on at an exponential rate, Hernandez now would probably cost £15 - £20M.

The question is though; are we better off with £6M in the bank, or with Maynard on our books? Or Rodriguez, for that matter. If (and its a big if) spending that £6M buys us promotion, then it's £6M well spent. We are the Arsenal conundrum, on a smaller scale of course. We (arguably) have a couple of areas where we need to improve, at CB and CF. Do we spend little on a young player who'll improve over the years? Or spend big on a player who can come in and have an immediate impact? Tough one to call, but I'm almost at the stage where I think it's better to have the player than £6m of cash in the bank.

Not really; well, certainly not any more than last year. We have Fonte, Seaborne, and Martin currently available, with Jaidi to come back from injury. Hardly short of numbers. It's the quality issue I'm more worried about, I don't see Seaborne or Martin (yet) as a long term solution, and its a complete unknown whether Jaidi's legs are up to it.

I'm pretty sure I've seen 3 players arrive this summer. One of them arrived about a week or two ago.

Yes, I'm sure that's the reason.

Lallana is 23, is he still eligible? EDIT: Hmm, I see this has been covered!

Actually they aren't. BCFC aren't giving any reason as to why the transfer didn't go through, it's all very non-committal, they just say "he proposed move will not go through". Which I think we can safely assume means he failed the medical!

Yes, as funny as it sounds. Questioned it, in that he saw we already had 2 or 3 players at left back who could do a job, so we weren't weak in that department. But then clarified that Fox was a better player than all three, and therefore it was better to sign him that not. The two concepts aren't mutually exclusive. *smiley winky thing* To be fair, it only echos what most on here were saying at the time, that it wasn't the position we most needed to strngthen but, if its adds to the quality of the first team, why not?

JustMike has just PM'd me to say that the medical is still ongoing, so he's lying to one of us.