The Kraken

I'm generous, I'll donate.

I hope he's not mentally ill, a couple of other posters seem to think he's a teacher, God forbid. Bellend, yes, totally believable.

Not feeding, just seeing if he has any substance.

Put your money where your mouth is?? In an effort to minimise you being a totally unfunny wind-up merchant, will you take this bet? You think we'll finish 17th. I don't. So how about this. I'll say we'll finish in 1st place (I don't think we will, but go with it). If we finish closer to 17th place than 1st place, I will make a £500 donation to a charity of your choice. If we finish closer to 1st place than 17th, you make a £500 donation to a charity of my choice. Would you like to stand by your convictions?

To stop you being a totally unfunny wind-up merchant, will you take this bet? You think we'll finish 17th. I don't. So how about this. I'll say we'll finish in 1st place (I don't think we will, but go with it). If we finish closer to 17th place than 1st place, I will make a £500 donation to a charity of your choice. If we finish closer to 1st place than 17th, you make a £500 donation to a charity of my choice. Would you like to stand by your convictions?

A more worrying concept is that Pearce is being groomed for the England hot seat. A man who has, on more than one occasion, tried to change a game under his charge by bringing on from the bench a goalkeeper to play up front, while neglecting other forwards also on the bench.

He's currently injured, so not dropped. We'll see what role he has to play when back from his knock I guess.

NA offered him an extension of contract though, so he clearly sees something in him that doesn't involve retirement just yet.

Not wishing to provoke an argument, but: If there is a BETTER option, why were we prepared to go to a medical with this player, which is usually the formality before signing a player? I definitely hope we have a contingency plan while this one fell through. But surely suggesting it's a good thing that this fell through, because there's someone better waiting in the wings, is a bit daft? Why wouldn't we just go for the other player in the first place?

1 win, 1 loss. Saints have had far worse starts than that tbf.

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.