The Kraken

I'm not a fan of it, and would never post there.

Football365 have an article about "Key men to watch in the Championship". http://www.football365.com/faves/7080149/The-Key-Men-In-The-Championship... One of the players listed is Adam Lallana:

To get this back on track (and to alleviate the mind-numbing pedantry), I agree. He sounds like a perfect replacement for Jaidi, and also seems to have a few goals in his armoury as well. I've been resigned to the fact that Puncheon has played his last game for us for quite some time now, so if we can complete the switch AND get some money in return, it would really be a great deal. I'm still completely at a loss as to exactly how good this squad is though; but with a new CB and also a new, rapid striker, I really don't think a play-off place is in any way out of the question.

I agree; however, on an Eastleigh FC forum a few weeks back there was a thread highlighted on here where one poster (suposedly with connections to EFC) had stated that they were looking at the legal standpoint, or something like that. As I said before, it's not in Eastleigh's interests to pursue it, and I'm pretty sure the language of the agreement would not have speicified a first team requirement. As you say, more to do with the spirit of the agreement.

Blimey, this is like having a conversation with Rain Man.

Yes, that's entirely the same thing.

Without delving back into the archives, I think the wording was quite loose for the games played, in that we agreed to send a "strong" squad. I'm not sure if a "first team" squad was part of the deal. As for the Saturday thing, I've not heard that raised before. But if Eastleigh do indeed have a legal case, there are no more games in the loop due as part of the Martin deal, so they may pursue it. Although in doing so they'd completely write-off any chance of future fixtures with us, so you'd have to question the logic of it with a potential £20K at stake. It's not as if they've "lost" that money in any case, its entirely subjective how much extra they could have made from the game.

A reason I see is that Warnock just isn't being given any serious cash for transfers. They've got in Gabbidon, Dyer, Bothroyd etc, all for no upfront fee. It seems like the coffers are bare, or close to it. Also, they've lost Routledge, who is IMO a very good player and real attacking threat. With Gabbidon on board, Sh*ttu as his partner, Gorkss is going to be 3rd choice. May as well get as close to a swap deal as they can and fill a hole they have on the wing, losing a substitute (albeit a good one). Quite how QPR have no money to spend is another matter altogether.

Warnock has gone on record about Puncheon.

Joined Blackpool on 1st Jan 2007; played for them 50 times in the league in a year and half, won promotion in season 2007/08 with them (while scoring 7 goals). Transferred summer 2008 to QPR. Has since played 114 league games for QPR in 3 seasons, and got promoted with them last year having played over 40 games. So he has a decent history, if that of a player deemed more than good enough for top Championship level but not good enough for the Premier league by two previous managers.

Ah yes, I can see now that's exactly what you were alluding to with your previous, clearly entirely relevant comparisons. My apologies, you carry on.

Look at where we are and tell me if we're on topic. So, back to Gorkss.......

MLG hijacking a thread with his ever-tedious pedantry? Never.

I think it was based on the fact that Saints announced that they expected to sign one or two players before the Leeds game. From that, I believe Saint Richmond deduced that Saints were only seriously interested in Jemal, and no-one else.

We're not looking any further than promotion this time around. Read that echo article above, it's Adkins' own words. As Trousers said, his only stated ambition is to be "in the race around Christmas time". He says nothing about a building a team that can compete in the Premier League, in fact he goes on to suggest how strong this division is and how we need (more) good players (in addition to the ones we already have) to complete.

Fair enough, but I'm not sure what that has to do with Trousers' post.

So you think we should buy him? Good, I'm glad we all agree.

Well, there's two parts to why that's a misguided statment. First, why is he here for only one season? We're not promoted yet, we haven't even kicked a ball in anger. IF we get promoted, then we would then have to look at getting a replacement player. If we don't get promoted this year, then we have a first team player for the following season. So it would clearly be a signing for more than one season. Secondly, even if we do get promoted, why is it such a bad idea to buy a player who can assure us of that promotion. TV money and prize money in the Premier League is worth upwards of £60M a year. So, from a financial point of view, even if we got there and let him sit on his arse for 3 more years, it would be money well spent. I really don't understand your logic of not wanting to buy someone because he might not be good enough for the division above, it really doesn't make sense. At all.

He'll never do it in the Premier League though, his legs have gone. Gorkss out.

Why are you worrying about what players we'll need in the Premier League? We're not in it yet, I do hope you realise that? Our Chairman even has a 3 year plan to get there, rather than your suggestion of 1. And if we do get there, we do have the option of replacing him you know?! By your rationale we wouldn't sign any players, just in case we get promoted and they're not good enough for the league above. EDIT: Well that was a waste of my time! Cheers everyone above, nice to see some of us are on the same (logical) page.

Exactly right; I don't know where St Richmond learnt to add up, but it all slots into place as far as I can see. QPR have signed Danny Gabbidon this summer. Dan Sh*ttu has signed a new contract with QPR. Saints apparently made an equiry for Gorkss a couple of months ago but were rebuffed. Warnock needs to replace Wayne Routledge and wants Jason Puncheon, having commented on him Warnock however cannot spend huge sums of cash so must move players on before bringing others in; hence the "swap" offer for Puncheon/Gorkss. Seems to make perfect sense.

Sound enough advice. The problem you have with that is that the vocal minority on here tend to be the ones who don't go to many games, and therefore for whom the result is the be all and end all. I've had a look at match threads following games I've been to, and have seen things such as substitutions / lack of substitutions / tactics / individual performances torn to pieces in explicit detail by people who hadn't even seen the game. Pardew's very first season here was a prime point in case, whereby we took 10 games to actually get going. People who actually went to the games kept claiming that the team were turning the corner, looking better in ecery game, and better form was definitely on it's way; but they were consistently shouted down by the non-attenders who just looked at the results and declared it was season-over already, predicting a league finish lower than 16th and such like. It's why I don't bother with the match threads any more for league games; they're just ful of over-reactionary and usually misleading nonsense.