The Kraken

It probably goes much further than that. I met Watford's scout a couple of weeks back and he knew about loads of our youngsters, mentioning specifically Jake Thompson (yes, I know he left), McNish, Mills and Reeves while also saying that Chamberlain was a special talent.

Someone at Notts County leaked our team to you? Er, what?! Am I missing something in the translation?

Being as Weston has form with Lallana-based news, you might want to temper that somewhat.

I very much disagree with your assessment of Bale. In our first team at 16, a regular and one of our most influential players (from ful back) at just 17. My memory of it is that most people had him destined for a top four club within a few years. During his intial spell with Spuds I always maintained he would come good, though seeing him playing on the wing is a surprise, and a testament to his talent. Also, to say Walcott hasn't progressed is a bit daft. He's gone on to establish himself at club level for a top 4 side, and at international level where he has scored a hat-trick against decent opposition. He's still frustrating and a bit raw, but he's definitely moved well on from the player he was with us.

Supposedly £6M up front, the rest based on appearances.

We won't lose him for nothing; we will be entitled to a development fee for him, which will be decided by tribunal according to his actual worth. Take Dan Sturridge as an example, who left Man City for Chelsea when hos contract expired. Chelsea will have to pay £3.5M up front, £0.5M for every 10, 20, 30 and 40 appearances, and £1M if he makes an international appearance. So a total of £6.5M. The tribunal system these days is much fairer than it used to be. If he does go, there's every reason we'll get a very good amount for him.

They've done the complete opposite though. Using terms such as "bearing in mind the opposition", plus announcing the Kingland and Chapel stands will definitely be closed for the game, will only ensure that the fans will look on this game with apathy, that it's "only" Shrewsbury.

It seems a bit petty to me to be airing the dirty laundry in public. The club have already won the "fight", against the mightly Shrewsbury; why the need to go public and brag about it? Of course Shrewsbury will want to maximise their profits from the game, clubs like that need big cup games to make ends meet. Very strange; boasting about one-upmanship over a small League 2 side.

I think you need to learn the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion. Silly boy.

I understand your point. But as a full member I pay £5 and receive the rights that being a Full Member afford me. If you choose to the change the rights of Registered Users, you are not changing the terms and conditions of Full Members. Ok, you're maybe changing the "expectations" as you say, but what you get as a Full Member doesn't change.

But surely you're already giving something away for free that Full Members pay for? You allow 3 daily posts for free. All you would be doing is allowing those 3 posts to also be allowed to start a thread, rather than join in on an existing one. As a Full Member I'd very much encourage this, and as Essruu has previously stated I think it would actually lead to more people joining up at the site would be a bit more lively and interesting. Its a little bit tired at the moment with the same old posters starting the same old threads.

You need the name and season ticket number, plus I think the ST holder's address to verify it. And the multiple tickets for £7.50 was a surprise for me too. I bought 3 extra tickets on one ST; will be doing the same later for the Daggers game.

Anthony Pulis.

No, the effectiveness of a corner is firstly dependent on the quality of delivery. Only when the delivery is right does the quality of defending take effect. Far too many times this season and last season I've watched the ball into the box either not beat the first man or sail over the heads of everyone in the box.

Poor corner-taking really annoys me in professional football. There are two things that any professional footballer should be able to do with complete competence; take a decent corner, and take a throw in. Yet the amount of times we see extremely poor corners that don't beat the first man, and foul throws (particularly when Papa was taking them) is just unforgivable. Even Lallana, who is brilliant with the ball at his feet, is not a great taker of corners. I really don't understand it, striking a dead ball is one of the easiest things to do in football. And as Shurlock sayus, our delivery was so bad last year that our main aerial threat ended up taking them. Ridiculous.

They're still 5th in the table though, and 4 of their 5 defeats this season have come away from home.

Brighton are the leaders of the league and do not have 1 player in that list. Although I agree that our shooting from range yesterday was pretty embarrassing.

Call it what you like, but I disagree. I'm not asking for a CM to "charge forward all the time". That's certainly not how I see how Frank Lampard plays; he does his defensive share of work but is excellent at judging when to make his forward runs where he just seems to glide into space beyond the strikers. Our CMs either don't seem to have the desire or the ability to attempt it.

That's true. But with Hammond / Chaplow and Morgan we appear to have two such players in central midfield who do that. IMO we don't see the CMs getting beyond the front two (in the style of a Frank Lampard) often enough.

I don't think he was poor; but particularly in the first half he was fairly quiet. Considering he and Chaplow haven't played together before I think they did ok, second half being better than the first. I'd still obviously like to see more goal threat from central midfield though, against Tranmere we started to see it but not too much evidence of it yesterday (unless you count Morgan andd Paul Wotton thrashing one into row z).

Adkins record so far with us reads as P8 W4 D2 L2. 14 points from 8 games, which over the course of a season would give us 80 points. Not yet championship winning form, but not too far away. A couple more wins against Notts County and D&R should see us looking much better off; likewise, anything less than 3 points against either and we risk being cast adrift by Brighton at the top.

Exactly this. Not a chance they will liquidate.

Supermatch game; Blankety Blank chequebook and pen for the best answer.

Eh? What is this crazy notion?

I sometimes pop over to my old manor for a visit to the Bypass Ground to watch Romsey Town.