Turkish

I am not saying he is not a good player, he is class at this level but do you really think it is going to be easy to pesuade a player of a similar ability to come here and not be guarenteed a start? He a CCC standard player at the moment, what CCC player would not only drop down a league but then also not be told they are even guarenteed to be one of th first names on the team sheet?

You started panicking the day the window opened.

You said he is figuring regularly and scored four or five goals and was consistantly delivering at a higher level, when in fact he has scored two goals, one of which was against a reserve team back four, which we know for a fact it was as it was our reserve team back four! That is not consistantly delivering at a higher level however you dress it up. As for my analogy of MLT v Puncheon of course they are worlds apart in terms of ability one is a League one player (that is where we are dont forget) and one was one of the best players this country has every produced. My point being that Puncheon has that same type of ability, albeit at a much lower level and he has proved this in the past, i think it was the Charlton game where he was crap yet he set up the goal out of nothing and we won 1-0. I think you need a player in the side who is a little bit different and offers that, even if you sometimes they are a 5/10, other times they will be a 9/10,

You've obviously forgotten about the JPT final then.

What a charming image. Need or want? Obviously you know what is going on then, just like you knew we were signing Lambert, Fonte, Barnard etc.

We dont have a gaping hole in our midfield, we have two very good central midfield players, with an average league one player as cover and a right back in Butterfield who can fill in there as need be like Lloyd James did, exactly the same cover as last season. Outwide we have two very good wide players with cover in Mills, a decent player, Dickson, a good player, OC, a decent prospect and Holmes, if and its a big if, he can stay fit, is also a decent player at this level. The evidence is that we were rumoured to bid for Bailey from Charlton, had a former premier league player on trial which for whatever reason didn't work out and Pardew has said he wants to bring in 3 players, stuff is going on just because the club aren't announcing every player they are interested in like some do, doesn't mean nothing is going on.

'Dont they know i just got married'? Bloody hell, letting himself go already, only been married a fortnight, she'll be getting pounded by someone else by the end of the year if he doesn't pull his finger out.

How do you know we aren't? Pure speculation, rumour has it we have a bid for Tyson turned down, how do you know what is being done to secure this transfer?

Yeah sorry you're right, thats why Bailey chose to move Middlesbrough the CCC not us, if strong rumours are to be believed that we wanted him, we can have ANYONE we want. We should follow Man Cities example in bidding fot Milner, they could have just got him, afterall, no club haggles over transfer fees for players they dont want or need to sell do they.

if this is true he is an idiot. Been in the game one year and telling people how to run their industry is the most ridiculously arrogant thing imagingable.

Being pedantic, no they would not, as neither where here for the first game of the season, neither was Lambert or Hammond. AP says he wants to sign three more players, and he still has a month to do so. When the window shuts, the squad is complete, at least until January.

I know what you mean, i just missed out on the Lawrie era so grew up watching Nicholls teams then us struggle year after year so most fans under 40 are used to us stuggling and dont expect us to win anything ever. But dont forget in this league and indeed to one above we aren't little old Southampton, we are along with Wednesday the biggest clubs in this division and favourites. If we dont win it or at least go up, it'll be due to either a crisis of injuries or our own fault, everything is in place for success. Personally i think that is a great position to be in.

no no, they are wrong, dont they know we dont have adequate cover in CM, RM and CF??

Of course players become available. At any time a players circumstances can change and want a move which then means he joins xxxx club who then have a player/s who may be considered surplus to requirements or not guarenteed first team football when they looked like they were a week ago. Other clubs wont sell players unless they have got a replacement in, like Forest with Peter Whittingham. Selling clubs will hold out for the best deal if they dont have to sell and buying clubs will wait until the end of the window, if the selling clubs needs to sell to get the best price possible, just have look at all the players who move in the last couple of days of every transfer window. Plus the player has to be good enough, of the right character and also want to join us. It's not championship manager, pick a player from the list and its yours in two taps of a keyboard.

call yourself a fan I did too and i honestly think Pucheon is the better player, technically he is better, he had the third highest assist rate in L1 over the season and he is also likely to weigh in with the odd spectacular goal as he did for us and MK Dons last season, he is the type of player that can turn a game with a moment of magic. He may frustrate and is not as obviously busy and quick as Antonio but i remember a certain other player we ad who was a bit like that too. To say that Antonio has 'consistantly performed at a higher level' because he has scored a few goals in preseason is ridiculous though. If he is banging them in and doing the business for Reading between now and christmas you may have a case. he came on and did okay on saturday, but dont forget his goal came when all of our back four except for Butterfield had been taken off, so he in fact scored against a defence of youth and reserve team players. I'd love to have him back but lets not make him out to be the new John Barnes.

Agreed, though Dickson, Butterfield and Barnard were best players.

He was there, saw him in the Kingsland. Obviously not banned then, just not allowed a season ticket. I think our resident Jimmy Tarbuck double was stalking a bird in the new forest.

In reality who does have this sort of player anymore? The days of Souness, Ball, Case, even Keane and Viera seem to be gone. Who is Man Utds 'midfield general'? Is Steven Gerrard this for Liverpool? I dont think so. What about Arsenal, VIlla, Man City, Spurs, Barcelona, Read Madrid? no, not a 'midfield general' amoungst them. The only one you could say is like that is Essien at Chelsea.

This, 3 players to complete the squad, not needed but wanted, ideally. Like i have already said, how many L1 clubs could dream of having a player like Mills as third choice left back/midfielder? Or having the choice of Lambert, Barnard & Connolly for strikers, Richardson or Butterfield at right back and Harding and Dickson for left back.

yes i went as i have done for the last 25 odd years, you can see my comments on the game on the 'for those that were at the game' thread. I dont look at games through red and white tinted glasses either, but what i am not overly critical and negative when it's quite clear that the team we have is match for anyone in L1. We matched Reading until the subs were made, so might even say we were the better side, i wouldn't got that far but there was not a lot of difference, this without 4 players who would be automatic starts. No one thinks promotion is a "gimme" but all this panicing is as ridiculous as your 'we are an ordinary league one side'. Was our form after christmas that of an 'ordinary league one side'? Everyone agrees we need three players to complete the squad but even without we are good enough to make the top 6 at least. It seems everyone in football agrees with this, both Lee Clark and Danny Wilson saying this weekend we are them to beat in this divison and whoever finishes above us goes ups. Although obviously they dont know as much as you, afterall we dont have anyone like Alan Ball in our team do we.

Well we had exactly the same cover last season and it didn't seem to be a problem then (minus Lloyd James of course but no one rated him and eveyrone slagged him off anyway). Butterfield, Puncheon and Lallana can also play in the cente of midfield. The whole Wotton this ridiculous. No he isn't the greatest player in the world and i do agree we need to sign a new CM but he does a job, he is 100% commited and a battler, he is a consistant 6 out 10, relable you know exactly what he gives you. He is not as bad as everyone makes out, people just jump on the bangwagon about him. I am sure the people who slag him off are the ones that also slagged off Paul Telfer and dont get that you need this type of player in the squad. All people seem to concentrate on is what we haven't got, not what we do have.

Some expect us to win every game 10-0, that is the problem.

The problem for a lot though is they are deluded. We are a L1 club, most league One clubs would love to have a good young player like Mills as second or third choice left midfielder. I agree that we ideally we could do with some cover for RM, CM and CF but i dont expect us to go out and buy players just for the sake, who might not be the best we can get just so they are here for the first game of the season. Lambert wasn't last season and he didn't do to badly did he.

exactly, would have been enough to win the league last season. Yet looking at some peoples comments, dropping the odd point here and there is a disaster. We can drop 1/3 of available points over the season and that should still be enough to win the league or at the very least automatic promotion. No team anywhere, will win every game.

Oh please!!! Did you go yesterday?