Crazy Diamond

Indeed. Pardew had spent all summer teaching HIS players HIS methods with HIS backroom staff. Adkins came in and oversaw the transition to his style and miraculously pulled it off. Not many can do it. He did, and that's a brilliant achievement.

Well it's done Leicester's transfer activity no harm. Reports suggest John Paintsil is next up on the Sven and possible illegal ownership bus.

Sheffield United fans' reactions Post #27 amused me.

Not sure I agree but it is a game full of opinions after all.

It is, however, the bloke can barely read a script, so I'm keeping an open mind as to if it's just his stupidity, or it might not have been what he meant. I suspect the presenter in question, I forget his name, got lumped with the job. He most likely had nothing to do with the making of the programme and was just made to front it.

Indeed and it has been heavily edited. I have a feeling this will provoke some immediate reaction, like the BBC bungs programme did, but fade away after not very long at all.

He almost makes it sound as if it's convenient that Markus died. That's pretty nasty. I'll keep my mind open on this one. I doubt there is any football club in the land that is 100% clean and I won't let my allegiance cloud my judgement. Everyone is of course innocent until proven guilty.

Forest have got a player at last to go with Andy Reid, Jonathan Greening, who has a Champions League winner's medal believe it or not.

Given Preston are in League One, won't they want to keep Mellor anyway? Really not going to worry about that rumour one way or the other.

Wouldn't say no to that. He was scouted by Liverpool when very young, he actually turned them down to play for Watford. They need the cash, he might want to try and get to the Prem. Very highly rated.

Meanwhile, in Leicester... Yakubu is on his way permanently and they've had a bid rejected for Jack Colback of Sunderland.

True. If he could replicate his form at Sheffield United I'd be happy to have him back, but that would be unlikely due to age and the pecking order. Also, Anthony Gardner will be signing for Reading.

Would Beattie want to come back here? He couldn't wait to leave back in 2004 and 2005.

Adam Le Fondre mentioned on this forum again then. Speaking to a journo who covers a lot of Yorkshire clubs, he thinks he's already had a word with Keith 'the farmer' Hill about joining him at Barnsley. Rotherham want a substantial fee though, getting on for £2 million. Not sure how that'll work out - Barnsley can't afford that much and Rotherham are overpricing him a tad.

What has made it a hell of a lot worse in my eyes is how Milliband has thrown himself into the middle of it in a tasteless point scoring exercise. Gordon Brown also couldn't wait to reappear in the Commons to get back at the Murdochs for their lack of support at the end of his tenure. It's a sorry state of affairs when the nature of modern politics means something like this can happen, and then be used as ammunition against a rival party.

Indeed, a fact that a lot of people seem to be forgetting. Never mind though, step father or father, he still probably never had to pay for his tuition fees, and if a Cambridge student supposedly doesn't know what the Cenotaph is for, that's a crime he ought to go down for anyway. Wonder how he'll find prison...

Which is why we probably have to look elsewhere, outside of the UK.

All I'm saying is, he's the typical kind of player that those clubs or newly promoted clubs would, or like to, sign. Happy to help.

You'd have to ask them really - maybe they will bid for him in the next few weeks, or already have. You never know. Stoke are set to sign Carlton Palmer so perhaps their sights have been set a little higher. I think Wigan would be interested though, definitely. If Swansea hadn't signed Graham I think Maynard would be on their list, QPR are spending little as they're about to be bought out.

Couldn't agree more. As I said on another thread, he was a great player at youth level, strong, composed, vocal, a natural leader. He's now looking for a new club and is probably suited to non-league now.

What's so special? Nothing really, in my opinion. But there are clubs in the Premier League who'd happily pay that figure. He's the type of signing that Wigan, Stoke, Norwich, West Brom, Swansea or QPR would make. The fee is probably £4 million or £5 million because Championship clubs would hesitate but Premier League clubs wouldn't.

Why thank you. Same to you. Good shout though, I would have thought a lot of Championship clubs were looking at him.

I'd be cautious about this. Let's not forget Thomas Pekhart had a record at youth level of almost a goal a game...

I thought Gardner had a bad injury record but he's actually played a decent number of games. Not sure about him though. Why would Hull let him go if he was that good?