hypochondriac

My favourite bit was: So that's 13 players saying that they believe some players take performance enhancers with the rest either not sure or disagreeing.

On POL after the article from Swindon about their fans: FAF.

Best article I have read on the matter.

I completely agree with this. My suspicion is we were expecting Jay Rod to adapt to the Premiership better than he has. I reckon we were hoping he would be first choice and then perhaps we would have quietly got rid of Rickie and replaced him with the younger model (hence where these rumours of him leaving have come from in the summer and now.) Hasn't quite worked out like that though which is OK because at least we gave it a go.

Good point Turkish, but then in other areas we barely strengthened when we needed to like getting a decent experienced keeper in and further strengthening at CB and cover for Adam. Did we have first choices for those positions?

Both have made little impact for a lot of money this season. This season is the important one because it is about staying up and then developing a team to go forward with for the long term. Both Mayuka and Jay Rod have potential but are evidently not the answer for the here and now.

Indeed. Whilst I know spending money does not necessarily equal success, it does seem odd that we successfully brought in these strikers for a shed load of cash yet where the need was greater we were unable to strengthen sufficiently. I don't think Jay Rod or Mayuka were particularly important signings.

Eh? I was replying to your comment that 'it seems we were trying hard then.' I was replying to that singular post and didn't ignore anything.

The product of our endeavour is evidenced by the players we signed. In some areas that was clearly very good but in others we didn't do so well. I maintain that we should have signed some more in other areas as other teams had done.

I think we should have tried harder. I think we should have had contingency plans in place if we did not get our first or second choices. Our failure to strengthen in the summer in certain areas could mean we get relegated and all our good work in the last season or two will be wasted.

Does he sound like the right sort of attitude to have here?

I didn't say we were idle.

I think we could have done more to address certain areas where the need was greater. It would almost certainly given us a few more points and meant that we weren't so precariously close to the relegation zone and everyone was crossing their fingers hoping we didn't get too many injuries until we could get to January and strengthen.

I disagree for the reasons outlined above. Other clubs were able to strengthen and we had a greater need due to being newly promoted. If we stay up then it will all be mostly academic anyway because no doubt we will do better next season. It would be incredibly unfortunate if our failure to gain points at the start of the season (something directly influenced by our failure to strengthen in certain areas.) meant that we were relegated and never got a chance to see this very promising team develop.

But as I said, we HAD to strengthen significantly as a newly promoted team. Our need was greater than many of those teams. I would say it is debatable that Davis has improved us. I think we should have signed a winger in the summer but also we were unfortunate that Blackpool were so difficult to deal with. I don't think Rodriguez has been quality yet, as someone said he hasn't come on and really changed a game. As yet the signing of Mayuka has been a bit of a mystery and our lack of cover for Lallana means we are forced to play the likes of De Ridder (although he didn't do too badly in his last appearance.) As you said the goalkeeper situation was another one, I really think we should have made a couple more signings in the summer which could have got us a few more points and got us clear of danger.

Were we extremely fortunate that neither got an injury so that our lack of further strengthening in the summer did not matter? Absolutely.

We obviously put a hell of a lot of time and effort into signing Ramirez who is a good player. I do think we should have put more time and effort into getting soe more players that we desperately needed. Of course we can never say for sure that concentrating on one deal means we didn't get others over the line, but even if that were not the case, I think we should have had some contingency plans in place if we had not got our first choices.

Fact is- we had the entire summer and actually January as well to strengthen properly. We had a greater urgency to strengthen than the majority of clubs you mention due to us being newly promoted. There is no doubt that our failure to strengthen properly in the summer has had a big impact this year and could mean that we get relegated. Nixon saying we didn't know which defenders we wanted in the summer was of particular concern. With regards to your first comment, please don't put words in my mouth or assume you know what I would comment on.

Other clubs managed to strengthen the areas that desperately needed strengthening OK. We spent a hell of a lot on two or three players (two of which aren't starters) yet failed to further strengthen where we needed to. I mean how vital was Rodriguez when we had the likes of the LM position and CB under strength (thank goodness we haven't had any real injuries to fonte and Yoshida.)

So having not played in the arcade in about two years, I get to retire undefeated. I too am comfortable with that.

Yep so as I said really it's down to Napoli.

Makes you wonder why we didn't know this in the summer.

True.

Will be down to the players probably.

I did mention it a few weeks ago!