hypochondriac

We had a decade in the top flight. If they can manage the same with similar success then they've done well.

Absolutely no reason to say that their aim this year is to win the league. They could easily have said something like they know there's a lot to do this summer, that they want to be as successful as possible and that the aim is to go back up as soon as we can. They've made the claim that they want to win the league, but their actions need to match those words and they have less than two weeks.

It's no different to what we were doing a few years ago. They're just the hip team at the moment. They will slowly be dismantled over a few seasons and end up with a crap team fighting to survive just like we were.

That's the kind of thing you hear about now they are successful - like our black box. I wonder how much we will hear about it in a few years when they are battling relegation?

It's also in the interest of certain people to politicise this death and to mention something about air quality in order to push through their agenda even if it's just one factor of many and even if the death would not have occurred had it been controlled like you say. Very difficult to argue with someone pushing through their agenda of their argument is stopping the kids from dying even if that's a gross distortion of the truth.

Firstly they have some control over who leaves. They don't have to just allow every single first team player of quality to go. Secondly, if they knew there was a chance they could be in this situation, it was very foolish of them to state it publically at the start of the window that winning the league is the aim. For me, even if we strengthen significantly, if Tella and KWP go then we are harming our chances.

Does he have a Polaroid?

The club have publically stated that automatic promotion is the aim this season. Subsequently stepping back from that is a downgrade from their stated aims. They've told us that the aim isn't to just be a surprise package but to win the thing. If we don't do what is required in the next two weeks in terms of incomings then that's a betrayal as far as I'm concerned after their previous statements.

Eh? I think you have misread or misunderstood the post. My response was to smirking Saint talking about newly relegated teams who had lost players who were starters. I did ask him what he meant by starters but I assumed he meant starters from the previous season. If he didn't mean that then I find it highly questionable the idea that Watford lost 9 of their starting championship 11 after the season had started.

The other day it said 0% chance of rain. It started raining ten minutes later...

Yes. Some German 3rd division player for 850k.

I'm replying to your comments on a messageboard and trying to understand what you meant when you said that posters on here were getting upset by players being sold who were underequipped for the Premier league. I agree that we were shit last year but that's mostly due to the combination of players we had on the pitch, the awful coaching, the lack of strikers and some horrendous players - many of whom have already left or who aren't getting in the team any time soon. I don't agree with you that the players currently being linked with moves away (Tella, Sulemana, ABK, Adams) were examples of obvious premier league failures so I don't think it's an overreaction to consider those players to be clear losses to our team. It's a message board where someone writes something and somebody else replies. Best not to get all offended because someone asks you to elaborate.

Agreed. So I assume he isn't one of the players you are including that were "thoroughly underequipped for life in the prem".

My parents used to live near the academy digs by Hill Lane surgery. Just before Walcott went to Arsenal, I saw him walking past and had a great little chat with him and he seemed like a great bloke (as is Andrew Surman by the way). On the day he went to Arsenal there were a crowd of journalists round there and I thought about what a humble guy he was and how his life was going to change. One of the good guys for sure.

That's a pretty silly comment. If he performs this year he would be almost guaranteed a transfer if they got relegated.

I don't think you can say that the current incarnation of Tella would be a failure in the prem. Adams is an average premier league player and will probably do alright at Everton. He's a useful premier league squad player and certainly not a failure. KWP is a decent premier league player, Sulemana didn't get much of a chance last year but looked good towards the end of the season and certainly not a proven failure. So who are the proven failures in the prem you're talking about? I woild say that many of the proven failures are Djenepo, Elyounoussi, Diallo, Stephens, Bednarek and Walcott rather than the players we are going to sell.

We had some good individuals that couldn't be successfully fashioned into a good team because we lacked premier league experience in key positions and we had at least two managers who were not suited to the Premier league so they were poorly coached.

So either people are losing their minds because we've sold players unequipped for the prem or the players we've sold are prem quality for sure and were guaranteed to leave. Which is it?

Definitely not but the current people in charge would have been powerless to do anything about it.

I'd be saying the people in charge who negotiated those contracts are fucking idiots abd are largely at fault for the mess at Leeds.

Which players proved themselves unequipped for the prem? Jwp? Lavia? Tella? KWP? Tino?

Not quite the same thing though is it. Loan clauses in contracts mean it's an inevitability.

It should be with us to be honest. Let's see if he's better than Mara.

Pretty sure that was just Stuart Armstrong who is not a bad player but is someone who I wouldn't be devastated if we lost (particularly if they are going to play him in centre midfield.)

That ones for the forum veterans.