derry

If we bring in more players it will make it even more difficult for last seasons fringe players to get a game without a major step forward in ability.

Except we weren't rich in Theo's case and not in the Premier in both cases. Mark Chamberlain was desperate to get AOC to transfer and I think the fee for a Premier regular as opposed to 1) a championship 16 year old with no contract and and 2) a div 1 18 year old whose father wanted him away will be much greater. Shaw would be mad to swop his regular place for a bit part in a top four team. Chamberlain only appeared in 25 matches for a total of 1062 minutes this season, that fact won't be lost on Shaw and his advisers.

Potentially the best left back in the Premier, already at 17 a regular in a good and wealthy Premier team run by Nicola Cortese who will wring a massive fee out of whoever really bites the bullet. £10m won't even buy a bit of him. I wish the big four all the best, enjoy your negotiations, either way it is win/win situation for the club.

As far as I know he signed a three year contract on his 17th birthday last year and unless Cortese wants him to go, he is going nowhere.

I agree with that. A friends daughter was his PA for a while but has now moved on. His present PA is the sister of my son's mates girlfriend. I do know that he is a hard taskmaster and has a tendency to micro manage, which means that further down the line most just stick to the letter rather than make decisions that could backfire. NC treated my friends daughter really well and I believe makes good decisions but because of his close scrutiny his underlings don't stick their necks out. I suspect he was acquainted of this and took the correct decision. I'm pleased you had a successful outcome and I wouldn't think you will hear any more.

When I was doing my CPL the CAA were described as 'Zeppelin pilots', in my career I found nothing that disproved that comment. Anything the CAA got involved in was usually a cluster****. The Starfighter was unfairly named the Widowmaker because the new Luftwaffe insisted on using ab initio low hours pilots and lost a lot of aircraft. Other air forces used experienced pilots and had little problem.

We had a nightmare start and it took us ten games for the management to come to terms with what was required in the Premier. The rest of the season we didn't set the world alight but nonetheless did well. 37 points from 28 games averaging 1.32 points a game would give the current team the potential to win 50 points at the same level of performance. We all know that we dropped points through naivety towards the end of games and I would expect us to overall do better second time around. If we add three or four better players in the summer I would expect us to do better than that. 50 points would have seen us finish 8th. however to finish 6th would have needed 13 more points and 4th 23 more points which I think would well be beyond the present side.

As far as I can remember it was leukaemia.

Denis Hollywood

Which pretty much says it all. Lambert for me. Ramirez really disappointed me with his corners and most of his free kicks.

Really Sad. RIP Ron. He was unbelievable in the air, Think of Andy Carroll and then add two feet, that's how high he could jump. He was a colossus, he would start his run ten yards out and head the ball way above everybody else. It wasn't as if he was that tall he just had an incredible leap and timing. I've never ever seen anybody that has come near before or since.

Maybe with attacking dead ball situations we should let the only player in the team that is able to hit a dead ball with accuracy take them. Lambert will be missed in the middle but most of the time the delivery is so poor he doesn't get near it anyway, so with him delivering the ball in with pace, we may actually become better and get something out of it. Either that or buy a player with a lethal delivery. Lallana couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo.

4th place. Probably about £40m extra income. Picking up nearly 80 points would make a cracking season. Might win the cup without playing a Premier side.

Agreed but in this case Woods is a real hard ass with a thick skin from California not the South. He has just maliciously screwed Garcia. At least Garcia isn't a cheat.

Lots of integrity too, treated his wife well didn't he? Jack has never put a foot wrong, along with Arnie and Gary is a legend. Woods isn't fit to lick their boots. He might be a top golfer but he's a top arsehole as well. There is no way I'd want him to represent the game of golf. Faldo got it right.

I suppose we'll have to pick up McDonalds (I'm not being anti Scottish) (I just don't like the cardboard crap and stale buns) instead of Kentucky Fried Chicken on the way back home from SMS. Woods is a hardass, as far as I am concerned he is grabbing the chance to put a vicious boot into Garcia. I just hope he never beats Jack's record.

Thanks for that, a well thought out assessment, time will tell.

Provided we are in the Premier we will be able to get a hell of a lot of money in return. Not having to sell and offering regular Premier football could well postpone the inevitable. In the lower divisions it was impossible.

In my view any striker we sign should have a career record of a goal every two games at least, and currently at a similar level.

We were a newly promoted Div 1 club ostensibly expecting a consolidation season in the Championship, not an ambitious Premier club with money to spend and a regular starting place in the Premier. AOC has a way to go to achieve that yet. Any of the clubs will have to pretty much double AOCs fee to buy a regular Premier starter tipped to be England's left back for many years. Most of it up front. Best of luck negotiating with Cortese. In any event none of those teams can offer him the left back slot now. Saints know he will be worth a hell of a lot more in a couple of years especially if he nails down the international place.

Walcott was 16. Signed for Arsenal at 17. Shaw is on a professional contract.

As far as I can remember Shaw signed the max allowable term (3yrs ?) on his 17th birthday. Can't sign longer contract until 18th birthday. There is a 5 year contract for then. Either way he is a contracted professional with the club and he is going nowhere until Cortese agrees.

This has been going on between Woods and Garcia for ten years, the Players was just a continuation. They just dislike each other intensely. I personally can understand why Garcia dislikes him. Whatever the context of Garcia's remark, that thick skinned arsehole Woods just took the opportunity to jump on the racist bandwagon to shaft Garcia with the media. A real man would have just ignored it. Anybody who really believes such an arrogant egotistic person was hurt by what Garcia said in jest is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Tony Godfrey

Three clubs that haven't dealt with our Mr Cortese yet, plus one that paid through the nose for AOC when we were just out of Div 1. Best of luck with that now we are in the Premier.