derry

Also Henry Lansbury.

Owen Hargreaves long term knee problems was I believe tendenitis, can be very difficult to get rid of but cortisone masks the pain in the short term but allows the injury to be made worse.

They both should have gone to MU as they know how to use pacy wide players. Wenger likes pace but he wants them to be part of a passing team working it's way up the pitch by slick passing.

I see that we paid agents £359k last season. At least we didn't do a Blackburn and buy a player for £450k and have to pay the agent advising them £1.65m. After an independent audit by the new owners this came to light and they are no longer using him.

Sam Vokes scored for Wolves in CC this week. CHDAJFU?

Lazy reporting from newsnow link to local (QPR) London paper yesterday quoted pretty much word for word.

Didn't QPR put forward the swop but their player said he wanted to stay and fight for his place in the Premiership until he realised he wasn't going to get a game in the Premier. Jemal was a long time ago and we were looking for a centreback long before QPR offered Gorkss. It sounds more like QPR and Gorkss messing around than Cortese especially as they weren't able to do transfers until Fernandez bought in less than a week ago.

QPR haven't spent the last six weeks without buying Puncheon then! Another one sided comment from Warnock, never one to get confused by the facts.

spot on

It would be interesting to know in each case how much is bid up front. I see we paid £359k to agents last season.

Their skipper Lewington is a left back. Rumour has it on loan to Rochdale.

It seems Gold/O'Sullivan are putting in about £3m a month shoring up the finances and need to sell Parker to Tottenham to help the finances. Allardyce has never seemed to be too bothered about spending money and paying ridiculous salaries (Nolan). It wouldn't surprise me to see salary being the clincher as WHU seem to have no structure. Looks like another Pompey saga in the pipeline.

That's called lateral thinking, worth a punt.

In my opinion Bill the most important thing about any signing is that they fit in and improve the collective teamwork. History is full of teams at all levels that bring in the best players from various sources but never manage to turn them into a team and in fact make good players worse because of it. I'm not in favour of spending shedloads of money and then seeing diamonds in somebody elses team brought in for next to nothing, ie Hoolahan, Long, Doyle, all from Ireland but there are many more from the lower leagues or young Premier second chances, McHail-Smith, Mills etc.

Warnock was very critical about Cortese dithering over about three weeks as it took less than a day for Reading to sign him. As usual with Warnock it is a one sided comment, I have to ask haven't QPR been dithering for a lot longer over Puncheon and wouldn't Saints be looking to tie up both deals rather than separate negtiations. It will be interesting to see where Puncheon eventually ends up.

On BBC Solent this morning, The club were unable to get a definite medical opinion that Fontaine's ankle problem was cured so in the end decided not to proceed.

Bristol Evening news says Southampton pulled out after Fontaine experienced problems fulfilling a fitness test for his ankle, He also had a reaction after training on Monday. Seems pretty conclusive.

It could also be that Cortese pulled the plug because the press were being briefed by BC, he doesn't work that way. Elliott Ward comes to mind. Just a thought.

A realistic target without the ridiculous price tag.

Adkins has always been one of those rare managers that gets more than the sum of the parts out of his teams. He was always my first choice after seeing his S****horpe team at SMS and his subsequent record. He isn't going to allow the unquantifiable team ingredient he instills to be negated. We both know that the most important thing in a team is the teamwork, blend and cussedness that makes the team difficult to beat. A quality player may not necessarily add to that mix and could ruin it unless he is a fit in.

One of the worst things for a football fan must be the realisation that the money has gone and the players that were bought at inflated prices aren't really that good. My view is that it is ridiculous to spend inflated fees. Lambert, Connolly, DeRidder, Guly, Fonte, Cork were value, we need more players of their quality at their prices. Arsenal could afford to waste £12m if Chamberlain doesn't make it. £6m could buy us a lot of good Championship quality players.

I believe he has left the Rosebowl.

Cliff Huxford - promotion 1959/60

CMS was £3m ish, Beckford bid is about £2.5m, £6m is rediculous.