St_Tel49

I saw no lack of energy on their part. I think that it took them 15 minutes to realise that we actually had some players who were every bit as good as theirs. Lallana, AOC and DoPrado were cutting through their defence at will. 3-0 flattered them a bit. I would not be surprised if we got a bid for Lallana from Bremen.

Looked like he could handle the physical stuff too.

That is a gross distortion of their posts and you should be ashamed of yourself. If they had implied that they would stop supporting saints if they failed to get Champions League then you might have a point but neither of these posters are of that ilk. All they said was that you should always have an ambition to keep improving. I think that we can depend on NC being a good enough businessman to avoid bankrupting us in the attempt though.

Is it? It would have been true in Lowe's time, but is it true of Cortese? I don't get the impression that it is.

I cannot believe that people are still blindly accepting quotes in newspapers. There is no doubt that, at some point, one will be right but that will be on the same basis as giving a rubbish darts player as many darts as they want to throw at the board. They will eventually hit the bull.

The fact that most players at some point leave the clubs that they began with is scarcely a blinding piece of insight. The discussion centres around whether he is leaving now. Your analogy is not, in my opinion, appropriate but, just to run with it, you could say "Whahay" and take the money and get fired a year later because you turned out to be not up to the job. Or you could take the money and get hidden away because at this point the company think that you had a future but not just yet and you kick your heels while counting your dosh or you could think - I may not be ready for this yet. I need to keep working on my experience and if I'm good enough they'll be back. It depends entirely on your personality and priorities what you go for. Of course I have no more idea than you have about what AOC will do but I will not be basing my opinion on quotes from newspapers. They have scarcely been reliable in the past.

What makes your view so realistic? Because it yours and you know so much more than anyone else?

I reiterate my oft asked, but never answered question, why is the negative viewpoint always the realistic one?

You may feel that your comments are measured but I feel that they are possibly intemperate but definitely premature. Just my opinion mind.

A perfectly reasonable statement. I think that the issue that some of have is about the toys flying from the pram because we haven't actually signed anyone new yet - with quite a few weeks of the transfer window left to go.

In many ways this post is a classic forum post. You start with a series of assertions/ hypotheses and then in one fell swoop with your final question turn your postulations into fact. IMHO there is no question mark over either. All the evidence suggests that Cortese will not allow himself to be dragooned into paying over the odds for a player. Wait until the end of August before you panic.

1+1 = 3

I renewed quickly and easily on the phone and they are posting it out. What is the difference between that and buying on-line? (although perhaps it was because I wasn't getting any concessions)

Personally I'd rather stay young and pay the extra

Yes - and one of them has the gall to call other posters Dinlows.

I agree that there is no call for rudeness but 65+ still get concessions - it is only the 60-65 age group who have lost them and, as someone in that age group, I am not bothered by it. If I was unemployed I might but then I would only be in the same position as other unemployed people.

This joke is so worn it no longer exists

Whatever he said you would have found a suitably negative slant to put on it.

That is my feeling.

WHo said that?

That's a sweeping statement to make based on the if, buts and maybes of the first part of your post

And the likelihood or otherwise of that is all part of the commercials that NC has to take into account. That does not mean that he shouldn't think about it.

That is the absolute classic response but no-one has ever explained to me why the pessimistic view is always the realistic view. I guess if Hillary was a "realist" he would never have climbed Everest because all the statistics from previous attempts was that they failed. I am not arguing about whether we should extend the ground or not - NC will be well aware of the commercials of doing that - it is more the "Oh No that can never be..." reaction that even considering possibility got. No-one ever made progress by being "realistic", they simply paddle their own sweet way to nonentity.

Well said Wes. Some people on here make negativity into an art form but in truth it is the easiest position to take. In the course of time things do inevitably go wrong at which point the negs can pipe up and say "See- we were right". It is in the nature of things that there will be good times and there will be bad times (sometimes not far apart as we can testify) but ultimately a lot more is achieved with positive thinking than with negative thinking. NC is a positive thinker but he's no fool.

Sh+t or bust most usually ends in bust. Reading got promotion with a set of astutely bought cheap players. Spending big money is not an automatic panacea and I really don't think we should hurl money around just because we have it. Spend well rather than spend big is the watchword.