egg

Yep, orange text for some reason.

Loads of blasts from the past mentioned. Bearsy is one who added lots to the forum, completely nuts, but a brilliant poster.

Mate, you're selective in what you read. Very. It's bizarre that you think that my opinion about the press/leaks is any way connected to my lack of opinion re the change of position re signing full backs. Jesus wept. Ralph has expressed a different opinion re full back signings. There are many possibilities for that, many of them credible. I've said that neither I nor anyone else know why. I hope that's simple enough for you. Re press, read what I actually said. I've said that I have no doubt that the club use the media as part of its pr machine. What I have said is that I struggle to accept that rumours in the telegraph re transfers, etc, are all a plant from the club. Others seem to think that they're all club plants and dismiss the idea that journalists get things wrong. I disagree.

***sigh*** 4 day reality checks about the available options and their expectations happen too. As I say, your guess as to what happened is no more correct than mine, and none of us know what happened.

Hypo, there's a variety of reasons why Ralph has expressed a changed stance. Your guess is no more correct than mine.

Starship

My comment was in response to someone saying that we should sign "cheap gems". They're a rare beast, especially in January. I'm saying we need better players than we have, both at the club and those out on loan. I'm doubtful we'll get better for low cost personally but if you have a different opinion, throw out some names.

Your last point rather conflicts with your use of the term "drama queen"! There is a call from many to sign players. We're stuck with loads of poor players on expensive contracts. We need to add better. "Bargain gems" = cheap, and that means players no better than we have, possibly worse. Personally I don't see the point in that.

Tell

The voice of reason. Agreed.

Behave. I've not read one comment which addresses why Gao, based on our recent transfers, would feel encouraged to throw tens of millions on signings.

Answer the question...

We could spend more, but I've asked this before and "the just spend money ffs, cos that guarantees success brigade", ie people like you, ignore the question. If you were Gao or his advisors, in the light of our recent transfer disasters, would you really permit the club to spend monies to sign the next Hoedt, Carrillo, Elyounisi, Vestergaard, Adams, Gunn, etc? Really? Everyone single one of those will lose the club millions.

And that makes a point. Bournemouth have spent a fortune and look where they are. Everton have spent a fortune and look where they are, and the debt they're in. We've spent a fortune and look where those players are - on loan or out of the squad mostly. Spending has not been our issue as such, it's recruitment. I get we all want success, but pointing to the likes of Bournemouth as evidence that chucking cash around leads to success is laughable.

FFS. You're becoming more obtuse by the day. People are calling for lots of spending. Everton have spend lots and are in debt. They also have a **** team. Lots of spending doesn't equal success, and can equal lots of debt.

Have an educated guess what he means. It's not complicated.

Completely different players, Smallbone is an attacking mid, with virtually no first team experience. Selling Romeu would be ridiculous.

That's how I saw it. The defence were massively exposed too many times and that's been the story too often under Ralph. We needed an extra man in the middle to give more protection to the defence, but even that's no use of the ball is given away cheaply when we're attacking leaving us wide open to the counter attack. The second half was west ham esque.

Garden

We've "invested" circa £40m in two CB's. That "investment" has diminished Gao asset, not increased it. You believe that chucking money at a problem is the solution, and properly spent that's a logical conclusion but our transfer activity (incoming) is hardly likely to persuade Gao that throwing money around is necessarily a good idea. Ralph's recent change of heart may well be a reality check that nothing is available that is better than we have for sensible money. I suspect it's as simple as that, but you and others choose to assume that the club is lying to us or are incapable of signing players. It's bizarre. As to your other rants, the irony of you telling Sue (whilst calling her a "bint" - really classy Gordon) to "agree to differ" when you post hundreds of nocturnal words re imposing your well known belief is mind boggling. The bottom line is that nothing any of us say will make any difference whatsoever, so why you put yourself on the verge of a coronary night after night I'm not sure. When you refer to the likes of me as "supporting the club" etc ask yourself whether others are more in tune with reality than you, and appreciate that ranting ad infinitum on a forum won't suddenly make Harry Maguire appear at staplewood. Where you and I agree is that we want our team to improve. I just think that you lack reality, or acceptance that we can't so anything about what the club choose to do, so what's the point in ranting. Instead I support the team at the ground, rather than attacking the club on the Web.

Nicely swerved. You're saying what you find hard to believe, not what you actually believe. I've never disputed that Ralph's position has changed, we agree on that. Where we are apart is that I think you assume that we've had the wool pulled over our eyes, with Ralph the mouthpiece. If that's what you think, we'll agree to differ. If I'm mistaken about that though, what exactly is your point / opinion on the change of position re full backs?

I think he's on the fringes so it's possible. He's got all the talent but for whatever reason is never happened for him.

I know. So are you saying that Ralph has had the rug pulled from under him, or is it possible that he's in agreement to the club not getting its pants pulled down, or prospective signings not wanting to be back up, or something else. I've commented above about the change of position, but I think you assume that we've had the wool pulled over our eyes rather than something else. If I'm mistaken, what exactly is your point / opinion on the change of position re full backs?

Correct. People are reading far too much into an article, both in terms of interpretation and origin. I refer back to Ralph comments yesterday which were perfectly clear.

Jeez. For the last time. An article in the telegraph is not a press release. Has it occurred to you that when a telegraph article does not bear fruit it's because it's an inaccurate newspaper article rather than something that's "meant" to be happening?