S-Clarke

I doubt it's as easy as that. We either want too much $$$ for a transfer fee, and that's putting clubs off, or we're unwilling to pay enough towards his weekly wage so a small club can take him on loan. Either way, it sounds as if we're being a tad awkward and standing our ground from a financial position.

I imagine this is because his wage has bumped up a significant amount due to our promotion, and this has made his wage demands out of reach for the clubs who were interested - and I imagine (from the tone of that) we're not willing to subsidize enough % to allow a club to take him.

Things are light years ahead since the last time we were in there. If we got promoted and kept every the same (i.e training ground etc) We'd be light years behind most clubs in teh PL, all we're doing is bringing things up to what is now the standard. Lots has changed in 7 years.

Couple of weeks I think.

More fool QPR imo. We need pace in our team, the last thing we need to do as add aging/slow premier league players just because they have 'experience' in the PL.

What a weird forum this has turned into today. It's like some of the posters didn't realise we have to play Man Utd, City, Chelsa etc - and today has confirmed that we do have to play them!!!!! Therefore, we are going to struggle.......well I never.! The last 3 years have been great, but next year will be totally different. We will not win much, we will get beaten heavily on occasions and we will go on long-runs without a win. That's the nature of it. Even Swansea and Norwich who had decent seasons last year had spells like above, so I'll be interested to see how certain people react to us not winning every week. Adkins ''Out of his depth'' by September? Wouldn't put it passed some.

They won't be cheap.

As it stands, we'll give our all, but we'll come up short against the top 6-8 teams in this league. The real matches are those against the teams around us (wigan/wba/reading/stoke) - those are the games that will decide how we do next year, so don't read anything into the Man Utd/Arsenal or Man City games.

Wouldn't it be typical for us to go and beat City, and suprise the footballing world, and then lose at home to Wigan the following weekend!

That is an horrific start, but how nice is to to see us against those teams again? TBH Promoted teams could do with picking up points early....we haven't got much chance of that. We could be rooted to the bottom after the few few weeks going by that opening set!

They won't go straight back down, they'll be comfortable mid-table. I don't think they'll ever be in any real trouble. They've agreed terms with Mohamed Diame who will be an excellent addition for them.

Hammond and Kelvin will remain the 2 main captains, pretty much guaranteed. You'll then see Fonte get the armband on the pitch in the games Hammond doesn't play, and he will play a hell of a lot more than people are speculating.

I remember saying the same about the Championship last year, and on paper it should have been stronger than it was. There are so many managerial changes this year, and not everyone will be a success. You've also got Stoke who I believe will be sucked into the mire this year as they have spent the last 18 months treading water and not really going anywhere, which is pretty dangerous. Villa did the same in previous seasons and were dragged right into it last year for that very reason. Wigan, who knows? They should have been relegated last year, and the year before, but for some reason they come alive at the end of the season and players find an extra %. Pretty similar to us in the 90's.

This thread is about Barnard, not Tadanari Lee.

2 blokes who returned their season tickets, minutes after buying them, because they found out they had to pay to park. Then they went to the echo to blab and try to sound like superfans, when in all honesty they look like complete and utter pillocks.

Brainless comment. When exactly did he have the opportunity to prove he was a decent championship striker? Exactly. If fit and given a run in the team he will score goals in the Championship, not a doubt about it.

Pretty certain it was said in jest...

Don't think anyone said Cork was awful? 99% said he was an excellent signing and a 'coup.'

I think Morgan will represent France at some point. He might not seem to do much in some peoples eyes, but in my opinion, this is more of a failure in how english fans perceive how football should be played. If a player doesn't collect the ball and burst forward, or launch it quickly into the box, score lots of goals etc then they're ineffective. Morgan is exactly the type of player that would slot in the spanish team (similar type of player to busquets in many ways), simply because he sets the tempo, looks after the ball and doesn't give it away. You can't really moan about players like that!

Very limited player. We have to set our sights higher than that!

The Liebherr banner is now in the hands of the club and they make the calls as to when it's displayed, as far as I know. Would expect it to be out on show in the pre-season games.

I think we should make a cheeky bid for Xavi, bring him to the home of his idol.

Yep, same. It's to do with the Flash plugin, it's unbelievably buggy in firefox it seems. (i've even updated the flash plugin to the latest version, and I also tried the latest frontmotion version of firefox which is the same) I'm close to ditching it to be honest.

I know for sure that we've looked at him, along with Mutch. Doubt we'd pay £5m for either though. (yet)

Adam is a good player, but never a liverpool standard player - which is why they want rid. Would do a fine job for teams in and around the bottom though, a terrifc passer of the ball - would fit perfectly alongside Morgan or Cork.