S-Clarke

up to 3.5m according to those ITK.

too true! Didn't he go on loan to walsall last season, then get injured in his first game and got sent back? He's totally busted.

Hammond has def. played championship level before, I believe he was Brightons captain when they were last at this level. and I don't think Barnard has ever played in this league before.

You're spot on DD. The spine is already championship standard and doesn't require massive surgery. Adkins has apparently been quoted in saying that he wants to add to the spine of the team - so they're going to need to be very good to add to what we already have. Hence the links with proven top level championship performers (Cork/Maynard/Sharp) etc. I'm really happy with the state of our club at the moment and I think that the momentum we can take from last year, added to the spirit in the group, can create a good atmosphere. Remember as well - these lads have pretty much been together for 2 years and have been winning regulary for 2 years, 2 trophies in 2 years etc.

He's got great potential, in all the games I've seen him play he's never put a foot wrong.

tbh we only really need 3 additions. I wouldn't be too bothered if we waited until the end of the transfer window for a couple of them, just as long as we get the right guy.

I have to disagree with a couple of these points. You're never going to get a professional football team playing at the same tempo for 90mins, it's impossible. What you find we did most of the time was tactical and was a way to manage the fitness of the squad. For example it's absoloutley pointless to overexert yourselves when you're 2-0 up on 60mins if you have another game mid-week, that's the stage of the game you calm down and become professional. Alot of posters also fail to understand a professional side. It's really not all about sparkling performances every week, it's about getting the job done at the times that is required and we did that. I also have to say it was a tough job for anyone to manage the expectations of this side, and getting us to 92 points after the start we had was a very good achievement. 92 points at any level equals a great season and the squad has obviously been doing something consistently right to reach that point total.

It's from the recent U21 game at St Mary's.

Cheers, always nice to get snippets like this! Breaks up the bickering at least... I've always thought the choice of that pic was quite odd as well. He could have picked himself in a Burnley shirt, in England U21 action....but no, he chose St Mary's as his backdrop. Subtle hints??

According to someone ITK on a chelski forum, it's act. £1.75m, I'd imagine alot of that is based on appearances, promotion etc.

It would be more down to the fact that West Ham are a bigger club than us, and are expected to go straight back up to the premiership. We've just been promoted, you never know how it could end up. Bit of a gamble, and if he likes to play it safe then he'll go to a club that have a real shot at the top 2 spots.

Well it'll either be us or Chelsea!

Sounds very nice, thanks for the info.

Matthew Le God IMO

TBF i trust Adkins and Cortese to sniff those types out pretty quickly. We'll only sign the right sort of characters.

When there's nothing to criticise, no.

Is that it? If he was that keen it would have been done by now.

From Adkins, check out the interview on saints player.

Maybe Cortese has a 2nd job? Can't blame him.

Well exactly, but we have fans that would moan either way. This is exactly why transfers should be kept silent until 100%, and i'm fairley confident this will happen as Cork has no where else to go and he's on record stating that he wants to get it sorted for pre-season.

"The majority of deals in this transfer window are done towards the end of July and in August. The deals that are done earlier are probably done because Clubs are desperate to build a whole team, we have a whole team and we are just trying to hand pick one or two or three to enhance the group that we have got and make us better." To the people panicking - read that. To people thinking we need an entirely new team, we don't. We can wait until august 31st for all I care, as long as we get the required quality.

http://shed.chelseafc.com/chat/forum_chelsea_open.shtml?1:50:lastpost:13381194&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

But Riise would very likely be a loan deal anyway, so Roma would cough up most of the wages.

Fail.

Still there for me.