S-Clarke

At least swindon fans have a sense of humour ''Don't shoot the messenger but a reliable source who normally gets this sort of **** right says that Austin is going to join either Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea, Everton, Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Stoke City, Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Wigan Athletic, Wolverhampton Wanderers Barnsley, Bristol City, Burnley, Cardiff City, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Derby County, Doncaster Rovers, Harlem Globetrotters, Hull City, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Leicester City, Middlesbrough, Millwall, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Portsmouth, Preston North End, Queens Park Rangers, Reading, S****horpe United, Sheffield United, Swansea City, Watford, Southampton or Celtic. Deal should be concluded by Wednesday.''

I must admit I always saw Theo as a central striker and was frustrated at Arsenal's use of him as a wide man at the beginning, as it think his strengths are playing on the shoulder of the CB through the middle. He's got 10 goals this season from playing in that position, not too bad really. He's developed a bit slower than you'd have thought, but you can't say arsenal have ruined him.

i thought saints took that page down?

I'd imagine this will be merged or locked in a sec, but he'd probably prefer us as his family live here. I don't think he'd like to move too far away according to things I've heard in recent weeks.

There was a quote somewhere in an article saying that his brother is ''as good, if not better''. Not sure how true that is.

Llloyd foot is by all accounts the next ''big thing'' to come off our production line. There are massive massive hopes for him as a future captain. Nice interview too.

I saw him first hand when we thumped p'boro 4-1 and i felt sorry for him, as he was their best player by a mile. Gave us problems all afternoon with his pace and direct running. Seemed much more to his game than just a poacher. I think thats what we lack up top...someone with real pace to play on the shoulder of a CB.

Exactly thorpie. I'll be sad to see him go, but we should be ok without him as i'm sure we'll reinvest a few mill. in transfer fees over the next year or so. I'd imagine a fair bit of the lump sump will go back into the acadamy too, which is also great news. That's what we haven't been able to do in recent years, with all the money we've got for our youngesters it hasn't really helped make the club stronger. It will now.

I may be wrong on this, but Mackail-Smith can also be deployed as a winger (i'm sure he's played wide for Posh)

Exactly alps. That's why i'm a little bit more accepting of this potential move, as we all know that the money is going straight to the club. Not into the company to be eaten up in the shareholdings. I'd fully expect a large sum to be made available to Adkins straight away.

this guy is the real deal. Full of pace and caused us lots of problems when we played them. Blackpool want/wanted to sign him too....this will be as much of a coup as Austin.

Reminds me of the lead up to Rickie Lambert signing. Sunday night...popped up on a rovers forum that he was down here for a medical, and by lunchtime on Monday he was signed. Let's hope this follows suit.

Anyone who thinks Chambo will be here next season isn't living in reality. We may have money, but we're in L1. If Arsenal - a premiership title contending and champions league team - want one of our players, they get them. It's a simple as that, as Adkins would say. We have no real power to stop them until we're back competing in the prem.

Explain the wenger quotes though MLG. That's straight from the horses mouth. It'll happen next week.

I believe Blackpool came back in with a storming bid of 200k.

Wenger - "We need an agreement with Southampton, we need an agreement with the player, and we are not the only ones on the case. But we try as hard as we can as I like him as a player."

It's pretty much a done deal then. Just needs to be rubber stamped. At least we get him until the end of the season! and we get a nice pot of cash to play with.

MLG, you are an utter bore.

I would imagine their team will be alot different than the one that faced Birmingham I'd expect to see the likes of Owen, Macheda, Obertan, Park, Smalling, Fabio, Scholes etc

I think if we were in the premiership, or at least top 2 in the championship, we would have a little bit more ability to keep players like Chambo. But the fact is that whilst we're at this level then these good young players will not stay. It doesn't matter how much steel we have (I'm sure Cortese has tried his hardest to convince chambo to stay) L1 clubs haven't got a chance of keeping top top young talents. That's something which needs to change in the game IMO. - an age restriction on being transferred.

Good post. What is that based on by the way? We lost 1 game? oh noes.

So should Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield tbf, with their squads and budget. Football isn't as cut and dry as people make out. I was nervous from the moment we were made massive favourites to walk this league. Even the biggest clubs have struggled to get out of this league (Forest/Leeds/Wednesday) for e.g. . We will be ok in the end, but it's not going to be the walk in the park that alot of people seem to expect.

Yep, it's a great tribute to us that we've managed to produce these young players whilst not even being a premiership side. I have no doubts that we'll see another ''golden'' player come through the ranks sooner rather than later, unfortunately whilst we are where we are we won't be able to enjoy them for long. That's why we need to get back to the prem asap - i don't want us to become a feeder club for prem sides.

Pugh would be a great shout, i can't imagine Bournemouth would be able to ''price us out'' of getting him. (no disrespect to them..) Dale jennings has apparently joined sunderland for 500k (will join in the summer)

That's one of the more believable rumours I've read. Wouldn't surprise me at all, guys a bad influence.