S-Clarke

2 games in 10 weeks?!?!, everyone out!

Just seen that it's actually an initial 12m, and could rise to £15m.

Ross McCormack for £12m is utterly insane, there's no long-term planning in that at all. He's not a PL player, good championship goal scorer, but he'll be carted off as quick as billy sharp was if they come up. Fair play if they can afford to waste that amount of money though.

From what I can tell, Redmond will be given a free-ish role in and around a set striker (such as Austin/Long). I don't see him being used as a striker by the book, but it seems that Puel see's something in him which makes him more than just a tricky wide player. I'm inclined to totally trust his opinion given his history with the likes of Henry, Hazard, Ben Arfa etc.

He's only worth 750k on my version of football manager FFS! Pied OUT!

We've been crying out for a decent permanent GK cover in the PL since we've been back. Now we've sorted it.

Cedric needs a consistent run in the side, he was dropped at times last year for no reason what so ever. I don't think Koeman fancied him for whatever reason, and Martina was obviously a Koeman favorite. (albeit Ewin) What he lacks in height, he makes up for in tenacity and effort - he gives us a great attacking outlet too.

West Ham flying around with bids for any left back.

You have to take into account the signing on fee's, agents fees and the like. These new contract renewals don't come cheap and a lot of our resource this year has been directed here by the looks of it.

I think the club are seemingly using the increased TV revenue and sponsorship's to tie down the core of our team. That is showing ambition as far as I'm concerned - long term.

What on earth are you on about now?

BREAKING NEWS Sky sources: West Brom have agreed a fee of £16m with West Ham for striker Diafra Sakho.

I read that Gardos has a slight back problem, expected to be back in training within the next week or so.

We can't be impotent up top if we finished in the top 6. Palace were impotent, so were Norwich. We can have room for improvement, for sure, as everything can - but impotent and abysmal are ridiculous words to use.

Probably. None of the finalists are back with their teams yet. Just a case of giving them a standard rest, I'm sure they're both professional enough to have kept their fitness up though.

How many logins do you have Charlie? Bit odd, maybe we could have a cull of 10+ irritating posters in one hit.

Ashley Williams is actually a really good signing if they pull it off. A lot better value than the fella from Napoli.

Well, we clearly haven't been atrocious. We finished 8th, 7th and 6th. You can't be atrocious in the final third and finish that high.

We can't seem to get near them, and when we do get the ball we give it away just as quick.

Didn't take Charlie long to get back to old ways of trying to stoke the posters.

It's Jonathan Calleri - only a loan though.

Not PL, but Wolves have appointed Walter Zenga as manager.......safe to say their reactions are as bemused as ours were when he was linked.

The transfer window this summer shows up the failings of Chelsea and Utd more than anything. Both of those clubs had the players on their books, 18 months - 2 years ago. Now they're paying insane money to get them back. Just the mentality of wanting it all now, haven't got time to develop the player etc etc. If they were as clever as Bayern, Real or Barca...they'd insert buy back conditions on the players they let go, so they wouldn't have to negotiate these stupid fees.

Sounds like this is the start of a potential partnership with Rayo too.

What is ambition to you though? It doesn't always equal $$$$$$$. I agree with the post above, we've shown long-term ambition - a lot of it. New training ground, massive emphasis on the backroom setup at the club, finances spent on bespoke ways of doing things, investment in young players and the academy. To me, that is huge long-term ambition. Short-term ambition, i.e WHU and Everton and their £30m striker hunts may get you 1 or 2 exciting seasons, but it can all come crashing down as quickly as it was put up. Showing ambition by being sustainable and planning for the long-term is a much bigger recipe for success. The last two seasons have gone to prove that the club has it spot on behind the scenes, the investment in that area is showing on the playing field. I think I support a very ambitious club and one which lives within it's means.