S-Clarke

His career is down the pan. He's just picked up by the big clubs as their 4th striker, quite a cheap loan, good cover on the bench. Job done. I personally think he's ****.

That's such a comedy centre back pairing, to be honest! Still too close to the first 11...

Germany may have Schweinsteiger Özil, Spain may have Iniesta Xavi, but Ireland have Long Cox

When you see Kroos going for £20m, then Lallana @ £25m was excessive. Mainly down to the sell on stuff, but it was excessive. Very talented player, but if you're basing fee's on ability then he's probably only a 10-15m player tops. Shaw to Utd for £30m is insane, would love him back, but he's yet to show he's worth anywhere near £30m. Chambers at 16m was excessive, long-term potential there granted, but still excessive.

I wouldn't say he's a very average player. I think some people will be very surprised, he'll become a fans favourite I reckon.

Long will achieve more in his first 6 months than Osvaldo did here. Osvaldo was the meh signing if anything.

To be fair, I've learnt to ignore anything that comes out of his mouth. I suggest everyone else does the same!

I believe those people are on day-release from Tatchbury Mount.

And it's a good point on Osvaldo, we spent all bloody summer chasing a player who clearly never wanted to come here - it was obvious from all the media snippets we could see. Up to £15m squandered on a player who scored less goals than Shane Long did last season, and that was for 2 clubs. Osvaldo was a name, and I think that's half the issue. Some fans just want us to sign names, they may not be any good, but his name is popular and pretty.

Flogged our stars for excessive fee's, you'd say. So you can't expect us not to receive the same treatment. And he's not dross, costing £12m doesn't mean he's dross. If he's not a dross signing at 800k, then he's not a dross signing at 12m. He's a good player who will add to this team. Fact.

No, it won't. You've got to cut the ties from last season, it's the only way you can look forward. We won't be as good or as exciting to watch, I've accepted that.

In essence, the frustration and 'meh' feeling surrounding this deal is regarding the fee. If you remove the fee and suggest we've picked him up on a free transfer, then I think 90% of us would think that's a fantastic free signing. As in terms of a player, he will add quality and attributes which we are currently missing. Just ignore the fee, in this day and age of football the fee's are kind of irrelevant in terms of judging a players capability.

He's a winger, not a striker.

He's a player, sign him up. Would be a coup.

Fair enough, but he's got a bit more to his game than just goals tbh. According to Simpson in the echo, he has been a player we've tracked for a year or so anyway - so this isn't necessarily a signing that heralds a new era for us, just one player that has been on our list and we've taken a punt on him now. Possibly 6 months too late though....but never mind, he'd probably be in Liverpool by now if we'd signed him in January.

We would tear the skates a new one, no 2 ways about it.

[video=youtube;HK4uCBj-ylM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK4uCBj-ylM Looks every bit a Rodriguez style player to me based on those clips. He's not exactly dross, either.

He's one of their 4 CB's, Sunderland tried but Chelsea wanted to keep him within their squad.

I've said all summer, Spurs simply have no money. They can only buy players when they're offering their own in exchange. The amount they spent last year was criminal and it shows that there are right and wrong ways from spending a transfer fortune.....there's was the wrong way, for sure! They signed lots of fancy exciting foreign players, but the only one who had any success is Erikson. I think our transfers this window have the potential to have much more overall success than there's did last year.

If Shane Long was coming from Serie A, with a fancy foreign name like Shanz Longes, then after watching some youtube videos I'm sure people would be excited. It's so spot on what was said above, players we've never heard of are world beaters - we need to sign him etc, but solid signings like this are dross? We should know all about him, he's ripped us apart a few times!! As I've said, only issue is the fee. But do not dismiss him as a player, he's a decent addition and will improve us in an area where we were weak. Mid-table is where we are now, so this is what it is.

He's only on 80k a week...

Then I'm glad you're not on our scouting team. What has Wickham ever done to be this highly rated? He has been shockingly **** for Sunderland, bar a run of 6 games - big bloody deal. He didn't even do it on loan in the NPC - last season. Good player he may be, but he's not £10m, £1-2m tops as a proper backup player.

I think we'll get Long and Florin in this week, and we'll then hear the generic lines about us monitoring the market to see what is available and being 'Ready to act'. It's a damn huge gamble though if we just get 1 cb, who has just recovered from a 4 month lay off! If he gets injured, welcome to the NPC.

It would be a pretty dumb move though, if we're honest. If we hadn't sold half of our team I'd agree with you, but the issue is that we need a striker with PL experience. If we fill up the squad with players who have potential then we are ****ed, as we have no time to wait for them to adjust like we had with Jay.