S-Clarke

What I do know is that if Madrid, Barca, Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea came calling for me, and offered me a £100k p/w pay rise, then I'd go - no matter who was flaming in charge, and no matter what he said about CL football. After the season we had it was always going to be hard, no matter who was at the helm, and unfortunately it seems as if NC wimped out of it - as if this would have occurred under him, he knows the backlash he would have got. It's clever in a way, as he now looks like the genius and the guy who held it all together. But he used KL's money to do so, and once that wasn't forthcoming as readily as he hoped, he wasn't interested in any more. To me, he bailed on us and wimped out of this inevitable difficult summer - no matter how well he did in the last 5 years.

I think what we are seeing is just a normal football occurrence, this is what will happen to 'un-fancied' and provincial clubs if they over achieve and have a cracking season. The players will gain interest and their heads will be turned, bids will arrive and best players will be poached. Athletico Madrid won La Liga, yet they're being pulled apart as well. If you're not a Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd, Man City, Madrid, Barca, Bayern, PSG (part of the elite group etc etc) then you have to kind of admit defeat when those clubs come sniffing for your players, no matter how well you've done the previous season. You can reject the bids all you like, but all you'll be left with is a player sulking and stamping his feet because he will know full well what was on offer in terms of $$$. It's the sad reality of the modern game. Clubs like ourselves can enjoy a season like last year once in a blue moon, because we will get stripped apart on the back of it. It does leave a sour taste, but that's how it works these days. But lets be honest, we've had 5 years of unprecedented success - it's been an epic ride, but now we've reached the top of that ride and clubs are seeing our young lads now performing at the highest level at a really high level. The only way it could be any different is if we were owned by a zillionaire who was prepared to bankroll us, but we're not - so we have to accept this situation.

It does kind of make a mockery of this financial fair play malarkey. How exactly is it promoting fair play? It will just allow the clubs like Man Utd and Man City to drift further and further and further away, doesn't allow anyone else to even get close due to ''fair play''. Yeah, nice one PL.

Post of the decade. As sad as it is to read!

Totally different situations, not a like what so ever. The only reason some fans are seeing the likeness is because our new manager is dutch. The main, huge difference here is that we will reinvest the money into first team players. Sure, some young guys will be promoted - but we're in a position to purchase, which we weren't at the time of the dutch 2. Oh, and we were also floating around in the bottom half of the NPC.....!

Some ITK Spurs fans are suggesting that himself and Lovren will join once the WC is over - and once they've shipped out Dawson, Vlad Cheritsis (sp) and Sandro - with Napoli keen on the later. That would leave an incredibly sick taste in the mouth, if I'm honest. Anywhere but there. I can understand players moving to Man Utd, L'Pool, Barca, Arsenal. But Spurs? come on.

Luke Shaw's short little ''thanks to southampton'' was pretty pointless to be honest, he does come across as a bit of dumbass to be fair. But the club aren't going to be flashing around bigger contracts for players who only signed new contracts last year, they're already on a decent whack for a club of our size - I don't think we're in a position to offer a great deal more, certainly not what Liverpool and Man Utd can offer - so in that sense, the players heads will be turned and it then is with the club to ensure they get the best possible deal and most importantly - correctly reinvest it.

This is one I don't expect to happen, I think we need to play hard ball with this. But if it's a case of him really wanting to leave, then what can we do? When a player makes it clear they want to leave, and there is legitimate interest for big money from big clubs, then you kind of have no real choice but to do what's best. And I do know that the club is hoping to absorb some of the sales with academy kids (Tagget/Mcqueen/Reed/JWP/Gallagher), that's kind of been common knowledge in and around people at staplewood anyway. It does have some worrying similarities with our infamous ''Let's rely on DMG/BWP/Ryan Smith'' season - but I think we've got more about us this time and I still think we'll be ok. I know I said it earlier, but it makes me damn frustrated that we didn't actually achieve anything with all these great players. We could lose Lovren, Shaw, Morgan, Lallana, Lambert, Jay and earn like £100m - yet the side never won anything! It's damn frustrating because it was bloody well good enough to do so. Blame for me lies with MP for that one, god knows what his intentions were from January onwards, but it certainly wasn't long-term planning with us.

He may well be right, but what from today actually proves that?

I think we're a bit more shrewd than that. Being a dutch manager doesn't mean he just signs dutch players by the way....he will have contacts all over the world. I'm sure RK has been briefed on these deals, because he's been told he will be able to reinvest the fees to replace the players that are going. Personally, I believe Shaw and Lallana have been done for a while in all but signatures, I'm sure RK was aware when he got the job that they were not going to be around. The Lovren/Morgan/Cork/Fonte situations are slightly more interesting and RK may have a little more pull in that area.

Umm, slightly OTT. Shaw and Lallana were always going to leave, fact. Deal with it. It was just up to us to get the best deal, on the clubs terms and in the clubs time-scale - which they have done. He will have failed if we have sold Shaw, Lallana, Morgan, Lambert, Lovren, Osvaldo, Gaston and not replaced any of them come 31st of August - but you'll get amazing odds on that.

In the background are the temporary huts which they used at staplewood.

It's obvious we're interested, I think now pre-season is almost upon us this will accelerate. Didn't Les Reed say we had no contact from clubs back in May for our players? Exactly. Doesn't mean the club isn't interested, they're probably waiting until our sales have gone through before making an official approach. Ings and Pelle as our 2 striking additions for the summer, to compliment Gallagher and Jay - not bad, more fire power than last season if we're honest (Write Osvaldo off, as I don't think he was ever really here!).

Griezmann is probably out of our league TBH. Caulker would be quality though, forget last season and look at how he did with Swansea a few years back - top quality. Shawcross would cost too much and is a bit of a lumbering oaf to be honest. Rodriguez is my personal pick to replace Shaw...but reckon it will be Kolo.

How can you accidentally bump a thread from 5 years ago???

No ****.

Nope, not claiming ITK on that....! It's been obvious this is going to happen for weeks.

I think most people do rate him, to be honest. Back in our L1 days there were some who probably didn't, but I'd say that 99% of our fan base would say he's easily one of our best players now.

£8-10m apparently. Probably a tad more than I'd personally value him at, but then how much was Bony from the same league? about £13-14m I think? He could fail, or he could be an absolutely epic edition. The bonus is that the manager knows him, and he knows the manager. Could work out well. (or it could be an Osvaldo....!)

I prefer to refrain from shouting it, as it only goes tits up then. Let's just wait and see.

Credible, I think. Same person who broke the Gaston story to me a few years back - take a look through the archives, still proud of that being my 1 and only ITK claim to fame.

How do you make it £45m out of interest? Please show your workings.

Jesus, now you've done it...

Who do you expect out of interest?