S-Clarke

Don't think that has anything to do with it what so ever. There was a training ground confrontation during Christmas as well, which is why he mysteriously disappeared for a few weeks - only to then be followed by the FA Suspension. No idea who was involved, but I'm ITK on that one - it was a club cover up at the time to say he had an injury. He could have got himself Red carded against villa too. The fact of the matter is that the bloke is a mentalist, he is a time bomb and can explode at any time with anyone. It doesn't matter if the chairman had left or not.

What irritates me the most out of all of this...is as you said....he acts like a total ****** and gets a move to one of the biggest clubs in the world football. Go figure.

It's insignificant because up to now he has contributed the grand total of diddly squat to our season. And I doubt that would have changed this year. It's all well and good saying he's available, but it would help if he actually done something on the pitch, which he didn't really do at any point.

Good move in that sense. Maybe we can try and sign a decent £15m striker this summer? 2nd time lucky and all that..

As I said before....the players that got us off to our great start are all still here, all still playing and are all still available. (or will be within a week or 2) Barnard, Sharp, Puncheon, Fox, Lee wouldn't have made any different to anything this season. Osvaldo dug his own grave, not the clubs fault at all. If anything, the reason we look weaker at the moment is due to the injuries to Gaston and Lovren - not because of the pretty irrelevant bunch of departures.

It's because Cortese priced them out of moves, all the time. Barnard could have gone on a few occasions to L1/L2 clubs, but we wanted the 'loaning' club to pay 100% wages, which isn't possible for L1 and L2 clubs. Same was said for Martin, and only Palace managed to afford that last season. He was a better fit for one of the lower sides that came in for him tbf. We stuck a stupid price on Puncheon's head a year or so back, so he never managed to get his move. We've shown a bit of thought and allowed these players to get on with their careers, god knows why we weren't allowing that before, as there were certainly numerous attempts to take them all away from us at points over the last 18 months.

People are ignoring what was actually said. ''No one WHO I WANT TO KEEP will be sold'' We're clearing out players who haven't played for us in over 2 years. Martin, Barnard, Sharp. Puncheon wasn't here anyway......and Fox was barley included this year, and as all has been discussed already - isn't good enough anyway. We've allowed players to get on with their careers. For whatever reason Cortese demaded top dollar for everyone, so players who were no where near our first team were priced out of moves constantly. I don't see this as cost cutting, a fire sale or anything as drastic. I see it as the club showing a bit of feeling and allowing these unused players to continue their footballing careers. The only one who doesn't full into that category would be Osvaldo, but I think you can all say he made his own bed with this one. If he hadn't of done what he did, he'd still be here, but he decided to be a pillock and get himself shifted out. I don't think many will shed any tears at his departure. It would be nice to bring another in, I think we're still out there trying IMO. If we don't, although it's a little disappointing, it's not the end of the world. We're unlikely to move up a place, or drop a place, and the players who have contributed to our season so far are all still here and playing regularly. That's the important thing.

I think this is a fair view. We won't really have a better opportunity to give the young lads a run out in the biggest league it the world. And if we're honest, as much as having another attacking player would be ideal....we've still got Jay, Lallana, Lambert...midfield options of JWP, Davis, Cork, Morgan.....it really isn't a bad team, In fact it's still probably the best team I've had the pleasure of seeing in my lifetime.

It's a firesale

for me, a CB can wait for the summer. Lovren wont be too long anyway.

Ah, that's good news. Will relax our striker shortage a little! If anything, I think he's been struggling with it for the last few months anyway. He needed a bit of a rest, so who knows...he may come back firing!

Bit disappointed we don't look like replacing Osvaldo, or Gaston for that matter. With Lambert injured as well, we are so weak up top and it's not ideal. An injury to Rodriguez and we are in a bit of a tricky position. But if the right player isn't available at the right price, then we don't panic. We never have, so I doubt it'll change. There's no real need for us to panic by I guess, we'll either finish 9th or 10th. Hard to ignore the fact that we have ended the window a hell of a lot weaker squad wise than we started though (through injuries as well as departures), when I think most agreed we needed a bit more depth anyway!

I See barry is in full wum mode today, his last 2 threads kind of confirm that. Why is he allowed to carry on mods?

Fox leaving is a no brainer. He wasn't good enough. The issue will be having someone to cover his position, as Shaw does pick up a few niggly injuries. I Imagine though...Clyne is earmarked for that cover spot. He's not bad at LB!

lol, if we nick one of Liverpools targets again...

The fact Swansea have the nerve to offer such a pittance.

And we don't often grab players at a whim, all of our signings in recent years are ones we have a huge amount of information on - they're all targets for a period of time, in some cases - over 18 months. This is where you see the benefit of such a big scouting and player database system, when you need someone you don't have to panic - we have all the information available to us to make a sensible approach. So I think you're right, whoever we're after will have been a genuine target, whether or not Osvaldo left.

lol @ swansea. comedy hour in their board room by the looks of it.

They did well to get the 1.

Just a bit late SSN!

What an awesome stat.

Let's hope any potential new striker doesn't fly around in the air like him though.

Great result for Villa, what a ding-dong of a game! They were 2-0 down at one point! Looks like Mel is trying to do what MP did....coming in and implementing this brand new style. The thing is, you need the players to do it...we were fortunate that we had the likes of Morgan, Davis, Lallana, Jay etc who were absolute perfection for the style. Not quite sure the same can be said of WBA, they don't look that good - especially now that they got rid of long as well.

Yeah, that would be a let down to be honest. We were interested in the summer though, as I remember a few articles.

This is very true. We came close to winning it a while ago, but didn't. Yet that team still produced the likes of Dyer, Theo, Adam (I think), Bale was in and around it, Dexter, Craine..Mills....