S-Clarke

At least we have a healthy football debate on here for once!

Yep.

Don't do it to yourself Saint Garrett! He had an excellent season last year, despite many saying that it's time for him to go and move to the MLS. He was probably one of the best midfielders over the course of last season. Consistently in 15 or more goals from central midfield. We need to make the most of having a player of his quality in an England shirt, as beyond him in the short-term...there's no one anywhere near his class.

They still need someone who can score.

I think you're misreading Alpine here. I don't think he's suggesting Andy Carroll is a better player, just that he'd be picked if he was fit - which is right. I think it's more of a dig at the Enlgish FA than Lambo himself. It's not a PR stunt though...

Let's hope he's not injured this time We're not exactly going to have anyone in the build up to the West Brom game...

I remember watching that the evening it broke. A rovers fan came on here to say he'd heard, and it spiraled from there. I remember coming home for lunch on the Monday and i think Tik-Taks was breaking it? Went back to work buzzing....I think he just felt the right signing at the right time for so many reasons, and boy did it pay off.

Southampton FC ‏@SouthamptonFC2m We are delighted to announce that Rickie Lambert has been named in the England squad for next Wednesday's game against Scotland. #saintsfc Expand

Holy jesus.

True, but there have never been many positive stories about this fella. He's either falling out with the fans due to his poor form, getting remmoved from the squad for a period of time, or beating up his team mates...

Yep, he's a nutter. Also, he's only scored 14 goals in 70 games for Werder Bremen . Great. Worth every penny of £13m...

Good stuff Bear, hope you can keep this up for all the games this season! A nice refreshing read!

tbf it would have been easier to just setup a free account. Doubt you'll get any decent responses to this now.

Think it's Dune.

I'll take that as a no then.

I think we're after a top striker and had a decent budget. Damaio and Osvaldo are probably only 2 of the players we've been looking at. Obviously, being higher profile, they were able to leak out.

Ok, so if people are using the argument that scoring goals in the dutch league means nothing, and that you're rubbish, why are people creaming themselves over Bony? Swansea paid £14m for a player who scored goals in the dutch league.

Why would we need McCarthy? Does he replace Morgan, Cork or Wanyama?

Do you know all about him then? Seen all his goals? Watched him for 90 minutes? Have you compared all 3 with him? If not, it's an utterly stupid thing to say as it's an argument based on zilch. People also seem to be forgetting the simple fact that Sunderland didn't have any strikers (Fletcher still injured). Norwich sold Martin, Holt, Jackson. They needed strikers. We could do with a striker, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's a game stopper, because we already have players such as Jay and Rickie who would walk into most of the teams around us in the table. Some people may not take that, but I think both of those guys are better than the players the other clubs have signed.

Lots of hype over McManaman because he's quick, runs at players. Didn't necessarily see a lot of football brain last year in some of the stuff he did, lots of running for the sake of it. He'll learn though I'm sure, clearly a good player, but I think another season of NPC football will be a better bet for him. Ince is a much better player fwiw, and he's not even ''amazingly'' good.

Yeah, absolutely. This is an already cash rich Napoli, who have just had a cash injection of £55m!

I love it how plays such as Remy, Hooper and Altidore have all of a sudden become world beaters, when I know for well that if we'd signed them - they wouldn't have been good enough. Same people would have been moaning. Exactly the same happend last year with Reading. Everyone jizzing their pants at Pavel Pogrebnyak, Guthrie, McCleary, Gunter. ''Look at Reading, they know what they're doing''.. Umm, yep, they did indeed. Flops galore.

I think there's a reason why no one has actually signed him yet, even clubs with lots of history and money (Napoli, Spurs). For e.g., It's been Spurs transfer saga for 3 seasons now. It's only been this summer where they haven't really been involved. I think it's a seriously complex deal due to third partys, %'s to everyone on his contact list. It's not like we're the only club who failed to get this one over the line.

Spoilt brat syndrome is in full flow.

Just been reading through their forums. Lots are impressed with Redmond (who I like a lot, think he was a snip at £3m). Although they seem to attributing ''lazy'' to Lory Fer (after 1 game, quite funny). and RWV didn't do a great deal, other than score a tap in. Their description of Hooper was a more mobile version of Holt.