S-Clarke

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.

I assume you're calling this a panic buy because it's someone you've never heard of?

If Jay starts the season well, he'll be in the England squad. The England scouts were heavily watching him at the back end of last season, his tail off in the last 6 games killed his opportunity for one of the friendless at the end of the season. Rickie isn't really being considered, same as why Grant Holt wasn't considered. Not sure why, but that's that. (Still baffles me how utter Dross like Boothroyd can get a cap though)

I've never really liked Wigan, they just annoy me. Spending years surviving in the PL, when no one gave a ****. Empty ground every week, silent stadium, away followings to rival Portsmouth's. I'm glad they're finally gone, because there are much better supported clubs who deserve a place in the PL. MK Dons. Kind of everything that's wrong about football. Moving a club miles and miles away from it's fans, yet trying to retain the old clubs history. Fair play to the AFC Wimbledon lot, would much prefer them to get back to where they once were and pass MK Don's on the way. The last thing you want is MK Don's to be mega successful, as it will give mental chairman the feeling that it's a good idea.

I'm going, couldn't help myself. A summer without football, snapped up the first tickets I could get..

These threads are quite funny though, I remember a similarish one from someone last year who was complaining about our transfer policy (Not signing enough big names). A week later we signed Gaston. Brilliant. The title seriously bugs me re: this thread though, ''Blame?'' ''Inactivity''?. Why are we appointing blame to anyone, what's gone wrong? And who is stupid enough to appoint blame when there are still 28 odd days to go? Exactly.

Quite like the look of him, although since De Ridder I'm struggling to take much from youtube these days! As said above, looks like the master of the tap in though. Very sharp, good touch. To be honest, these ''unknown'' players often turn out to produce more than the big names. Don't know why it works like that, less pressure and expectation on them maybe? I think it's clear we want a striker and it's been clear since last month. Openly trying for Damaio, Osvaldo etc. I would still be very surprised if we don't have a new forward come the end of the window, and I have a feeling we still have a fair bit of $$$ to use on one (taking into account the alleged money were putting forward for Osvaldo and Damaio, after the other transfers had been done) I think we've just got to be patient. It's not like we're going into the season as this mega-under-strength team, we're starting it stronger than we started it last year, so that's only going to be a positive.

Any reason you'd sign Zhirkov? didn't say anything during his spell in England that suggested he was actually any good. He's also been a flop for Anzi. Not a great player, lived on the hype of euro 2008 I think. I'd take Willian though, very talented brazillian. Think Spurs were seriously pushing for him at one point. He can play all over the front 4.

Traditional ADSL was as you said, copper all the way back to the exchange. The further you were away, the slower the speeds. The rollout to FTTC has been picking up in the last few years, it basically leaves the ''last hop'' as copper (i.e from the green cabinet to your house). But everything from the exchange to the green cabinet is fibre. Virgin also try to sell the fact that they're ''complete fibre'' - but that's not necessarily true. They're kind of the same, fibre to the green boxes and instead of copper it's coaxial cable from their green box to your front door. BT are starting to offer a fibre multicast service, which is basically fibre all the way to your front door. Only problem with that is it costs between 600-1500 to install (depending on your distance from the green box), and then there is a flat £500 install charge. Slightly out of reach for the majority of the country at the mo!

I think that's pretty much it. We know what we want, how we want to do it, and who we want to do it for us. No slap-dash/anyone is good enough approach from us.

Well, look at it this way. Would we have expected to compete/win those games last year, with the likes of Jay, Rickie, Morgan, Cork, Shaw, Clyne, Puncheon, Lallana, Gaston etc...? The answer is probably yes. The general feeling that buying, buying, buying improves the chances of winning is misguided to say the least. Continuity, team work and consistency go alot further. How do we look this year? We've got 2 international/champions league level players injected into the spine of the team whilst not actually losing anyone. So we start the season stronger than we finished it, even if we don't sign anyone else before hand. I still think we'll get a striker though, not necessarily before the first game.

Confused as to why you are jealous of Sunderland's approach. They've signed lots of players, mostly unknowns to be honest, in the hope that they'll gel together and work. Who knows? We've had one of the better windows in the PL. Let's just spot acting spoilt

You won't get a proper answer.

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We've actually had one of the better summers of teams in the PL. Check out all the opposition forums. They all say ourselves and Norwich have made the best buys. Not necessarily lots of buys, just upgrading the quality in key areas of the team. We'll probably buy 1 more as well, and I imagine our summer spend will be around the £30m mark. You also forget the bonus of having an academy like ours, we don't need to spend lots on squad players. Chambers and Isgrove will both be regular members of the first team next year and will add to what we have. It really does make the you sound like a spoilt brat when you demand more, more, more, more. Be grateful we still have the likes of Morgan, Shaw, Cork, Clyne to call upon for next season - and we're still able to commit to £20m without selling. It wouldn't have been like that a few years ago, and isn't like that for a lot of teams in the PL.

Would expect the AMC area to hit 10 goals max.

He'll go eventually, but it'll rumble on for a while yet. Reckon spurs will end up getting 80 odd million for him, which is insane. Shame though, he was such good value to watch as a neutral and was a pretty big plus to the english game.