S-Clarke

We're playing some great stuff when we have the ball, working through the thirds of the pitch with a real slickness. Just no final chance as yet.

I think we've always been prepared to pay what Internactional want. Still expect it to be around £20m.

Don't quite buy that argument. Lallana got the ball where he wanted it, so did Cork, so did Morgan, so did Chambo when he was here. The fact is that he didn't really know how to take up a position, find space or actually use space when he had the ball. Lots of blind alleys were formed when he had it. He was a good enough lad, nothing against him at all, but there wasn't any talent there in my opinion.

You need to look at why these clubs are near the top of the ''buying league''. Sunderland needed a overhaul, they had a squad filled with utter dross, and if they didn't want to be facing relegation this season - they needed to strengthen. For us, the need is there, but not as a great. We're in a fortunate position to already have some real talent in the core 11 and the key factor being their ages. We've signed players who upgrade the squad in the specific area's and promoted youth to create competition in other areas of the pitch. That's another factor - we have a great academy who produce players that are good enough to play at the level we're at. So no need to panic, and a lot of reason to actually be pretty optimistic with our set up. Many clubs would snap our hands off for similar.

For a winger, I've never seen someone so useless when it comes to deliveries. And also so completely clueless with decision making. There was a reason he wasn't selected or given a continuous run, it was because he was an utterly hopeless footballer.

He's come on leaps and bounds in the last year. Looks a very accomplished player, more than capable of playing a squad role this year. If we're not signing competition at full back, the next best thing is to promote the youth to create the competition. Luckily for us, we continue to produce class youth players.

Ah, should have realized the jist of your post was based on Lambert not being in the team.

I don't necessarily think that means he's playing on his own though, Puncheon and Lallana will be expected to support him on every opportunity in that formation. In fact, i'd expect very little width and more of a dynamic 2 playing behind Jay. (maybe puncheon being the player who pulls out wide now and then)

Good move for the lad. Way too good for Bournemouth to be honest.

Why on earth is everyone so confident on Damiao all of a sudden? Has something changed/news broken? I'll admit i've not really been around much this week to keep up to date with it all....but here and other forums, people are talking as if he's ours....but I can't find any news stories to suggest he is?

That's probably going to be a wasted trip!

To be fair, that post made more sense than any of Barry Sanchez's offerings.

The problem with these ''pre-season'' predictions is that they're all too often based on the run in last year. We had a good end to the season, so ultimiatley we finished the season with most pundits looking at us in a positive light. Same with Charlton, they went on a mega run at the back end of last year. But these predictions are pretty much foundation-less, it's hard to say anything until the windows closed and we're a few weeks in. A new signing for a club in 17th could easily propel them into the top 10, that's how tight that area of the PL is for example.

I dunno, Gazzaniga isn't bad really. I quite like him as a GK.

Nothings going to happen. Neither Monk or K,billy have posted!

Probably a small minority, but a few ''neutrals'' who I speak to claim the GK position being our weakest position, which confused me somewhat. I think if anything it's one of our strongest area's.

And the question was, have they actually signed Quagliarella yet? The answer is no. therefore your thread is utterly pointless. You also fail to remember that Norwich actually sold Holt in the summer and Simeon Jacskon, so they're replacing and upgrading on those. We already have Jay and Rickie, we need 1 more, but that will come. Ah **** it, what's the point. You're only a wum.

An academy as prolific as ours will always have players that slip by the wayside, but end up having good careers for themselves. This is pretty much a non-story to be honest.

As with most of your posts last season, they're completely outlandish and wrong. He shouldn't be captain, that I agree with, but to say he's not PL standard and should be loaned out to a ''lower league team'' is comical to say the least. He would walk into most of the PL sides in the bottom half of the league.

I don't have anything against Lallana at all, and I don't believe any of our fans do. He can just be very frustrating and 'powerpuff'' on all too many occasions. But he has talent and ability above a lot of English players, so let's cut him some slack. One thing though, he isn't a captain. That's my main gripe. Please take the captaincy off of him.

That's sadoldgit I think.

Having Lallana as captain limits the team so much IMO.

Can't really make such a strong judgement in that case tbh. By all accounts, he was swanseas best player on their return to the PL. If he had just had a similar season at Swansea and we were linked to him, I think the general reaction would be ''wow''. He's a good player, who has completely lost his way whilst chasing the $$$$$. We can bring him back to earth.

Pretty much how I feel, although there's still plenty of time and we're clearly very active. 2 or 3 ''better'' players could make a huge difference to the entire makeup of the squad and the options available to us on the bench.

We need more quality and depth to finish in the top 10. With the current crop we'd probably still be in a relegation battle next year, we'd probably survive and be around 15/16th again. That's not because we have loads of bad players, it's because our 'best' players won't be available to play all year and the cover that has to come in simply isn't good enough at this moment in time (I'm sort of talking about the striking department more than most, but we also lack quality depth at full back). We'll sort that out though, as i'm sure the club is more than aware. We do have a good 11 though, but it's a ''strong squad'' which gets you through a long-hard season, not just the 11. I know we can't have world beaters in every position, but Fox is simply not good enough cover in the PL and Yoshida isn't good enough cover for RB, ever. Think we could do with a proper utility defender who can cover both full back positions and even CB if required.