S-Clarke

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.

One of the worst centre forwards I've ever seen in my life. Utterly hopeless. With a scoring record comparable to Benali, and we don't need squad players anyway. Would be a pretty pointless signing.

4-1 FT (on penalties that is). Pretty annoying, dominated the game for 90% pretty much. Didn't convert the chances we had, look very slick up until the final third but lack idea's at times. Wouldn't say no to a Banega and Damiao type signing in the next few weeks.

Our penalties are horrific. What a rubbish result after dominating the game.

Think this has been a really good outing, we look so much better than them. Frustration stems around the same area's as last year - our faluire to convert chances. A signing of the level of Damiao could complete this team, as everything else looks very slick.

The A-Team theme for the half team walk out, love it

What a miss.

Stream is kind of unwatchable now, annoying.

Gaston looking pretty class out there so far.

What the holy **** jay rodriguez? what the **** was that? we need a striker.

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.