S-Clarke

If I'm honest, our attendances this year haven't really strengthened the argument for us needing a mega stadium. Against the top sides we'll always sell out, as quite often neutrals come along to see the ''big players''. It's how it works in the top league. Our attendances against the likes of Wigan , our first game back in the PL in 7 years, wasn't a sell out. At this moment in time a 50k stadium would be embarrassing for us. Would look like MK Don's ground with all the top tiers empty!

What's he said wrong in that? I'm reading it but can't see anything I disagree with! He's been pretty reasonable...? I think it's fair to say that if Man Utd click, they will score a fair few against us.

And then we've got to keep hold of our star players. Which on it's own is impossible when the big players come in. Clubs who have been in the top 4 recentley - Everton and Spurs for e.g. , can't even keep their top players - which is why even they are finding it hard to sustain a top 4 position. They sort of fliter in and out.

I think we'd need to improve every area of the team. There are even plenty of players in our 11 at the moment who would need to be replaced in order for us to achieve it. People will say that Everton got there etc, but that was before Man City decided to get rich. Football has changed a hell of a lot in 7 years. In the current day and age we'd need to spend 100m+ to get close. So, 30m in every summer for the next 5 years - whilst keeping hold of the stars - might mean it's possibly, but it's still such a long shot. We're still Southampton at the end of the day, and no matter what people say we will never be able to stop our star players leaving for Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd, Real Madrid etc...so that in it's own will stop us IMO. Great ambition, but I'm still of the opinion that he's incredibly far fetched. We can wait for the academy to produce the standard, and it may well get us there, but in a decade..maybe. Not 5 years. We'd need enormous investment.

Probably because it's not owned by the club as such, it's owned by Sky and they have the rights to do what they want with it. From their point of view, staggering it out a bit makes more sense from a viewer point of view. If they put it all out online then they'd get less people watching the TV! It gives them a little more content as well, which could run for a few weeks - rather than playing it all at once, in the same day.

tbf they've probably just got another installment on the Rodwell deal, that will be worth up to £20m when all is paid up. They didn't spend much of that in the summer.

Peter Madsen

Newcastle have strengthened, for sure. But what have reading done? They've been linked with Ince...that's it. I think Harry thought he could go all out and buy lots of ''big players'' for ''big money'' - but it's not as easy as he thought, as the club is very unattractive if we're honest. They've only signed 1 player of note as yet.

At the end of the day I want my football club to do well. I don't want to see us losing and falling through the leagues. I think I'm in the same boat as most fans there. I trust Cortese on the football side of things. It'll be interesting to see if his latest brave gamble plays off, but by going by his recent decisions - it probably will.

If we want to go to retro - Killer in his prime alongside Fonte would be pretty immense. Currently playing players.....Bale in a heartbeat. Best left sided player in world football.

So basically, you'll re-asses if we're doing well or not? If we're successful you'll come running back.

At the end of the day, I've also been told by people at the club that NC is a right **** - a nasty bit of work. You can see that with his decisions, he doesn't care and he will do what it takes to get what he wants. That's how people become successful at the end of the day. You don't become a success by letting others change your views, he's sure in what he wants at the end of the day. I'm basing this solely on football, as he's the chairman of my football club, but he's not done anything wrong so far. He backs the managers, enables us to attract players like Ramirez and invests in state of the art training facilities. He's not got a lot wrong on that front since he's been here. The Adkins sacking was harsh, and it still doesn't make 100% sense, but based on his record of footballing decisions I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. The MLT and NC-gate will keep rumbling on, both sides need to get together and bang their heads together here - but I'm not even going to get into this one. At the end of the day, NC may not be a person you want to spend the night down the pub with, but based on what he's done I trust him with the future of my football club. Whether that makes me a CoC or whatever, I couldn't give a ****.

The FA Cup looks excellent this year. Lots of decent sides out, gives the opportunity for a lower league side to go all the way. That's a great draw for Luton as well! I fancy them for the quarters...

Totally, it just takes a decent scouting network and you can pickup some gems. I mean, Gaston Ramirez - 12m, or Jordan Henderson - 18m? It doesn't even comprehend in my mind how you'd even come to the conclusion he was even worth half that. I'm not saying he's a bad player, he's decent enough, but the prices will just hang over those players heads and the clubs heads. Bizarre management really. It must be upwards of £100m spent on players who have made them worse. I can't think of anything like that ever happening in my lifetime!

"King Kenny" decided to waste a lot of money though, and Rogers has to really try and make that work - but it's not going to happen. You'll never turn Henderson into an £18m player, Downing will never be a £15m player, Andy Carroll will never be a £35m player. You hoped they'd have learned, but they decided to spend £16m on Joe Allen - who is a good player, but never, ever, ever worth that. And the £10m on Borini just compounds things. Whoever sanctioned those transfers at those prices needs to be hung, and driven out of football. It's a criminal waste of money and it will hang over Liverpool for a long, long time.

Has he even scored for them yet? I know he's been injured for a bit, but he was **** even before his injury. I can't believe they splashed £10m on that....wtf? He did well for Swansea in the CCC, but that's it. He's not done it at a higher level, and going by this season, doesn't look like he's going to be the player Brendon hoped he'd be. Just looks like a bog standard promoted championship player to me.

I believe the tough times with us have made him a better and stronger individual, as well as a more rounded player. You forget he's only 23 because he plays with such a mature head on his shoulders, far from the raw but talented 18 year old who played against West Ham in the friendly back in 2008. That was the first time I saw Morgan, it was his pre-season debut and you couldn't help but be impressed. He had poise on the ball, agility and balance - and at times ran rings around the more experienced players he was against. At that moment I think we were all looking forward to what we believed would be a good season. That season wasn't one for a player like Morgan though, not as raw as he was - and he got harsh criticism when it was really a case of him being thrown into the pit. He never lost that talent though. League 1 made him as a player. It allowed him to become that focal point in our midfield, and allowed him to gain a winning confidence in a foreign league. He got stronger, more mature in his play and was then combining it with his undoubted technical qualities. If there was one criticism you could have labeled at him, it was his lack of adventure and his lack of goal threat - but that's changed now. He's as box to box as you'll find, and moves around the pitch with an ease and a purpose that you can't ignore. Always an elegant midfield player, he has now matured into the cultured leader that many of us hoped he'd be.

I still feel we need a winger if I'm honest. There's no competition behind Puncheon and Lallana what so ever, that worries me. Guly has done a good shift out there to his credit, but I'd love more options down the flanks in terms of pace. We don't really have the ability to change it in the wide area's from the bench, what we start with is pretty much what we've got. CB is ok now, Forren looks like a talent. Fonte has proven himself alongside Yoshida to be competent at this level. Luke Shaw has fixed left back single handily, and Boruc has at last proven we have a capable keeper without needing to panic buy in that position this month. So all in all - 1 more signing, an attacking wide player with pace.

Not sure. There's too much in front of him, and he's at an age where he needs to be playing to continue his development. I find it hard to actually describe him as one of our young players anymore. He's a decent player, but not in the same league as Bale/Lallana/Ox/Shaw. Will probably turn into a decent Championship player.

This quote from Yesterday is almost word for word what he said after Mansfield. "I gave them a chance today because they knock on my door and say they should be playing and other people tell me they are all good players," the former Tottenham boss said. "Well, they got their chance today and they blew it. It answers questions - not for me because I already knew the answer, but for other people. Today they saw the answers."

So Granero isn't world class anymore then? As you bullishly stated back in the summer, along with Park Ji- Sung. Now they've been downgraded to the ''reserves'' I see. I think your spending in the summer and last January was always going to land you in this position.

Watched a bit of the game live, Man Utd didn't have to be that good to beat Fulham today. Fulham were simply atrocious, no effort or work rate anywhere on the pitch. They were lucky it was only 4.

Guly has been fine. Don't jump on the bandwagon.

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http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11669/8440657/Liverpool-are-closing-in-on-the-signing-of-Inter-Milan-winger-Philippe-Coutinho