S-Clarke

I think that's what we're trying to do John.

I still don't think this will be worth worrying about patred

Reckon we still hold an interest, or is this one dead now?

Alpine with another failed prediction. Have a look back at your posts on this thread, you have made yourself, once again, look like an absolute idiot with no perspective or knowledge of sport at any level. Anyway, I'll be gutted to see this end. It's been a great 2 weeks, I've watched sport that I never thought I'd watch! I think Team GB have been stunning, some of the gold victories have been pure theatre - last Saturday being one, an amazing day. Will be sad to see it finish, let's hope it closes as spectacularly as it opened.

Even with new signings we'd struggle to get anything here, so losing at City will not intensify the need for new signings.

We'll put in a good effort, but will end up losing 4 or 5-0. They are just too strong for us in every area, that's not a dis-service to us but our players just aren't at their level. In many ways this should be seen as a bonus match got out of the way nice and early.

Can't see that anyone has actually mentioned it, but Tadanari Lee was training with the lads at HT - looked very mobile, he wasn't a named substitute though so I guess the plan was to just ease him back into situations like this - but he looks like he's back in training anyway.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/7984849/City-agree-Rodwell-deal at least we can put that one to bed now. Surprised people actually suggested Rodwell at the start.

It was always going to be the case, it's all we will have now as certain posters will not be able to change their mindset from winning every week.

I don't think we've got anything to worry about. It's clearly the agent who has gone behind the clubs back and made contact with us (maybe because we couldn't make headway with their chairman?). We were then probably a little naive in opening a bit of dialog, but I can't imagine anything happening to us apart from a little slapped wrist. The agent could be in trouble though.

The 2 first goals were hit with such quality. Unlucky to get hit with 2 of that quality in any game. We could have done better with the 3rd and 4th's though, the 4th was the worst.

Possibly, but they were totally out of the blue. One of them was with so little backlift you wouldn't have even thought he'd be hitting it. Di Natalie is a player and a half, scores all sorts of goals. Best striker in europe right now in terms of goal ratio.

Holloway is just being a **** about it then, as he knows we'll probably take his best player.

Rickie seems increidly isolated, he's the sort of player that needs bodies all around him to pick up the scraps/flick on's. Tonight he won the ball and there wasn't anyone within 10 yards. Can't see any benefit of playing him in such an isolated role. If we are going to play him that way we need genuine pace on either flank to back him up, without that it's an ugly watch.

Both absolutely stunning strikes. Any GK would have done well to get near them.

Stick Lambert and Rodriguez up front together for a start. We're wasting £7m playing him in a position he clearly doesn't like. He scored 23 goals last year, so play him where he can get them. Simple.

We're missing a bit of pace in the final third to take us away from the oppo. It sounds simple, but that's pretty much it. Good build up, keep the ball nice enough and then we get to the final third where it stops. No penetration, no pace and it breaks down. If we had pace in behind we could be much more threatening, it's crucial we have that. What happened today will happen alot next season, we'll get games where we have a decent amount of the ball, but if we don't have the quality in and around the final third we will get picked off. I absolutely hate Jay Rodriguez on the left, a complete waste of his talents. Please sort that out NA.

They're both very poor championship players. If we signed either we'd be looking at relegation.

I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. I remember finding out at around 6 o'clock, thought it was a sick joke at first as it didn't sink in. Didn't know what to make of it, a complete jolt out of the blue. That was probably the most surreal and sad start to a season I can remember for a long time.

Or he could just play the ''we'll report you if you approach Phillips'' card to scare teams off...

The Baggies played that one quite well. They got him on loan last year when his demand was less as he didn't have an amazing season for Brum, in that loan they made it so it would become permanent next season for a reduced fee if all parties agreed. I believe it was actually less than £4m.

I'm struggling to see anyone else throwing abuse around, but you.

oh for christ sake apline, just STFU.

Yep, well we're apparently after Matt Phillips, that's a quality bit of activity...

He'll never answer a direct question anyway. Just paragraphs of weird comments, and aggressive remarks. Always avoiding the question.