Badger

Are we sure we're not trying to sign that d!ck Tony Robinson from the Time Team ? Saxon ruins under St Mary's and all that.

Drawn in the group: So the prospect of playing against Barcelona, AC Milan and putting yourself in a window..."nah, f^ck it..I'll play against Blackpool and Peterborough instead...".

OK I'm convinced,lets sign him. I'm struggling to think of too many matching our criteria, and would not be surprised if we pulled one out of Europe that none of us have heard of.* *what is Zoltan Liptak up to these days ?

In saying that about his age and previous experience etc, rememember that Matt Elliott only got into top division football late in his career (although possibly a bit younger than 29) when he joined Leicester.At the time I questioned if he would be agood signing as Souness was chasing him.Just goes to show that we can not write off a player due to age etc if they don't fit in with the blueprint.

If true, Robinson is aged 29,no experience of promotion to the Premiership, and little time on his side to develop if we get there.Isn't this why we are said not to have pursued Gorkss ?

beat

Lat time I looked at the qualifying tables, Belgium looked as capable of qualifying for Ero's 2012 as England. Every now and then a 'smaller' footballing country produce a generation of good players, look at Denmark in the early 1990's as prime example. Belgium seem to be in that position now.

The article also mentions two injuries amongst their forwards, Patterson & Ings, from which I suspect they will be less likely to release another....except for £6m perhaps.

Reading the paper today,I see that Chris Baird is out of favour at Fulham. Could this be a possibility?

I'm sure you are right about this and whether NA believes they will take their place on the bus without upsetting others already on it by either attitude,application or wage demands. Probably referred to between NA and NC as to "do they pass the Puncheon test ?"

I can not believe that Pearce will get anywhere near the top job, after the McLaren fiasco even the dullards at the FA are not daft enough to appoint someone like Pearce.He can barely string a sentence together and his managerial experience is f^ck all. Pearce was appointed to the U21's in recollection of the chest thumping image he had,as a fop to those complaining about Crappello,and another bloody foreigner etc.

Definitely. Gorkss was ideally suited to play alongside Fonte; Fontaine as more of a ball playing CB was not. Hope we have another good - or better -option available.

Inclined to agree,as not convinced he is a significant step up from our current options. Great shame that an ideal option might have been Hobbs who has now gone to Hull.

Yes, he has been mentioned, and his side - Genk- also qualified for Champions league last night. So at first sight the CL with Genk or Championship in England might be a difficult choice.

Depends entirely on who we bring in and how they perform. Personally I think Gorkss was an ideal opportunity to bolster our defence with someone "proven".

Or a missed option...

Derby also rumoured to be after Waghorn although they are short of cash

Not the Jaidi clone we were hoping for then.

Hope you are right although the latest posts on the Fontaine thread suggest this deal is moving forward. Personally, I think it is a mistake to miss out on Gorkss who meets all the criteria for a CB to go alongside Fonte. I hope we can do better than Fontaine.

He plays for Gent (I assume Ghent as we would call it) not Genk.

Telegraph

Possibly why he might want to move to Brighton.

It's Pique we're after.

I think we should be told, it could affect morale in the dressing room.