tajjuk

No they wouldn't, they are now one of the top earning clubs in the world (6th highest on revenue). They sell more shirts than Liverpool, Bayern Munich and AC Milan, Arsenal, Junventus and Inter. Man City are already 12th on Revenue. Both clubs are established enough now that they would still be big european clubs without the backiing.

Yeh this. They were also battered against Chelsea and Spurs. Essentially they have decided to park the pus and see if that works but it's not picking up the points especially as Reading have got a few wins in the bag recently.

Decent year in year out investment (i.e. have an established prem squad, add one or two quality signings a year effectively two ramirez's or equivalent) , luck with youth products, make the most money possible out of any forced sales (i.e if Chelsea want to buy someone like Shaw, we sell him for Rooney level money not Bale level money), increase marketing, merchandising and other off-field commercial activities to increase turnover, get more fans in (probably need a cup win in there somewhere). Do all that then In 7 or 8 years or so we might be challenging top 4 if no new Man City's come into the league. Essentially we have do what Spurs have done since Levy took them over in 2001. They were a bigger 'name' in 2001 than we are now so that's an advantage and they have the attraction of London. We seem to have a more productive academy and don't have to build a new stadium like them. I think these days this is becoming less important.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21228424 Think he'll stay, Blackpool aren't going up this year they are 14th, 10points adrift of play offs. He'll go in the summer.

1 win, 2 draws out of the last 6. Against Man City who have won 5 out of the last 6 and are reigning Champions. Most bookies have Man City 1-2 for the win,

Agree with this to an extent, but we have Newcastle away soon and if they are still in poor form it makes the game very winnable for us. I'll take a late Newcastle win but at the cost of 3 injuries to key players. We need Stoke and Man CIty to do what is expected of them, same with Chelsea on Wednesday

That's a professional attitude and a lot of people will apply that to their jobs even if they don't particularly like them.

WTF is Lawro on this week? Fair enough thinks we are going to get beaten 3-0, however thinks - QPR will get draw against Man City. - Wigan will beat Stoke away. - Noriwch will beat spurs - Reading get a point against Chelsea.

Depends, for most fans yes, but not all professional players are 'fans' of football, they play because they happen to be good at it and you can make a lot of money out of career in it. Hell I don't like Baseball but if I had a lot of natural talent for it and someone gave me £10 million a year to occasionally play it I'd be pretty content.

Thought they didn't really like him that much anyway because he is korean?

Agree would like us to bid for him as well. Risky move for him though to Reading, he might be better off moving to the premier league at the end of the season as he could be back down in the Championship with Reading in a few months.

We'll see how long his "i'll move for first team football" lasts. I mean he;s clearly going to get ahead of Cech and Reina. Might have shout at Newcastle but can't see them dropping Krul. Being stuck on the bench at big clubs helped all those young English keepers like Wright, Carson, Foster and Kirkland didn't it?

Agree with this, but I think as others have mentioned if we could bring in someone of genuine high quality better than what we have then we would have (i.e. Countinho) but don't need anyone in a rush. As I said in the other thread - You never know anyway, Cortese could be up to stuff behind the scenes, the club never confirm a transfer until it's done, there may still be surprise signing in store.

Fair enough. Would like one or two in but the squad has shown in the last few months it is competitive in the league, plus we will have Lallana back now. The improved form of Boruc, the emergence of Shaw and the return of Cork have quashed the need for major reinforcements in those areas and the addition of Forren brings further defensive options. A first team of - Boruc, Shaw, Clyne, Forren, Yoshida, Cork, Morgan, Lallana, Gaston, Puncheon, Lambert is good enough to stay in the league. Once Fonte is back we'll have him, hooiveld, guly, jay rod, mayuka and davis as options. A few injuries will be a worry though but at least the likes of Guly and Hooiveld have shown they aren't inept in this league as many thought and maybe we'll see more of youngters like JWP, Chambers, Stephens etc.

To be honest average gates around 38k, plus regular prem TV money I'm pretty sure they can afford around £15 million worth of transfer fees a year. They are also 'up' on transfers for the last couple of years raking in around £35 million from Rodwell, Arteta, Yobo, and that Russian winger.

Leroy Fer signed by Everton for £8.5 million, no real 'rumours' beforehand about this one until ealrier today so maybe some people can keep transfers quiet.

Personally thought Ince was the better player last year, or at least the one with more potential.

Suarez? Sterling? Think he will be fine.

lol, lets hope there is some grain of truth in the Zarate deal though.

They are also 7th and we are 15th, they will also most definitely be in the league next year, whereas with us it's less certain. I can see your point but to him he's joining one the biggest supported clubs in the world, and one of the few big clubs where he will most likely get into the first team. I'm also doubting our interest in this, Inter didn't need to sell so I can't see them accepting a lower offer, which to me puts our improved off into doubt.

Only 3 league starts, 5 champions league starts as well. It's Inter though, would be like saying Marin isn't good enough for us because he doesn't play for Chelsea.

Viola..... Looks pretty 'robust' to me. This guy is on a free and also fits the bill......

Question how much parachute payments are they actually due? As I understand it was £16 million, £16 million, £8 million and then £8 million. Have they had the £8 million this year?

So shocking. Essentially I'm playing at a higher level but if you give me a pay rise I'll play for you.

I'm pretty sure when SSN first interviewed him he was outside SMS, he was then interviewed again outside SMS and it was then fuelled from further vox pops. It was a 'crazy story' because it was untrue, nothing happened yet SSN ran it for 3 days. I don't but one, it's silly and two, as pointed out we have been doing it for years so you would have thought Sky might have made an issue about a long time ago or at the very least at the time. They did the stories slightly off the 'footprint' of the ground which fits with the H&S argument as they aren't on SFC property and thus removes liability.