St Marco

I think I read the reason it is being fast tracked is to end the whole media thing around it. Could be wrong. As it is now he is a convicted rapist, judged by jury. Was denied appeal due to the evidence in the first trial. I believe that judge saw how wasted the girl was from CCTV evidence? In the vast majority of high profile jobs whoever committed that crime would be out on their ass. They would have no chance of re-entering a profession that would pay them so much. If it happened to say a doctor, a teacher, a police officer etc they would be never able to work in that field again. My personal view is that it should be no different with entertainers/sports people. He did something that is shocking and anytime he steps out onto a pitch he will be booed from start to finish. It might even go further than that and he could end up assaulted by someone. The guy is guilty and with two sets of law teams he couldn't prove his innocence.

Huge RL fan and appreciate everything he did for us. But he left us for something he thought would be better. It has not worked out for him which is a shame but it was his choice. We as a club should not be taking former players who wanted out back. That journey has come and gone and people need to live by their decisions. Rickie made one for personal reasons and I think we all understand and appreciate why he made that decision. Wish him all the best but the RL era at this club is over.

Totally agree. Have been there many times and the atmosphere has always been pretty crap to be honest. To have them ahead of Anfield is quite laughable.

But the point was to get into the CL was it not? If they spent £100m just to stay where they were before do you consider that a good investment? Liverpool have spent a fortune this season and I don't think they will be challenging for the title this year? Point being spending big money only works if you get the right players.

Of course. What I am saying is that for every expensive player who does well there is an expensive player who flops. Some say Torres was a flop and he was what £50m? The difference is teams like Chelsea can write off the flop and buy another player just as expensive. But that's what the fair play rules are trying to stop. If we look at those who left us only Lallana is doing okay. We ourselves have had some big money transfers that did not go as we hoped. Ramirez, Osvaldo and Long could be added to that list eventually. Spurs spent over £100m a season or so ago and it has not really done anything for them in regards to stability and consistency.

Not sure you can say money is a guarantee for success? After all Man Utd paid £60m for one player and we are above them?

Seriously.... So you knew that after losing our chairman who guided us to the PL, our manager who got us to 8th place, our captain, our star striker, our main CB, our main LB and our potential future RB all within the space of a few months that you had the foresight to know it would turn out like it has? If so fair play. I think you must be the only one. I can't remember reading/hearing any professional saying it would happen. Don't think any of our players thought it would too (Morgan etc). So well done Jeff! Can you look into your crystal ball for me and tell me where we will be in another 6 months?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I don't think many could imagine us doing as well as we have during the summer. I had us down to struggle, concerns over RK ability to manager outside of Holland. KL commitment and so on. I have never been so happy to be so wrong. We have been fantastic and I hope it continues as we deserve it.

You can though. It is like any product. If you want something that is poor quality and in abundance it will cost you less. If you want something that is of mediocre quality and is not too difficult to find you pay an average price. If you want something high quality that is hard to find then you have to pay a lot of money for it. To get Shane's Value you have to place him in a quality group. Work out how many people are like him and do the job he does. Someone like Welbeck went for £16m, he is obviously of a higher quality to Long. I would put him in the same bracket as players like Fraizer Campbell, Charlie Austin, Mame Diouf etc. Players who cost a lot less then Long. In fact you could have bought all three of those players combined for less then Long's £13m. So of course you can say what he is worth. With big fees comes big expectations. It isn't his fault that we paid that amount for him. That is our clubs decision. Personally a decision I think that is pretty confusing. It is one thing signing one of the top strikers from Serie A for that money. It is something else to be paying that for someone who is far from being in that top level bracket.

Remember some threads on Osvaldo where he got a roasting http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?48724-Osvaldo-to-Juventus-(Confirmed)&highlight=Osvaldo#.VDGKWU10yUk So was wondering what those who slated him think of Shane Long so far? Think he is our second/third highest transfer in the history of our club? Personally I think he has not exactly been given many opportunities to start games. Only had 4 from 8 starts. So a little unfair to judge him but can base some initial thoughts. In the PL index he is currently ranked 250 of 280 players. Total of 316 minutes played. Which is on average 40 minutes a game. And of course no goals. I give the lad credit for his work ethic, he does try and get involved. But I don't think so far he has shown anywhere near £12m-£13m worth of ability. With Osvaldo you could at least see he was a class player, he just rarely turned it on for us. I don't think many people will be surprised to see he has gone on to score 4 goals from 3 starts and 3 assists for Inter. Long was not worth half of what we paid for him in my opinion.

Which part are we supposed to be saying sorry for again?

Jos gone too

Gaston gone to Hull....I don't believe it as Jeff says we are not getting rid of players in his look at me thread

Such a poor game. I don't even know what our tactics were supposed to be? Tadic and Wanyama did well but the rest were pretty gash. Pelle and Long were shockingly bad. If we can't keep the ball and get into better positions I can't see how we are going to score? Based on the first two games we really need some pace into the team. A quality right sided winger is a must buy now.

Don't get this whole "moaning when we don't sign someone and then moan when we do" argument. By that logic we might as well spend £8m on Danny Fox, or £20m on Peter Crouch. Having money is one thing but spending £12m on seriously average players is stupid. Reading the West Brom views seems most were delighted when he left http://westbrom.com/forum/index.php?topic=2609.0

Terrible signing. I'm not sure what he offers at that price? 140 pl games and 28 goals. Rickie scored that in 2 seasons pretty much. His assists record is also pretty poor. I will support the player like I do for all of them but let's not say he is an amazing player simply because we signed him. Because he isn't. He is very average.

He has a grand total of 2 assists. His combined rating is very low http://www.myfootballfacts.com/Premier_League_Combined_2013-14.html Those world beaters Crouch and Nolan are above him. Would be a terrible buy imo. If £12m is actually real then that's very scary.

Are you sure they are not paying us £12m to take him from them as he is that gash?

Indeed and he won't be starting this season either sadly. But to put some stats on it for you 25 of our 49 goals were scored by players no longer here. Basically 50%. And someone who got 6 in that season is out for sometime. 23 of our 40 assists were provided by people who are no longer here. And a further 8 by Jay who again is out. In terms of defence our first season we let in 60 goals. While last season having let in only 46 goals. And improvement of around 25%. Statistically we are weaker than the team in our first season back.

Very debatable this. Imagine Fonte gets injured and our two CB's are Jos and Yos. Do you feel confident they would keep the goals out? Like wise if Pelle does not settle in well and can't make the jump up in level do you think Sam will bang in the goals? As our team is right now in my opinion it is weaker than our first season back where we only survived with one game left. The board need to bring in quality players. This season is going to be very difficult and I think a lot of people are going to be surprised at how good the team really is i.e not so good right now.

Finally every ground is in there. Can't wait.

So where did that £110m tv money go? Are you of the belief we spent all that in those 24 months? Or to be specific did Cortese spend all that money?

Are you implying that we have spent more then £160M (assuming it's £80m a season from tv) since Cortese was here? If so would love to know from your business expertise where that money went? I have nothing against KL making money. What I have a problem with is ****s like Jeff who think Cortese lost us a lot of money without making any back.

And made even more money for her. TV money alone for the past two seasons has to be £100m+

El Mosquetero is a decent player. He can run forever. However he also needs to learn to keep the ball and keep things simple. I thought he did pretty well at Parma. If he can replicate that form he will be ok for us. A better idea of seeing opinion on him is in here http://forzainterforums.com/showthread.php?11374-Ezequiel-Schelotto