shurlock

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/premier-league/transferentwicklung/wettbewerb_GB1.html http://www.transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/transfer-league-table-last-five-seasons.html The discrepancies are presumably due to the different five year periods they cover (inc/ex. 2013/14).. And they look at net rather than gross spend, that is, they take into account the fact that clubs also sell players.

Dear oh dear cb fried. In the short to medium term, our goal is to compete with the likes of Everton and Newcastle both of whom have hardly splashed the cash on transfers and do not have unrealistic aspirations for champs league football. In fact, so far from spending money, they're in surplus. But to indulge you, let's say they're the exception rather than the rule. With the exception of Chelsea and City (last time I checked there were more than two champs league places up for grabs), no team has spent more than £100m (net) over the past five years - in case you can't do the maths, that's £20m a year, an order of magnitude lower than your estimated £40m (to split the difference) which is nearly Chelsea territory in the crack years. Obviously we're playing catch up and still overhauling a championship squad; but there's no reason to think that over time with the talent and youth we have, our spending won't or can't come down commensurate with our ambition. Of course, as a proud adherent to the Stoke City school of football finance aka how to pi $$ money up the wall, most of this will fly over your head.

Not a million miles from the team we put out against Sunderland in the cup IIRC. Only difference is that Chambers was in for Clyne, Jos in for Fonte, Davis in for JWP and Jrod in for Lambert. Could be argued that the Sunderland team was in fact stronger.

And why would we need to spend £30-50m every window? Presumably as we clear the last remnants of what is still a championship squad (hopefully in this summer's window), it will simply be case of making selective additions with smaller and smaller outlays. The financial pain was always going to be felt upfront.

To extend your tortuous metaphor, he's potted the black, come off a cushion and broken a pack of reds. With injured players returning, let's see how far he can take this break.

Obviously not. But Chelsea aren't really a benchmark. It's about having multiple ways to play and beat teams and whether you can have pace in a team without succumbing to all the lazy clichés about headless chickens. Arguably you can and within budget.

Plenty - jeremain lens for one when he was available. Another mongboard myth that you have to break the bank for a player with pace and skill. Like everything, there's a spectrum.

Cortese decided to change things despite an improvement in form, suggesting he saw structural problems/issues that he didn't feel could be resolved under Adkins (relative to where Cortese wanted to take the club). No Adkins is not rotten I'll leave you to reflect on what are quite simple statements. Take your time pal.

The weird and wonderful logic of the mboard. Nothing to date has appeared in the press FACT but in case it does... Ergo MP must be vulnerable Keep us posted. Waiting with bated breath.

Did I say adkins was rotten? Rot = some structural problem that no uptick in form is likely to change or remedy. HTH

Moron on mongboard in-reads-a-statement-literally shocker. The point Cortese was making is that if he believes that there is something rotten in the club or something needs to change, he won't be afraid to act pre-emptively. The actual results are neither here or there. Not too difficult to grasp, is it?

Nothing like a good, old tearjerker.

It's business is an euphemism but your ponderous contrarianism already knows that. People aren't discussing a potential, if unlikely transfer in terms of netting a quick profit but strengthening a side in light of what Rickie offers and what he doesn't (and the ledger isn't black and white) We brought Rickie in to strengthen the team and will eventually replace him in the name of improvement. That's life, sunshine. The logic can be cruel but the transience of sporting success is what makes it so great and ultimately unforgettable. If you don't like it, perhaps you should stick to Morecambe and Wise reruns with your tear-soaked hanky and galaxy bar as comfort.

Maybe they want to play Jrod more centrally (like he did with good effect at Newcastle) and will bring in another winger/inside forward where there are arguably more options.

Debatable even assuming we want or need a replacement as opposed to strengthening another part of the squad. Either way £8m is not Monopoly money.

What are you on about?

By and large, immigrants are more educated than their UK-born counterparts, and the gap has been rising over time as more recent immigrants are more educated than immigrants who came in the past. That said, there are more immigrants in low-skilled jobs than might be gleaned or expected from their qualifications -and yes there is evidence, albeit it's more modest than the dinlows from UKIP suggest that less skilled UK workers have suffered greater downward pressure on wages and greater competition for jobs than others. Also worth noting that the serious work on immigration has only really looked at the labour market impacts -jobs etc- and barely scratched the surface of other areas -prices, housing, health, crime and welfare- which contribute to the overall experience of immigration among the local population. Finally, it is worth noting that by far the largest flow of new immigrants came from India and China (over 20%) in 2012. That's more than double the numbers from Poland and Romania combined.

Sending out all the old, senile farts who want to do a peter mayle in France or Spain in return for the best and brightest from France, Germany etc who are in their most productive years sounds like a fair deal to me.

Is a taster of 2014? The material of a desperate man.

Did he singlehandedly win the game for Strasbourg? Even at that tender age, he carried the relegation-threatened team on his back, never letting the opposition's main playmaker out of his pocket. Was unlucky not to score the winner himself with a pile driver that crashed off the bar which you and your mate were convinced had crossed the line (later vindicated by replays) but managed to win a last minute penalty with a beautifully timed late run into box. Your friends from Strasbourg called him 'le schneider' which means 'tailor' in German because of his defence-splitting balls or the Alsace-Lorrainian Roy Keane and Paul Scholes at their prime etc etc. Maybe I did see that one.

And each time, they've scored an own goal, got sent off, conceded a pen, missed a sitter, been subbed early etc etc, inviting comparisons with one donkey or another over here.... Side-splitting stuff,

Was he doing the yaya touré? The cancer has spread.

Sounds marginally better than the martinet.

Unfortunately Jos has a 4 in his birthdate - that practically makes him the angel of death.

The French state is the proverbial hammer and every problem it sees is a nail. Has been and always will be woeful at dealing with sh*t-stirrers.