shurlock

Craig McKail Smith - he snubbed us only two seasons ago. Must have a chance now.

I know which source I'd believe -not necessarily because I don't believe the Mirror but because the Itai press have got their finger on the pulse. You'd expect them to be better informed about developments in their own country.

If Napoli are serious we haven't got much of a chance. Look on the bright side, we were being knocked back by Craig Mackail Smith a couple of seasons ago. Progress I guess.

Supposedly Atletico Ibirama, his previous club, own 30%.

There are third party ownership issues with him - who knows whether they will be a stumbling block.

Says more about the forum then - all the players are established internationals, not diamonds in the rough.

One might argue that Mandela's passing away might be the fresh start that South Africa needs to kick onto the next stage in its development. The ANC has ushered in many improvements, including a modicum of social justice and upward mobility for blacks. But it has basically left the economy it inherited from the apartheid untouched. That system is very statist and protected, organised around large state owned companies and powerful unions that take care of their own members rather than the broader working class -one reason for South Africa's declining competitiveness and high levels of unemployment. The ANC stands behind the status quo, though it tinkers with it at the margins. Its legitimacy draws as much on its past accomplishments as its present competence. There is a reluctance to challenge the party that brought an end to apartheid. But its conceivable that as heavyweights, the original founding fathers retire from the scene, the political ground will loosen and there'll be more space for dissenting voices and the types of policy that successful local neighbours are carrying out.

Ethnic cleansing - ffs?

Coldplay Give me a 100 northern monkeys spacking out to No Limits (aka the yaya kolo song) any day.

Tello he's gonna skin ya ...Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better, Run run run run run run run away To Talking Heads Psycho Killer

Its first day of preseason - its hardly going to be all smiles and sunshine, is it. I'll grant you Forren still looks like a cross between a bad smell and a lost sheep. Leave the worrying to the fat **** from the Alps.

Imagine being called out at 2am to fix a paper jam, you wouldn't be very happy.

But if we had signed Muiniesa, MLG would have been defending the signing to the hilt. Rainman is bit of a homer.

So it's the same trusted source as glasgow's then

No chance. Maybe under a different manager as RL has the skillset. But not under MP who expects his no.10s to bust a gut and get up and down the pitch.

Of shoveling horsesh*t. We might very well see one in and out but it will have nothing to do with being ITK. It seems that GS could convince many mboarders that night follows day is down to some superior insight or pearl of information.

Shame the OPs threads can't be put on ignore like his posts

Its still a cappuccino economy -white cream over a large black mass, with a bit of chocolate sprinkled on top.

Perhaps the swift rebuttal/denial is the entry cost of doing business with nik nak.

Talk about strawmen - Wanyama is arguably a realistic target for us. It's not as if he's regularly proven himself at the highest or that his game is polished and complete.

If you believe the yid forum, the ownership rights for this guy are just as complex as Gaston's. The club president is also a bit of a rogue.

Perhaps that deal fell through because it was also unrealistic. I don't actually think Ramirez is as high profile a target as this summer's links -how many serious competitors did we have for him? I also think the pragmatism we showed on other signings -Jrod, Clyne, Davis (the Adkins effect?) gave us more wriggle room later on. My question is as much given where we are what is the most ambitious target we can realistically hope to get? Simply responding if you don't ask you don't get is bit of a cop out.

Agree. Timing was everything with Louvren, meaning we've paid a hefty for someone with question marks over them.

I would say that the targets we're going for in this window are a step up from Ramirez who has less pedigree in terms of experience and proven success than Osvaldo, Banega etc - partly reflected in the fact that nobody else ultimately bid for him. While the official line is that MP was happy with his squad and didn't need reinforcements in January, we did attempt to go after players but came up short -for instance, the Coutinho rumour was clearly more than tabloid chit chat. And perhaps another attacking would have come in useful when we hit our barren spell in front of goal.

See my edits re. Yoshida. We also wanted a 2nd CB but ran out of time and had to wait till Jan to do our business -something that arguably cost us. If anything, last summer may have provided false comfort - after all, Adkins was still in charge and probably steered us to more realistic targets -one reason why he eventually got the axe.