shurlock

Your views on Baldock? Behind Maynard and Jay-Rod?

Spot on. The idea that a younger player who's achieved less in the game than say Lallana or Fonte or Lambert could be on higher wages (I'm speculating) is a nonstarter for me.

Doubt it, he'll be tossing and turning all night.

Yep a cracking goal -seen him quite a lot the last two seasons. Remember he didn't like to get the ball in tight areas and tended to release it a tad quick when under pressure. For a player who should be playing on the shoulder of the last defender, also dropped deep a lot. But his pace, movement, ability to work goals out of nothing and willingness to track back do tick a lot of boxes.

Missed a pen in the game in which he absolutely tormented the west ham defence.

Strikes me as being a tad lightweight and not great in possession but would certainly provide some pace and mobility.

Coz he's proper captain fantastic material and the 'wall have been some of the tightest bast**ds we've played (3rd best defensive record last season). I like Gorkss calmness but Robinson would give us some old-fashioned aggression and leadership.

Throw punch into the deal.

Weren't reading after him - guess they've got gorkss now.

Think you're over-analysing things.

Yep have never said we don't need them, albeit CB is a greater priority than a striker. And I would be wary about paying silly money.

Agree = we are too reliant on Lambert, though there's no reason Guly couldn't play that position. Also got to bear in mind that bringing in a pacey striker wouldn't give us much back-up for Lambert. That's why I have question marks over Maynard. In theory, Waghorn ticks that box better, though I don't see many fans of his on here. Rodriguez probably gives us best of both worlds -a player with some pace who can also hold up the ball. CB is an absolute must- lose Fonte for whatever reason and we're very vulnerable.

Why? Surely it made sense to keep the same side that won so convincingly at Ipswich. We were also able to sub our captain and best player without any major disruption.

In the same way Christian Dailly is? Every team needs them.

Danns is box to box but not super quick. Pace wise, the likes of nugent, king, wellens and gallagher don't particularly scare me. Vassell isn't the same player of old. Fernandes has a bit of pace and done v.well; but from what I've seen, he's been playing as a holding midfielder. Dyer might offer something off the bench; but he's erratic. I think Richardson will more than cope with Danns. He's no slouch and did well against Gradel who's been on fire this season.

Who did we agree terms with?

Is it a problem; or does it appear to be a problem? How do you know that we were on verge of closing all the aforementioned deals? And if we did pull out of deals, who's to say that there weren't good rational reasons for doing so? And how do you know its outside the norm - have you conducted many deals or had your ears burnt listening to agents on the blower? This is why you cannot be taken seriously - not because of any negativity with which I haven't got an issue but because you thrive on speculation and jumping to conclusions where any number of explanations might be valid and are indeed often more plausible and less obtuse. I bet you see dead people too.

They're confident they'll beat us quite comfortably - still have that rich man's sense of entitlement. Would love it if we did them. Preferably we go and stifle them for the first half hour and not get too open. Thankfully, they lack pace, so it should play into our hands. Can see a score draw.

Warm? Another Sunderland player? Bramble?

Swiss Tony?

TO be clear, having preordained opinions is not the monopoly of negative posters. There are just as many positive posters that have agendas - both have more in common than they think. Don't know if its human nature - if the team was going through a slump, am sure the consensus would be overwhelmingly negative. Just have to look at the threads after a poor result - people love a bloodbath. I like to think that most posters on here are reasonable and don't oppose negativity because its negative than because its out of proportion and not justified by the facts. The moaners have been telling us for two seasons now that we would struggle to get promoted and we would be shown up in the NPC (too early to judge on the latter). Its convenient and rich for some to plead their balance and impartiality by praising the club after its achieved its success while up until then fixating on all the flaws and mistakes they believe will condemn us to under-achievement.

Again I would have paid good money to see even you spin our promotion and great start into negatives.

Btw what would a mind-blowing signing be (mindful you have taken people to task for being unrealistic)? You would spend £6m on Maynard or Rodriguez?

Indeed, I was more critical of our team's performance that night.