Legod Third Coming

We do but when a midfielder has two clear, free headers and cannot hit the target what are we to do?

Agreed Keith. Hammond a huge let down for me, last season and today. Not what I as promised on the tin...

I am extremely excited about the season. But do no overrate our squad. Plymouth are turning up today with some decent Championship players and the potential for a very good manager (depending on which Peter Reid they brought in for this season...) We are a bit weak in midfield and we should take nothing for granted. But seeking perfection is no crime, even if I do try to be grateful for what we have, not what we don't. Aspiration and ambition never killed a mockingbird.

Not true - BAD businessmen ruin football. Do you think the Moores family ruined Liverpool? Do you think Blackburn fans thought businessmen ruined football after they won the Premiership? GREED ruins everything. That is the only fact to take away from football. But then you could learn that lesson from the Bible without going anywhere near a football game...

I don't know that £500k is a bargain anywhere any more, but I broadly agree. No one will change their formation if we bring Puncheon on. They will if we bring Antonio on and use him properly. If you were to leave Antonio up at corners, the opposition would almost certainly leave two defenders back, quite probably three - he is THAT quick. And that is worth a great deal. Pace can kill defences - even if he doesn't use the ball brilliantly. He doesn't need to even have the ball - that is the point. He can create space for Lambert, Lallana, anyone...

Do you believe in father Christmas too? You don't think the fact we tripled Lambert's wages has anything to do with him being here? In reality, I don't (and nor should you) give a stuff what someone's motivation is. If they play well for money, who cares? Kevin Keegan was here two seasons and brought on younger players leaps and bounds. He gave me two of the best seasons of my life. I didn't need him here to be a part of a project... If we get two years from a great player or manager and they use it a stepping stone, great. Who loses out? I would rather have great for a short time than mediocre for good. If players do well for us and then go on to Real Madrid, fine. That shows ambition. I want that.

Define libellous - if you can extracate yourself from that clinch with the 17 year old Morrocan rentboy...

...who wandered around the historic dockyard Portsmouth during Navy Days at the weekend wearing his Flybe Saints away strip. Respect to you, whoever you are!! Brought a smile to my face. I had to work there the whole weekend. I've barely had time to fumigate the wardrobe...

Russ, there are no Championship Clubs with our money or potential. None. Gibson is worth what? £120 million?? If Bailey went there, he went for more money now (ie we would not meet his wage demands, which we could have chosen to). We need to assess what our promotion is worth to us and pay accordingly. We cannot look back and say if only we had bought Bailey... Or A N Other player.

For me, it's not about being weaker. We were poor without Morgan last year and Wotton gives us no real options or creativity - he's not even a very average holding player. I can see us losing out to teams who simply put men behind the ball who we cannot break down because they control midfield (Wycombe away anyone?). That we should be addressing in my view.

We don't have to be run like Portsmouth. Does anyone realise that? We can be run like Chelsea. Or Tottenham. Or Arsenal - how are they doing on breaking even??

Yep which Club is doing that and staying there then? They are all funded by owners.

For those who say we do not have a bottomless pit I say cobblers. In January we were the tenth highest spending club in England - yes that's more then TEN PREMIERSHIP clubs and every Championship Club. And to remind you, Jose Fonte dropped down a division and Dean Hammond claimed our club was the quickest way for him to reach the Premiership. So now all of a sudden with no movement when we NEED players, you're all happy to sit around and wait? It makes no sense. None. We can buy anyone we want IF WE WANT them. Anyone (within reason) will come for cash (would we want that to be their only motivation? Who cares). I am not advocating buying Kaka or Rooney. I am advocating us getting off our arses and buying the midfielder we need to WIN THIS LEAGUE. When in six games we are not top of the league our manager will be feeling pressure, most of you will be up in arms blaming him and no one will be asking why the Chairman didn't put up the cash to win the league. He can't have it both ways. Either we're serious about becoming a Premiership Club or we are not. If we are, get on with it. If not, stop bloody well building up my expectations only to dash them. Too many of you are making excuses and sounding liky Rupert bloody Lowe and his 'prudent card'. Well name me a single team in the Champion's League that is playing within its means?? One...

He can have a viable business or a five year plan to get to the Premiership. He can't have both. So, the question remains, who's going to tell him??

I disagree. I am convinced players are falling over themselves to come here. We are the CHELSEA of this division and have more money than anyone bar about four clubs in this entire country. Are we willing to spend it, though? Of course, we will not attract Kaka or Rooney. Any player with international or Champion's League aspirations is unlikely to come. But why someone would choose Middlesborough over us for the sake of eight months is mind-boggling. It says to me we were unwilling to pay a price. And that was Rupert Lowe's biggest mistake... Still, perhaps we have a radio station lined up or are changing the catering provision for the better? That will surely get us to the Champion's League which is where I believe our current Chairman has aspirations to be... Will you tell him football is all about the manager and buying the best players available or shall I?

First, I think if we are buying someone as 'cover' it is a false economy. I am looking for someone to replace Hammond and push for a first team start every week. No footballer should be bought to sit on a bench. Competition is key in football. Second, I believe that there are plenty of top quality midfielders who would move to a team who are 11/10 for promotion and owned by a Swiss billionnaire. Why we are not buying one is beyond me... But it need not be Morgan Mk II, just a very good midfielder who is ten times the player Paul Wotton can only aspire to be (and again for the record I have 100% thanks to Wotton and nothing but admiration for the guy). He is simply not what we need to win this league. And apparently that is the Chairman's aspiration...

If all our opponents defend like Carlisle did that day to hand us a 2-0 lead I could play the centre of fecking midfield. Sadly, I doubt Plymouth and others will be so generous... Time will tell. But take a look at our league form with and without the Frenchman.

No Morgan, no victory. Did you turn up at all last year? If/when we start with Paul Wotton, the prosecution will rest.

We have a gaping hole in our midfield mate. What other evidence should I be looking out for to judge the success of our transfer activity?

I don't believe that the players who are not part of the 25, don't yet know it. Their agents would have known about it for ages... However, I accept that this will cause some element of trickle. But why do we need to be the bottom of this chain? In January we were the tenth highest spenders in England! WE should be going to clubs to put pressure on them, not playing a wait and see game. There's not a player from the Championship down (and even in some of the bottom 10 Premiership clubs) that we could not afford in cash terms. Do they want to come? That's a different story. But I would like to see our central midfield covered sooner than later, because it's here that we struggled last year as soon as Morgan was absent. And it's here that the weakness persists. It will be no good admitting we screwed up in three games time. I fully expect us to beat Plymouth, but another midfield injury and I might as well get the dubbin out myself!

I want this car my neighbour owns. So I nipped round and asked if it was for sale. No, he said. Really I said. I'll give you four grand for it. I'll take five he said... Of course, before I asked he was sat holding out for eight... What players are clubs holding onto? If we need them, buy them. Everyone is for sale now for the right price. If we don't need them, don't buy them. We are one of the few clubs in the league with money. What use is it earning no interest? So player x will be cheaper come the end of the window will he? What the closer we get to needing him, the less he will cost? Feck me, I bet old Maynard Keynes would like that for a new theory. Footballers, the new Giffen Goods... And anyway what is a few hundred grand if it's the difference between promotion and not?

Who knows what has been said? Pardew appeared to want Danns, we didn't get him... Maybe the Chairman needs to learn the single most important person in a football club is the manager... Source? David Moyes, Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Harry (yes it's true or are Liverpool and Aston Villa in the Champion's League?) Redknapp, Roy Hodgson... I could go on... I don't think Pardew bought a single bad player last year. So if he says he wants someone, let's buy them. Or had the Chairman suddenly got cold feet? All I know is we need a central midfielder. Paul Wotton is not the way to win this league.

I'm not sure even Hammond is quite what we need, but starting with Wotton (a bloke I have 100% respect and admiration for) is not the way to win this league. Not now, not ever.

Cobblers. The season starts in four days. We could have had anyone we wanted by now. If we start Saturday with Paul Wotton in the team, then the Chairman should take the blame for any failure to achieve promotion or win the league...

If there are players we need, buy them. I have said this over and over. Why are players going to 'become available'?? They're not. Either they are for sale or they aren't. So find out who is and buy them. And stop this fannying around that could cost us the league.