david in sweden

I don't know that we are unattractive ! aside from the recent "blips " but what do you expect when your without the best three players in your squad? NA says he doesn't use it as an excuse..but then again they're in the side every match ... so they aren't just ordinary squad members... I think there are a number of issues here. (Every player has his price, or so they say)...We saw that when selling Alex OC to Arsenal.... a deal for £15 million ! Clubs who have a limited amount of good talent want the best they can get, and in most CCC sides that one - max. two players and their clubs want too much for the level of player and the league they're playing in. Example ; Burnley & Brizzle won't be able to sell because they want too much and the players concerned aren't top class. When you go to an auction, you know how high you're willing to go to buy (or at least you should do ). IMO most of the players we've been linked with aren't worth anywhere near the money their clubs are demanding. Celtic have the AOC money before their eyes and want to get more of it than we've offered. If we were crazy enough to offer £7 million - it'd be an offer thay couldn't refuse and Hooper wouldn't say no to 24K week (and a 50% rise in the Prem) either. We've been " linked " by people on this site and countless newspapers with Maynard, yet some weeks ago Brissle said they'd had no offers for him ! Now they've gone out saying he's in advanced talks with Wigan ..yet Wigan have gone public saying they haven't even bid for him ... (wot the *ukc is going on here?). We couldn't / didn't want Lukas J badly enough to pay out the £1.3 mill... so he went to 'Boro instead. OK . Leicester said they agreed a fee with Donnie for Billy Sharp, but today I read that he didn't want to go (who'd blame him?). OK He was the Adkins' target in the summer - and it didn't happen ..maybe the Hooper deal isn't off ? ..and he'll come anyway. We'll see. FIVE DAYS LEFT..got to get it right now.. We are NOT unattractive ..there's just too much bu** sh*t and not enough real interest . The players who want to come will come. Our three best players (EVER) --Paine, Channon and MLT ...stayed for long careers and never wanted to move - even though they had offers and were linked with other clubs all the time. We don't want players who don't want to come. Lee came from Japan - to a world he cannot even imagine. He's got ambition and he wants to play for us - that's good enough for me... stuff the rest!

Having taught RE on a number of occasions, when teaching a multi-cultural class in secondary school - I found a remarkable amount of tolerance existed in classes where students were drawn from families representing all the major religions of the world, and kids found something of value in each and every religion. The greatest "sin " (IMHO) is those who seek to pervert the teachings of their own religion to the detriment of others for "political purposes ". There are countries inthe world today where people of the " wrong religious faith " pay with their lives / livelihoods for daring NOT to conform to the state religion. I have met thousands of people, from many cultures, countries, religions ..and even confirmed atheists who acknowledge the right of others to be different. As one churchman said many years ago.. " there is nothing wrong with the colour of people's skin, but the colour of their hearts ", I think that goes for religions, too. The more our kids learn about " religion - and other people's religions" the better chance we have of living in tolerance with one another.

on the contrary--it's a rather colourful description of things but I think there's more than a little truth in much of it.

1) Maynard ..don't know where Brizzle get off spreading that story as Wigan has flatly denied any interest in him (?) 2) Sharp ..agree personal issues can mean anything (his original "refusal " was obviously due to his very pregnanat wife at the time - she may have had problems during the pregnancy - and sadly the baby died after a few days). If I recall correctly, Billy didn't say he wasn't interested to come, but something along the lines of "it wasn't right at the time "..(read as pregnancy / moving home problems etc,) one article said that (despite Leicester's offer - he refused to go there). He was surely not NA's first choice, (with such big interest in Hooper of late,) but if that's not going to happen ..then he's a good deal for that money IMO).

only AFTER we sign him, please ....

Sssssssssssssssssssssshhh ! (for goodness sake keep your voice down !) I thought we were pushing our luck pricing JP out at £1 million, but ......

Now there's a sensation for you ... If you're right ..you'll win the "Rumour of the Month Award" ... otherwise I'd keep your head down if I were you ...

We can only hope he gets back in the goals ASAP. surprisingly, his 15 goals have come from only 8 games...it's not as if he scores every other week. We need a consistant strike force where we can get back to having " someone " score a goal or two EVERY GAME.

That was 4 years ago when he was Flavour of the Month at Preston...since then his goals /games average has been very poor !

Hey Dune, We are all entitles to our opinion, but mine is ..let's leave this one now...I'm glad JP is back in the fold and he might just be of some use and CDAJFU this season. Above all else, it must be a warning to other players who want to go public with their private grievances. Can't see anyone like Ferguson taking the Cortese line with his misfits.

I'd be satisfied if he were the Japanese Marian Pahars !

I often find myself agreeing with you, then you make a statement like that Alpine..why? Don't we always say that we don't judge a player on one or two performances? If we're looking to criticise, then there were 6 or 7 others who didn't cover themselves with glory on Monday night as well, and most of them there from the kick-off and a few responsible for conceding two goals in the first 30 mins. SDR has been out for 4-5 weeks and comes off the bench, and because he doesn't set the game alight (which IMO was almost past recovering)... suddenly people start looking to get rid of him / them. I was amazed to hear NA say (prior to a recent game that we had THIRTEEN players injured /or suspended - I think suspensions were Schneiderlin and Lambert at the time) and though not all of the other 11 were automatic first team choices, but surely we need all the strength in depth we can get - Monday night showed that it wasn't there.... but think it unfair to consider dumping SDR on the strength of a bad team performance. He showed some good touches in the past and has scored 3 goals - coming off the bench- in the last 3 months, seldom seen before from any sub. I can recall. He may yet be a saviour for the team before May is out - don't dump him too soon!

This thread started with the headline...Cortese is the issue, NOT Adkins. The club ..ala Cortese is everyone's employer ! No-one furthers their career by slagging off their boss (unless they are in politics) .and it's ended up with Jason Puncheon making, what seems to be a polite and well-meant public apology, so it's hard to see that Cortese is the issue ..any longer . We have "gained" a player who (potentially at least) CDAJFU, as is already registered with the club, and is available for first team selection. Can we wind up this issue now and move on, please ?

seem to think that was a suggested solution on a previous occasion ..? (a reprieve for the 23rd side in L2) and this is only the first such situation - if the L1/L2 clubs have such bad economies...it may well happen again in the future. I think it was much more unjust for teams like Luton (when they were "canned " 30 points) and had no chance of surviving, but Bournemouth did .

...and where would they get the money from ..? only if they boughtup half the Pompey side..

thats a tough one Colin...don't know.... have to think about it ...I thought Hooiveld ..till he went off ! most of the others were either poor, or bl**dy awful IMO.

maybe SFC paid up his contract ..and Hiroshima let him go ?...(that sounds like a complicated way to achieve the same result).

but you don't mean THE Alpine Saint, (who said that Lee was'nt gonna sign ...?) Surely not !

There are few people treading the Earth who haven't made mistakes in their lives (some of them appear to be on this site,) but for the rest of us.... we now know that Dom Cortese does show mercy, and has a forgiving nature and SFC have made Jason P. an offer that none of us thought would ever happen. It takes a real man to make a public apology for doing "daft" things, and Jason has stepped up to the plate, and said his piece. Well done Jason! Remembering that no-one has an automatic place ib the team, let's hope that JP can find his way back and that we've saved ourselves a million or two by rehabilitating a " potentially good player" - instead of hanging him out to dry. Look forward to seeing some success from the extra efforts everyone concerned has put in to get back to square one. Let's move on!

I think any number of clubs might have agreed the fee with that sell clause in his contract, but all this nonsense with " agreeing personal terms" can mean the player delays... because doesn't want to go.. (and who can blame him - Leicester !) He definitely dropped down a place on Adkins wish-list when we moved for Hooper, but as that seems to have failed, he may be target no.1 again, and is delaying until the 30th January before making a decision....

YesMODS, I saw there was an earlier thread that was closed down BUT... If Pompey fold..and they fall out of the League in mid season ..Their results are expunged (yes I believe thats the correct word) ..from the table. That means all the points earned by other clubs will also disappear from the records (as happened to Accrington Stanley in 1962). ...Saints of course would lose 1 point (as we drew at Fratton).. but look at this : West Ham beat them twice already (4-3 and 1-0)....... would be deducted 6 points Cardiff .......................beat them (3-2 and drew 1-1) would be deducted 4 points Middboro drew 2-2...........................................................-ii-..............1 point Leeds beat them 1-0..............................................................deducted 3 points Hull beat them 1-0 ....................................................................also 3 points Brighton beat them 1-0.............................................................. .also 3 points If this were to happen - the top of the table ....and the bottom...... would look quite different.

Agree with that part...we can hope that he pops up with some " impact performances" as Marian Pahars did in his first season..but this time for promotion.

I don't want to spoil what is a very interesting thread BUT...of course the idea is to bring on youngsters, but those lads coming onto the bench are nowhere near the standard we need for CC level strikers - which is what you have listed as our (bid) alternatives. It takes time to cultivate new young players, (I know that Bale and Walcott were exceptions,) but looking back at Channon, Shearer, MLT and Beattie ...all were carefully nursed along after thier initial games and it took more than a year before any of them even got a regular spot - let alone developed into a good striker. (Aside from his legendary hat-trick - Alan Shearer was very poor for a season and a half after that.. before he finally got some form, and MLTs exploits weren't so special in the early days before he had played 40/50 games.) We have to buy in a couple of strikers NOW ...(I'm hoping Lee is good enough to be one of them), because no-one in the Youth side seems anywhere near good enough on present showing. Jason Dodd is doing a fantastic job with the youngsters, but the level is little more than Schools football, and not Championship level. for the record; Sharp and Hooper have scored over 100 League goals each, and Rodrigues (not so productive) has over 30 to his name...not to mention they are older and have played a couple hundred games already !. That's the sort of form we need to buy in before Jan.31st)

As I see it, it's a list of " supposedly good strikers" , who the media ..and some people on this site have linked with us over the past 6 months, bu (as far as I can see)..we have admitted to bids for 2 or maybe 3 of them who for good reasons didn't want to come, or our offer didn't match the valution of their clubs (that happens all the time) ..How do you think we got £12 million for AOC ? If the buyer is desperate enough ..he'll pay the price. Personally, I'm not sold on the idea of buying more than 2 of them... and they've both played for Adkins before ....

As for MAYNARD..I agree with that, but he'll get a PL contract ..and salary to match - what does he care. I don't think even his best efforts will save Wigan..they looked terrible a couple of weeks back in the FA Cup v. L2 side Swindon..who looked equal to the task and won deservedly. HOOPER may harbour secret desires to return to England (like Saints and a 300% increase salary-if that was the figure quoted). But Celtic don't want to let him go at (almost) any price, though their bankers might have a say in that matter... He'd be stupid to ask for a transfer, lose his % ..and alienate the Celtic faithful who'd give him a rough time if he stayed and hadn't shown loyalty to the cause !