Lighthouse

We can, we’re just spending our money very badly elsewhere. It’s like spending £200k on a rusty Vauxhall, then complaining that all your friends can afford Ferrari’s and you can’t.

Swansea and Brum have won cups recently too.

No doubt but the £14m we spent on him wouldn’t even buy Matt Targett in this window. We need a £30m player to improve our back line not another Hoedt or Vestegaard.

I tried but I must have gone to the wrong Blue Oyster.

I honestly don’t get why anyone was expecting anything different to what’s happened so far. We knew the wage bill was massive and getting rid of any of the players on it is next to impossible, when we’re paying them triple what they’re worth. The savviest businessmen in the world couldn’t offload these players, it’s basically impossible. Austin, Carrillo, Forster and a few other are here until their contracts expire, or we do a Clasie and pay off a hefty chunk of their wages. It’ll be the same, Wilson, Les, Cortese, Lowe or otherwise.

Sean Bean. His name should rhyme but it doesn't. You're either 'Seen Been' or 'Shawn Bourne'. You're not having it both ways, kn*bhead.

No, we do. He’s under contract until such time we get an offer we consider worth our time. It’s one thing to let a player go when someone is offering £75m, it’s quite another for a player to say, "please can you loan me out to one of your rivals and pay half my wages whilst doing so, ta." If we don’t get an offer we want, then Mario can deal with it. Either he gets his head down or trains with the U23s.

No, that rumour was going around for several weeks. I remember laughing when Liverpool wanted £20m for a cripple and thinking they must be mad, nobody is that stupid and desperate. Cheers Les.

I don’t think we’ve done anything wrong as such, it’s the players making this awkward. Lemina was probably told he would be allowed to move to a big club in two years but he obviously skipped the part about actually playing well enough for someone like Man Utd to be interested. If Austin wants to extend his pay cheques, sorry... playing career, beyond next May, he is going to want to spend the next 9 months playing football somewhere. Telling League 1 clubs you want £60k a week because you were an unused sub for England five years ago might not go down too well.

Seems like a few agents are trying to drum up some interest and prices. ‘Everton are said to be interested’ is basically the default setting for an English transfer.

He’s had some good performances, the problem is we’ve had some appalling team performances with him in the side. He was dragged off at half time in that dreadful non-performance at Newcastle and we did improve to an extent second half. Ralph clearly thought he was part of the problem. Since then he’s only had 25 minutes against Watford, when they overrun us as soon as he came on, and a token 5 minutes against Huddersfield. I think if the club truly believed he’d make it at this level, they wouldn’t have bought Jenny this summer.

Your definition of good seems to be someone willing to chuck huge sums of their own money at the squad. We’re all basically just whores to global investment conglomerates, some just have richer sugar daddies than others.

This is getting beyond tedious now. Have a weeks holiday.

Because it's the Brexit thread, it's going to be like this and I don't have anywhere near the patience needed to try and moderate it. Unless someone posts something overtly offensive, I'm just going to leave you all to it.

Crikey! That lot make the Warhammer convention look like the Playboy Mansion.

Any reason? Obviously they’ve got a fair few Irish fans, are they upset about something?

If he’s better than what we’ve got it’s a no brainier.

I'm struggling to make sense of that team from the way it is structured. The way the players are listed does look like you're suggesting a starting XIV

No, they’re just on the crest of the wave like we were under Poch/Koeman. The better you perform, the more interest there is in your players. Do you think the likes of Jota, Jimenez and Moutinho will stick around when City and United start offering £70m? It’s like there’s an opposing magnet on the arse of the top six; the closer you get, the harder it pushes back. Everton and West Ham have chucked obscene amounts at their squad and achieved absolutely naff all.

Basically everyone is just guessing what he means (if anything at all), which is what he wants because he likes winding people up.

Yeah, good luck with that IQ test Charlie.

I’m with you there, I’ve always thought Hoedt was a better player than JS.

I think we all wanted a few more outgoings but it was never really on with the wages we’re paying them. It’s a 2-3 year process really, waiting for contracts to expire.

Perhaps the captain of whichever freighter was bringing them over knew what was best for the world and jettisoned them in the Indian Ocean. Feel sorry for all the Somalians getting them washed up on the beaches.

I don’t agree with that bit, just that it wasn’t financial. Family reasons, a new more prestigious job elsewhere, maybe he only ever intended to come here on a short term deal to help Ralph get things going. Take your pick.