Lighthouse

No idea what your point is, he wanted to leave and his contract expired this summer.

The trouble is the only club stupid enough to buy Balotelli is infact Liverpool. Is there anyone out there who would match his wages, even if Liverpool gave him away free?

Not to mention Clyne being 24 whilst Shaw was 18.

Dani has long since burned his bridges and there is no sign of him in the videos. I'm pretty sure we will try and offload Gaston too.

Until judgement day cometh, raptures the worthy and wreaks a terrible plague upon the sinners. I believe the exact date is written in Mayan scripture.

We gave Mayuka and Forecast 5 year deals for some bizarre reason. I'd say 4 years for a player under 27 is pretty reasonable and typical for most clubs. You have to be pretty special to justify a longer contract than that.

I wore this for the Swiss tour a couple of summers ago. Anybody know where I can get one with a Dutch flag?

Wasn't he carrying a groin/groan injury since the new year? Could be recovering from surgery or having treatment somewhere. As I said, forgot Juanmi when I posted that but he will be in there somewhere.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when Man Utd's chief scout says that to Avram Glazer. You can't go spending £60m on Di Maria and shrug your shoulders when it doesn't work out, no matter how big you are. It's different pressures but to think Utd have it easier when it comes to signing players is naive. There are very few to choose from who are good enough and they have to compete with the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Chelsea. As such they usually end up paying through the nose.

Veron, Blanc, Forlan, Anderson, Poborsky, Taibi... all seemed like a good idea at the time. I agree it's pointless comparing us and them but they still have the same problems when replacing their players. Their problem is the quality they are looking for is much rarer than going out to obscure European clubs and finding a Tadic or Mane.

That's not really his point. Besides, how many players were out there as good as Cantona and Robson? Compared to how many are out there as good as Morgan or Clyne? The point is many people thought we'd struggle after losing 4 of our best players (and Chambers) but the replacements were as good or better overall.

Not sure on that, I can't see him not attending unless he is elsewhere having a medical or something. Anyway, I've just realised I forgot Juanmi so he can slot in there instead.

Lambert is 33 and well over the hill. Move on.

Got a feeling we may try Jay Rod up top again, since we've only got Pelle and a relative abundance of players who can play in behind. If we go with two separate teams, maybe it will be something like St Maarten Cedric - Fonte - Gardos - Bertrand Wanyama - Reed Isgrove - Mane - Tadic Pelle Then in the second half Davis Mugabi? - Turnbull - Yoshi - Targett JWP - Davis Mayuka - Gaston - Sims Jay Rod

What separates the top 6 from us is money and the potential to play in the Champs League. From that POV Everton are no better than we are and they don't have the financial clout to build a top 4. Spurs will only remain in that group for as long as they are willing to chuck money into finishing 6th and the Europa League. Don't forget clubs like Leeds and Newcastle have been in their position in recent years and dropped away when their owners stopped spending. I'd say it's more of a big 5 we will never be able to compete with long term, although with Brenda in charge who knows.

That's always been the case though, even with the historically bigger clubs like Liverpool who can't hang on to Sterling, Torres and Suarez. The alternative is buying older players who will just be old, crap an worth nothing in a few years. We're better off having young talent and selling them in their prime for big money.

£25m sound like a pretty decent price to me, Morgan is a decent player but nothing astonishing. Some talk as if he is the be all and end all of our team but we've had some good results without him and some poor results with him in the side. We will reinvest and move on.

5 months is plenty of time to start showing some sort of form but he didn't do it. If anything he went backwards, putting in a couple of decent performances at the start, then tailing off and looking fairly poor towards the end of the season. Koeman is not a magician and 'preseason' isn't a magic potion which turns players into world beaters. Koeman can probably get the best out of him but I think Elia's best isn't putting in Newcastle performances every game. It's like expecting Tadic to play like he did against Sunderland every game, or Kelvin like he did at Elland Road.

We more than likely started doing that a year ago. It's hardly a secret Morgan want's to leave and signing Toby permanently was never a sure bet. We've probably been negotiating with other players and their clubs for months over potential replacements. We were discussing on another thread, there isn't really much room in our squad for more attacking players. I think one more and I wouldn't waste it on a has-been like Lambert, painful though it is to say it.

Nah, I killed her and buried the body under my patio.

To me this is like a girl leaving you for a guy who is taller, richer and better looking. You can see why she did it... but she can still f**k off.

I agree, there isn't much room for others but 1 - There are normally a couple of subs used so there are only a couple missing out completely 2 - Out of 8 players, there will more often than not be one or two injured on any given match day 3 - I'd be quite surprised if nobody leaves. If we did bring another in I could see someone like Long or Davis moving on for more regular games.

With Jay Rod and Juanmi coming in and Djuricic and Elia going out, I think there is room for one more attacking player in our squad. I'm hoping some of the younger players like McQueen, Sims, Hesketh, Seager and Gallagher can come in and make an impact, especially in cup games.

We've been here before though with Whiskey George and Jermaine Wright. To a lesser extent there was also Strachan and Telfer, although Telfer was at least reliable and consistent. Koeman is a better manager than either of those two obviously but I think this is a similar situation. If Elia signed and went on to deliver then fair enough but he hasn't done it for the last 4 clubs he has been at. Saying stuff like, 'he's got the talent, Koeman clearly rates him, some people don't see what he offers' etc. is all well and good but try telling that to the team who've just mugged us 1-0 because we couldn't score.

That's pretty much what we spend on Clyne and Bertrand together. It's not an insult, for a 24 year old with a year left it's a reasonable enough price. Arsenal sold RVP for £24m because he had a year left and refused to sign. These delusions of £20m plus are a bit nuts.