KelvinsRightGlove

Hate to get all MLG on this thread, but we haven't yet played Chelsea

Europe, quite a few. Cl - just the once, and not the group stages (getting Villareal was pretty unlucky). The L1 point ignores our income relative to those around us. Yes there was investment, but our income was also probably a lot higher than our competitors at the time. In the Champ last season I would be surprised if we were even the 3rd biggest spenders. West Ham and Leicester were throwing around silly money - and look where it got them. I would be surprised if we are spending more on wages than QPR, and look at how it is serving them. I'm not denying the role of money, but it has to be spent wisely.

I agree to some extent, but I don't think it is quite as black & white as you make it out. If you look at Everton, their net spend over the past few years has been relatively little, in comparison to some (their city neighbours for example) and they are there or there abouts. The Rodwell thing is slightly skewed, he had a long term contract up there, but was falling out of favour fast. He hadn't developed as was hoped, and was injured a lot. Moyes felt taking that money and spending it elsewhere was better for the squad as a whole. He's hardly pulling up any trees at City. It's an if, a very big if - but if the academy can keep producing top quality players like Theo, Oxo, Bale etc. then it will really help. If we can have the resolve to hold on there is no reason these sorts of players can help push us on further up the league. Cortese has already shown he can get a good deal for players (Oxo), which is likely to improve now we are in the Prem also. This extra revenue will, if spent wisely (i.e. Moyes), also help push us up the league. I'm not saying necessarily all the way to the CL, but I highly doubt Cortese was talking about that being an immediate thing on getting back to the Prem. I personally have my doubts to the sincerity of such claims anyway. He hardly strikes me as the type to publicly come out and say "our aim is to get to the prem and look for 17th year in year out".

Very few think it is likely any time soon. Has Cortese said it is likely in the immediate future? I mean the next couple of years. Not a fleeting comment about maybe in the future?

It depends on how they go about doing it. If we do a Leeds, then yeah, there will probably be trouble. But for some reason I trust a guy with a background in banking to be better at working these sorts of things out than myself or other people on here to be honest.

Perhaps, but aiming for Champions League and missing may result in upper to mid-table finishes. Aiming to just scrape survival and missing = ?

Totally agree. Standing still is moving backwards.

In addition to this, I should add I don't think the strengthening of the squad is complete. Some additions this month would be most welcome. As I have said elsewhere, I do believe that this squad is only going to get stronger, due to the average age and as the squad gains more premiership experience as a group - which would happen with or without additions. The squad is still pretty thin though, so some additional quality wouldn't go amiss. I do believe any additions should be better than what we have already, or at least offer a serious challenge to the incumbent of their position.

No of course not. But it's often said our transfer window in the summer was poor. Which I personally don't think it was. I think we strengthened the squad with good players, the majority of which have potential to improve and hopefully offer a strong resale value. The same can't be said of many of our competitors transfer dealings.

All transfers would be done in a couple of days if the evil committee kept their noses out, or if we had some money. All our signings last summer were rubbish. Yoshi & Clyne have failed to impress, at all, ever. Davis is awful back up. Gaston offers nothing. Billy Sharp is better than Mayuka & Rodriguez combined.

My cousin is a red top journo. She doesn't do sport, but is forever telling me about stories she hears, and more importantly pictures she sees of LOADS of Prem footballers 'getting on it'. She says that loads of them are on cocaine of a weekend. Saturday night after a game, off Sunday, pull a sickie Monday, out the system by Tuesday. She's shown me some pretty conclusive photo's, well, convincing enough at least. I won't name them, as I don't want to libel myself - but the list includes internationals & champions league players, as well as many others.

Ha, standard I haven't got a response so will resort to aggression. Decent.

I think it may have been a bike game, but possibly not that one. I did have Road Rash though, what a great game that was! I did also have that other 3-in-1 cartridge, all were great games!

Yeah, nearly made a mug of myself saying I already had it on the iPad, but its an inferior version. Just ordered a copy of the transformed one for my xbox.

Would be all over this.

Haha, it's a nostalgia thing. Sega was my portal into the beautiful and fantastical world of Games. It's clear now, Nintendo were better, and won that war, only later to be superseded. As I hope I managed to convey, I'm just a games fan. Yes! Columns! That was definitely the one!! The download only point is a very good one too, couldn't agree with you more. I love some of the fancyfied remodels of old games. I lost a huge amount of time to Limbo, brilliantly hard game. Must have smashed up at least 3 controllers playing that. Bloody thing. Thanks for the heads up re: Sonic Racing, I'll get it ordered. There are some really great takes on old style, side-scrolling platformers on mobile at the moment. It's a fun addition that characters run continuously, gives them a really frenetic feel. If you like these I would definitely looking up Totem Run, Monsters Inc. (seriously, plus the graphics are really good too) and Rayman are seriously good fun.

Haha I had this on a three in one game on my Sega, there was some sort of Jewel game and another one which escapes me now. Possibly some sort of racing game?

Oh man, I totally missed this thread. Hope no one minds if I jump in a bit belatedly. It's a shame this part of the forum is a bit neglected. I am a massive games geek. Always have been, always will be. They have played such a huge part of my life. Being an only child, my Mum & Dad cottoned on pretty early that games were a good way to keep me occupied. I got bought a Sega Mega Drive for xmas when I was 3 (bloody hell, 20 years of gaming!), I was hooked from then on. Aged 4 I was on a Newsroud special feature about games (the focus being Sega v Nintendo - ha!), playing Sonic. At Uni I was lucky enough to get a tutor who was also a massive gamer, who started a module all about Video Games (in the Politics departemnt!). After this I ended up doing my dissertation (which somehow got published) on Video Games, whilst reviewing Games for the student rag. I now work for a games company. Obviously, having initially had a Sega, I loved all the Sonic Games. Still do. Some other games I pumped hours of my life into were Echo the Dolphin, Fatal Rewind, early F1 games, early Fifa and Football Management games, Ristar (what a game!) and the ridiculous Kid Chameleon - I actually still enjoy playing this. It was just mental, it made no sense, and I swear it never ended with some levels just getting stupidly hard - and with no save function it was near on impossible to finish. I do sometimes pine for these types of games. I think the lack of technology perhaps helped developers creativity. Some of these early games were just bonkers, nonsensical, infuriating but wonderfully enjoyable and great fun. I also got a lot of play time out of a hand-me-down SNES. Obviously, weeks were lost to the Mario games, I still bloody love these. They have done a fantastic job reinventing this series, Mario is now infinitely better than Sonic, which pains me to say. I've also always loved the Zelda games, again still do. Will probably end up purchasing a Wii U simply for the new Zelda. I later got a step-family, and step-brother my own age. This meant we had a PS1 & N64 in our shared bedroom. Some great games on both. The original GTA & Tomb Raider games, in addition to Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and WWF No Mercy was brilliant. I also managed to find time to have full blown addictions to the Original Pokemon games for Gameboy, and pretty much every Football Manager since Eric Cantona was still playing. Kinda skipped over the GameCube/PS2 era - being a teenager I was a bit busy being spotty, chasing girls (failing miserably of course), getting stoned and drinking cider down the park (idiot). I did buy a GameCube, but frankly, it was rubbish. Never really played the thing. Got back into games in a big way with the latest Generation of consoles. Got a 360 now, and have to say some of the games available on here, the PS3 & the Wii are simply amazing. I'm aware that I'm gushing a bit now, and probably boring you all a bit so I will try round up. I think Little Big Planet & Batman Arkham Asylum are not only two of the best games of this generation, but possibly ever. I just can't get over how much fun Little Big Planet. It sounds simple, but every single part of the game is designed to be fun, nothing more, nothing less - and it works spectacularly. BAA is just incredible, a fantastic accompaniment to the stunning trilogy of films. Have to say even more of the social and mobile games about at the minute are fantastic. I love Groove Coaster on my iPad, purely for the visual and audio experience. It's just fantastic fun. Oh I can't go without a little plug - download Bubble Witch Saga & Candy Crush saga on iOS & Android sorry...

Is Cole not going Wet Spam?

This is more less spot on what I was going to say. So hard to say though, and probably dependent on your age. For me, Becks on the halfway, Le Tiss lobbing Schmeichel in the 6-3 (may be biased as it was my first saints game), Cantona v Sunderland all really stand out - odd how they were all the 96/97 season. Hate to say it, but that Matty Taylor volley a few years back for Pompey from about 35 yards where it just fell out of the air was pretty amazing. Bastard.

I really think sometimes people are blinded by Lambert. Yes, he is our talisman, and a massively important player for us. But if he is knackered, or ineffectual against a certain team (his lack of pace/mobility mean this will increasingly the case in the Prem I am afraid) then what is the point of keeping him on? Sometimes fresher, faster legs are a better alternative.

Personally, I find this hard to believe. Just because others also have a say, doesn't mean Nigel has none. Are we really so old fashioned that we cannot get our heads around the idea of recruitment being handled by several people? It seems a lot to ask of a manager in the modern game to cope with identifying players, negotiating with clubs, dealing with agents, etc etc etc whilst still handling all the other rigours of managing/coaching a football club. Seems unrealistic if you ask me. In no other business would you expect so much of one person, unless it were a very small company. For example, the company I work for have a policy where no person is hired unless they have been approved by 6 members of existing staff. This idea of using a committee really isn't that odd, I find it baffling how some think it is such an affront to Adkins. Just to be clear, this is not aimed specifically at you Alps, a lot on here have had plenty of moans about the 'committee' or Adders lack of control on transfers. I personally have no idea with transfers being a joint decision. Seems sensible when dealing with multi-million £ sums.

See, we can get some deals done quickly.

Ah ok, cheers pal.

Throw enough sh!t at the wall some of it is bound to stick. D U Double L