Ex Lion Tamer

I agree that we don't want to find ourselves gambling again like we did with Hooiveld (although you have to give credit to the scouting team for recognising that he had talent that wasn't being fulfilled), and we should sign 2 centre backs to mitigate the risk of one of them not being good enough. Hopefully that will happen before the end of the window. I'm not really that impressed by Reading's signings and think we are aiming higher. Pogrebynak and Shorey in particular are very overrated I think - the former scored a burst of goals and then went through a long dry spell and the latter was dropped at West Brom for his lack of positional sense, after which time the defence looked much better. And Guthrie isn't any better than Davis. Part of the issue I think is that Adkins is very particular about the type of player he wants to fit our system, which means we can't just take whoever comes along. For example, we could have gone for Michu but didn't because we don't play with an attacking midfielder. Ultimately this will (hopefully) benefit us in terms of having a coherent team which will be better than the sum of its parts.

Personally I never believed the target of getting players before the City game was realistic. Of course Adkins would want them in sooner but he's not the one who has to make it happen. Progress has been a bit slow in the last few weeks but it was always likely to go down to the deadline, and I expected us to be a bit short for the start of the season. I don't think that's a disaster. Perhaps this is why you and others are disappointed, because you held too much stall in what Adkins said?

Don't you know we're in a big rush to get players in before the City game?

Cue criticism that he was in the Championship team of the year so not good enough

No, obviously its a generalisation. But you seemed to be suggesting that we should just ignore these problems and be happy, like we were in the Olympics. Probably you're right that most people wouldn't care about this stuff if it wasn't in the papers, but its important that we all do think about the economy and the effect Tory policies are having on others less fortunate than ourselves. By the way, as a middle class person struggling with the increase in rents in London, I really didn't get this Olympic feelgood factor that everyone has apparently experienced. I enjoyed the opening ceremony and some of the sport but I'm quite glad it's over now and we can be free from the enforced jollity. I am much more excited about the start of the football season to be honest.

At the risk of being a left wing cliche (!), I doubt the 2.5million unemployed forgot their troubles during the Olympics. But because the middle classes and the newspaper reporters were having a jolly time we can assume that everyone was happy

Of the 20 economists who wrote to Osborne in 2010 to express support for his debt reduction strategy, only one is now prepared to defend it: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/exclusive-osbornes-supporters-turn-him

I wonder if we've put this story out ourselves to try to generate some interest in him, and used a couple of clubs we knew were interested in the past

I know our need is probably more pressing than Spurs', but I was looking for info on Danny Rose and this thread gave me de ja vu: http://www.tottenhamhotspurs.tv/forum/players-lounge/29293-stop-doom-gloom-paranoia-etc.html

I posted this on the other thread but its completely wrong to say we're not spending - there are 12 others teams that have spent less so far this summer: http://www.betinf.com/england_transfer.htm

I enjoyed it but it felt like just a good action film rather than a real classic. I found myself thinking 'am I really watching another film where a bomb is ticking down they need to defuse it?' how many films have had that plot? Also Bane actually said 'i will break you', I thought I was watching Rocky for a second

The problem is that the irresponsible owners are often long gone by the time the club goes into admin and faces points penalties. The only way to solve it is to stop clubs spending too much in the first place. That's why they're bringing in financial fair play, though it remains to be seen if it will work. This is why American owners are buying clubs over here, it's because they love the free market way we run sports, where they can get away with anything. Ironically sports in America is massively regulated and virtually socialist

According to this there are 12 clubs that have spent less than us: http://www.betinf.com/england_transfer.htm Plus two of our signings were out of contract so they are worth a lot more than we spent

I do think though that if we sign a CB, LB and RM of the same standard as Clyne and Davis then we will stay up. If not we will struggle. So as you say it depends how the rest of the window goes, but I think our signings have been decent so far.

You're the one who said the club was complacent and indecision will do for us! I don't particularly think they are working on a yoyo strategy as they have built up expectations for European place, but I do I think they're being unrealistic about what we can achieve. Personally I'll be happy with 17th and even relegation wouldn't be a disaster, so not really that concerned. Anyway, I think we'll stay up with a couple of solid signings, but time will tell on that.

I must admit I am a little less positive now the signings have dried up. But we have to be aware that often clubs wont sell for reasonable prices until the end of the window as they are hoping someone will come in with a bigger bid than we can offer. Equally we are hoping they will be forced to drop their price when the deadline approaches. Its frustrating but we have to be patient. If we haven't signed a couple more quality players by the end of August then we can worry

If you're good enough you'll be able to adapt to an individual's qualities pretty quickly. 300 games in the champ or the prem aren't going to make you able to run any faster, or think quicker. Its fair enough if you don't think the players we're signed are good enough or experienced enough, but I just don't think where you get the experience is all that relevant. Countless players have thrived in the Premier League without having played in it before.

I disagree with this idea that top level experience is essential. I think its important to have experience in the side, certainly, to keep younger heads calm under pressure and to organise them, but whether they got that experience in the Prem, Championship or overseas is pretty irrelevant.

People had enough trouble spelling Kelvin's name properly, not sure what's going to happen if we have Davis, Davis and Davies in the squad!

My presumption was that as a Saints fan you'd generally be quite interested to read the threads on this forum, and therefore, like we do, would notice when a thread about a potential player is being overtaken by a pedantic argument.

If a thread is going off topic cant the mods move those irrelevant posts to a mega *****ing thread in another forum, just leaving those relevant ones?

If a thread is going off topic cant the mods move those irrelevant posts to a mega *****ing thread in another forum, just leaving those relevant ones?

I don't think anyone is saying we should confine ourselves to Championship players, just that our business so far has been good and the Championship has some useful talent we can utilise. Clyne is hotly tipped as Prem quality, Davis is prem quality, JRod should hopefully be but we have plenty of strikers if he isn't. Gazza is a backup. What is to dislike about our dealings so far? Olsson is linked today, Kayal yesterday, these are decent players! People are just getting over upset over one link, with Dann, because he looked shaky on occasions, but then Hooiveld wasn't rated either before he came here. Just need to be patient

But no one arguing your point seems able to name any of these proven Premier League players that we should be signing

Foster would be good but he was already on loan at WBA and was probably happy there. Jaaskelainen is getting on and is not the player he once was. I'm hopeful that we will still sign another keeper but it remains to be seen doesn't it? Jarvis would be a good signing but Wolves have demanded £10m which is on the expensive side, so it looks like, for the moment at least, we are looking for better value elsewhere. Rodallega is ok but only scored 2 goals last season, and he would probably prefer to go to a confirmed mid-table club like Fulham after years of battling relegation. People need to calm down and assess our transfer dealings at the close of the window. All the players we have signed so far have been in positions where we were decently stocked in terms of first team players already, and in doing so we have managed to find excellent bargains with potential to add a nice mix. Better still they will improve in the coming years, helping us to combat second season syndrome. The real problem positions of CB, RM still need to be sorted but we will have to see what we end up with there. Scott Dann does seem a bit of a risky one but we haven't actually signed him, we could end up with someone else entirely! Still a long way to go.