PokingFun

Yeah you're not wrong 142p for diesel! I was running on fumes though so cheaper than running out and having to get towed ;-)

They're saying that because he is likely to leave .... you know what football fans are like.

I work in Ringwood and was getting fuel at the garage near David Lloyd leisure centre so I can only assume he lives in the Ringwood area.

I said to him "You dirty skate b*****d, were coming for you" ;-) To be fair, he was quite pleasant given he knew I was a Saints fan and was happy to chat for a few minutes about JP etc. Nothing like he comes across in media.

I was speaking to Steve Cotterill yesterday and he said an enquiry had come in about Puncheon from his agent but there was nothing more than that. I said echo was reporting interest and SC seemed surprised that the echo had a story. He also said Punch and Haydn Mullins were mates and had the same agent so JP has friends there. I said to SC that JP seemed surplus and bridges had been burned at St Marys and he referred to him as a "young boy" and also a decent player so the interest could certainly be real but no more than that was said so he wasn't giving much away really.

And you're a bore with your constant stream of trivial sarcasm.

I'm certain it will be Nicola Cortese that does the "selling" of the vision of the club. It has been mentioned several times when players have joined previously. Managers generally don't perform this role at clubs.

I have hardly ever heard players at this level mention the manager and opportunity to work with them as the key reason behind them joining a club. They usually talk about the set-up, ambition, "sleeping giant" etc etc etc but not the manager. I still maintain that it is the financials that a club is willing to give a player that generally is the key to them joining and there are several clubs with big budgets in this league. For what it's worth I think the stable and prudent approach that we seem to adopt is a sound one and we should continue along those lines. There will be quality available at the right price and wages and I'm sure we will secure some of that quality.

CMS is probably not a good example as 1) it doesn't seem we were in for him during the summer and 2) Gus Poyet cannot be classed as an experienced and high profile manager that can attract players simply due to his reputation. I think CMS proves the opposite in fact ... players will go anywhere if the money and guarantee of playing time is there.

Doncaster are a much bigger town and club than S****horpe. 15k capacity at Donny versus 9k or so for Scunny. That's a massive difference of potential resources.

If you go into town to purchase goods then there is generally no free parking .... should Saints be any different?

CMS is not a marquee signing either. He scored a load in L1 last year but his only attempt at Championship level was not exactly a roaring success .... 11 goals and relegation.

Just asked a mate of mine who watches a lot of the Pompey games and his words about Nugent are "Good Champs Player, quite pacy at this level, runs the channels all day long. Not a big goalscorer as doesn't get tap-ins and misses some sitters. Also commented that he is on huge money too but I think he will have to take a big drop on that front as no team will pay him what Pompey were. On the face of it would seem a decent signing. From what my mate says it suggests he is similar to Barnard but quicker and more experienced at this level. No fitness issues as played over 40 games last season for them and still only 26 years old.

Guthrie will play for a premiership team if he moves on unless someone offers silly money / wages. He's a decent PL player and doubt would want to make a drop down.

Absolutely right too, CMS is not proven at this level and would be a big gamble at £3m for sure. The transfer window is only just starting to get into any sort of gear so let's be patient and see what NA can unearth.

Now this is exactly what needs to be stamped out. Generally, the same old posters argue the toss and berate each other again and again which gets in the way of reasoned debate and conversation. It is these posters that need to be banned if they continue their bickering as it is these posters that generally bring the tone and humour of the forum down.

Oh please shut up MLG ;-)

He can't agree terms with them unless we agree a fee first so while he may wish to join them and we might hold out for the biggest fee, then he goes nowehere until NC says so.

Hell of an assumption that you're making about no transfer activity considering we brought three in quite quickly last season ..... I think most people would say we have a settled and happy squad. Players under question at the moment in terms of rumour are pretty much OXO and Gobern (as he has not signed a new deal). I would call that very settled especially as we hold the cards.

And you could arguably say that they don't necessarily need to be in place until first or second warm-up game as they will have trained with their previous club (assuming a transfer rather than release on a free) so mid-July is the earliest I might be concerned.

I fully expect this to have happened, they will have identified targets and now have to undertake the time consuming task of getting them on the bus at the right ticket price.

But you can't buy players just in case someone moves on. Basically, you do a deal with someone if the money is good and you have a replacement/s available of the right quality. In previous seasons we have been in poor shape as the financial situation forced us to sell players like Walcott, Bale etc as we were skint. We had no choice to sell and not replace as we needed to do it to survive.

I think most people understand the logic but what most are saying is that it is clearly not that simple or else everyone would be doing it. So far there have been 70 odd transfers according to the BBC website and the vast majority of these are freebies so maybe we are not targeting players that are free and on the decline or not good enough. 70 players over 17 days between 100+ clubs shows that very little business is done in this first month after season end so whilst it would be nice to have 3-4 £1m or so quality signings announced by mid-June its simply unrealistic. Even after sourcing players, checking availability and agreeing deals with clubs there are still personal terms and contracts to sort and these things all take time. If we have no-one in by mid-July I will be concerned that we won't be able to compete for play-offs but I have absolutely no concerns about being able to be easily in mid-table with the quality we already have at our disposal.

Arguably you could day the same about most clubs of our size and stature. I'm sure the intent is there, but getting the right men, at the right prices surely is not that easy?

Interesting to me is that Norwich City did all their business in the summer by 15th July and had three in place by 22nd June. I would expect us to have done ours by weeks 2-4 in July (whatever it is we want to do). As things stand, it seems we have at least a month or so to secure the right signings and this in no way should affect our ability to compete. 3 out of the 7 Norwich signed weren't massive regulars either through injury or being used sparingly. Crofts (44 starting apps), Surman (18), Fox (33), Ward (41), Smith (5), Ruddy (46), Jackson (21). The fact that we have a settled squad with very little going out suggests that NA feels we have very good players for the division. Only Gobern is a question mark over moving on due to contract expiry. I expect to see a few signings that will strengthen key areas and so long as those happen by the end of July then that would be fine. Incidentally, Norwich also went into the market in January when it became apparent they could be challenging for play-offs / auto. They also had 10 out pre-season too but not sure if regulars. Not time to press the panic button yet in my opinion.