Charlie Wayman

When this move fails as it will don't be surprised if the other hoary old chestnut raises its *****ly head again, reducing the number of teams in the PL. You can almost place a bet on the likelihood of lobbying for a league of 16 or even 12 clubs to "ease pressure on the clubs that play in europe etc etc", cover of course for dividing the TV cash amongst fewer clubs so that the big boys get what they want anyway (more of the cash) by another route. These people are anti-football and the status quo isn't going to last much longer.

When you're in a hole and nobody wants to help you get out, best to stop digging for starters.

It's not all about money with every footballer, some play for the love of the game first and foremost as well and one can imagine Ricky Lambert is a footballer at heart and not a mercenary. Remember he didn't hesitate to turn out for Kelvin's testimonial match and revelled in the fun with Matt le Tiss, presumably for a few beers and a return rail ticket. No one should begrudge him the chance of a final hurrah in the top flight and to avoid the indignity of having to regress to a lower division

To be fair he was crap when he came here and many questioned why we contemplated buying him in the first place. He is nowhere near as good as Ricky Lambert who came up from a similar background. In my view he is a joker on and off the pitch who just doesn't know how to take his profession seriously. No excuse for slow, over-weight and unimaginative. Gabbi on the other hand scored 6 goals in his first three games for us and now he doesn't even get a starting place. You couldn't make it up! We must have a mighty fine coaching staff to get that level of improvement out of an established international striker. On match days there are two team announcements that ruin my day because inevitably they signal troubles ahead. One is that Ward Prowse is in the starting line-up, the second is that Gabbi is not.

This. Well said sir!

Do people from working class backgrounds still go to football? I thought they had been weeded out!

Any lawyer will explain to you never to defend the indefensible!

Plenty of smiles around the training pitch today and our new man Hoedt seems to be quite the lad at the centre of things and he's only just joined the squad. Maybe that's what they have needed, a big personality with a GSH to lift the downbeat mood around the place of late. Even Bertie was game for a laugh. Very nice to see.

It is, you are dead right. In political terms it probably amounts to a 'green paper' from FIFA out for consultation and comment so it looks like something akin to this could happen one day. In my view there is nothing wrong with the current format, it ain't broke so no need to fix it. You win some, you lose some. I'd feel cheated if the ref blew for time at say 65 minutes because there had been no stoppages of any consequence during a particular match.

Yes. This one has been tarnished and rendered meaningless by all those players who used to kiss the bloody thing every time they scored a goal and then buggered off at the drop of a hat to the highest bidder. New era now so new untarnished badge please. At least as we can't score goals any more no bugger needs to kiss it!

Ward Prowse is not progressing. None of the weaknesses of his game have been improved in five years; he is still hopeless in tackles, hopeless in the air with his head and can't run. Can't tackle, can't head, can't run - perfect attributes for a mid-fielder. England have now dropped him, without Reed's cloak of protection the truth has been laid bare by Southgate. Ward Prowse is not a PL footballer and would struggle even in the Championship.

Until we dig out Hunter & Jaidi and send them on the way to the job centre things will never improve. Every match Hunter trots out his cliches of wisdom like "we can learn from this!" or " we can take the positives". Two years to learn that you need to keep the ball out of your own net and bang it into theirs. What are these effing useless idiots being paid. The Academy has become a £30m laughing stock.

Gentlemen, we lost a game of football, we lose games of football most seasons even when finishing 8,7,6,8 in consecutive seasons. It is not something new.

Steve Parish? Who in hell will want to work with this prize idiot now. ... and we thought it couldn't get worse than Reed! I doubt Parish meets the PL's fit and proper person test.

I am not surprised that you did

Bit surprised that you would say something as childish as this.

Look at today's training video he was not miserable at all, clowning around and laughing his socks off. Now that vD & Cedric are staying he looks OK again. I guess he was getting worried that he'd be the last one here after August and left to put the lights out... and he's just played for England so what's he got to be miserable about?

It's too early for van **** to play obviously whereas Hoedt might get a game. Boufal could start simply on the basis that he has not been playing elsewhere this week and Tadic has. Another 0-0 beckons.

Absolutely, Pelle is like Austin a big target lump but one that could hold up the ball, bring others into play and score goals.

Always said he was right good bloke. What's he ever done wrong. Great club servant.

What have "you seen" then that the rest of us have not? He hasn't played for us yet!!! You judge players on their merits? Wow! This is so derisible you couldn't make it up. An unhatched Egg for sure.

No, no no! Don't you get it even now, Les's black box discovers overlooked raw nuggets and turns them into gold bars.

Had the idea ever crossed your mind that Boufal was a damn good footballer when he came here with a growing reputation... until he had to work with Black and Co! They seem to specialise in coaching excellent players into very poor ones. Perhaps some of the older players know what goes on at Staplewood and that's why they are often rumoured to want out.

The rules haven't changed but we can still sign free's. Costa unfortunately is still under contract to Chelsea.

There's no airport in Monaco. A nice story 'though!