tajjuk

Double post

Pretty sure our '5 year plan' was to be in the premiership in 5 years, we did it in 3. That spending table is meaningless, starts in 1992 where a million was a big transfer, some of those clubs have had 3 or 4 owners in that time, many have been out of the league, the likes of us, norwich, man city, reading have dropped to the 3rd tier. We spent little money under Lowe and still made it to 8th and the FA cup final and Europe. I'm pretty sure a lot of the clubs below us spent a lot more than that, pretty sure Liverpool spend shed loads more than West Brom, Everton, Arsenal yet all 3 sit above them in the table. It's not how much you spend it's what you spend it on. Buying young players with potential is a much sensible purchase strategy than Chelsea's and Liverpool's, it's pretty much the way Arsenal have been a top 4 club in the premiership.

One of the main reasons we were shocking was because Kelvin was, stuck on his line, poor positioning, regularly beaten at the near post and terrible distribution. His complete lack of composure and assurance clearly affected the defence in front of him. Poor kicking against Utd, should have done better with Van Persies shot considering the angle, beaten near post by Tevez, then by the rubbish that is Gervinho, then standing in the wrong position for the Podolski free kick which was pretty much down the middle, Upson's equaliser at Stoke went through him. So many goals where he should have done much much better which coupled with his general nervous play caused all sorts of problems. Frankly KD has shown on several occasions that he is not good enough to be a Premiership keeper. Why discount a pen, ummm because it's pretty much a guaranteed goal, unless the taker completely fluffs it and then the keeper fails to save it's never the gooalies fault. I doubt he's 'happy' but at the same time all he can do is try and save the shots if they are good finishes they are good finishes. The whole team takes responsibility for conceding 5 goals not just the keeper, Boruc produced some good saves in the game that stopped the score from becoming embarrassing, which it probably would have been with KD in goal. I'm really not sure what games you have been watching but if you think Davis should be in goal you are clueless. What's hilarious is you are having a go at a keeper that - A. Hasn't had much of chance (just 4 games), whereas our other two keepers have had many chances and failed time and time agains. B. Hasn't cost us any points, again whereas both other keepers have. Yet you want probably the worst of the three back in? Your clearly not objective and have some sort of issue with Boruc, you're probably one of the idiots that unjustly barracked him at the Spurs game.

Hasn't abramovich invested over a billion now in Chelsea? he's spent like £170 million on strikers alone - Ba (7), Lukaku (20), Torres (50), Sturridge (4), Di Santo (3), Shevchenko (30), Drogba (24), Mutu (16), Crespo (16) Last 3 years transfer spending £92 million, £82 million, £99 million, with £48 mil recouped from sales. They have spent over £100 million in one season on two occasions- £153 mil in 03/04 and £112 mil in 05/06. £700 million in player purchases since 2003. That probably helps.

Weren't Blackburn run off a Jack Walker trust fund for quite a while? with scheduled released payments, with any extras having to be agreed by a trust meeting.

Most of the City Centre is pretty good now, All started from West Quay and they have done up that square (millenium) in front of the Guildhall. Much better than it was 5 years or so ago. But to be fair I said both had crap areas, but just said Liverpool's areas are bigger because it's a bigger city. 20 mins in the car from Soton centre and you can be in the country, whereas in pool you are just in the vast urban dreary sprawl. The docks at Liverpool are pretty nice but the main bar/club area was pretty rubbish when I went and as I said Bristol has a much better city centre and has the nice dock area.

If we need to beat one of them at home I think we are in trouble, it's certainly possible as Wigan showed last year and QPR against Chelsea. With tough games against rivals, cup games, champions league games top players can sometimes take their eye of the ball against teams they are expected to beat. We need 22 points to get to 40 from 18 games. 6 wins, 4 draws. Best chances for wins are the home games against West Brom, Stoke, QPR, West Ham and away games against Villa, Wigan, Newcastle, Norwich, Reading and Sunderland. Outside chances against Everton and Liverpool at home, Swansea away. 'Nil Pointers' for me are Chelsea, Utd, Spurs away and City, Chelsea at home. So really 22 points from 13 games.

When I went out in Liverpool it was about the same as any other city centre, maybe a tad cheaper than here but the same drunk people, police, same bars and clubs really, just a tad bigger. Bristol is a better night out IMO Agree though there are some sh*t parts of Southampton, just like Liverpool, Liverpool is just bigger so it's crap parts cover more area, you can get lost in the crap. Whereas the areas around Soton are better. Their squad isn't much better than ours, or at least it's not performing much better. Very reliant on Suarez who is a class above and an aging Gerrard. The likes of Agger, Skrtel, Reina aren't performing to to their usual standards.

He's played on the right for Inter this season, seems he can play right, left, up front or in the hole. Mainly played on left cutting in for Espanyol when I saw him. Doubt it matters much though he's decent enough on his left foot so I'm sure he could play on the right. Lallana could also easily play on the right but I'm not sure Puncheon would have much sucess on the left. It's all about options, we are lucky that Puncheon has stepped up this season as we seem to be lacking in these positions and our transfer rumours both in the summer window and this have indicated this as we have been linked with a lot of wingers/wide players.

Would like to see us go for a big powerful DM, like Mulumbu or Diame mould.

Not really sure Liverpool are serious competitors in this, they have Agger and Skrtel, plus carragher and cates as backup and I doubt they would spend £10 million in area that doesn't really need improving. If they sold one of those maybe, but I think they need improvement in other areas. Plus they have a recent transfer history of buying overpriced english players so it's in those cases we don't want to be outbidding them.

I think we need to win one of those away games, maybe both. At the very least avoid defeat. Anything against City, Utd or Chelsea is a bonus. Everton at home is winnable on our current form, but I'd take a point.

I would say though that throughout the 90's serie A was the dominant league in world football, remmeber wathching it on 4 all the time, all the top stars went there so a mvoe to England was generally a step down. Over the last 5 years or so it's been on a steady decline and seems to have issues fiancially.

I think it's a combination of NC's contacts there and the state of the league's finances. You only have to lok at the fall from grace of Mighty AC Milan, the likes of Pato moving from Milan to Corinthinians wouldn't have happened a few years ago, the big lcubs in Italy traditionally buy the best Brazilians not the other way round. Look at the list of players who have recently left Milan:- Imbrahimovic Thiago Silva Pato Cassano Nesta Gattusso Seedorf Van Bommell Something like 29 players have left recouping nearly £80 million in sales and only £20 million spent. Seems only Juventus are financially ok.

If we spend what we are reportedly spending then I think he will sacked if we are relegated. Personally I'd keep him and give him a chance to get us up again, managers like players generally improve with experience.

Lescott can't get in the Man City first team but he's way better than any defender we have and probably better than any centre back outside the top 6. Inter are one of the biggest clubs in the world, He's played 11 times for them this seasons including 5 in the Champions league, I think an Inter rotation player is good enough for relegation battling Saints.

Lol @ ONLY, 12 shots ON TARGET is a lot for any game, Premiership top scorers Man Utd only average 6 per game. One was also a penalty so you can discount that, he stopped the score becoming a lot worse. Gazza was dodgy at the start of the Newcastle game, almost gifting them a goal through some dallying on the ball and a poor kick which got closed down by Ba, he got lucky the as the bounce was kind to him. Hardly 'flawless', he had one good save but Newcastle were largely tootheless. He cost us crucial home points against Swansea and Norwich and I hope he isn;t anywhere near the team again, he had his go, and he failed on several occasions.

There is clearly something wrong there because he was being linked with £20 million + moves a year ago, now it seems Inter are pretty much willing to let him go for free if someone takes him but it looks like no one wants the wages. His ego and attitude must be off the chart for none of the big clubs to take him. Most likely he will end up at a big spending Russian club.

Let's be honest, the players are clearly going to be more keen to move to the likes of Liverpool, Milan etc, you can't blame them for that, but it depends on who has made a bid. The lure of the premier league was enough for Gaston as Spurs and Liverpool didn't back up their interest (if they had any). Astori will move to us if we are the only option IMO as the league and money is a step up on Cagliari. Coutinho is at a traditonal massive club, one of the biggest in the world but if he's not playing and they are short on cash it;s viable. Is there anyone else actually interested in Coutinho? I've seen a Milan, Liverpool and Everton mentioned about Astori but only us in the hunt for Coutinho.

How are we 'starting to look shakey', I wouldn't read too much into the Chelsea game, the team selection showed we didn't really care and that rubs off on the players, whereas Chelsea were well up for it, motivated after a lazy shoing against QPR and the boost of a new striker. How are Villa improving? They ground out a 2-1 against Ipswich and before that they got lucky at Swansea who should have hammered them, that's on the back of 3-0 home loss to Wigan, a 4-0 home loss to Spurs and an 8-0 drubbing by Chelsea. We have a decent chance at the 3 points IMO.

He was originally a Milan youth product so might be wary of getting football seeing as he failed to make one first team apperance.

I think he's a decent player but I think with a lot of English prospects he's a bit overated on the technical side IMO, I would reckon there are a whole hatful of Brazilians with more skills than him available at half the price. He has some pace and power and is a good finisher but is he good enough out wide for a club like Liverpool? I'm not sure and he'll get little oppurtunty to play through the middle.

If we managed to sign him permantently it would be a superb signing, he's a top prospect and would add some x-factor to our attacking play. I also think he would link well with Ramirez. The kind of player Liverpool should be looking at rather than spending £12 million on Sturridge.

£4 million is a good deal, an honest hard working centre forward but not premiership quality IMO, especially as a lone forward.

The only team that should have won was Swansea, they battered Villa and should have been 4 up in the first 20 minutes. They were also ran close by Ipswich. Hopefully bradford will give them a tough game on Tuesday. We are in the better form and will be fresher so i think we should be winning this one.