tajjuk

Top prospect and would be way better than puncheon, don't really see why Inter are selling him unless they have financial issues, but then they aren't playing Schneider. Lallana with pace is what I would describe this guy as, looked very good for espanyol on loan last season.

Not sure he's blond enough to be a good prospect When you look at the description page on the OS about the first year scholars, whoever wrote it Targett seems to be one of the least rated from the bunch. We should probably be more worried about clubs pinching the scouts that seem to find all these players.

I was told not to go there so I won't. You'll just have to trust that Mr Cortese knows what he's doing because there is no way he is going to tell you or anyone and we won't know anything until we see the accounts which we won't see for a while yet. If we do spend another £15 million which is being touted I'm sure there will be plenty of accusations of us 'doing a portsmouth', if we don't spend then there will be those critical of that. Personally I think our spending has been sensible, we seem to be signing young hungry players, who's transfer fee will be higher but wages will be on lower than established older players and be more likely have a decent sell on value if we get relegated. I think Astori fits into this category. It's Euros not pounds so about £8 million, and considering the club he plays for any international cap for Italy is good going. Who are your other options because I think he's better than the likes of Dawson, Davies and Dann who we have been linked with.

For me he's a centre-back who has managed to play well enough to get caps for a very good national team despite playing for an unfashionable club, and still at an age where he is a good few years away from his peak as a defender. Someone here mentioned him as the Italian Gary Cahill, or maybe the Italian Ryan Shawcross? He's seems way better than any other centre back target we have been linked with IMO.

Er our net spend in the last 10 years of the premiership was around £10 million, I know there are wages and stuff but we got a lot of TV money in 10 years. Also Lowe's non-spending plan really worked well in the end didn't it, I mean we didn't get relegated and then go into admin at all.

These 'Fair play' rules will sweet FA, it will probably ensure the top clubs will remain the top clubs as they are now by preventing anymore Citys and PSGs. If we want real fair play you will have to have a Europe wide salary cap like most USA sports have.

I kind of read that as, Saints have made a bid and he'll go there if there are no other options but would prefer a bigger club. Kind of a plea to get Napoli and Juve to bid form his agent.

They need to keep that average age of over 30 up. To be fair though I thought Keane did a decent job at Villa last season, trouble is they would only be available for a short period and then they go back, if they do well it leaves a bit of gap in your team.

But Utd draw in the biggest amount of money so will be able to spend the most, they already develop their own players, buy and develop younger players from other clubs. They then top this up with proven class for big money, in recent years they have had competition from the likes of Man City, Chelsea and PSG with their big money offers menaing they have lost the likes of Nasri and Moura to them. With these rules they will have the biggest spending power and thus the best team. We also can't be that far away from the top prem clubs negotiating their own TV deals like they do in Spain, Man Utd and Liverpool fans must make up a huge proportion of the overseas TV watchers, how long till they demand a bigger slice of the pie, specially if they are looking to max revenues.

I don't hate West Ham, but even on what he did for Bordeaux he's an average signing, with his performances at Arsenal he's a poor signing in my book. Like I said Carroll is probably the biggest aerial threat in the league and West Ham played to that strength and he has managed 1 goal, can't see how the smaller and worse Chamakh will do any better. Seems a 'quantity not quality' type attitude to me.

Agree with the kick it and head it centre back as well, but he has some strange suggestions for other clubs, Sunderland need more in defence? they can't score goals.

Vaz te is massively overated and can't cross. Plus Chamakh's no way as good in the air as Carroll and he has 1 in 12. I suppose seeing as they have 2 in 18 Cole, you might as well have lots of strikers that don't score goals. I bet for the money they could tempt Holt away from Norwich, he'd suit them well and score goals, makes the most out his limited talent.

I don't really see how it helps us, it kind of draws a line in the sand and says if you aren't big now you will never be. Clubs like Man Utd with big stadiums and oversees mechandising will benefit the most. Kind of makes us more of Bilbao, they are essentially the role model for what we are trying to do.

Doubt Davis would have got there and I'd rather he kicked the ball into touch than straight to a striker like Gazza did.

Giroud has 6 in 19 so far for Arsenal, not great but ok. Chamakh has 8 in 40. Girouds career record is also better. Poor signing for West Ham, hope he's on big wages too. Chamakh and Cole is a pretty awful window for the Hammers so far.

Doni has gone missing apparently, went to Brazil and hasn't come back so I doubt Liverpool will let Jones go as he's already been used a lot. Also don't think he's any better than what we have. Should we maybe be looking at Diame? QPR interested and a reported £3.5 million release clause, would add some stregth and power in the midfield.

To me there looked like more trust in Boruc from the defence more than KD or PG, maybe they respect him more because of his obvious pedigree and reputation or they are scared of him cos he's a mental

Not really no, my point was two fold:- - First not many premiership clubs are producing as many top level youth products as we have done recently. - Secondly not many are forced to sell them, they get offered huge fees that they think is a good deal and as long as we maintain our premiership status we will be in a similar position. Without any debts and other areas of investment needed these huge fees can re-invested in the playing squad, maybe we will be able to buy the Bales/Barrys/Johnsons etc. for samllish £5 million fees from lesser clubs in the future and sell them on at big profits as well as producing talent of our own. From your examples none of Henderson, Carroll, Allen, Downing etc. were agitating for moves to bigger clubs. Only Barry to my recent memory had a bit of hissy fit and demanded a move, in most cases the selling club seems to have gained the most out of these sales. If you asked if Luke Shaw wants to play for Arsenal he would probably say yes however if Arsenal bid £5 million and we rejected it I think it's unlikely he would go on strike or something so we will be able to get a very high fee for him. You seem to make out it's a case of Man Utd or Liverpool come whistling and we have to sell, whereas if the guy is under contract, the selling club is stable financially they hold all the cards and the big club has to do the running.

Swansea got £15 million for Allen and personally I don't think he will ever be in the Bale/Walcott class, Newcastle got £35 million for Carroll, a player now on loan as West Ham and has scored 1 in 12, with West Ham unlikely to stump up the £15 million to buy him. Swansea didn't develop Sinclair and signed him for just £500k and then sold him for £7 million, again he's a decent player but as they have shown easily replaceable and not even got a 'token' England cap. As for Villa again were any youth products? Villa stole Barry from Brighton for about £2 million on tribunal and sold him for £12 million, they rejectd £15 million from Liverpool the season before. Downing they bought for about £10 million and sold him for £20 million, a player now close to being released by Liverpool. Point is not many of these are homegrown players and in most cases a stable Premiership club will get an overinflated fee for a rated youngster. At their prices Walcott, the Ox and Bale all look undersold by us, as all would cost far more to buy now, especially Bale who if he leaves Spurs any time soon will cost £40 million plus, from a £5 million purchase.

It wasa good deal because he's not worth that much, he wasn't even close to a key player to them, whereas Bale, Theo and the Ox have been key first teamers, but our league status and financial situation forced those sales. Everton sold Rodwell because they got a good price for a player who despite showing a lot of promise hadn't kicked on and is quite injury prone, like I said poor example. Better one might be Rooney. There aren't many examples though of upper mid table clubs losing their top home grown players to bigger clubs, at least I can't think of many. Not sure many premiership clubs are producing top home grown talent. West ham a while back losing the likes of Lampard and Ferdinand maybe, but they were always flirting with relegation, Rooney from Everton but they got a very hefty fee for him. Looking through the current England Squad and recent call ups, maybe Smalling? Henderson? again a pretty good fee, would be like someone offering £20 million for Lallana. Not many established premiership clubs seem to loose their top young stars unless they choose to because of generoud fees, or are forced to by relegation or financial troubles.

Liam Ridgewell is on £25k a week, it was reported after that toilet photo incident. He's a pretty average player and I'd rather have Benayoun than him. Think £30-40k is the going average for most premiership players these days, I imagine the likes of Michu will be on this amount. Blame the agents.

You have just made this up. His long kicking was a bit off, but his short kicking was fine and the ball was played back to him on several occasions.His throws were excellent. He also dealt well with that underhit pass back with minimal fuss.

Exactly it's a bad example and they have re-invested it well, he wasn't even a regular for Everton so hardly one their best prospects. He might have been at 17 but he's 21 and hasn't progressed as much as was expected from him. It was a great deal for Everton. Agree with this, aiming just to stay up is what got us relegated. With a few quality signings in 2003 we could have been pushing on the European places, instead we sold our best player and bought a load of squad players. The club has ambition and maybe the finances to match, there is no reason we can't be in and around the top 8 in the coming seasons and with a bit of luck you never know. Newcastle weren't far off from a Champions league place. But the priority now is staying up, if we do then next year with a year's experience under their belts the current team will be better and there will be new additions. It seemed a bit of dream back in league 1 when the '5 year plan' was announced. I also reckon it's better to try and fail than to go nowhere.

Rumours are that Begovic is a target for some big clubs, so Soke might be mindful of that before letting him go.