tajjuk

No I'm getting it, but I don't think it was possible. Lambert was always going to be our first choice striker this season, aside from Michu, getting someone in of his quality would have either cost us twice the price of Rodriguez (e.g. Fletcher) or would have been at a similar price but as old as Lambert and would cost us much more in wages. (e.g.Berbatov). The latter choice doesn't fit into our transfer policy so I doubt the club were ever going down that route. I simply don't think the club will pay any large sums for players who are 28+ so we might go for Boruc who was free or Davis at a cut price but even if Berbatov had been open to joining us, there is no way we would have stumped up £6 million + £60k a week for a 31 year old. We as fans have to understand this, it's the clubs philosophy so any big money signings are going to be of the 'young with potential' type. So we go down that roiute with Jay Rod, in comparison to similar young british players plying their trade in the championship £7 million seems about the market rate so I don't think we have overpaid. You also said that Jay Rod wasn't challenging Lambert for a place, yet he is because he has started in place of him on a few occasions. He's challenging and in the limited games he has got to start in his favoured position he has done ok and shown glimpses of real talent. Harsh to judge him as he hasn't got much game time, could he have done more? maybe but I don't think he has done badly and with a run of games who knows? 3 goals in a few starts up front is ok for a back up striker.

Agree with this, in the situation we are in you want to try and get the best first team you can, we are most likely going to out of the FA cup at first attempt so wll just have league games to worry about so it's not numbers we need it's quality. We have enough squad at the moment so we need players to challenge the first team spots.

Is this is a pun?, Looks like a big lump to me, 3 premiership goals isn't much considering he's started virtually every game for them and it's understandable that Bent is unhappy. Yes he was, Austin scores goals buts that about it and he's also about as slow as Lambert, we'll see if a Premiership club takes a gamble on him in January. Mirallas is a winger, Maiga is third choice striker for West Ham and cost about as much as Jay Rod did. The only dos Santox I think of is Giovanni who was a complete flop. Someone above mentioned Connor Wickham as well who cost £12 million for Sunderland and he has only scored once for them. Young british strikers don't come cheap

I listed the options that went this summer, players like Fletcher cost twice the price and he has scored as many league goals as Lambert, players like Berbatov cost the same amount of money but are on a lot higher wages and are a lot older. As far as I can see £6 million gets you either - - young and unproven at this level with potential (Benteke, Jay Rod, Jordan Rhodes) - more quality and experience, but older with higher wages (Berbatov, Pogrebnyak, Cisse) - A proven Premier League goalscorer of a decent age like Fletcher costs you £12 million, or you make an error like Liverpool and buy Borini at that price. We got a young English striker who was one of the best players in the Championship last year, for about £6 million. Seems a decent deal to me, to have got a striker as good as Lambert we would have had to have paid over twice the amount or got someone of Lamberts age. Essentially whoever we bought would be back up to Lambert, so buying someone like him either means that signing sits on the bench or we waste Lamberts talent as we generally are playing one striker, hence why we went young with potential who would probably be more happy playing second fiddle to Lambert.

Not sure Dann is an improvement on what we have.

Just our of interest who else could we have signed for that sought of money? We all recognise Michu was a very good signing at his price, so we missed out there, but he's very similar in style to Lambert. Aside from that strikers that have been signed recntly by other prem teams:- - Pavel Pogrebnyak was free but reportedly high wages (and high singing fee) and has been poor for Reading. - Andy Carroll high wages and the agreed fee for him is £15 million. - Berbatov was a good deal at £6 million but doubt he would have come to us and also very high wages. - Benteke cost £7 million to Villa, I suppose he's done ok, only 22, 3 premiership goals but had more opportunities than Jay Rod. - Borini cost £11 million to Liverpool, he has 15 career first team goals. - Fletcher £12 million, done wel with 6 prem goalsl but twice the price of Jay Rod - Cisse cost £4 million for a 31 year old, plus his wages. - Jordan Rhodes cost £8 million and he was in league 1. I can't see how we overpaid for him and the only way we would have got someone better was to buy someone much older on higher wages. He's had a handful of games in his starting position and done ok, too little to write him off as a bad signing.

Reading and QPR will be the bottom two barring some miracle. The last relegation place is between us Wigan,Sunderland and Villa. We need to beat SunDerland at home (hopefully them v reading will be a 0-0 and then Sunderland get thrashed at Utd) I do think that we are better than those three but our poor start means we are playing catch up a bit and have less room to slip up as our January run is tough. There is no reason though that we can't go to the likes of Villa, Sunderland, Wigan, Fulham, Swansea and win. I also think we have a chance of a couple of home wins against the big boys, maybe Arsenal.

They are the same size, so you can't rule it out that Shaw wont; be as strong as has pace and is 6 foot 1 at just 17. A few more years he will become naturally much stronger. Will agree though, Bale is a monster at the moment the way he powers past people, it's not juat how quick he is but its the power of his running that defenders can't handle, right up there with Ronaldo on that aspect of his game. Considering though there seem to be very few top quality elft backs about I think keeping Shaw as a left back is the best way forward. Ony saw a few highlights of the game on MOTD2 after being away all weekend, preusming Ramirez didn't start as he had been away all week? Any news on Lallanas injury? If we can get to January with 19/20 pts then I think we can be very optimistic considering our terrible start, a chance to add more players in january. Looks like Boruc isn't going to play again so I think a keeper might be number one priority now.

I like how he seems to refer to the club as "in the building"

Considering last years attendance from both teams in the same game, it's apparent that there is a proportion of fans that prefer 'successful' football over 'premiership football' and that some fans will only turn up to see the bigger teams and players in the prem if their team isn't doing as well.

So we are looking at about 29k then?

1 Manchester United 75,387/75,473 2 Arsenal 60,000/60,097 3 Newcastle United 49,935/49,635 4 Manchester City 47,044/46,823 5 Liverpool 44,253/44,722 6 Chelsea 41,478/41,639 7 Sunderland 39,095/40,268 8 Tottenham Hotspur 36,026/35,995 9 Aston Villa 33,873/34,582 10 Everton 33,228/36,586 11 Stoke City 27,225/27,107 12 Norwich City 26,605/26,559 14 Fulham 25,293/25,559 15 West Bromwich Albion 24,798/25,057 18 Swansea City 19,946/20,349 19 Wigan Athletic 18,63318,248 20 Queens Park Rangers 17,295/17,717 http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/attendance/_/league/eng.1/barclays-premier-league?cc=5739 http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/attendance/_/league/eng.1/year/2011/barclays-premier-league?cc=5739 First number is last season's average, second is this seasons average so a smaller sample obviously. No real difference there. Total attendances for the league will be higher this season because us, West Ham and Reading are averaging more than Wolves, Bolton and Blackburn.

How many tickets have we sold now then?

Hilarious, I hope they sign him and drop Nelson so they have Anton Ferdinand and Ben Haim at the back

I think he essentially means it 'could have been a lot worse'. Think Liverpool played well rather than us playing that badly, we were average but more solid than we were a few months ago so didn;t get hammered. Good to see Gaston will be back though on Saturday, atyhing less than a win will be a big let down, anything close to the levels of performance shown against Newcastle and we should be too much for Reading.

Just had a look at that, this one stood out - "I'd say, their results and confidence are at a very similar level to ours - except they're scared ****less of us after last season." Glad to see though that most of their fans recognise that we thoroughly outplayed them but missed our chances.

No but facts do, and I have to repeat myself because you can't take well reasoned points, especially as you have already changed your point during the thread. He's played 9 games out of West Ham's 15 during which he has contributed 1 goal and zero assists. His Wolves team were relegated last year. Lallana has two goals and 4 assists (equalling Jarvis's total assists last season) in a worse team, he's up there with the likes of Mata in creation stats and he's been talked up in the media. Not really, footballers have a short shelf life, most players will have stopped developing by the age of 26 and should be close to their peak, especially attackers. Lallana for me has improved this year on last year, in fact he's improved since the start of the season, has Jarvis improved since his England call? Maybe because Lallana was you know called up a few months ago, and Jarvis hasn't been for ages. It's usually a good indicator looking at the England squad to find out who's being considered for the England squad. Giggs is still playing premiership football he's hardly at the high point of his career though. Lallana was playing championship football last year and league one football the year before and is now knocking on the door of the England squad and getting good reviews in the press. Over the same time period Jarvis has gone from getting an England cap to getting relegated. Your odd opinions, Lallana doesn't have 'no pace' and he can clearly cross, with both feet as well, Lallana also plays in far more positions than Jarvis, so how is he rigid? They are different types of players and as a versatile foward player rather than a traditonal winger I would say that Lallana would more likely fit into more squads in the league. Why post then? ironic calling what I said waffle looking at what you posted.

I'd go with this, except the bit about the 4-4-2. Are attacking back up options are really only Mayuka, Rodriguez and Guly. Or Steve de Ridder

How is Reading not taking the full allocation our fault exactly? Also seeing as it's wednesday and the game could easily sell out, wouldn't it have been better to do this thread AFTER the game?

Lol, like I said you were wrong, then about half way down the thread you changed your tune after being shown how wrong you were. Any bits of your argument that have been destroyed you conveniently ignore and move on. People justified why they think Lallana is worth more than Jarvis, they used logical points to back their reasoning. You have just waffled on about Jarvis two years ago, which as I stated several times merely supports the suggested valuation for Lallana even more. Lallana is in a similar positon to what Jarvis was two year ago, 24, playing well, near the England team, lower table club, long contract. Jarvis however is not, he's been injured quite frequently, got relegated, is now two years older with little progression and is nowhere near the England squad, that £15 million was when he was at his 'high', he is no longer there,his value now is probably about the £7.5 million intitial fee West Ham paid.] Lallana is at the highest point of his career so far. Jarvis is not. You can't seem to get it into your tiny head that what Jarvis was valued at 2 years ago is not what he is valued now. His value has dropped signigifigantly in that time due to the various reasons above, hence his much lower transfer fee to West Ham. The story is about what Lallana is potentially sellable for now in comparison to what Jarvis is was actually sold for, not his value two years ago. As I also pointed out, no one said Lallana was worth £15 million, what people actually said was that would be the minimum amount Newcastle would have to start offerring before it was taken seriously to make us sell.

Yet he's keeping one of transfer targets out of an average ish national team. Also agree with the above that we need a more physically imposing centre back and at 6 foot he doesn't sound like one, we need an upgraded version of Jos as we have two centre backs in Fonte and Yoshida that are more the 'Ferdinand' mould than the 'Vidic' mould.

You are really a simpleton, you explicity asked people to explain why Lallana was worth £15 million (or three times newcastle's offer) and we did quite comrehensively. You went on a little rant at MLG for that exact reason earlier in the thread. £15 million is also more than £10.75 million. Jarvis was sold for £10.75 million. ipso facto Lallana is worth more than Jarvis. Jarvis being touted at £15 million a few years ago when he was at a very similar stage to what Lallana is now just further supports the £15 million valutation that you so scoffed at the beggining of the thread. - Relegation, age and wanting to leave dropped Jarvis's value from £15 million to £10. You seem to agree that £15 million is now a correct valuation for Lallana when you were questioning it at the start.

Treble Newcastle's bid is £15 million. 3 times £5 million. Thought I would lay that out at the start to make it easier for you. "I clearly asked people to come up with reasons as to why lallana is worth more than Jarvis, the "treble" NEwcastles bid." So you asked people to justify why Lallana is worth £15 million, which is more than Jarvis went for THIS YEAR, that being his £7.5 million with add ons up to £10.75 million pound transfer to West Ham on the 24th August 2012. £15 million is more than £10.75 last time I checked. So I justified the £15 million which is more than Jarvis went for, the £15 million touted for Jarvis 2 years ago when in the premiership just backs my argument up further. If club's offered for Jarvis at £15 million when he was 24, whilst in the Premiership, just after an England cap, whilst he had a long contract and wanted to stay, then 2 years later he gets sold for 50% less as he is older, wanted to leave and was in the Championship. Then that very much proves that Lallana, who is in a very similar situation as Jarvis was in 2010 would be worth £15 million wouldn't it. Get it now.

Oh so you think he's worth £15 million now?, cos at the start of the thread you were having a go at Appy for saying "treble it" - and then you said - Yet now because I said Jarvis was touted around to Liverpool at about £15 millionwhilst in the premiership and coincidentally the same age as Lallana at the time, had just been in the England squad I've suddenly proved your point? erm ........... " No one's really come up with any reasons as to why Lallana is worth nearly £5m more than Jarvis other than because this forum says so." and then - :lol: At the start of the thread he wasn't worth £15 million and now suddenly you have changed your tune. Also I never claimed he was worth £15 million or valued at £15 million, I just said his value to Saints is high and due to the various factors I outlined his sale transfer fee would be a lot higher than Jarvis's. and as far as I can see no one said he was 'worth £15 million', a few said that would be the minimum, i.e the starting point to even think about selling him. Next.

I think he is playing right back for Stoke, I know little of the USA national team but their current list of defenders (from wiki) is - 2 DF Timothy Chandler March 29, 1990 (age 22) 9 0 1. FC Nuremberg 3 DF Carlos Bocanegra (captain) May 25, 1979 (age 33) 110 14 Racing de Santander 7 DF Maurice Edu April 18, 1986 (age 26) 42 1 Stoke City 20 DF Geoff Cameron July 11, 1985 (age 27) 11 0 Stoke City 21 DF Clarence Goodson May 17, 1982 (age 30) 34 3 Brøndby 23 DF Fabian Johnson December 11, 1987 (age 24) 10 0 1899 Hoffenheim Don't know much about Chandler or Johnson, Edu is more a midfielder and isn't playing for Stoke, Cameron is playing right back for Stoke, Bocanegra is playing for Santander who are second division and Goodson is playing for Brondby. Not exactly a collection of people playing for top clubs keeping him out of the squad.